Rural Schools 

 Experimental 



Too Often 

 Laboratories 



By John K. Cox 



FOR many years our rural schools have 

 too often been the experimental lab- 

 oratory for inexperienced teachers. 

 The rural school almost invariably has 

 been looked upon as a stepping stone to 

 town schools or to matrimony. Teacher 

 tenure there is very short, with a change 

 of teachers in some instances every year. 

 When the rural teacher makes a suc- 

 cess, she is told that she deserves some- 

 thing better and is likely succeeded by 

 another inexperienced teacher. Such a 

 situation does not lend itself to building 

 an efficient and continuous rural school 

 program. 



Also, there always have been only a 

 limited number of teachers specialized 

 by training for rural teaching who 

 actually do teach in rural ' schools. It 

 has been commonly thought that anyone 

 who could teach at all could teach in a 

 rural school. 



The isolation of the one room rural 

 school tends to eliminate the competition 

 with other similar schools and a lower 

 average standard for all results. The 

 nature and complexity of the work of 

 instruction in the one room school re- 

 auires special training in that particular 

 neld of education. 



Also, and perhaps equally important, 

 the rural teacher should be socially ad- 

 justed to the life in a rural area before 

 she attempts the task of assisting her 

 pupils in adjusting themselves socially. 

 It is doubtful whether the average town 

 or even village girl who has not been 

 specifically trained in rural education 

 has much conception of the economic 

 and sociological aspects of her work. 



A press release of the Extension Serv- 

 ice, University of Illinois, College of 

 Agriculture, in June, 1944, states, "Re- 

 ports from teachers' colleges indicated 

 that there were no teachers enrolled in 

 preparing for rural school teaching." 

 At a meeting of the Illinois Rural Educa- 

 tion Committee at Springfield on June 3. 

 1944, Dr. Hans Olsen, Eastern Illinois 

 State Teachers" College, said that over 

 2,300 emergency certificates had been 

 issued in Illinois to May 29. Also he 

 said practically no students were prepar- 

 ing for teaching in rural schools and only 

 about 100 in the State of Illinois were 

 graduated this year for elementary school 

 teaching. 



Anyone who is interested in teaching 

 at the present time can get a position 

 with more money and more enticing 

 prospects in larger schools. Who are 

 left to teach the one room school .' Often 

 they are older teachers who had taught 



20 



before but who had discontinued teach- 

 ing when teachers were plentiful. Also 

 some married women, former teachers, 

 have gone back into teaching for the 

 money,, for patriotic reasons, or to bide 

 the time until their husbands return from 

 the service. Many of these are good 

 teachers. But the supply is limited, and 

 will become more limited. Some of 

 them are in advanced years. 



A careful survey by the Illinois Educa- 

 tion Association indicates that more than 

 1200 rural one room districts did not 

 operate their schools in 1943-44, one 

 cause being the lack of teachers. The 

 scarcity of teachers is more serious in 

 one room districts than in other types of 

 schools because of the peculiar difficulties 

 of the one room districts as mentioned 

 above. 



One answer, and perhaps the only 

 practical answer to this teacher shortage 

 in rural schools is the reorganization 

 into larger districts. In that way fewer 

 teachers will be needed, and there can 

 be more selection in securing the better 

 teachers. Also, some of the savings 

 achieved by eliminating the need of a 

 few teachers can be applied to the salary 

 schedules of those employed. The 

 higher salary schedule will enable the 

 rural school to bid on a fairer basis 

 against town schools for the outstanding 

 teacher talent. The larger attendance 

 units will bring more competition be- 

 tween pupils and better opportunities 

 for social adjustment and learning to 

 work with others of one's own age and 

 abilities. To date there are 38 counties 

 reported who have set up their school 

 committees for the study of their rural 

 school problems, and 14 more have made 

 plans to establish such committees. The 

 Illinois Agricultural Association offers 

 the services of this office in assisting by 

 printed material or personal contacts in 

 the solving of our rural school problems. 



. . . "AS FARMERS 

 FORWARD GO 



By O. D. Brissenden 



II 



LAST month C. H. Mills, organiza- 

 tion director for the Cook County 

 Farm Bureau had 2999 members and 

 when he drove into the farm of Lester 

 V. Richards and asked him to join the 

 Farm Bureau. Richards said "yes" with- 



Lester V. Richards became the 3000th 

 member in the Cook County Form Bureau 

 when he signed up last month. C. H. 

 Mills. Cook COD. lacob Ouwenga. presi- 

 dent, and Bichards appeared on radio sta- 

 tion WLS in a broadcast recognizing the 

 outstanding membership achievement. 



out any hesitation and became the 3000th 

 member. 



Since this marked an unusual member- 

 ship record. Mills, Richards, and Jacob 

 Ouwenga, president of the Cook County 

 Farm Bureau, appeared on a broadcast 

 over station WLS. On July 1, Mills re- 

 ported that 30 more members had been 

 added to the membership rolls. 



In the interview over WLS conducted 

 by Arthur C. Page, Ouwenga, charter 

 member, told the story of how Cook 

 county's membership had grown. He said 

 that when the Cook County Farm Bureau 

 was organized in 1920 there were about 

 1600 members. In 1926, membership 

 dropped to 185 members. It was pro- 

 posed that the county be divided up and 

 the membership allotted to adjoining 

 counties. A small group of the remain- 

 ing 183 members, said "No, there is a 



C. H. MiUs. Cook COD, tells EaH I. Hays. 



La Salle COD, at the Midwest conference 



that Cook County Farm Bureau is over 



the 3000-mark in membership. 



.• L A. A. RECORD 



place and 

 Cook Coui 



The me 

 and startec 

 day with 

 Farm Bure 

 of any coi 

 offices — 

 the other 

 ings are p; 

 put aside fc 



Ouweng; 

 ty has app 

 are some 

 and near 

 2000 veget 



Richards, 

 the Farm E 

 perience 

 world and 

 very far. 

 longed to 

 reau is a st 

 want to be 

 things as a 

 sibly hope 



Glen Snidei 

 bership con 

 Ford Count] 

 solicitor is 

 the Ford Cc 

 Ser 



Illinois an 



of their res| 

 Member Goa 

 Bureau Conft 

 June. Othei 

 they would 

 linois reporte 

 goal of 100,' 

 Iowa indica(( 

 000 members 

 with its goal 



The Midwi 

 Registration i 

 Wisconsin ha 

 igan, 158. ^ 

 673. 



R. B. Cor 

 summarizing 

 major thougl 

 ity resting o 

 readjustment. 



niLY-AUG 



