The survey report disclosed that not half of the teachers of the
State ever had attended high school, nor had normal training.
Rural schools were mere stepping stones for young teachers
before securing positions in village and city schools,
agriculture was scarcely taught, schools were without equipment,
three-fourths of the buildings were twenty years old or older,
unsanitary, poorly lighted, without ventilation and
insufficiently heated.
With one stroke the new school code created county supervision
districts under the control of county boards, elected by the
presidents of village and township boards; provided for county
superintendents and supervisors over smaller districts within
the county; required academic and professional training of all
new teachers henceforth, and gave communities wider powers to
centralize and consolidate schools.
At present ninety-five per cent of the elementary teachers have
had professional training, and high school teachers are required
to be college graduates or have equivalent scholastic
attainment. The most common faults of class-room instruction
have been to a great extent eliminated. Standard methods of
presentation are being practices in an attempt to give to each
child opportunity for development of his possibilities.
A great stimulation of public school sentiment is manifested by
a closer co-operation and correlation of the school and the
home, resulting in boys' and girls' club work, achievement
courses, home projects and other school extension and community
activities; a growth of the feeling of responsibility to the
community on the part of the teacher; an attitude of greater
interest and responsibility of the boards of education toward
the school; a willingness of the people to vote money for new
school plants and enterprises; a growing demand for
consolidation and centralization; a better trained class of
teachers, increased school attendance, especially in high
schools where it has increased from fifty to one hundred per
cent.
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