OCR Text |
Show One-Room Schools How much training have tbe teachers of the 153,000 one-room rural schools of the United States, is a question answered by a recent' re-cent' summary f the KVVwal -Of-flee of Education: "If fall the teachers of one-teacher schools stood side by side, their ranks would extend in an unbrok- en line eighty-seven and one tenth miles. Assuming this army of teachers teach-ers were arranged in such a way tbat the one having received tbe least amount of training stood at one end and the one having received receiv-ed the largest amount of training at the other, a person reviewing this company would find it ncces- sary to walk a distance of eight nnd one-half miles before coming to a teacher with a training equivalent equiva-lent to two years of high school. "One would have to walk half the entire distance before approaching approach-ing a teacher with training equal to high school graduation, and would have to continue his walk for a total distance of Alxty-seven and three-fifths miles before reaching reach-ing the first teacher with the equivalent equiv-alent of two years of normal school education. The jaunt would be continued to within 13 miles of the end of the line Ivefore one who had the equivalent of a college education ed-ucation would be reached. "What of the composite teacher of this group? "Since men teachers are a great scarcity in one-teacher schools, the typical teacher is a woman about twenty-seven years old. She would have a total education of four years and one month above grade school ; her teaching experience, would total two years and six months ; she would receive an annual an-nual salary of $874 j she would have under her care a total of 22 farm children, and she would be employed in her school for a total of 152 days a year. "Although one-teacher schools are being abandoned at the rate of 4200 per year iu favor of consolidated con-solidated schools, one-teacher schools still open their doors to more farm children than any other , type of school.' |