parents to have their young children away from home. In many respects these schools compare to the smaller high schools with from three to five teachers. The course of study offered is similar but covers only two years. Bookkeeping and shorthand are offered in all the schools. In some of the schools all the students study typing. In all of them, the number taking typewriting is remarkably large.

The point of difference between the branch schools and independent small schools is in the administration. We have one school board and one supervising principal. While there is rivalry between the schools it is not of the tenseness that one sometimes finds among high schools of a city system. As the supervising principal goes from school to school he can suggest solutions of problems and tell of developments in other places. This avoids the difficulties that isolation sometimes brings to a small school. A non-resident coming to a town with a personal interest in its schools, can often stimulate an active concern among the townspeople and students, which cannot be so easily aroused by the teacher who is always among them.

Another advantage of the branch school system is that each class is automatically put upon an "accredited" basis by the standing of the school as a whole. It is easy to maintain the grade of the work through careful supervision.

As to future development, it is possible that each of the institutions considered can learn an important lesson from the experiences of the other. More than likely, the Fullerton central plant can become a stronger institutiton if it will confine its work to the upper high school grades and the Junior Colleges. Four or five Intermediate schools located at suitable points in the district could be established.

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This would keep the younger pupils nearer home and separate them from the older groups. The Intermediate schools could take the seventh and eighth grades of the grammar schools. As the population grows an adjustment of this nature will need to be made.

The Fullerton central plant idea cannot be fully adapted to the conditions in Siskiyou County. However, better provision can be made for students coming from a distance by the provision of dormitories. These should reduce the cost of living materially and provide for a number an opportunity to earn their way. A Junior College course can be added. The extensive school plant at Yreka can be made to serve double the number now being benefitted by it.

It is possible that some or all of the branch schools will become independent systems. It is certain that a larger teaching force, more commodious buildings and more extensive equipment must be supplied in each school next year. Whatever the future may bring, the plan is working now. Time will reveal the direction that progress must take.

School energy is dynamic, not static. One cannot safely predict definite developments. We have considered two school systems with striking contrasts. Neither can serve as an exact pattern for any other. Each is capable of suggesting possibilities of greater educational service.

Schools must not be too greatly hampered by hard and fast regulations. There must be facility in meeting local problems and conditions. Many questions can be answered intelligently only by those who know the situation at first hand. There they must remain with it and keep in touch with its changes and developments.

HE rural school teachers of the school of all grades are for the most part young graduates from the Normal Schools of the State. They desire sincerely to do good work but they have not learned to make the machinery of the schoolroom run smoothly. In fact it frequently does not run at all.

When the question is put to these young teachers, "What preparation have you needed in actual teaching that your training did not

provide?" The answer is invariably, “Oh, our school is so different, I have not the time to do as we did in the training school. I have too many classes, too many subjects-I can give only four or five minutes to each grade, I try and try and I can't make a program."

A day in a rural school of one teacher, seven or eight grades, usually goes in some such fashion as this: beginners' reading, a short drill in phonics, bearing no relation to the preceding lesson or a few sight words, or, the

reading of two or three sentences from the Primer-never a combination of the three processes. The rest of the time these little children copy writing or sit and do nothing. In the other reading classes, the children, “just read" in a more or less desultory fashion. Oral reading throughout the rural schools is very poor though fully one-fourth of the school time is given to the subject.

In arithmetic there is insufficient drill in combinations and no practical problems are given. The teacher helps a child here and there, but is never able to give everyone in the class assistance and direction. Language and composition means writing the answers to the exercises in the language text. It is safe to say that three-fourths of the child's school time is spent in writing. Since the principles learned in the free hand drill are not practiced, this makes the penmanship lesson of doubtful value. Conscientious teachers endeavor to correct the written work. Thus all their spare time which should be devoted to self improvement, or to constructive plans for their schools is spent in drudgery. In spelling the children write from dictation the words in the spelling book. These they learn. The spelling in connection with other lessons is far from satisfactory. In the geography classes, the teachers ask the questions that are found at the end of the chapters. This plan applies to hygiene and to any other subject where questions appear in the text book. The method may not be altogether objectionable, but certainly does not vitalize the subject. There is little or no supplemental reading in history, geography or English. The County library is available but its books are seldom used for class work. Nature study, music and industrial art are almost wholly neglected. Physical training has improved during the past year. The teachers have selected lessons from the State manual and are getting fairly good results. Of course there are exceptions to the above statements regarding the quality of instruction. Some teachers excel along certain lines. Many teachers are faithful, conscientious and painstaking.

When one analyzes instruction and finds it repeatedly as above described, the question arises, "Why is it?" Our conclusions are as follows:

"First: The training for the one-teacher rural school is inadequate. She has been trained to instruct a class. She has now to take charge of a school. She must keep several groups

of children interested in different lines of work at the same time. Meanwhile, she is giving instruction to another group. She is not equal to the occasion. She has no experienced person to consult, or to require that she struggle with the problem of organization until it is mastered. She gets the attitude of mind that it can't be done, grows discouraged, and ceases to try. One young teacher in appreciation of our efforts responded thus, 'Oh, Miss S―, you have given me a jolt and I deserve it. I tried last year and I couldn't work out a program so I just gave up." A subsequent visit showed that all the young woman needed was someone to show her how.

"Training school supervisors — principals recognize they have a two-fold problem-First, they must train for initial rural school apprenticeship; second, for the later town or city work which rural teachers are continually entering. Because of its city type of organization, the training school emphasizes the second phase of training. Practice teaching in a rural training school under experienced supervision would be of inestimable value to the prospective teacher, and make for better rural school teaching. It is the hope of some normal schools to bring this about."

"Second: The rural school should have expert general supervision. The county superintendent, however competent or diligent, has not time to devote to supervision. A Normal school adviser can only suggest and possibly give a litle inspiration toward renewed effort.

"The union of several districts with one central school under a principal is feasible in many communities. Some headway is being made in this direction and the results are commendable. But there will always be many mountainous districts where transportation is difficult. In these remote schools the young girl graduate begins her teaching career. who needs help the most gets the least. The children whose sole experience with life is gained from the home, or the school necessarily suffer.

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"Third: The rural teacher of the one-teacher school is expected to follow a course of study that is adapted to graded schools of several teachers. Such courses of study are usually compiled by grade teachers-many of whom never taught in a rural school or, if so, they have forgotten their experience there."

The analysis of one such course of study showed that a program based upon it would

call for fifty-six daily recitations. The classifying of children according to their mental ability and not according to the number of years they have been in school would obviate part of the difficulty. This requires mature judgment and again calls for supervision.

A course of study for a rural school could be planned so that eight grades would be reduced to five for purposes of instruction. This could be brought about by the combination of grades, and the alternation of subject matter by years. To illustrate-oral reading I could be selected to meet the needs of third and fourth-year pupils, collectively, instead of different subject matter for each class. Oral reading matter could in the same way, be adapted to the fifth and the sixth grades, and to the seventh and eighth grades, respectively. This would eliminate three classes in reading and give opportunity for training in getting thought rather than merely "repeating words."

What is true of reading is equally true of geography. The different continents are SO related to one another economically that it makes little difference whether Asia is studied before Europe, or South America before Australia, or, in general, one part of the world before another, the exception being. local geography. One of the most instructive and enthusiastic lessons in geography in any rural school which we have visited included fifth, sixth, seventh and eighth grade children, all of whom were studying the British Isles. But the teacher was not following the course of study. The point being made is that children of two successive grades, could in alternate years, study different subject matter in geography and the number of geography classes reduced one-half. Books from the County library can supplement the text when it is too difficult and what is now a dead subject converted into a live one. In the same way all subjects of all grades can be alternated to some extent after the second year.

The burden of the teacher of the rural school could be further lightened by reducing the number of subjects taught in any one term.

It is of more value to the child to study intensely one subject for three months rather than have a smattering of three subjects for the year. When a child studies one-half page

in history, one paragraph in geography, and a page and a half of a masterpiece in English in one hour (this often happens), it is safe to say he has not a very lucid account of any one topic. A rational course of study might call for geography the first term and history the second term; oral reading the first term and language the second term and so on with other subjects. It is not frequency of repetition that determines good school work but the way the subject is presented and the child's mental reaction.

It is objected that alternation of subjects would lead to confusion in promotion. This could be obviated by keeping a card index of units of work which the child completes satisfactorily. Such record would be of inestimable value to new teachers and to boards of education.

As we have implied, the rural school teacher (of the one-teacher school) cannot make a satisfactory program based on existing courses of study. What she calls program, she does not follow because she can't. Her day's work results in the older children being almost wholly neglected and "idleness breeds mischief." The relatively small graduating classes are evidence of the upper grades are not getting their needs satisfied and so drop out of school.

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HE teaching of language presents a problem which no other subject contains. The child when he first enters school has already been instructed in English by imitation for over four years. He has formed much the same habits of speech as those of his family and his playmates. In school the child must be "un-taught" many of the expressions he has somehow learned in the street or home school. This can only be done by the substitution of correct forms and by a training of the ear. For this reason oral language work must hold the leading place not only in the primary grades but in all eight grades. The aim is to teach the child correct habits of speech, and this can only be done by faithful drill and repetition in the forms he already has learned incorrectly. No child will learn much through constant criticism, correction, and rules, but only by incessant opportunity to hear and use correct English. It matters not if he knows how to speak correctly, that is, knows correct forms, if he has not acquired the habit of easily and invariably speaking correctly. If he is not taught this habit in the lower grades the battle is half lost. The object is to establish an auditory image of every correct form by drill and constant oral practice so that when the child hears himself or others speak incorrectly, he will detect the error from the inharmonious sound. His ear is his key for detecting and eventually for preventing

errors.

Thoughts have a tendency to find immediate Vocal expression. Without a mastery of the words needed, the thought must remain unexpressed and tantalizing. A little second grade lad one day was trying hard to find expression for an idea. As he was unable to do so, after shaking his head and making several false starts, another child spoke the right answer. "O," the child said with relief, "I knew that, but it wasn't in the top layer."

The gravest fault of primary language teaching in the past has been the formal method used. Children talk more freely in a natural and happy environment. In class the child may be taught to parrot correct expressions, but when he leaps from the school room steps into a race with his playmates for the playground, he speaks not his drilled, "I saw it

first," but shouts, "I seen it first." I do not advocate the playground as the place in which to teach the language lesson, but it is an excellent plan to make the schoolroom as much like the playground in spirit during the language lesson as possible. All language facts, if taught with the play-spirit dominant, will be grasped easily and retained longer.

The language games furnish the best material for language drill through play. Two excellent books on this are Myra King's Language Games, and Alhambra Deming's Language Games for All Grades. They are invaluable to the teacher. The ingenious teacher can make her own language games very easily, basing them on the incorrect expressions of her particular group of pupils. The language game is a means of presenting the correct expression in a natural context, and of giving opportunity to repeat it again and again till the ear is attuned to the correct sound. It is not a corrective method but, better still, a preventive method. By such a system the results reach beyond the school. Parents come to realize that the "little pitchers" in their families have big ears and as a result errors of speech in the home circle are noted, judged, and drastically condemned. This attitude in the child is valuable at least to careless speaking adults. Those teachers who first invented and introduced the idea of associating language drill so closely with play that the only feature evident to the uninitiated observer is of an active talking-and-running-about game are worthy of a bright medal for distinguished service. It is the anti-formal method and when used brings results that no other has ever achieved. When one considers that there are scarcely more than three dozen classes of errors of speech commonly made, the task of weeding these out does not seem hopeless. The method is the thing.

"As are a child's habits of oral expression, so will his habits of written expression tend to become." The chief work of the language teacher is the teaching of oral expression or composition. This is as true of the upper and high school grades as of primary grades. But oral composition is always more difficult to handle than written work and needs more systematic planning. A good type of primary lan

guage work is the presentation of a picture lesson. The picture must be suitable to the child's understanding but it should be a masterpiece; it must be interesting; it must be presented so that the child gives his own interpretation and appreciation. This all affords excellent material for free expression with the mechanics of speech in the background, the teacher suggesting, by his careful questions, the right type of expression yet not the interpretation. Then another type of work, simple spontaneous dramatization of a poem, story, or fable, affords excellent opportunity for selfexpression and originality. Here the playspirit is predominant, and formality absent.

It is partly due to the absence perforce of much oral work in rural schools that country children are less spontaneous in speech than city children. Children learn by doing. If the average child is not given a chance to do, he learns but slowly and responds slowly. The most unresponsive child can, through interest in the language game, the dramatization, or the picture, be led to express himself freely and even enthusiastically.

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When all is said and done, language is learned through imitation. Therefore no one can emphasize too strongly the necessity for a high standard of correctness in the language of the teacher. "If the blind lead the blind, both shall fall into the ditch." The teacher who does not speak an excellent English, is not worthy to be in the classroom constantly before the children as an example to imitate. She needs ideals of correct English, an unflagging zeal in watching the speech of the pupils every day and in every class, and the right methods to use to fortify and accomplish the aim. "Ability to speak one's own language is the keynote of culture" and, let us add, the "backbone of necessity" if you wish to be understood. None need fear that the child who has been taught to speak correctly and straight to the point will be unable to write in the same style without undue anxiety on the part of teachers concerning written composi tion. Good written composition follows as a natural consequence of good oral expression. It is the cart following the horse.

IN ALMOST every periodical and almost daily, appear articles, editorials, letters and comments upon the fact that in the United States a shortage of teachers imperils the life of the nation. It is not only a shortage of competent teachers that is troubling us, but the fact that no teachers of any sort are available in many places, and schools are closed.

Two causes for the situation stand out preeminently-desertion from the ranks, by those formerly in the schools, and the failure of young men and women to enlist in the service. For these two causes one explanation is offered, and it is a tremendously mighty one. The poor financial rewards of teaching and the almost hopeless limitation of financial opportunity are without doubt at the bottom of the matter. But, so far as desertion is concerned, there is another cause which it is the purpose of this paper to discuss and if possible, remove. To some of us who are deeply concerned about this country it seems that back of the desertions is a cause of greater moment than appears casually. A sense of discouragement has crept over the men and women who have for many years given gladly, though under

paid, the best that was in them to give, and far too many of them have yielded to the depression and withdrawn, some to enter upon other activities, some to a non-productive existence upon an inconsequential retirement salary.

The discouragement has several forms. It comes to some as a realization that upon the schools depends the persistence of American ideals, and with the realization a sweeping sense of personal inadequacy. To others it comes as a confusion of thought regarding the purpose of the schools and the achievement therein.

The change of methods, the swing of the pendulum, the new discipline is, to others, the insurmountable obstacle from which they flee.

To another group the discouragement has come as a sudden realization that teaching is a profession, and that a profession means absorption. As a profession it no longer goes on as a five-hour activity, five days in the week, two hundred days in the year. As a profession, like Law and Medicine, it takes days, a large part of the nights, Sundays and vacation periods. This is the most difficult form to handle because with it is associated the very old tradition that teaching is a snap for a girl