VI. Teacher training for the rural schools.......... Page. 43 43 43 44 44 45 APPENDIX. Rules and regulations of the Minnesota State Department of Education.. 47 49 Typical short courses.... 51 Plans of the State supervisor of teacher training in high schools.. 54 ILLUSTRATIONS. Frontispiece. PLATE 1. Central high school (consolidated) at Grand Rapids.... 4. A. Model one-teacher school in district No. 2, Itasca County; B. A 16 16 16 5. A. Two-room rural school in the Itasca County clearings; B. Spring 16 6. A. Spring Valley associated schools; B. Thrashing on a farm on the 24 7. A. Central building of the Chatfield associated schools; B. Chatfield 8. A. Chatfield associated schools; B. Sauk Center farm. FIGURE 1. Map of Itasca County, Minn. 2. Map showing Chatfield, Minn., associate schools.. 4. Extension work in Minnesota... LETTER OF TRANSMITTAL. DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR, BUREAU OF EDUCATION, Washington, D. C., October 24, 1914. SIR: Through what seems to be a very wise adaptation of methods of support and administration to schools of different kinds and to schools working under varying conditions in different parts of the State, but still preserving a high degree of correlation and unity of purpose, and by a commendable degree of liberality in expenditures for education, the State of Minnesota has made remarkable progress in improving the efficiency of its rural schools. Believing that an account of this improvement, and of the methods and means by which it has been wrought, would be helpful to those working for the improvement of rural schools in other States, I detailed Harold W. Foght, one of the bureau's specialists in rural education, to go to Minnesota and study its rural schools and prepare such an account for publication. The accompanying manuscript embodies the results of his studies. I recommend that it be published as a bulletin of the Bureau of Education for distribution among those who are directly interested in the improvement of rural schools in the United States. Respectfully submitted. The SECRETARY OF THE INTERIOR. P. P. CLAXTON, Commissioner. 5 PREFACE. The following brief study is the result of several weeks' first-hand observations of the rural schools of Minnesota. This State at an early date committed itself to certain educational policies that have made possible the establishment of its present comprehensive system of rural and village schools. Perhaps no other State has been quite as successful as Minnesota in establishing a system of schools intended to meet the demands of modern rural life, and it is for this reason that the study was made. The purpose has been to emphasize only those phases of the rural school system that have a definite relation to the successful operation of the schools. These are, in brief (1) school maintenance, especially with general and special State aid; (2) units of school organization, falling under the heads of small districts, large undivided districts, and unorganized territory; (3) kinds of school organization, comprising consolidated and associated schools; (4) agriculture and other industrial subjects in all the schools; and (5) rural teacher training in high schools. Acknowledgment is due the Minnesota State Department of Education for assistance freely given; especially to State Supt. C. G. Schulz, who has read these pages through and offered valuable suggestions; to Mr. E. M. Phillips, ex-State rural school commissioner, and Mr. George B. Aiton, ex-State high-school inspector, both of whom took great pains in planning the trips of investigation. Similar acknowledgment is due Supts. E. A. Freeman, of Grand Rapids; George E. Keenan, of Deer River; F. E. Maxon, of Spring Valley; E. B. Forney, of Chatfield; Miss Annie E. Shelland, county superintendent of Kochiching County; and many others for photographs, printed materials, and other valuable helps and information. September 15, 1914. 6 H. W. F. THE RURAL SCHOOL SYSTEM OF MINNESOTA. I. GENERAL OUTLINE. Introductory statement.—Minnesota is making rapid progress in organizing its rural schools to meet the needs of present-day agricultural life. Its schoolmen and legislators recognize that preparation for life in rural communities can be given in schools specially organized to meet rural needs. The one-teacher schools of the State are, on the average, as efficient as those in other States; but they have proved unable to meet the needs of modern farming in preparing the children for practical and contented lives on the soil. Consequently, Minnesota has adopted a policy of discouraging all further decentralization of school effort by seeking to save its school districts from further subdivision into smaller units, and of encouraging centralization of schools, either through association or consolidation wherever practicable. Some excellent legislation has made the reorganization reasonably easy of attainment. Then, too, liberal State aid has provided the spur to hasten the work of change. Most important of all, the men who are responsible for the reorganization have kept well in mind that the new schools must be rooted firmly to the soil. Some States have made the great mistake of consolidating their schools in urban places, retaining in them courses of study poorly adapted to the needs of country children. This may be a gain to the town, but it means loss to rural districts. Other States have carried courses planned for city conditions to consolidated schools set in the open country. Such a practice is a serious obstacle to the speedy organization of our national agricultural life. Minnesota has many consolidated and central schools in associated systems that are located in large and small villages; but where this is the case the courses of study, equipment, experimental plats, and all other things offered the country children invariably point the way back to the soil and are sufficient to train them for contented agricultural life. The Minnesota practice is to consolidate the schools in the open country or on the edge of the rural-minded villages, where the workers can be convenient to the soil. A liberal system of school maintenance.-The rural schools of the State draw their support from the following sources: (1) Apportionment per pupil, derived from the interest on the permanent school fund and a State tax of 1 mill on all taxable property; (2) a local tax of 1 mill on all assessed property within the school district; (3) special aid voted by the State legislature; (4) proceeds from fines, etc.; and (5) local taxes voted at the annual school meetings. Local taxes comprise about 59.9 per cent of the entire income, State taxes 14.7 per cent, and the permanent State fund and "other sources" 25.4 per cent. The productive permanent State fund is approximately $25,000,000, and this amount is being increased at the rate of about $1,000,000 annually from the sale of land and timber and royalty from iron ore mined on the school lands, of which there still remain some 800,000 acres. The income of this fund, together with the State mill tax, amounted for the past year to $5.60 per pupil throughout the State. The following table shows the rapid growth of the permanent State fund: TABLE 1.-Permanent school fund-Growth by decades. State aid to public schools.-Liberal aid is extended, through direct legislative appropriation, to stimulate educational progress. The amount of such aid depends in every instance on the character and amount of educational work accomplished, the preparation of the teachers employed, and the kind of school equipment. For the ensuing year every State high school will be entitled to $2,200 of such aid, and every graded school will get $750. In Minnesota a State high school is any school that offers four years of highschool work and employs at least eight regular teachers. A graded school is defined as one that offers all the work covered by the first eight years in the public-school system and employs at least four teachers. In case a graded school offers at least two years of highschool work and employs two additional teachers, it is entitled to an added $500 in State aid. In addition, special aid is offered for industrial work, for teacher training, as inducement for consolidation or association, and also to the semigraded and ungraded rural schools. The term "industrial work" is used to include agriculture, manual training, and home economics. Schools that offer all of these subjects are entitled to annual aid in the sum of $2,500, besides the regular aid mentioned above. Those that offer agriculture and either one of the other subjects receive an aid of $1,800. |