A. MODEL ONE-TEACHER SCHOOL IN DISTRICT NO. 2, ITASCA COUNTY.
This is modern in every respect and is well equipped to do industrial work.

A. TWO-ROOM RURAL SCHOOL IN THE ITASCA COUNTY CLEARINGS.

Girls from the outlying districts assembled at central school for their Friday afternoon sewing

lesson.

small. This is accounted for by the sparsity of population in the newer clearings. No teacher receives less than $47.50 per month. On the whole, the showing is very satisfactory.

The teachers of the village graded schools and the central high school have, most of them, professional or special certificates. The length of school term in these schools ranges from 9 to 9 months. The salaries paid are also high. The industrial teachers, on whom falls a part of the responsibility of supervising the work of the rural schools, receive from $1,000 to $1,500 each.

(d) System of school equipment.-The great advantages of a strong central system can be seen in the manner of equipping the 60 rural schools of the district for their work. Each schoolhouse has a standard equipment of adjustable single seats, modern bookcases, drinking. fountains or earthen jars and individual cups, clocks, charts, maps, etc., and a well-chosen library. Besides this, all manner of working material, as raffia, rattan, materials for weaving mats, woolen yarn, and plasticine, as well as all textbooks, paper, ink, and pencils are furnished the pupils free of charge.

The district purchases all its supplies, which are kept in storerooms at the central school until requisitioned by the teachers of the several

91134°-15-3

schools. Everything is purchased by an experienced educator, who buys nothing but the best. He and his assistants choose and send out the libraries to the rural schools, which is a guarantee that they will contain good wholesome reading.

(e) How the schools are linked together. The work of the outlying schools is largely outlined and directed from the central school. This is especially true of work that deals with exceptional phases of community education, as patriotism, home sanitation, local recreation, etc., and it is encouraging to know that the schools find time for this kind of local leadership. Other work under the direction of the teachers from the central school is, of course, agriculture, manual training, and home economics. Teachers from the central school spend much of their time in the rural schools, or they have perambulating assistants who are charged with these duties. Typewritten lessons in industrial subjects are sent out to the schools from time to time or it may be "Some experiments with plants and soils" or similar themes. Later come "follow-up" sheets asking the teachers pertinent questions, which tend to keep them on the alert and interested. Of other lessons sent out the following are suggestive titles: "Itasca County geography outline," "The teacher's duty to stimulate patriotism," "School lunches as subject for thought," "Outline of sewing for rural schools," and "Teachers and their instructions in regard to local poverty and disease."

Some interesting phases of school work in district No. 2, Itasca County.-Itasca County, with its area of 3,000 square miles, contains only five school districts. Of these, two comprise exactly one township each, and another nearly three townships. The Grand Rapids District, with its 62 townships, is the largest of all. District No. 2otherwise known as the Deer River District-has an area of 470 square miles.

In organization and purpose these five districts are very similar. It is therefore unnecessary to go into details of the work done in all of them. A few things of special interest from a study of the Deer River District will suffice.

(a) Spirit of enterprise.—The investigator invariably gets the feeling upon coming in contact with the school boards and superintendents in these large districts that here is an organization for school purposes which utilizes all the business enterprise and aggressiveness that mark other large American commercial and industrial enterprises. These school boards receive a remuneration for their labors sufficient to make them look upon their school duties as a part of the day's work, rather than as something incidental and belonging to odd moments. At any rate, a marked spirit of aggressiveness and liberality is found

in all these large districts, yet this system of organization is more economical than the other, because it is more thoroughly organized.1

(b) A complete school equipment.-The outlying schools of the Deer River District are well planned. Apparent exceptions to this statement are found in a few places where portable houses have been erected to answer the temporary needs of some new logging community or settlement. The schoolhouses are well built. They are invariably correctly lighted. Each of them is equipped with a modern heating and ventilating system, with bubbling fountain, two good manualtraining benches and tools, and some with oil stoves, ovens, and all necessary cooking utensils. All books and working materials are furnished free of charge.

(c) Supervision and extension work. The superintendent and his assistants hold frequent community rallies at the schoolhouses, where local problems are discussed. Once a year the farmers and their wives are invited to attend a two-day short course at the Central High School at Deer River, when dinners are served free by the domestic science department of the school.

The instructor in agriculture spends a large part of his time in visiting rural schools, outlining the work in agriculture, and in advising with the farmers of the district. In a similar way the manual-training instructor makes the round of the rural schools, spending a half day at a time giving instruction in handwork.

(d) The central high school.—This school is located at Deer River, a village of 1,500 people. It is a thoroughly equipped school, having a modern central building and a separate building for manual training and forge work. A large school farm adds materially to the physical equipment. The school is consolidated under the Holmberg Act, and conveys children to school from over an area of a five-mile radius. It further receives aid as a State high school and for maintaining industrial work in agriculture, domestic science, and manual training. Children of high-school preparation, living beyond the transportation limits, receive $2 per week to apply on their living expenses.

(e) Night short courses.-The central school offers a series of practical night courses 1 night weekly for 10 weeks. This is in addition to the regular industrial work, and is intended particularly for the grown people in or near Deer River.

1 The following is an illustration in point: When the writer and a half dozen associates were studying Deer River District as guests of the community, meetings were arranged and school board members and other educators from adjacent districts were invited to be present. These meetings were for school business and not for entertainment, however. The domestic science department of the central school was given an opportunity to show that the pupils knew how to cook, by preparing dinner for a party of 20 people. A special train was chartered by the school board over the Minneapolis & Rainy River Railroad, which penetrates the district from north to south, in order that the guests might reach the largest number of rural schools in the short time at their disposal. This train stopped at the logging sidings whenever handy to some rural school and finally pulled up near a logging camp where a hearty dinner was waiting.