DOCUMENT RESUME ED 328 375 RC 017 789 TITLE Rural Bdueation in the South. Bulletin of the Departement of Rural Bavueation,. INSTITUTION National Baueation Asseeiation, Washington, B.C. Dept. of Rural Haueation. PUB DATE Feb 30 NOTE 33p. PUB TYPE Historical Materials (060) EDRS PRICE MFO1/PCO2 Plus Postage. DESCRIPTORS Black Education; Consolidated Schools; Educational Cooperation; *Educational History; Educational Needs; Elementary Secondary Education; Equal Education; Equalization Aid; Instructional Leadership; *Rural Education; *Rural Schools; Rural Sociology; School Supervision IDENTIFIERS *United States (South) ABSTRACT This collection of essays offers a picture of rural education in the American South in 1930. It opens with demographic data describing child-labor practices as a barrier to education. The following topics are discussed: (1) the achievements of Southern educators in the areas of school consolidation, funding, literacy, and black education; (2) ways of funding rural local school systems, and the issue of equitable funding distribution in Alabama; (3) instructional supervision in Southern rural schools, including supervision systems in Maryland, Alabama, and North Carolina; (4) adult education in South Carolina and the status of black education in the South; (5) the history of black education in the South with some contemporary Gemographic data and examples of milestone biack education movements, which had generated slow progress; (6) the educational needs of farm residents, including vocational instruction and economic education in rural areas; (7) the economic, social, and Cultural poverty of rural mountain regions and some attempts to form — cooperative sehoois for mountain adults and youth; and (8) ways Southern educators might widen centacts and better establish the South in the "national order." The book calls for a revamping of standards, a new respect for ideas, and a deepened sense of educational cooperation, (TES) REE ERR EH * Reproductions supplied by EDRS are the best that can be made + * from the original document. * [2eeSEE RSS E SER ESSER RRR RE RRR RRR RRR RRR RRR RRR RRR RR RRR RRR RR RRR REE RRR SESS ESS NA. BH) ©6(“Bulletin of the Department of Rural Educatiog Department of Rura): B4ucation U8 OEPARTMENT OF FOUCATION Office of Educational Research and improvement EDUCATIONAL RE SOUNCES INFORMATION CENTER (ERIC) os document haa been reproduced as recenved from the pereon oF ofganmrathoan onginating it ) Miner changes have been made to umprowe reproduction quatity Pointe of view oF ommone slated in thie docu ment Go fol necessary represent official OFF peaition oF poly PEAMISSION TO HEPRODUGE THIS MATERIAL HAS BEEN GRANTED BY | » Leonore ' Lebinsm \ i 10 THE EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES INFORMATION CENTER (ERIC) _— BEST COPY AVAILABLE FEBRU4 ¢ BULLETIN OF THE Department of Rural Education Rural Education in the South of NEA apery LIBRARY PUBLISHED BY THE DEPARTMENT OF RURAL EDUCATION of the National Education Assodiation of the United States 1201 SIXTEENTH STREET fortuwest, WASHINGTON, D. C. NEA 1m 45% }‘so CONTENTS RURAL EDUCATION IN THE SOUTH I. Contributions and Achievements, Introductory Statement—-Carney. ni are Chiakies Saeuw runt 3 The Contribution of the South in Rural Education—Williams ......... 5 Contributions of a Conservative Province to a Progressive Nation—Mims — 8 The Financial Support of Public Education with Special Reference to Oe a ee ee eA PE Pee Lee eer ee Cert eet 9 The Supervision of Rural Elementary Schools in the Southern States— CRIED wasn cao vcuwnemss da Wake hace Nena ee woes Gat ae eaey sie = Be adie o> 4e Adult Education in South Carolina—Gray ...............-.-55 | Reh ats ters 14 Negro Education in the South—Fatrot ............6- cece e ee eeeeeeeee 16 II. Future Needs of Rural Education in the South. The Adjustment of Education to the Needs of Farm-Dwelling People— oe REE Or SE Bg PP eT Mee Fe ee ey eer Te EI 21 Adjustment to Mountain Areas—Campbell .... Jaa eaeaNs A eae nore 24 Larger Contacts and World Outlook—Chase Sse OT Pig ta here pal Wem 27 He DepartmMint of Rural Education of the National Education Association ea organized at the Chicago meeting in February, 1919, being an outgrowth of the former Department of Rural and Agricultural Education authorized by the Board of Directors in 1907. Its chief purpose is “to promote the general advance- ment of Rural Education throughout the United States.’ It meets twice each year, in February and in July, and welcomes all types of rural education specialists to its membership. The annual dues are two dollars a year payable to the Secretary. Othcers of the Department of Rural Education for the year 1929-30 are as follows: President, Mabel Carney, Teachers College, Columbia University, New York City; Vicepresident, E. N. Ferriss, Cornell University, Ithaca, New York; Secretary, Katherine M. Cook, U. S. Office of Education, Washington, D. C. Executive Com- mittee: M.S. Pittman, Normal College, Ypsilanti, Michigan (Term expires 1934) ; C. H. Barnes, County Superintendent of Schools, Duluth, Minn. (1933); J. C. Muer- man, Teachers College, Durant, Okla. (1932); Agnes Samuelson, State Superin- tendent of Public Instruction, Des Moines, lowa (1931); Fannie W. Dunn, Teach- ers College, Columbia University, New York City (1930). [2] LIBRARY NATIONAL EDUCATION ASSOCIATION 4 WASHINGTON 0. }e. RURAL EDUCATION IN THE SOUTH I. Contributions and Achievements INTRODUCTORY STATEMENT Maser Carney, Presipent, Department oF RurRAL Epucation HEN THE Summer meeting of the National Education Association was announced for Atlanta, Georgia, in 1929 the officers of the Department of Rural Education promptly decided to build their program around the topic: Rural Education in the South. Vhe reasons for this decision were apparent and readily convincing. In the first place the South with over 50 percent of its people living on farms is the most rural area of the United States. With this social and economic background the educational problems of the South are primarily rural. In addition to this and largely because of its almost insurmountable difficulties the South has made distinctive contributions to rural education which should be recog- nized, evaluated, and adopted with modification by other parts of the coun- try. Then, too, it was desired to compliment our hosts and to offer this sincere though inadequate appreciation of the distinctive contributions of the South to rural education and of the remarkable educational progress realized in this section during the last fifteén years. In harmony with this idea of southern emphasis the first session of the Atlanta program dealt with achievements of the South in rural education ; the second, a luncheon session, with contributions of the South to rural edu- cation; and the third with future needs in this field. All the speakers as well as the presiding officers were southern, and music was furnished by local schools including Spelman College, the Berry Schools, and the Atlanta Pub- lic High Schools. The interest and attendance attracted by this meeting indicates that the topic was one of general appeal not only in the South but throughout the country. For this reason it has seemed wise to make the addresses given more readily available by publishing them in bulletin form. STATISTICAL INFORMATION ON RURAL EDUCATION IN THE SOUTH 1. The South is predominantly rural; the most rural section of the United States. In 1920 the total population of the sixteen southern states from Texas and Oklahoma to Delaware and Maryland inclusive was 33,- 125,803. Of this number 50.8 percent or 16,827,834 lived on farms in the open country; 21.2 percent or 7,038,842 lived in villages and small towns below 2500; and 28 percent or 9,259,127 in urban areas, that is, in population centers above 2500. Interpreting the term rural to include all individuals living on farms and in towns below 2500 as used in the U.S. census it is thus apparent that 72 percent of the total population of the southern states is rural. [3] NATIONAL EDUCATION ASSOCIATION abu 2. Of this total in 1920 only 847,192 were foreign-born but 8,912,231 or 21 percent were Negroes. This heavy Negro population is likewise predomi- nantly rural, 57 percent living on the land, 18 percent in villages below 2500, and 25 percent in cities. 3. The tenancy rate in the southern states for 1920 was 49.6 percent as compared with 28.2 percent in the North and 17.7 percent in the West. 4+. The rate for illiteracy is higher also in the South than in any other part-of the country running from 10 to 21 percent in most southern states as contrasted with one percent in lowa, Kansas, Minnesota, and several other northern and western states. Much of this is due to the Negro popula- tion, 22.9 percent of which, notwithstanding tremendous recent gains, is still illiterate. 5. The South in addition to other special considerations has a larger pro- portion of children in its population than any other section of the country. For the United States as a whole there were 829 children under 15 years of age per 1000 adults. But in the South there were ]034; in the North 782; and in the Pacitic region only 599. Eleven southern states have one- fourth of the population of the United States but one-half of all the farm children. To illustrate further Minnesota has 440,000 more people than Alabama; but Alabama has 312,000 more farm children than Minnesota. Because of this predominance of child population Mississippi which ranks 46 in school attendance still has a larger proportion of its total population in school than has any other state. 6. The proportion of children 7 to 20 years of age attending school in the southern states ranges from 59 to 68 percent. In northern and western states the range is from 70 to 79 percent. 7. Much of the illiteracy and poor school attendance of the South is due to child labor. Sixty-one percent of the million child workers 10 to 15 years of age in the United States are engaged in agriculture. In the census of 1920 Alabama had 84,000 such child workers; Georgia 88,000; Mississippi 70,- 000; and Texas 80,000. 8. Because of its heavy child population, and general economic retarda- tion the South has less wealth per child than any other section of the coun- try. When the forty-eight states are ranked in this respect the 13 states dropping to the bottom of the list are all southern. Mississippi has but $5,777 behind the education of each child, for example, Alabama $5,889, Georgia $6,465, and South Carolina $6,528; as contrasted with Nevada which has $45,664 or about 8 times as much, California which has $33,985, Oregon $28,062, and lowa $28,046. 9. To ameliorate the various handicaps implied above the South possesses several distinct advantages in the matter of school organization and ad- ministration. One of these is the county unit which is employed in some form in every southern state, except Delaware, Oklahoma, and Arkansas. This is admittedly a great advantage as contrasted with the small district system employed universally throughout the north central states. 6 ¢ DEPARTMENT OF RURAL EDUCATION 5 10. Another distinct advantage of most southern states is the large per- centage of school money raised on a state basis rather than from the logal community. Mississippi raises over 60 percent of her school funds in this way, and Alabama 52 percent as contrasted with South Dakota which raises only three-tenths of one percent direct from the state and Nebraska with only 1.4 percent coming from this source. 11. Owing largely to its extensive use of the county unit the South ranks high in consolidation. Of the 16,674 consolidated schools reported by the Bureau of Education in 1925 over 8,000 or nearly half were in the 16 southern states. Notwithstanding this fact there are still 48,000 one-teacher schools in the South. 12. In rural school supervision. the South holds its own, the 16 southern states having exactly one-third of the 721 professional supervisors of rural schools employed in 1926. The southern states leading in this respect in the year named were Maryland with 51, Alabama with 31, and North Carolina with 29. In all phases of specialized training for rural and consolidated school teachers however, the South is far exceeded by the Mid-West. All of the foregoing conditions seem due primarily to the ruralness and bi-racial situation of the South indicating herein the two chief problems of educational advance in this section. ‘ THE CONTRIBUTION OF THE SOUTH TO RURAL EDUCATION CHARL ORMOND WILLIAMS, FIELD SECRETARY, NATIONAL EDUCATION ASSOCIATION, WASHINGTON, D. C. It seems especially appropriate that we should discuss the contribution ot the South to rural educaticn here in Georgia, the birthplace of the new South and the home of the South’s pioneer advocate of public education, Dr. J. L. M. Curry. The public schools of the South today and the general progress of this section are vindication of Dr. Curry’s eloquent pleas for application of that principle of a true democratic order which Lee had ex- pressed when he declared, ‘““The thorough education of all classes of people is the most efficaciuus means for promoting the prosperity of the South.” While the South of today is in marked contrast to the South of a quarter century ago, agriculture is still its chief industry. The resultant large rural population, combined with an unusually high percentage of children gives this section of the country a great responsibility toward rural education. Despite comparatively small wealth per child, the South, | am proud to say, is meeting this responsibility more and more fully, and in so doing has made a worthwhile contribution to rural education. Most widely known, and doubtless of first importance, is the South's de- velopment of the county unit system. “ot only has this plan been applied most widely in the South, but it is in a southern state—Maryland—that it has reached its highest development. There the county, as a single unit of 7 6 NATIONAL EDUCATION ASSOCIATION educational organization and administration, is analagous to a city school organization. The cities are included in the county school administration in Maryland and Florida, and the same is true, with two exceptions, in the parish system of Louisiana. Some form of the county unit system is now employed in every southern state except Oklahoma and Arkansas, and the latter state provides for a county board of education, elected by the people, which shall select the county superintendent. The South also ranks high in consolidation, though this plan originated. in the North. More than 8000, or nearly half of the 16,674 consolidated schools reported by the Bureau of Education in 1925 were in the sixteen southern states. That important factor of consolidation, transportation, is given its due consideration. In fact, North Carolina held first place among the states of the Union in 1927-28 by providing 136,980 children with transportation. The county unit system is largely responsible for the fact that supervision in the rural schools of the South is unusually good, while the fact that mem- bers of the South’s most cultured families enter the teaching ranks, has re- sulted in more cordial and human administrative relationships between superintendents and teachers than exist in many other places. It is to the South, too, that we owe the development of state school im- provement associations. Although they originated in Maine, they sh¥wed greatest growth in the South. Like the Congress of Parents and ‘Teachers, by which they have been replaced in many states, these associations have demonstrated that there can be close cooperation between professional and lay groups. So successful have they been in securing progressive school legislation and in raising money for school and community that they may be said to be responsible in considerable degree for the South's progress in public education. This educational progress is indicated to some extent by the fact that public school expenditures in the South increased 1116.4 percent from 1900 to 1927. In 1926 the South spent $426,.200,000 on its public schools, or four times its expenditure of but twelve vears earlier and nearly double the amount the entire country spent in 1900 on public education. Such progress as I have touched upon so far did not just happen in the South. It was, rather, the result of the earnest, aggressive work of a large group of far-seeing men and women who waged a veritable crusade for the ideals of public education. On this program with me today are two outstanding representatives of this group—Dr. James H. Dillard and Dr. Edward Mims. Then there is the group of southern men who are directing the work of various founda- tions in the advancement of Negro education. This list, which constitutes an honor roll far too lengthy to give in full includes $. L. Smith of Ten- nessee, general agent of the Rosenwald Fund; B. C. Caldwell of Louisiana, Dr. Dillard’s assistant ; and Jackson Davis of Virginia, special representative of the General Education Board. 8 DEPARTMENT OF RURAL EDUCATION 7 Their work might have been much more difficult had it not been for two of the great leaders which the Negro race has furnished — Brooker T. Wash- ington and his successor at Tuskegee Institute, Robert R. Moton. Illiteracy among both whites and Negroes has been a blet upon the South, but conditions are improving due to the good work of such people as my good friend, Wil Lou Gray, state adult school supervisor of South Carolina; Martha Berry, whose school for mountain boys and girls in Georgia is nationally known; and Cora Wilson Stewart of moonlight school fame. Annie Webb Blanton of Texas, the South’s first woman state superintendent ot schools, and Mrs. Theodore Birney of Georgia, founder of the National Congress of Parents and Teachers, have also made a notable contribution to southern education. According to its population, the South has probably furnished its just quota of educators in two outstanding positions of leadership in the nation. Three of the eight United States Commissioners of Education, Dr. John Eaton, Dr. P. P. Claxton, and Dr. John J. Tigert, have come from Ten- nessee, while Missouri proudly claims Dr. W. T. Harris. Among the sixty-eight presidents of the National Education Association, ten have been southerners, of whom at least two were outstanding in the field of rural education. They were James Y. Joyner of North Carolina, who according to our secretary, Mr. J. W. Crabtree, coined the phrase, “Equality of edu- cational opportunity,” and the late Dr. D. B. Johnson of South Carolina, who recently rounded out a half century of work in this field. Orators, public officials, and editors have played their part in the educa- tional advance of the South along with the teachers. Memories of brilliant careers and earnest work for public education are brought to life by mention of such names as Henry Grady, Walter Hines Page, C. P. J. Mooney, Clarence H. Poe, Governor Aycock of North Carolina, Governor Mon- tague of Virginia, Governor Patterson of Tennessee, or former Senator Hoke Smith of Georgia. Mr. Smith has left us a legacy in the Smith-Lever and Smith-Hughes Acts, providing for agricultural training in schools and colleges. He was also author of the Smith-Towner Bill for a Department of Education, with a Secretary in the President's Cabinet, when that measure was first intro- duced in Congress in 1918. With certain changes, such as elimination of provision for federal aid, this bill has been reintroduced in every succeed- ing Congress, and we now predict that its enactment would make available, through establishment of the Department of Education, such increased knowledge of education that the number of great leaders, such as I have just mentioned, would be multiplied manifold, and Southern schools would be enabled to contribute far more to the progress of the South and of the nation. CONTRIBUTIONS OF dA CONSERVATIVE PROVINCE TO 4 PROGRESSIVE NATION EDWIN MIMS, PROFESSOR OF ENGLISH, VANDERBILT UNIVERSITY, NASHVILLE, TENN. Andre Siegfried at the end of his remarkable anatysis of American condi- tions in 4 merica Comes of Age represents Europe as hesitating to adopt the methods and points of view that have led to this country’s unparalleled prosperity. “There is in America,” he says, “a growing tendency to reduce all virtues to the primordial ideal of conformity—Can the individual pos- sibly survive in such an atmosphere? Will Europe end by adopting these methods? She hesitates.” That is just the way a southerner, be he ever so modern and liberal, feels as he contemplates some of the extreme tendencies in industry, education, philosophy, and literature today and attempts to find his place and the place of his section in contemporary America. The South looks one way to old traditions and standards and modes of living and another way to other sections of the country where modern forces are in the ascendancy. She hesitates for herself and for the nation. Held back for half a century and more for reasons that any intelligent and imaginative man can readily understand, she feels impelled to catch up with the procession, to keep step with all progressive movements. And yet not only stubborn reactionaries but liberals themselves hesitate to climb aboard the great American bandwagon. In the country at large, certainly among the most intellectual and artistic, there has been a reaction against Puritanism, and here is the very strong- hold of Puritanism; a reaction against the pioneer spirit that impoverished life, and yet here among the mountains and hills is a large body of peop'e still in the pioneer stage of culture; a reaction against the Anglo-Saxon dom- inance of America, and yet every state and city here prides itself on the over- whelming Anglo-Saxon population and the absence of foreigners; a reaction against certain qualities of mind and heart, such as sentiment, romance, chivalry, optimism, and yet here these qualities survive. Yes, the South hesi- tates to join the procession of those who lead the reaction and especially those who have reacted in every instance to the opposite extreme. May not the South find the middle of the road, the balance, the moderation, and in so doing reinforce those who in other sections are fighting the same battle? Many people have passed from sentimentalism to sophistication, from “‘rose- pink” literature to “dirty-drab,” from Pollyanna optimism to the most de- pressing pessimism; from “uplift”? to iconoclasm, and from “service” to rampant individualism and selfishness, from commonplaceness and medicc- rity to abnormal eccentricity, from suppressed emotions and inhibitions to unbridled passion and undisciplined thinking, from success as an idol to fail- ure as the chief glory of man and of art, from the reign of dullness to the cult of smartness—smartness at any price—and from opposition to science to a glorification of it as the supreme authority in philosophy and religio.. The South may well serve the nation by avoiding the extremes. [8] 10 THE FINANCIAL SUPPORT OF PUBLIU EDUCATION, WITH SPECIAL REFERENCE TO RURAL AREAS R. E. TIDWELL, STATE SUPERINTENDENT OF EDUCATION, MONTGOMERY, ALA. I shall assert, without giving much in the way of proof, that the only successful method of attacking the problem of financing schools in rural communities is through a study of the economic status of the farmer, in- cluding relationships to the other large industrial groups of our own country, and to foreign agricultural and industrial interests which affect in a most serious way his economic status and ability to provide for the material essentials of life within his group and in harmony with other groups whose way of living influences his outlook on life. It is unnecessary to give more than brief attention to the present status of rural school support. In varying degrees this support comes from local property taxes, ordinarily collected in small units having a very low per capita wealth. The money raised is usually based on relatively low assess- ments. When it is recalled that the amount of wealth behind each child varies when the states are taken as units by as much as eight to one, how much greater must be the extremes when the smaller tax units are con- sidered. There are other local sources of revenue for the support of rural schools. Most states collect a poll tax which accrues to the educational fund, but the amount derived from this source is relatively negligible. The greatest amount of funds other than local property taxes in the vast majority of the states at the present time, certainly in the southern states, comes from legislative appropriations, or constitutional tax levies which provide a statewide fund for the support of educational service, including rural areas. These appropriations are provided through levies on the various types of business enterprises, and include franchise, license, and privilege taxes, and in the majority of the states income and inheritance taxes. In a few states various forms of severance taxes have provided substantial additions to school funds, and a number of the states are at the present time levying and collecting consumption taxes levied on such articles as tobacco, cosmetics and the like, the amount collected being a fixed percentage ot the sale price of each article. The methods of apportioning the state funds referred to above are many, and space limitation prevents discussion at any length. It is, therefore, thought best to consider only the most important development of recent vears, which in reality has made its greatest contribution to rural education. I refer to the movement on the part of legislatures in the several states to bring about a more equitable distribution of school funds, to the end that an equality of opportunity might be afforded all the children. In the state of Alabama, for example, of the funds available for rural education, that part derived from state sources runs as high in some counties as 80 percent [9] BEST COPY AVAILABLE _ 10 NATIONAL EpUucATION AssociaTION ot the total cost of the program. In the more wealthy counties. state ap- propriations and apportionments do not exceed 20 percent of the total cost of the educational service. The reason for this wide variation is due to the unequal distribution of wealth in the several counties of the state. and the effort of the law makers by appropriate legislation to provide a modest minimum program of education for every child in the state, regardless of his place of residence. The Alabama plan of equalization is a modified form of the Mort Plan submitted to the New York Legislature by Dr. Paul R. Mort, Director, School of Education, ‘Teachers College, Columbia Uni- versity. The expansion of the “equality of opportunity” to include more than teachers’ salaries has already had extensive practical application in many states. No inquiry into what constitutes the cost of a program of “equality of opportunity” for all the children of the state will be fair or thoroughly sound without taking into consideration, in addition to the usually accepted ey current costs of the school, two other factors; namely, transportation costs and expenditures for capital outlay, including site, schoolbuildings proper, teachers’ homes, garages, shops, and equipment. | know of rural communi ties in my own state, which could be duplicated thousands of times over in the majority of the states of the Union, that will never be able to provi adequate housing for the schools unless definite provision is made for equa! izing the load through some sound basis of state aid. Equality of opportuni tor education will never be provided in the small, one, two, or three room school that is so prevalent in rural sections. Even when modern buildin. are erected, funds for salaries provided, and conditions made favorable {: the employment of trained teachers in these centers, there will still remai other minimum essentials, accessibility and transportation. ‘herefore, an) modern system of educational service which proposes the ideal of equality of opportunity for the children of the country as compared with the children of the village and urban communities must take into consideration an provide all-the-year-round highways and a well organized and approved plan of transportation. Most students of rural economics heartily recommend the abandonment of ad valorem taxes as the sole or even the chief means of providing funds. This means of support has been growing less and less adequate. The accept ance by the state of a major responsibility for the support of all education and particularly the responsibility for equalizing educational opportunit among the several communities of the state, carries with it the necessity ot providing larger amounts for the support of public schools from statewide sources. No state can support and develop modern educational service with all that this means in better facilities, the use of improved teaching technics and the like, unless the statewide responsibility for providing the funds is accepted as fundamental. In conclusion, let me bring to the attention of this group the economic value of national aid for rural schools as a matter of relief to rural areas. BEST COPY AVAILABLF yy DEPARTMENT OF RURAL EDUCATION 11 It the reliet of the farmer is a serious problem of national import, and who can doubt that it is, and it is desired to utilize the great powers and resources ot our federal government in bringing about equality of economic oppor- tunity then it seems to me that no surer method could be adopted than that ot attording substantial assistance to the rural areas of the United Qtates in the matter of financing their public schools. If the federal government will assume a substantial portion of the cost of providing adequate facilities for the education of the boys and girls in rural America, there is not the slight- est doubt but that the farmers themselves will receive a substantial measure ot economic relief. ‘The greater part of taxes paid in rural communities everywhere goes for the support of the schools, and in all too many instances the rate of taxation must be high, up to ten times the rate paid in nearby urban centers with greater per capita wealth. If the American people are really interested in tarm relief, then let the National Congress provide an adequate fund through an appropriation of $1,000,000,000 or more for rural education to be distributed among the several states. This would more nearly give the rural youth of this great nation an equality of opportunity for an education than all the fine spun schemes that have heretofore been proposed. HE SUPERIISION OF RURAL ELEMENTARY SCHOOLS IN THE SOUTHERN STATES \NNIE M. CHERRY, RURAL SCHOOL SUPERVISOR, ROANOKE RAPIDS, N. C. There is urgent need for rural supervision—When one analyzes the rural school situation and realizes the disparaging inequalities that exist between the rural and urban schools not only in the South, but throughout the coun- try at large, it becomes apparent that better and more efficient supervision is both an economic and an educational necessity. The urgency of this need is made plain when the facts are viewed clearly. If the county superintendent carries out the requirements of the public school law, his administrative duties alone claim the major part of his time. With these manifold duties increasing constantly, it is not surprising that there is almost no opportunity left to attack the other phase of his prob- lem—that of supervising the classroom work carried on in the schools under his jurisdiction, With this small time allotment left for visiting, directing, and supervising the work of his teaching force, it appears selfevi- dent that in consideration of the large amounts being spent for the mainte- nance of the rural schools of a county this is not sufficient to enable the country child to receive adequate service from the money spent for his growth and weilbeing. It may be stated further that if the large rural school population, representing seventy-two percent of the total, is given the best possible opportunity to grow and develop physically, mentally, and socially, careful consideration must be given to the improvement of the quantity and quality of instruction administered. Viewed from every 13 12 NATIONAL EDUCATION ASSOCIATION standpoint, this has become a problem nationwide in its significance and in the urgency of its successful solution. It is the general consensus 0. opinion on the part of the state and county superintendents that there is a growing need for professional supervisory assistance if satisfactory school work is to be accomplished. Rural school supervision, as a specialized field having for its purpose the improvement of instruction through constructive leadership of teachers, may well be considered a development of the past decade. This well- defined notion of the function of such a service indicates rather clearly that a distinction is now being made between administrative supervision and instructional supervision. And today there is unquestionably a tendency and indeed a marked progress toward an enlarged vision of the work of the supervisory officer. We have reached a better understanding of the real function of supervision and have progressed in defining and delimiting the supervisory field. Expert supervisitan of rural schools is now recog- nized as an important means of promoting teaching efficiency and of equal- izing educational opportunity for rural school children. It is true that in- structional supervision is yet in its infancy, yet rapid strides are being made every year toward improving the teaching performance and the conditions affecting it. General statement concerning rural supervision in the South—In the evolution of rural school supervision throughout the country, the southern states have contributed their share of variety to the general program. Let us make a brief survey of the work as a whole, regarding both adminis- trative and supervisory features. Every state in the group has made provision in its state department of education for one or more state rural supervisors. “he appointment of such supervisors was initiated by the Southern Education Board and the General Education Board. ‘The majority of these workers are still paid by the General Education Board. It appears that the county is the unit for supervision in practically all of the southern states. ‘The exceptions to the rule are Delaware with the state as the unit, and Virginia with the “division” as the unit. Either the county, township, or district may be the unit of supervision,in West Vir- ginia. Under the countywide plan of organization, supervision varies according to the specific provisions which prevail in the particular county or state. ‘The general employment of supervisors, the supervisory load, salary re- ceived, and nature and scope of program show wide differences. For ex- ample, the Maryland law provides that the county board of education of every county is required to employ supervisors for each county in propor- tion to the number of teachers in service and the state pays half of the salary from the general state school fund up to a certain amount. On the other hand, there are states employing only one supervisor to the county regardle's of the size of the territory to be supervised. 14 DrEPARTMENT OF RURAL EDUCATION 13 In all of the states, with the exception of Kentucky, in which the county board of education has control and management of schools and authority to control funds, there were some counties with professional supervisors dur- ing 1927-28. ‘There were supervisors serving 217 counties out of a total of 1269 counties. In other words, 17.1 percent of all the counties in this group were given some supervisory assistance. On the basis of number of counties under supervision and the number of supervisors employed Georgia has the smallest percentage of any state in this group. Maryland leads with 100 percent followed by Alabama with 68.7 percent and North Carolina with 31 percent. Among the states having a different plan—Delaware, Virginia, and West Virginia— the record shows that all of the counties in Delaware have super- visory assistance and 50.9 percent of the total in West Virginia. General Methods of Supervising Rural Schools as Practised in Three Southern States 1. Supervision in Maryland—In Maryland concentrated supervision of instruc- tion is carried on in every county in the state on a thoroughly cooperative basis. During 1927-28, fifty-five supervisors or one for every fifty teachers were employed to serve twenty-three counties in this capacity. Out of this number, only 11.3 percent were serving in their present position for the first time and the average supervisory experience of those in service was §.2 vears. A very definite plan is set up for each county based on the needs and conditions most prevalent at the time. In turn, the supervisory force at work directs the efforts of all to the end that the ethciency of classroom instruction may be increased. The state de- partment staff works in close harmony with these workers. The wealth of splendid material available from this state represents the progressive supervisory activities being participated in to improve the quantity and quality of work and indicates quite clearly the general trend of the educational program as it is being carried out. 2. Supervision in Alabama—In Alabama, the state department maintains one supervisor in elementary supervision and a regional supervisor at each of the normal schools for these purposes: (1) to give authorities at institutions closer contact with the field and (2) to give the state department more intimate understanding of the work of the institutions in training teachers for and in service. 3. Supervision in North Carolina—Rural supervision had its beginning in North Carolina in 1911 when $1500 was secured from the George Peabody Fund with which to encourage county boards of education in the employment of rural super- visors to assist the county superintendents. In 1915 this fund was exhausted. In 1919 The General Assembly, for the first time, made appropriations for it, thereby enabling the state to pay one-half the annual net salary of the supervisor up to and through a certain stipulated amount. Since that time, the number of super- visors in the state has increased 400 percent. At the present, the state supervisory force is made up of a state supervisor of elementary instruction and two assistants who spend their entire time promoting, directing, and unifying the work as a whole and helping to increase the efficiency of the program already launched in the state. During the past few years, this department has concentrated upon two of our most pressing rural school problems: better rural-school supervision, and the building up of larger and more efficient rural schools through consoudation and the public transportation of pupils. Today there are over 812 white consolidated schools having more than six teachers that are more adequately meeting the needs of the country children. 15 ADULT EDUCATION IN SOUTH CAROLINA WIL LOU GRAY, STATE SUPERVISOR OF ADULT SCHOOLS, COLUMBIA, §, C. In developing a program for adult elementary education in rural com- munities there must be a definite, flexible plan of procedure with definite accomplishment aims. The success of the program will depend on five factors: 1. Sufficient money to finance the work 2. Local community support 3. Trained teachers 4. A curriculum based on local needs 5. Response of the pupils. Believing that specific experiences are more helpful than imaginary gen- eralizations I am going to describe South Carolina’s program developed over a period of ten years. Experience demonstrated that the schools were most successful when organized in campaign fashion. The inauguration of intensive one-month campaigns for the organization of adult schools during July and August was therefore urged. This is the leisure time of both the farmer and the teacher. The crops have been laid by and teachers otherwise unavailable may be secured to go into isolated communities largely as a patriotic service. The work is financed by the state, cooperating with the counties. ‘The state pays the salaries of the teachers, $100 for one month, while the counties meet the expense of the organization, involving salary for organizer, books, and advertising. Early in the year the state appropriation is budgeted, and designated for those counties which register the highest percent of illiteracy. From ten to twenty schools are allotted to such counties. As soon as this division is made, a visit is paid to the county superintendent and the plan outlined with a request for cooperation. The county superintendent’s duties make it impossible for him to devote the necessary time and thought to the work, therefore if the county is to receive state aid, a paid organizer must be employed with the following duties : ‘ 1. To plan with the state supervisor and county superintendent a geaeral pro- gram of work To create public sentiment through the press and public speaking To confer with trustees and select centers for schools To appoint teachers and find suitable boarding places for them To assist teachers with the organization and classification of schools To visit schools at least twice during the month and give suggestions To see that reports and exhibits are properly filed. Aw wwe LP The first duty of the organizer is to decide the communities that need the schools most. After securing local assistance, he prepares the minds of the people by enlisting the active interest of the local editor. Through editorials and other articles concerning what has been done in other coun- [14+] 16 ‘3 DEPARTMENT OF RURAL EDUCATION Ne ties and communities, the campaign is heralded abroad, and the pupils volunteer. He then visits these selected centers in order to convince the trustees that this is an enterprise which will be located in their neighborhood if they are sufficiently interested @o lend a hand in making it a success, If they prove indifferent or doubting Thomases, he goes on to another district, for he realizes that without the encouraging influences of the educated, the uneducated can never be reached. This means the opening of homes to teachers, releasing farm hands, visiting school, furnishing old magazines, lighting the schoolhouse, lending automobiles, furnishing refreshments sometimes, and various other services. Contrary to the belief of the sentimentalist this is a field in which the teacher must have not only the desire to serve, but must also know what and how to teach. Experience demonstrated that if skilled teachers were to be employed state regulations were necessary and the following were made: . Teachers must hold first grade certificates, have successful — experi- ence, vivid personality, and organizing ability. 2. No married woman living in a community may be employed. 3. Teachers must board in the communities where they teach and remain there over the week-ends. 4+. Teachers must attend the Winthrop Institute. For a number of vears Winthrop, our State College for Teachers, has entertained for a week's institute all teachers who had appointments to summer schools. This has made it possible for the organizers and their teachers, last year 175 in all, to meet with the state supervisor for a week's intensive study of all the problems which relate specially to adult elementary education. This week of elbow touching, idea getting, and close study, creates a group consciousness rarely found among teachers and they leave for their respective schools inspired by a real desire to serve. The campaign proper lasts four weeks but the teachers report for work on Friday before schools open on Monday. At this time they meet their organizers for a last conference hour before they go to their com- munities to acquaint themselves with local conditions and people and to be ready for classes the next week. On Friday luncheon is usually served to this group by the Chamber of Commerce or some other public-spirited organization. Two weeks from this first meeting, the teachers meet again with their organizer to compare progress and make plans for the remaining weeks of work, including the local, county, and state commencements. The aim of the campaign is to enrol every person in the district, literate as well as illiterate, in some type of study. Curriculums are built around conscious needs of the communities. Last year the home was selected as the basis of study. Every person in the communities who excelled in any form of domestic art or science, or progressive farming was called to the teacher’s assistance. To illustrate: the class and the community were divided into committees, each responsible for definite assignments. In 17 16 NATIONAL EDUCATION ASSOCIATION reading, such subjects as homes of great men, of other lands, of the past, and beauty—as materialized in books, pictures, and flowers—were selected. In arithmetic the month’s work was given to a detailed study of the family income leading to budgeting. In English, letters of all kinds were a daily assignment, the aim being to substitute a new trend of thought for the old “I seat-myself-and-take-my-pen-in-hand” style. In the field of civics there was unlimited opportunity for stressing the major ideas. Health and good manners were the objectives. Health charts suited to the public were fur- nished by a local insurance company. The following quotations selected at random from the pages of the organizers’ notebooks indicate some of the byproducts of this campaign: During the noon hour a dozen or more men, women, and boys assembled in an old barn on their employer's farm. The teacher improvised a fine outdoor schoolroom. On one wall she tacked a blackboard, and chairs and benches were placed conveniently. An old blind was placed across a wooden horse and served for a table. Everything was as clean as could be and made a delightful place to teach and learn. When Mrs. Blank, aged thirty-four and the mother of six children, came to lay-by school in August, 1926, she could not write her name. She was quick to learn and at the end of the first two weeks she was reading simple stories and soon was proud to be able to add, subtract, and multiply. She won a perfect attendance button in 1926 and 1927. Last winter I sent her books to read, copies in writing and examples to work by her little boy who was in ~ class. In this way she is becoming a better student and mother. Our commencement exercises were held in the icaetinnil It was a revelation to see how much had been accomplished in so short time. The pupils from the various schools demonstrated what they had learned. Many groups sang lively songs and gave unique stunts. More than 500 people from the school communities attended. Between the lines has run the idea that these results have come through COOPERATION spelled in capitals. Without this teamwork, nothing tangible or reportable would have been accomplished. However, neither words nor paper convey any real hint of the difficulties that were met and surmounted, for they were legion! NEGRO EDUCATION IN THE SOUTH LEO M. FAVROT, FIELD AGENT, GENERAL EDUCATION BOARD, BATON ROUGE, LA. Were the story of Negro education in the South told in terms of a devoted group of missionaries who spent the best years of their lives in unselfish service to the cause, of a group of patient, consecrated teachers of the Negro race who struggled against fearful odds, of the significant achievements of a few outstanding, far-seeing, and courageous school officials, or of the steady and remarkable advance made in certain lines of endeavor through the aid of philanthropic ‘enterprise, it would be a story to brighten the pages of the history of education in the South. Were the story told, however, in terms of the slow growth of public sentiment, of the disappointment and discour- 18 DEPARTMENT OF RURAL EDUCATION 17 agement of large groups of workers of the Negro race in their efforts to advance, of the poverty and inadequacy of their school system, of the in- difference and neglect of a large majority of school officials, yes, and of the discrimination practised, often to the extent of depriving the Negro child of most of the money set aside by the state constitution for his education, it would be a sad story, and a story hardly worthy of the glorious heritage of honor and high purpose to which the South loves to point with pride. If the attitudes of each race towards the other were made the basis of the story, it would be varied and interesting for attitudes are rapidly changing in some sections of the South, but remain unaltered in others. If the story were told in terms of the cold, hard statistical facts it would not be a pretty story; but, on the other hand, if told in terms of human relations, of mutual for- bearance, and of sympathy and understanding on the part of each racial group, there would be in the story much of pathos and beauty. But the story of Negro education in the South, if honestly told, must partake to some extent of all of the elements involved. The missionaries came to the South to do their work under the most trying circumstances. The South owes them a debt of gratitude. Only now are we beginning to appreciate the services rendered by the church mission- aries of early days. Their schools have trained the present leaders of the Negro race. How heroic, too, has been the work of scores and hundreds of patient and persistent souls among the Negro teachers! Men and women who have grown old in the service and who by faith have kept at their tasks amid discouragement and delays pleading for a better chance to do their work. It is people like these, “inching along,” as it were, who are responsible tor much of the growth, slow but steady, in Negro education in the South. This group of steady, patient, and persistent workers include the Jeanes agents. They visit the remote rural schools and communities and represent their cause in council. While these agents can hardly be called professional supervisors, they help the teachers and carry the school’s message into the homes of the people. They are close to the people and can interpret their school needs to the county superintendent. Through their persistent efforts great changes have come about. Of courageous, far-seeing school officials, the number grows yearly. There are the men in state departments of education called state agents for Negro schools who are devoting time and ability to advance Negro education. Behind them are the state superintendents of education who are concerned with problems of statewide importance. Among county superintendents are found an increasing number who have made the improvement of Negro schools a paramount professional purpose. Sometimes this county superin- tendent, man or woman, has taken into his confidence the business men of the community and enlisted their cooperation in a forward looking program with remarkable success. Philanthropy has rendered two outstanding services to Negro education in the South. It has, first, helped to fasten the attention of school officials 19 18 NATIONAL EDUCATION ASSOCIATION and Negro leaders upon specific needs and objectives, and second, by giving small amounts of money, it has stimulated the South to invest increasingly larger amounts in Negro education. When the Jeanes Fund, for example, began to supply aid for helping the remote rural schools twenty years ago, it was frequently necessary for the Fund to pay the salary of a Jeanes county agent in order to start the work. Gradually, the proportion of money invested in this cause from public funds has risen. There are now 351 Jeanes agents in about half of the counties of the South with a large Negro popula- tion rendering signal service in helping the most backward Negroes to enjoy the benefits of a richer life. The Slater Fund has helped colleges and secondary schools. Its most sig- nificant contribution has been to help develop county training schools in counties where none existed and where they were badly needed. These were organized in the beginning to furnish rural schools with better teachers. Many training schools have become four-vear high schools. States have in more recent years done much to stimulate Negro high-school development throughout the South. There are now 471 four-year Negro high-schools in fourteen states of the South, of which 256 are accredited. Three-fourths of these schools are public high schools. The General Education Board has worked as a silent partner with state departments and with the Jeanes and Slater Boards in their programs for the improvement of Negro education. Outside of cooperation with the Jeanes and Slater Funds, its two significant contributions have been toward the establishment of divisions of Negro education in state departments, and toward the development of adequate state schools for Negroes; schools in which teachers, particularly, are trained. The Julius Rosenwald Fund during the past twelve years has assisted in the construction of more than 4500 school buildings. To each one of these 4500 communities there has come a new vision, a new outlook, a community selfrespect. The buildings are admirably constructed, modern, and attrac- tive. Here, too, the contribution of philanthropy has been stimulating. The proportion of the cost of buildings borne by the Rosenwald Fund has di- minished from fifty percent to less than eighteen percent today. Considerably more than fifty percent of the cost of these buildings is borne by public tax- ation and year by year this proportion grows. Two movements in Negro education have vitally affected all education in the South. One of these is the influence of Hampton and Tuskegee. Perhaps no two institutions have ever studied their task with greater care and mapped their programs with greater regard for the needs of the people they were designed to serve. It is not uncommon to hear from white school ad- ministrators, after the service of institutions like Hampton and Tuskegee has been described to them, “I can’t see why such service wouldn't also benefit the white child.’ So this influence has helped to create the demand in the South for vocational agriculture and home economics, for home and farm demonstration and girls’ and boys’ club work, for health work, and 20 _ DEPARTMENT OF RURAL EDUCATION 19 tor every movement that tends to tie the school or educational agency closer to the people. The other movement is the Rosenwald building movement. Hundreds of white schools have used the Rosenwald building plans. ‘The division of schoolhouse planning in the state departments of education, and the Inter- state Building Service recently inaugurated at Peabody College in Nash- ville, Tennessee, owe their origin to the emphasis placed by the Rosenwald Fund upon the careful planning and construction of schoolhouses especially in the rural districts. Notwithstanding the hopeful and encouraging signs, there are elements in the picture that are not encouraging. With all of the fine service in catering to the real needs of the rural Negro rendered by the Jeanes agents in 351 counties in the South, there are still 306 counties with heavy Negro popula- tions without Jeanes agents or their equivalent. Most of these counties are in darkness as regards Negro education. Even though the Slater Fund has helped to provide 400 county training schools, or high schools, and while public high schools in cities have sprung up in increasing numbers, there are still 281 counties in the South without any high school, public or private. High-school enrolment in fourteen southern states is less than ten tor each 1000 Negroes, while in the United States there are thirty-nine high- school pupils for each 1000 persons. Notwithstanding Rosenwald effort, there are still 189 counties with a material Negro population without a Rosenwald schoolhouse. The problem before school administrators in the South is to stimulate interest in Negro education in the weakest and most backward counties and in the black counties. Reports issued by the state departments of education show that in com- parison with the schools for white children the Negro schools, as a whole, are far behind. While in fourteen southern states the average number of pupils assigned to the white teacher is thirty-one, in the case of the Negro school the average number of pupils for each teacher is forty-four. The average length of school term for the white school is 159 days, while in the Negro schools it is 129 days. The average annual salary of the white teacher in the fourteen states is $900, while that of the Negro teacher is only $458. The average expenditure for salaries per white pupil enroled in these fourteen states is $28.88. while for each Negro pupil en- roled it is $10.04. A significant condition in the Negro public schools is found in the fact that sixty-five percent of the children enroled are in the first three grades, while in the white schools in the same states only forty-five percent of the children enroled are in these grades. Another serious problem is that of school attendance. There are Negro schools in the South trying to operate for eight months that have in attendance fewer than thirty percent of the maximum enrolment for the first few weeks of school, and that lose sixty or seventy percent of the pupils several weeks early. 21 20 NATIONAL EDUCATION ASSOCIATION Some of the prevailing attitudes on the part of the dominant race will have to change materially before real progress is made. The feeling of hostility to Negro education is rapidly disappearing but the feelings of in- difference and lack of responsibility are too prevalent. The Negro school child cannot continue to subsist on the crumbs from the white man’s table. The Negro has a just claim upon this region for a school system adequate to give his child the opportunity to develop to the limit of his capacity toward the standard of civilization for which we strive in America. We have be:n seriously handicapped by the large amount of illiteracy. Negro illiteracy in the seventeen states that maintain separate schools for Negro children ranges from twelve and four-tenths percent to thirty-eight and five-tenths percent_of the population ten years of age and over. Many of the states are engaged in campaigns to reduce illiteracy. In one state at this time there are in operation night schools for adults in which more than 70,000 people, three-fourths of them Negroes, are learning to read and write. The attitude of the Negro teacher toward securing a fairer share of public support for his school has been one of patient waiting. He is striv- ing to advance a little here, a little there, toward the goal of his aspira- tions. Each small favor has been thankfully received and the evidences of appreciation which he has displayed have frequently paved the way for the next step. But a new attitude is developing in the group. More and more they are presenting to school authorities the cold, hard facts regarding their situation. This method is effective, especially when presented in the semi- humorous vein which characterizes the Negro. It was rare wisdom which prompted Booker T. Washington to call attention to grave discrepancies in the measure of support given to white and Negro schools by asking, “Isn't it too great a compliment to the intelligence of the Negro child to assume that he can receive for an expenditure of $10 a session the oppor- tunity for training that it costs the South $29 to extend to the white child ?” The world of today is a different world from the one in which our fathers lived. Our mode of life is different. Not only have we seen changes in the material world, but we are undergoing a transformation in our social thinking. We realize more fully the heavy toll that we pay for ignorance. Our physical wellbeing, our moral progress, and our cultural standards, are all dependent upon our attitude toward the unprivileged classes. There is evidence that we are finding our way out of the dilemma. ‘The future holds for the dominant white race a brighter day when we have all realized our obligation to give the Negro a fairer chance, and the Negro people of our region, meek and patient still, are biding their time and seizing the opportunity as it presents itself. 22 II. Future Needs of Rural Education in the South THE ADJUSTMENT OF EDUCATION TO THE NEEDS OF FARM-DWELLING PEOPLE NORMAN FROST, PROFESSOR OF RURAL EDUCATION, GEORGE PEABODY COLLEGE, NASHVILLE, TENN. The United States now has fewer people living on the farm than at any time since 1910; probably since 1900. On January 1, 1929, there were 27,511,000 persons on farms, according to the estimate of the Bureau of Agricultural Economics. This is about four and a half million less than the farm population of 1910, an actual decrease of more than one-eighth. During this same period farm production has increased. Fewer farmers are now producing more. The efficiency of the farmer is increasing. The farm labor thus released from agriculture constitutes a grave prob- lem. The way in which it shall go, and what will happen to it there, is of vital concern to the farm folks. This is particularly true because labor can- not be disassociated from the person doing the work. From the standpoint of the farmer and his wife, the labor that leaves the farm is “‘our son John and our daughter Mary.” This stream of young people leaving the farm is no new thing. Galpin says that ‘“‘a rather fixed percentage of farm youth do, will, and must, so far as we can foresee, go to cities as a normal thing.” Here, then, is the first adjustment our rural schools must make to the needs of farm-dwelling people. The schools must so educate the farm boys and girls that they can leave the farms or stay on the farms, according to eco- nomic opportunity at the time they have to go to work. Too long we have talked and attempted to practise the doctrine that country boys and girls must be educated for country life. Education for life is the need, not for country life. We know that “a rather fixed percentage of farm youth do, will, and must, so far as we can foresee, go to the cities as a normal thing.” Increased knowledge of agriculture, better distribution of that knowledge, and increased use of machinery and power, all of these are likely to increase rather than decrease this percentage. Entirely apart from the task of educating young people so that they can leave the farm if that seems wise, is the task of so educating those that are to live on farms that they may be prosperous and happy. Even though halt the farm children are likely to leave, it is equally true that half are likely to remain. The responsibility of the school to those who remain can be no less than its responsibility to those who are to leave. One of the evidences of unsatisfactory farm life is the fact that many of the farm families are moving to town. The Bureau of Agricultural Eco- nomics recently made a survey of 20,000 farmers living in every state of the Union who had left farms for the city during the last eight vears. Their reasons for leaving were the following: [21] 23 22 NATIONAL EDUCATION ASSOCIATION 7S00 went on account of small profits and high taxes on the farm SHOU went because of old age 2200 went to get adequate schooling for their children S00 went because they had saved enough money to get in cities what they had always wanted but could not get in the country 400 went because they were giving up the farm to sons or sons-in-law 4400 gave scattering reasons hard to classify. For individuals the school can remedy the difficulty of small profits, at least to a large extent. Vocational agricultural education has shown many farmers how to increase their individual production, and consequently their profits, Lhe number of young people who should leave the farm is corre- spondingly increased, If the school teaches one boy to do the work previ- ously done by two, this extra boy will have to go somewhere else for work. ‘Lhis second adjustment, therefore, of increasing the vocational efficiency of farm youth, is the complement of the first. As more young people leave the tarms, the efficiency of those remaining must be increased, and as the # efficiency of the people on the farms is increased, a greater number of young people must go elsewhere. If these two educational procedures can progress together, the adjustment to changing agricultural and general vocational situations can be made with much less friction than in the past. Those who leave the farm can do so easily and those who stay can do so profitably. Unsatisfactory marketing of farm products contributes to unsatisfactory economics situations of farmers. An attempt to remedy this phase of the situation is all that can be claimed for the recent farm aid bill. Whatever relief is to be found in reorganization of marketing would seem to depend very largely on the success of rural schools in teaching country people the sound bases of marketing. The extravagant and frequently selfish claims made by professional organizers of cooperatives are likely to do as much harm as the pessimistic conservatism that sees no use in any change. Appar- te ently real improvement in this field comes back again to the school. Intelli- gent farmers, fully informed as to the possibilities of cooperative efforts, can protect themselves from exploitation by the mere thfeat implied in that knowledge. A system that will protect ignorant and helpless farmers seems more unlikely than an education that will make the farmers wiser in their marketing. This constitutes a third adjustment of education to the needs of farm-dwelling people. For the 5000 who left the farm because of old age there seems little that can, or should, be done, As advancing vears restrict activity, the con- veniences of town become more imperative, The 2200 whe vo to town for school advantages constitute a direct chal- lenve to the country school teacher, Certainly it should not be necessary for a man to stop his business, change his place and manner of living, and take up a new vocation when his children reach school age. Either the quality of school work, or the breadth of the offering, must be at fault when so large a proportion of farmers who move to town give this as their reason, The adjustments called for are obvious, better teaching and a richer cur- a 24 DrEPARTMENT OF RURAL EDUCATION 23 The 500 who go to town as soon as they have enough money to get what they have always wanted and could not get on the farm constitute a mal- adjusted group. The maladjustment may be the fault of the school, or of other things. Some of these people may have been held on the farm to care tor elders or to look after property when they would normally have moved to town, Many of them have not been interested in country things. This is the fault of the school. Those interests and tastes that can be satistied in the country should be stressed. A broader curriculum might have made those 500 tamilies happier. That they were already prosperous is shown by their sav- ing enough money to go to town, The 400. who gave up their farms to sons and sons-in-law have little need of special treatment in the schools. More attention to the development of interests and tastes that find their satisfaction on the farm might have held them on smaller places in the country rather than allowing them to move to town, There is one further demand that might reasonably be made on the coun- try school. Education provided those who are to live in this country should be broad enough to aid them in making adjustments to future as well as present needs. This implies, for example, a general course in chemistry as well as one based largely on soil analysis; a course in physics as well as one in farm mechanics. The meeting of this demand falls in line with the adjustments called for previously. The adjustments called for may be summarized as follows: 1. Education which will enable farm bovs and girls to go to town or stay in the country . For those who remain in the country, increased vocational efficiency . Understanding of marketing . Better instruction . Broader curriculum . The development of interests and tastes which may be satisfied in the country. a we whd It may prove helpful to attempt to define the kind of country school that may be expected to make these adjustments: 1, It must be large enough to provide one teacher for not more than two grades; preferably one for each grade. . It must provide departmentalized work beginning at about the sixth or seventh grade, 3. It must employ well qualified teachers and principals, 4, It must provide shopwork, home economies, agricultural work, and laboratories for science beginning at about the sixth or seventh grade, 5, It must have available about $000 books, 6. It must have enough pupils in the high school to justify offering at least five or six differentiated courses or curriculums, . It must provide for the health and safety of the pupils in buildings, athletic programs, and instruction, 8. It must offer sound work in economics, 9, It must provide practise in social activities through a strong program of extra. curriculum activities, It must be supervised by welltrained supervisors, Llosks NATIONAL FOIIGATION As LAL ie WASHINGTON, OD. oe te ~ 10, 24+ NATIONAL EDUCATION ASSOCIATION ‘To provide such schools for country children means a reorganization of school support, possibly involving federal aid. Such schools constitute real farm relief. In this way, and apparently in this way only, can the farm problem be satisfactorily and permanently solved. ADJUSTMENT TO MOUNTAIN AREAS OLIVE D. CAMPBELL, DIRECTOR OF JOHN C., CAMPBELL FOLK SCHOOL, BRASSTOWN, N.C. When I have been away in the cities and return to our mountain country, I am struck anew with its beauty. | find myself wondering why anyone lives anywhere else. Why the noise, the confusion, the dirt, the scramble, when one may have the fresh stillness, the independence of life among these blue and green hills? With an odd sense of shock one faces the fact that our young people, at least the majority of the more energetic and ambitious, do not feel the same way. What is the difficulty? Certainly the condition is not peculiar to the mountains, or to the South, although topography, climate, diet, and special diseases play their part. If one could give the answer in one word, the nearest word would be poverty—economic, social, cultural. Economic poverty—In our immediate section the average annual income of the small farmer is between $85 and $90. The land-owning farmer, and our people are largely land-owning, has his land, his garden from which he gets most of his living, and his corn; but $90 does not offer a wide margin for taxes, clothes, books, education, seeds, fertilizers, etc. We pay the doctor for a single trip from the county seat $7. Poverty in social life—The old occasions for getting together, logrolling, houseraising, quiltings, and the like, have largely passed. We still have some all-day “singin’s,” “decorations,” and an occasional singing-school. Sickness and funerals furnish always an opportunity to get together. But all in all the church is still the main social institution of our mountain country. The pro- tracted meeting is our spiritual and social outlet. The consolidated school helps its more or less immediate neighborhood, but parents at a distance find it next to impossible to share in most of the activities. One dares to say that under present conditions in our rural mountain sections, the consoli- dated school breaks up more than enrichs the social life of the little com- munity. Poverty in cultural resources—TVhe topography and history of the moun tain country explain why, over large areas, our elementary schools have been very poor, While they are improving greatly, they are still inadequate, As a result we have a large population which if not actually illiterate, is very limited. We must have elementary education for all, if we are to progress, but elementary education cannot solve our problem, The high school is largely for those who are to leave the farm and the more rural districts, Because it is standardized it must set emphasis upon acquiring certain definite amounts of information and it does this, usually, 26 . DEPARTMENT OF RURAL EDUCATION 25 without relating these facts to the life of the student in the country where he has to live. If does not try to help him to an understanding and control ot his lite and environment, and to the joy that comes from such under- standing and control. Can our mountain country offer a full life to the energetic and ambitious ? | cannot answer that question, though | have my own” convictions at least as to large sections. While | am weary of the survey that piles up laborious material which is not utilized, we do need a careful, practical, economic survey of the mountain country to guide us in our thinking and planning. \ll I can say here is that no rigid or blanket state program will help the mountains. The topography is exceedingly varied and so are the resources. Doubtless it would be most unwise to encourage the submarginal farming ot certain areas. We need larger forest reservations, more small decentral- ized industries. But equally unreasonable does it seem to me to hope to work out such a serious and fundamental problem with a standardized form of education. We must be open in mind, flexible in method, if we are to con- tribute any real help to the development of better rural life in the mountains. For these reasons we are trying out, school and community together, in a little place called Brasstown, in the extreme southwestern corner of North Carolina, a new venture in adult education. The John C. Campbell Folk School is an independent corporation under the laws of the state but has the cooperation of three of the denominational boards, the Board of National Missions of the Presbyterian Church, the American Missionary Association, and the National Council of the Episcopal Church. It has no connection with the public schools nor does it in any way compete with them. The school has its inspiration in the folk schools of Denmark—unstand- irdized adult schools which have done so much to build up the rural life of [Jenmark, social and economic, and to make it the most broadly cultured in Europe. The aim of such schools for young adults is not primarily to present nformation, although such information as is presented is usually sound and carefully prepared. It seeks to start thinking and growth, in the belief that it the young man or woman once gets a glimpse of a better life and is truly stirred to realize it, he will determinedly try to secure for himself the in- tormation necessary to his life work and development. In the words of one ot their great teachers, it tries to start youth “growing so it will never stop.” These schools hold that development of the individual comes in large part through doing well the everyday work of the world. Cultural subjects are emphasized, the teaching being largely through lively, personal lectures and discussions in which the personality of the teacher has free play. Singing, zymnastics, and folk-dancing have a large place. Out of such schools, short- term and entirely voluntary, without requirements, examinations, or credits, soung people go back to their own communities, enlivened and enlightened, 4 progressive force in all phases of community life. They have learned how, as the poem puts it, “To sing behind the plough.” The John C. Campbell Folk School is naturally an adaptation. Primarily it is to help the people enrich their life economically, socially, culturally. 27 26 NATIONAL EDUCATION ASSOCIATION ‘Though it is called school, it has three distinct sides, the demonstration farm, community activities, and the school proper. It is hard to measure the help to our section of the steady upbuilding of our farm under the able direction of a young Danish farmer: the use of manure and green fertilizers, the care and increase of good stock. We are making every effort to put the farm into such shape that it will pay and help to support the school. The paying of the farm is closely related to community activities, especially to our four cooperative organizations: The Brasstown Savings and Loan, the Farmers’ Association, the Cooperative Hatchery, and Co- operative Creamery. I cannot take the time to tell vou of these associations in detail. They are small but very much alive and growing. Probably no one of the ventures has had or will have a more profound effect on our economic life and help more to produce a social mind than the Mountain Valley Creamery, built and owned by its members. And finally there is the school proper, or short-term school for young adults, also in its beginnings and very small. For the first time this coming winter we shall have real boarding accommodations and then can hope to grow. The peculiar features of this school are these: no requirements except that the student shall be seventeen or over and with a serious desire to learn, no examinations and no credits, no formal study of books, instruction being largely through simple stimulating talks and discussions; a very friendly, comradely family life; a great deal of singing and gymnastics. We also lay a good deal of emphasis on reading, writing, and arithmetic, and on practical and hand work of various kinds; but these are not peculiar except as they are ungraded and to interest and open a new world to the student rather than primarily to make expert carpenters, surveyors, cooks, weavers, and so on. The study of geography, history, English, arithmetic, and other subjects is definitely linked with the life of these people in such a way as to con- cretely enrich their lives in this mountain community. We are, it goes without saying, by no means skilled in this new technic. We are frankly watching, studying, and experimenting. However, I am amazed at the power of this type of education in which the personality of the teachers, the relations of natural comradeship and home, the stimuli of new vistas and ideals, the variety of cultural and practical, create a soil most favorable for the growth of new life. In such an educational venture, however, we cannot ask for immediate results. Only now, in our third year, do our neighbors really see the first fruits of our farm policy. When one thinks of the many steps to be taken before the farms around us are even as far along as ours today, before our little cooperative organizations are entrenched and of full service, one will not expect immediate financial returns tempting to energetic youth. Further- more, our section is a large one. The influence of the little group of young 28 DEPARTMENT OF RURAL EDUCATION 27 people who go back to their homes outside our community must of necessity be small and slow. If you will ask me to come again in ten, or better fifteen years, I can perhaps, speak with more authority. In the meantime we will be happy to send vou our literature, have you come and see for yourself what is going on, and ask such questions as occur to you. LARGER CONTACTS AND WORLD OUTLOOK HARRY W. CHASE, PRESIDENT, UNIVERSITY OF NORTH CAROLINA CHAPEL HILL, N.C. One of my friends who has lived much abroad was recently commenting on the so-called ‘““Americanization of Europe.’ “It isn’t so much,” he said, “that Europe is becoming Americanized, as that Europe and America are both responding to the same great underlying forces that make for simi- larity and unity everywhere.” This, | think, is significant. We must recognize the fact that more and more all western civilization is becoming tied together, unified, into a common pattern of thought and action that rapidly tends to become standardized and complete. The South has hitherto lain somewhat outside the main sphere of attraction of the great forces that have been at work. ‘The phrase, “The Solid South,” is much more than a political concept. It stands for a common body of tradition, ways of looking at things in general, attitudes and reactions, that derived in the beginning from a peculiar social and economic order, have outlived their passage. The South, to put it briefly, has had a psychology of its own. The period in which we are at work in the South is essentially one of interaction and conflict between this traditional order, on the one hand, and on the other, the rapidly encroaching forces that are shaping western civilization as a whole. There is about southern life today, in almost every one of its departments, a sense of strain and tension that is the inevitable reflex of such a struggle. Someone has well said that every period is an age of transition. This is true enough, but surely there has seldom been a time which has seen in any area the beginnings of more significant and rapid change than we now witness in the South. There is little need to enlarge on this. We all know how unceasingly we are bound up with the life of America and of the world. We grow increasingly attentive to national programs in education. Schools, universities and col- leges are catching the pace. We realize more and more that we are de- veloping citizens, not alone of a community, a county, a state, or a section, but of a nation and even of what Graham Wallas has called “The Great Society.” The old southern system of values may be in some respects sounder than that of modern industrial society. I personally believe there is a great deal to be said for that point of view. The South ought to make a creative con- 29 28 NATIONAL EDUCATION ASSOCIATION + ) tribution to modern life. At its bess it has understood the gracious art of living better than miost-Americans. It has in its traditions the courage of utter loyalty to a cause; it hes the conviction that other things about a human being are of more importance than his wealth. Such values as these are not lightly to be discarded. But, if they are to maintain themselves, if they are to be at all impressed on a skeptical, rapidly-moving, and large scale civiliza- tion, it will be only because it turns out that they can be held by a people that at the same time is about to hold its own in the relentless competition of modern industrial civilization. We cannot merely say that we wil have none of this civilization. It is upon us; the more we refuse to reckon with it, the more certainly will we be submerged by it. We must seek to under- stand and to master it if we are to make our own contribution to it. We are, then, at a time in which we must attend to the implications of the larger contacts and outlooks with which we and our children will be concerned. If we are to do this, if we are to make successfully our transition to this new world order, we must concern ourselves about the stimulation of certain attitudes in ourselves and in our pupils. If the South is to maintain itself in this more complex order into which it is inevitably becoming ab- sorbed, there are certain adjustments of outlook and habit that must be made. First, standards of achievement must be revamped. We must concern ourselves less about comparisons with each other and more with our rela- tionship in terms of achievement to the nation and the western world. It is a matter of secondary importance how Georgia and North Carolina compare with each other in education or in any other enterprise. The real question is how they both compare with the best national standards. It is dangerevs and misleading to attempt to judge any area simply in terms of itself. “s long as we think about southern education in terms of how it compares wi.) yesterday, or of how its various parts compare with each other, so long do we run the risk of a complacent selfsatisfaction about things that, judged by more absolute terms, are really not good. We are all too familiar with the boosting type of persons and publications that magnify second-rate achievements beyond their real deserts because they are southern. The phrase “the best in the South” is one that I wish could be eliminated. We must measure our own productions in literature, in business, by the same impartial yardstick with which they are compared by the rest of mankind. As teachers we need to preach and practise discrimination. The South is not to be advanced either by blind praise of all that it is and does, or by the equally blind dismissal of its status as that of a backward and desert land. It will be advanced only as men see more and more clearly its real short- comings, and try to abolish them, not by assertions that they do not exist, but by hard work; and as men see its real achievements and cling to them. I plead for a teaching profession in the South which will realize and teach that we must judge ourselves in terms of the best standards of achievement that the modern world can furnish. 30 DEPARTMENT OF RURAL EDUCATION 29 Second, we must have respect for ideas. It is a commonplace to say that our civilization is based on science. But this is true in a special sense. We have learned that problems get solved just as we adopt toward them the particular attitude that is the attitude and spirit of science, namely, that of a calm, deliberate search for truth based on facts, not prejudices; on ideas, not on emotional assumptions. In those areas of human enterprise in which we have been most successful, as in our large industrial enterprises, we have gone already very far in the direction of adapting throughout such an attitude with laboratory research, elaborate accounting systems, efficiency studies, cost data, and so on, all designed to eliminate the personal equa- tion and to base procedures and decisions on facts, rather than individual opinions. ‘The same spirit underlies modern work in health and sanitation ; it begins to appear here and there in government; it distinguishes the newer approaches toward educational and social problems. We are living in a civilization in which the realist appears to be winning from the romanticist in human enterprises. We are learning that with its emphasis on ideals and facts the realistic attitude works, while reliance on tradition, on emotional- ism, on prejudice, bring only obscurity and confusion. If the South is to take its proper place in the modern world, we must develop the habits of mind that underlie this attitude of respect for ideas. We must come definitely to realize that what I have called the realistic attitude that is so largely responsible for our civilization of today can be maintained only in an atmosphere of freedom to seek for truth wherein it may lie. No southern problems can be exempt from free and critical discus- sion. For reasons that are historical rather than temperamental, it has been dificult in the South to depart from accepted and conventional views in any field. The pressure toward conformity has been very great, and de- partures from accepted norms have brought vigorous resistance. That, again, is not the way in which great civilizations are built. We must learn to face our shortcomings, as well as our virtues with restraint, patience, and in a spirit of inquiry. We must build, not on a romantic picture of what we wish our states and communities to be like, but on what thev are. We must allow intelligence to play freely over the surface of our life. One of our great missions as teachers is to train young people, not to accept uncritically the preconceptions with which they are surrounded, but to possess the attitude of mind that fits them to respect, and to share in the processes of finding truth. We need to consider the virtue of openmindedness, of disin- terested inquiry. We need to be more critical of ourselves, and less inclined to assign the critic to unmentionable destinations. Third, we must deepen our sense of the value of cooperation. The whole trend in life is toward the establishment of conditions under which men must live and work together in large units. Great cities like New York and London are possible only because men in large masses are learning how to get on with others. Industrial life brings people together. Even 30 NATIONAL EDUCATION ASSOCIATION in the South the drift is toward towns and villages where men must live with their neighbors. More and more on this rapidly shrinking planet, our neighbors become not only those in our own country or state or section. As business men, as teachers, in a hundred relationships, we have today to learn to understand and to respect men of other sections and nations. More and more are we dependent on other people, and on our ability to cooperate with them for success. We have not yet gone as far as we might in this respect. The history of farmers’ cooperative efforts in this section, for example, is not so very happy. Only the other day a textile manufacturer told me of his deep conviction that the underlying trouble with that industry was that people had never learned to cooperate within the industry. The difficulty of creating and working together in large units in schools, highway con- struction, and the like, is overcome, where it is overcome, with a good deal of resistance. Now the essence of tolerance is the ability of people to work together with mutual respect for common ends even though they differ widely in belief and outlook, ‘Tolerance is not necessary where all people think alike; but in modern civilization we must cooperate with people who think and believe in a great many different ways. More and more will this be essential, as the isolation of the south yields to the great unifying forces of the time, We, as teachers, must do what we can to make people coopera- tive and tolerant, We must either work with the world or it will work us as a section, Here, then, are three attitudes that seem to me necessary in southern life as the South enters on a day of wider contacts and outlooks. We must set high valid standards; we must respect ideas; we must develop cooperation and its associated virtue of tolerance. Such attitudes as these underlie modern civilization in the western world. | have chosen to stress the neces- sity of developing attitudes rather than the necessity of increasing our in- formation about the world. The necessity for that, indeed, | have assumed. But it does little good merely to accumulate knowledge about such things if we ourselves do not come to participate in the habits of mind that are re- sponsible for their existence. We really participate in these larger out- looks only when we come to possess the attitudes that underlie them. Do we feel that the South has something to say in the world? Then it must be able to maintain itself and understand the modern world before it can contribute to it. Surely such contacts and outlooks are a vital need for the oncoming generation that must face the complex and intricate realities of life in a section whose future, for good or ill, is enmeshed with that of western civilization as a whole. 32 IN APPRECIATION OF JAMES L. SIBLEY Statement Submitted at the Atlanta Meeting ot the Department of Rural Education by Leo M. Favrot, Field Agent, General Education Board, Baton Rouge, Louisiana; Ss. L. Smith, Julius Rosenwald Fund, Nashville, Tennessee; and J. S$. Lambert, State Rural School Agent, Montgomery, Alabama. A cablegram received on Saturday, June 29, 1929, from Liberia, Africa, announced the death from yellow fever, of an outstanding leader in rural education, James Longstreet Sibley. A native of Georgia and a graduate of the University of Georgia, Mr. Sibley in his early manhood engaged in school service in the Philippine Islands. Later, as Director of Negro education in the State of Alabama tor five years, as a held worker in the department of Agricultural Extension inthe University of Georgia, and as a child weltare worker in Alabama, he wquired a deep interest in rural school and community life. His knowl- edge of the educational situation among backward races, and his interest in rural people resulted in his being selected, four years ago, to direct the cooperation and service of a group of mission schools in Liberia, where he became the unofficial educational advisor to the Liberian Government. In his four vears of service, he succeeded in multiplying school revenues, in uniting the public and mission schools into a real system, in preparing and making available for use a complete set of elementary textbooks adapted to the needs of the native children, in planning and completing the Booker ‘TV. Washington Industrial School at Kakatown, and in providing a staff of trained assistants, consisting of an agricultural agent to direct farm operations among the natives, a director of teacher training to super- vise the training of teachers for the native schools, and a rural school super- visor, or Jeanes teacher—all of whom helped him to bring to the natives the benefits of Christian civilization in the form of better health, better home and community life, and a larger measure of economic independence. He found time also to become one of the co-authors of a history of Liberia entitled “Liberia—Old and New” and to edit a monthly journal called “The Liberian Outlook.” . Mr. Sibley’s quick intellect and his ready and kindly humor, his buoyant spirit and irrepressible optimism, his tireless energy, his initiative and re- sourcefulness, his friendliness to his fellowmen, endeared him to all with whom he was associated and enabled him to render truly remarkable serv- ice. In his passing, the cause of rural education has suffered an irreparable loss. His career is an honor to the teaching profession, and his name will endure along with the names of other missionary pioneers, who have sacrificed their lives in the cause of humanity. 33