ourselves in having so many independent teacher training institutions in the state would have been avoided.

The Cost of Training Rural School Teachers. The map opposite page 384 shows the number and distribution of the state and county normal schools and high schools engaged in the training of teachers for rural schools. A business man, after a brief study of the map, would undoubtedly raise the question of “unnecessary overhead expenses" and the possibility of reducing the number of such training institutions and thus decreasing the cost of training teachers for the elementary schools.

A singular and, it might be said, grotesque situation has been allowed to develop at Eau Claire. In that city is a state normal school and among the various departments there is one for the training of teachers for rural schools, and, practically within the shadow of this state institution, is a county normal school which also trains teachers for country schools.

THE TRAINING OF TEACHERS FOR THE GRADES OF VILLAGE
AND CITY SCHOOLS

Entrance Requirements of Normal Schools. The entrance requirements, both academic and physical, as formulated by the board of normal school regents are satisfactory, but care should be taken to see to it that they are properly enforced. There should also be a rule that would make it possible to postpone the entrance of students who are obviously too young and inexperienced to benefit from a course in teacher training and who, granted they succeed in completing a course, would be too immature to take positions as teachers.

How to Secure a Good Quality of Students. Arrangements should be made, if possible, with the high schools of the state whereby the principals or superintendents upon consultation with representatives from the normal schools would enlighten prospective high school graduates in regard to the work of the normal schools and the qualities a successful teacher should possess, and would urge students who possess such qualities to attend a normal school.

Revolving Fund to Aid Students. Supposing, however, there are graduates possessing the inherent personal and academic qualities necessary for teaching but whose parents have not

Seventy State, County and City Institutions
Which Train Teachers for Rural Schools

the means to give them a normal school training, would it not be well for the state to provide a revolving fund whereby parents of such students could be given temporary assistance, with the understanding that such assistance be made good when the students have graduated and are wage earners? And finally, in view of the fact that the state compels parents to send their children to school a certain number of days each year, and forces them to pay school taxes, should not the state become an active agent in searching out the best graduates of high schools to induce them to enter normal schools, to the end that the children of the state may be taught by the best teachers available!

Advanced Credits. Students who have credits secured at colleges, universities, normal schools, county normal schools, and high school departments for the training of teachers, should be required to send such credits to the registrar before the opening of the school, to be evaluated before the normal school programs are filled out. Often there appears to be not a little diversity of opinion among the heads of departments and the committees on advanced credits as to the value to attach to such credentials, with the result that prospective students at times send the same credentials to several normal schools and thus inadvertently these schools are practically led into what might have the appearance of bidding against each other for students. In many instances, also, it takes a mathematical expert to evaluate such credentials with the varying subjects and the varying length of time subjects have been carried.

There should be uniform rules applying to all the normal schools relating to the evaluation of advanced credits, the number of substitutions that may be allowed in the various courses and the number of examinations that may be taken in place of regular class work.

The Kind of Teachers the Normal Schools Should Select. The efficiency of classroom instruction constitutes the most important factor in securing an efficient product of the normal schools. All teaching in normal schools, whether it has for its purpose professional, academic, or cultural values, should harmonize with the general purpose of these schools. The teacher in a normal school should not only know his subject and know how to teach it, but he should so teach it to students that they

may learn how to teach it to children. For this reason the lecture method, while it has its place in instruction, should not be too prominent. There should be regular assignments of work, followed by recitations and discussions.

Besides having wide and thorough scholarship and thorough training in educational theory and practice, every teacher in a normal school should at one time or another have been in close touch with the teaching of children, if not actually a teacher of children, and he should remain in touch with the problem of teaching children while teaching in a normal school. He should have a pleasing, forceful and enthusiastic personality, and a character above reproach. And, finally, he should be willing heartily to cooperate with the president and his fellow instructors in the general effort to attain the fundamental purpose of the normal schools.

Cooperation Between Normal Department and Model School. There should be better cooperation between the normal department and the model school. This may be secured in part:

(a) By releasing model teachers for one period a day for a semester each year to teach special methods or other professional subjects to normal school classes.

(b) By releasing normal school teachers for a period a day for a semester each year to teach a grade in the training school. (c) By having normal school instructors observe regular class work and practice teaching work in the model school, and to observe practice teaching classes in the public schools.

(d) By having group meetings of normal school instructors and model teachers to discuss the organization of subject matter in the various branches taught in the training school and to discuss special methods of instruction, at which meetings the principal of the training school should preside.

(e) By having conferences of teachers doing related work conducted by heads of departments, the principal of the training school to be present at such meetings.

Normal School Extension. The extension courses serve a double purpose, namely, they offer regular normal school work, including special methods of teaching to teachers in service, thus increasing their efficiency, and they offer academic work in subjects necessary for second and first grade teachers' certificates. Thus the progressive teachers are given an opportu