COUNTY NORMAL TRAINING CLASSES. For more than half a century the Department has felt the great need of improvement of conditions in the rural schools of the State, and during the last decade this has become the foremost educational question before this State. Nearly fifty per cent of the children of Michigan are being trained in the rural schools, and probably less than ten per cent of those children will ever attend other schools. That they are entitled to better school privileges cannot be denied. One of the propositions ad- · vanced and in operation for six years, to accomplish this purpose Establishhas been the establishment of county normal training classes, wherein young persons may be specially trained for the work of teaching in the rural schools. ment. The establishment of a rural department in our State Normal Schools was not a complete solution of the problem, because of the inability of those schools to furnish teachers in sufficient numbers to meet the demand to any great degree. Previous to the establishment of the county normal training classes, less than two per cent of the teachers in the rural schools of Michigan had had any normal training. At the time of our last Increase in report, in 1907, this had been increased to twenty per cent. To- Teachers. day, 30 per cent of the rural teachers have had at least one year of training for their work. Trained In June, 1908, 470 students were graduated for the thirty-six classes then in operation. In June, 1909, 587 students were granted certificates in the following forty-one counties: Arenac, Antrim, Charlevoix, Clinton, Gratiot, Kalkaska, Oakland, Osceola, St. Clair, Wex- Schools for ford, Barry, Ionia, Ingham, Iosco, Macomb, Mason, Mecosta, Mid- 1909. land, Oceana, Shiawassee, Calhoun, Cass, Manistee, Newaygo, Otsego, Allegan, Branch, Lapeer, Lenawee, Ottawa, Saginaw, Van Buren, Cheboygan, Genesee, Montcalm, Menominee, Tuscola, Benzie, Berrien, Eaton, Sanilac. We are each year becoming more and more impressed with the wisdom of the measure for the establishment of the county normal training classes, and the maintenance and control of the same, as passed by our legislature in 1903, and amended in 1905. A great change in the personnel of the teaching force has been brought about. Commissioners. The consensus of opinion of the commissioners of the counties where classes have been in operation as to the effects on the teach- Opinion of ing force and schools of such counties, is as follows: A radical improvement along the line of methods used, increase in professional spirit among the teachers of the county, advance in wages, and increase in the power of the teacher because she knows how to prepare a lesson, how to present it, and what results ought to be obtained. They agree that the county normal training classes afford splendid practical training. At the time of the State Association in Saginaw, in October, 1908, a meeting of the county normal teachers, superintendents, and commissioners was held, at which time subjects pertaining to the training classes and rural schools were discussed. Summer In 1908 a summer school was in session for four weeks at the M. A. C., where work was given especially for county normal teachers along the lines of agriculture, including crops, soils, live stock, entomology, ornithology, horticulture, weeds, and agricultural pedagogy. In 1909 a similar course was given, but included, in addition to the above, domestic science and domestic art. These courses have been of great value to those in attendance. No material changes in the plan and outline of the work have been made since the publication of the bulletin in our report of 1906. The tendency is toward the establishment of the two-teacher plan, it having been in operation in sixteen of the classes of the past year. While Michigan is keeping pace with other States in the county normal training work, the movement is not yet perfect in its working. Aim. It is the aim each year to raise the standard of work a little higher, and to exercise greater care in admission to classes, adhering more rigidly to the specific qualification requirements, and to insist that graduation therefrom shall depend no less upon capability and fitness to teach than upon scholarship. Law Authorizing. COUNTY SCHOOLS OF AGRICULTURE. The legislature of 1907 passed a law authorizing the establishment of county schools of agriculture. This law was modeled after the statute of Wisconsin which authorized a limited number of secondary schools in which agriculture and other industrial subjects should be taught. In that state the legislature made an annual appropriation toward the support of these schools. Under the operation of that law several counties have established such schools and they have been in successful operation. Provisions of Law. The Michigan law provides that any county may establish such a school and creates a county school board of which the county school commissioner becomes secretary by virtue of his office. The school board has powers similar to those exercised by a board of education in a graded school district. The county treasurer is the treasurer of the board and handles all the funds. The county is authorized to vote a tax for building, apparatus, instruction and general equipment and may bond itself for these purposes. The law prescribes that the superintendent of the school must be at least a graduate of an agricultural college and be approved by the Superintendent of Public Instruction and the President of the Michigan Agricultural College. The course of study pursued must also be approved by these officials. First School Menominee county was the first to take advantage of this law. The city of Menominee donated 110 acres of land for the use of the school and the county appropriated $20,000 which was used in the construction of a very fine building and supplying it with the needed apparatus. The course of study includes the subjects of agriculture, manual training, domestic science and domestic art. The school is open to all children of the county who have completed the eighth grade and the course covers a period of two years. Mr. J. F. Wojta of Minnesota was elected as the first superintendent and he has demonstrated his particular fitness Entrance Require ments; Course of for this kind of work. He has been ably assisted by three instructors. The course of study besides giving instruction in the specific branches mentioned above affords an opportunity for a careful review of the common branches including a study of commercial arithmetic, commercial practice, history and language. Forty-three students entered the school the first year. Dur ing the current year the attendance has been between fifty and Attendsixty. The necessity of a building in which the instructors and ance. students might live and board caused the county to appropriate money to erect a dormitory and it is believed that this will prove a most valuable addition to the work of the school. State Aid. The legislature of 1909 amended the original act by providing that when in any county one hundred acres of land or more was set apart for such a school and the county had provided buildings and equipment to the value of $20,000 that the State would appropriate not to exceed $4,000 annually to reimburse the county for the expense of instruction. This appropriation, however, was limited to the existing schools. Results. The work of the county school of agriculture has been satisfactory thus far and there is no question as to its value, educational and industrial. During the winter short courses are presented by the several instructors for the benefit of the farmers and farmers' wives of the county and the attendance during the current year has amounted to something over one thousand persons for these special courses. Those who are in charge of the school are enthusiastic in its praise and the county board of education believes heartily in the ultimate success and value of the undertaking. TEACHERS' EXAMINATIONS. The plan of selecting certain topics for intensive study for third grade certificate applicants has met with so much favorable Intensive comment that it will doubtless be continued during the next two Plan. years of my incumbency of this office. Like all methods of examining persons for teachers, it has its objections. We believe, however, that it is better to cover a small area thoroughly than to do superficial work in an entire subject for examination. A person who can pass successfully a searching examination in percentage must needs be proficient in many other parts of arithmetic; and although he may be ignorant of some topics, the examiner knows that he has the mathematical strength to master such topics should it become necessary to teach them. On the other hand, a person may pass a fair examination on superficial questions covering an entire subject, and be totally unfit to teach that subject. As every third grade teacher must pass two examinations before receiving a renewal or second grade, he is quite sure in our arrangement of topics to pass a thorough examination in all the fundamental topics of each and every subject. To do this, he must study each subject thoroughly; in other words, must master it. It thus becomes quite certain that before he receives a renewal or second grade, he has shown himself to be well equipped in the major parts of the entire examinations. I am pleased to know that the examining boards are giving more attention to the personal element, and to successful experience in the school Scope. room, in the granting of certificates. Nothing succeeds in a Teaching school room like success; and when a person has shown that he the Test. possesses that peculiar, indefinable, and elusive quality, called, for lack of a better name, personality; the quality that helps, influences, and guides; no board of examiners should let the schools lose him because of the failure of a few points in a written examination. I would not be understood as countenancing poor work in examinations, or in any way lowering the standard, but as giving due credit to those God-given teacherqualities, without which no proficiency in merely academic work can make a truly great teacher. It has long since been agreed that the academic test alone for teaching is absolutely untrustworthy, and I urge upon examining boards not less stringency in mechanical academic tests, but much more attention to the personal element,-moral character, the Standards. habits, the language, the dress, and the general appearance. Examining boards should have the moral courage to refuse a certificate to persons whose general ensemble of the above characteristics is unprepossessing. We exclude immoral persons from the teachers' ranks, because pupils unconsciously imitate their teachers. For the same reason we should exclude persons whose other qualities are such as we would not wish reproduced in our pupils. tions. No person who assists in the preparation of the examination Examina- questions feels that he is infallible. The members of the board tion Ques- of examiners are on the ground; the commissioner especially is in touch with the schools and the teachers, and has continually before him the needs of these schools and the ability of the teachers; they consequently are qualified to criticise. And while it is the wish to elevate the standard of the teacher's profession, no one desires to make the upward grade so steep as to force experienced and successful teachers out of the ranks. Indeed, we must have the teachers who are now at work continue in the work. The additions to the teacher's ranks in this State yearly are so small in comparison to the army of teachers that we can just about hold our own against the more lucrative callings and matrimony. When, therefore, it appears that the questions prepared in this Department seem to be too severe for the body of the teachers as they are, it is not only fair, but it is the duty of commissioners of schools to notify this Department of that fact. ment. There is one encouraging outlook in this very preplexing probEncourage- lem of teacher's qualifications, and that is the decreasing number of people who qualify for teacher's work purely through examination. The increased attendance at the State Normal Schools, the increased enrollment at our various Colleges of those preparing for teachers, and the well patronized County Normals throughout the State, all combine not only to elevate the preparation of teachers, but to reduce the salaries and bring into a sort of disrepute the qualifications of teachers by examination, thus reducing their numbers. But it will be many years, even if the above schools are crowded to their utmost, before we shall have a teaching force without some teachers who are qualified. through the medium of an examination. There is one serious matter which I feel impelled to touch upon at this point, and that is the complaints of favoritism in some localities in the granting of certificates, which have been lodged with this Department. I know that often-times these complaints, if traced to their sources, would prove to be purely the imaginings of some disgruntled applicant. But, on the other hand, there is no question but that there have been cases in which political manipulation and influences have had to do with the issuing of certain certificates. It is unnecessary for me to say that this is not only reprehensible, but that it will in time bring an examining board into disrepute; and if it should become a matter of general practice, would be as it has in the past, the occasion of the peoples' demand that the whole scheme of County examination for certificates and county supervision he wiped out. I urge upon all boards of examiners that all their work be open to inspection; and whenever such complaints come to their ears, the public be notified that all documents in the office and all records are public property and open to inspection, and that nothing has been done under cover, or which the examining board is not willing should be held up to public inspection. In other words, of all the public officials in this State, there are none in which the confidence of the people is so important, and Public there is no condition in which the interests of the public can be Confidence. more jeopardized than by a suspicious attitude of the public toward the work of those having official charge of the education of its youth. MASTERPIECES FOR TEACHERS' EXAMINATIONS. March, 1901 To a Waterfowl. Bryant. June, 1901 Evangeline (selections from). Longfellow, March, June, 1902 Vision of Sir Launfal. Lowell. The Courtship of Miles Standish. Longfellow. August, 1902 Merchant of Venice. Shakespeare. Deserted Village. Goldsmith. October, 1902 March, October, 1903 A Rill from the Town Pump. Hawthorne. June, 1904 Canto V, Lady of the Lake. Scott. August, 1904 Act III, Julius Caesar. Shakespeare. · October, 1904 Thanatopsis. Bryant. March, 1905 Silas Marner. Eliot. June, 1905 Legend of Sleepy Hollow. Irving. August, 1905 Elegy. Gray. October, 1905 Oration at Laying the Corner Stone of the Bunkerhill June, Monument. Webster. 1906 Act III, Hamlet. Shakespeare. Intimations of Immortality. Wordsworth. Speech on Conciliation of American Colonies. Burke. Ode to a Skylark. Shelley. Birds, Bees and Sharp Eyes. Burroughs. The Raven. Poe. June, 1909 Lady of the Lake. Scott, |