are improvements which, within
the limitations of the one-room school, are possible. The supervision of
these schools may be made closer and more efficient. By bringing to bear
upon them the oversight of experts in education the grade of teaching
may be elevated. The important principle is to discover the proper unit
of supervision. The town is too small and the county unit too large. It
is probable that with some rearrangement the county can be made the
proper unit of supervision, but the school should determine its problems
on a principle independent of political divisions. The first need of the
country school at the present time is to be adapted, by such supervision
of the district as shall correlate the country school with the units of
population resident in the country. In some places the district to be
supervised by one superintendent should be not much larger than a
township, in other places it might approach the bounds of a county, but
in all instances the supervising officer should have the relation of an
employed expert to the problems of the country. It is not enough that
untrained farmers or tradesmen occasionally visit the school in an
indifferent manner. Their indifference is the natural attitude of men
untrained in the task assigned to them. The officer who supervises
should be well adapted to his task and should visit with frequency,
criticize with trained intelligence, and train his teachers in a
constructive educational policy suitable to the district.

Another improvement in rural schools may be had in a better normal
training of the teachers. At the present time the normal schools are
inadequate to the task of supplying teachers and beyond the supplying of
teachers for the city, they stop short. The training of teachers for
country schools must become a part of the normal provision for the
states.

The minimum salary for teachers is a most important consideration. A
primary difficulty in the present situation is that the country school
teacher is ill paid. It is therefore impossible to secure and to retain
in the country persons of adequate mental and cultural value. In order
to secure funds for better payment of teachers, a readjustment of the
taxation in the various states is probably necessary, but this will be
slow of accomplishment. Some results may be effected in another way by a
minimum salary for teachers throughout the State. In this manner a
better grade of teachers can be secured for all