certainly but fair that in return the state
as a whole should share the expense of the rural school.

_The Weakness of the District System_

A relic of pioneer days when rural life was closely organized within small
communities, the district unit for school management still persists in
most states to the present day. It originated in Massachusetts, but that
state was the first to discard it, thirty years ago. Long ago Horace Mann
declared the law of 1789 which established the district system "the most
unfortunate law on the subject of common schools ever enacted in the
state."

The school district is too small a unit either for school management or
taxation. It is democratic to a fault; but it is too easy for stingy
individuals to control the situation and weaken the schools by their
parsimony. Local jealousies and shameless favoritism also make the system
bad. The loss of population has naturally aggravated this evil, leaving in
many a once thriving school a little lonely group of children, devoid of
any enthusiasm or school spirit. The township is the smallest possible
unit for efficiency, and the county unit, so successful in Georgia and
elsewhere in the South, is better still. Ultimately the state is likely to
be the unit both of school taxation and administration. Only thus can
reasonable uniformity and standard of efficiency be maintained, in city
and country.

_Other Problems of the Country School_

Next to the blunder of the district unit, growing worse in the face of a
shrinking population, is the serious difficulty of securing capable
teachers and holding them long enough to gain real success. The problem of
maintenance is crucial here. So small are the salaries, men are rapidly
being crowded out of the ranks. In the North Atlantic states only one
teacher in seven is a man; and less than one in four in all the country.
There can be no hope for better rural schools till the salary is made
respectable. Maryland, North Dakota and other states have enacted minimum
salary laws which have decidedly raised the standard.

The problem of supervision is a serious one, especially when complicated
with politics as is often true of the county or state superintendency.
Professor H. W. Foght significantly suggests: "The man who supervises the
schools should have at least as good an academic and professional
preparation as the teacher working under him. _This is seldom the case._"
The incompetency of the school boar