rvival of the Unfittest.=--Such is the standard which prevails
extensively throughout the country in respect to the qualifications of
rural school teachers. As inferior goods sometimes drive out the better
in the markets, so poor teachers holding the lowest grade of certificate
will sometimes drive out the better, for they are ready to teach for
"less than anybody else." The men and women of strength and initiative
are constantly tempted to go out of the calling into other lines of work
where progress is more pronounced and where salaries or wages are
higher; and so the doors of the teachers' calling swing outward. The
good teachers will desert us, or refuse to come, and the rural schools
will be left with what might be called the survival of the unfittest.

=Short Terms.=--Add to the foregoing considerations the short terms of
service which prevail in rural schools and we have indeed a pitiable
condition. The average yearly duration of such schools in most states is
about seven months--sometimes less. This leaves about five months of
vacation, or of time between terms, when much that has been learned is
forgotten. Under such conditions how is it possible to give the children
of these communities an education which is at all comparable to that
afforded by the city?

=Poor Supervision.=--Then, again, there is often little supervision of
country schools. When a county superintendent has under his inspection
from fifty to two hundred schools, it is utterly impossible for him to
give to each the desired number of visits or to supervise and
superintend the work of those schools in a manner that can be called
adequate in any true sense. Sometimes he can visit each school only once
a year, or twice at most, and, even then, there may be two different
teachers in the same school during the year; so that he sees each of his
teachers at work probably only once. What can a supervising officer do
for a school or for a teacher under such circumstances? Practically
nothing. The county superintendent is usually elected to office by the
people and frequently on a partisan ticket. This method of choosing
naturally tends to make him give more attention to politics than he
otherwise would think of giving. So the supervision or superintendency
of country schools is too often slighted or neglected--and who is to
blame? Of course there are many exceptional cases, but the exceptions
only prove the rule.

=No Decided Movement.=--The whole mov