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BULLETIN of the 
 
 Imii^rHttg »r i'0«tl| Olarolma 
 
 OF THE 
 
 Sural i>rI|nol Problem 
 
 IN 
 
 ^0«tlj OIar0ltna 
 
 W. K. TATE 
 
 State Supervisor of Elementary Rural Schools 
 
 REPRINTED FROM THE FORTY-SECOND ANNUAL 
 
 REPORT OF THE STATE SUPERINTENDENT 
 
 dF EDUCATION, 1910 
 
 ISSUED QUARTERLY 
 BY THE UNIVERSITY 
 
 No. 24 Part II 
 
 January, 1911 
 
 COLUMBIA, S. C. 
 Second-Class Mail Matter 
 
 1HB STATH CO., PEINTHESj COLUMBIA, S. C. 
 
 Mono^-ay/i 
 
T3 
 
 ELEMENTARY RURAL SCHOOLS. 
 
 To the State Board of Education. 
 
 Gentlemen : As State Supervisor of Elementary Rural Schools, 
 I have regarded myself as a special officer of the Department of 
 Education to whom has been assigned special duties. The six months 
 during which I have held this office have not been employed in the 
 collection of statistics, nor in the tabulation of results. Complete 
 statistical information concerning the status of the schools with 
 which my work is connected will form a part of the report of the 
 State Superintendent of Education. 
 
 As a field of special effort, the rural schools of South Carolina is 
 a virgin one. Naturally the work of the first six months has been 
 directed largely to renewing a first-hand acquaintance with rural 
 school conditions. I began my work after the close of the schools in 
 June and have had only two months in which to observe actual school 
 operations. Part of the summer was spent in visiting the summer 
 schools for teachers held in various counties of the State, in holding 
 conferences with the County Superintendents, and in special visits 
 to communities which were endeavoring to effect consolidation of 
 schools, to vote special taxes, or to further some other progressive 
 educational movement. ^ Since the rural schools opened about Octo- 
 ber 15th, I have spent most of the time in the field studying condi- 
 tions in typical counties of the State. It has been my custom to 
 meet the County Superintendent of Education and spend four days 
 with him, visiting his schools, seeing the work of the teachers, talk- 
 ing with the patrons and trustees, addressing meetings of the school 
 community, and, with the County Superintendent, forming plans for 
 the improvement of conditions. The week has usually closed with a 
 meeting of the school trustees at the county seat, in which we have 
 discussed school improvement in all its phases. County Trustees' 
 Associations have been formed at these meetings in order to bring 
 about a greater unity of effort on the part of the men to whom the 
 rural districts must look for local leadership. 
 
 At the request of the State Superintendent of Education, the 
 President of Winthrop College and the County Superintendent 
 of Education of York County, the Rural School Supervisor is 
 endeavoring to assist in the direction of the work of Miss Leila A. 
 
Russell, the Special Rural School Supervisor in that county. During 
 the year it is our purpose to effect in this county the very best organ- 
 ization possible. Miss Russell has entered upon her work with rare 
 wisdom and enthusiasm and the county is to be congratulated on 
 having secured her services. Her report is submitted herewith. 
 
 In accordance with the resolution of the State Board, I have exam- 
 ined many building plans submitted for State aid under the School 
 Building Act. This work has frequently involved extensive corre- 
 spondence and recasting of the original plans submitted. A full 
 statement of the operations of this Act forms a part of the report of 
 the State Superintendent of Education. 
 
 Through the kindness of the United States government and the 
 courtesy of Senators Tillman and Smith my office has been supplied 
 by the Department of Agriculture with copies of helpful bulletins 
 relating to agricultural instruction in the rural schools. Five thousand 
 copies each of "Boys' and Girls' Agricultural Clubs," "School Les- 
 sons on Corn" and "School Exercises in Plant Production" have 
 been distributed among the county superintendents and teachers of 
 the State. In my work- I have endeavored on all occasions to 
 emphasize "The Boys' Corn Club" and other agricultural move- 
 ments. 
 
 In accordance with the request of the State Superintendent, it 
 gives me pleasure to state in a general way the rural school problem 
 of South Carolina as it appears to me after^six months of work in 
 this field, during which I have visited thirty counties of the State. 
 
 STATEMENT OF THE RURAL SCHOOL PROBLEM IN 
 SOUTH CAROLINA. 
 
 We are accustomed to speak of the public education of South 
 Carolina as a school system. Six months of work in the rural schools 
 of the State, however, have confirmed my opinion that we have in the 
 rural schools of this State nothing which can properly be called a 
 system. The public schools of South Carolina began early in the 
 history of the State. Much effort has been expended in their behalf. 
 Many agencies have striven seriously to improve educational condi- 
 tions. There has been a general advance. From one generation to 
 another the improvement has been noticeable, and in many instances 
 marked. This work, however, has been slow and halting because we 
 have never seriously undertaken the task of making our public 
 schools into anything like a system. In the various counties of the 
 
State I have found in certain communities a local leadership, which 
 has developed and maintained excellent schools. In a neighboring 
 community which has lacked this leadership the conditions not only 
 have not advanced, but have retrograded in the last twenty years. 
 '"Where there. is no vision the people perish," This educational 
 vision in South Carolina under our prevalent lack of system is a local 
 matter. Where some strong, wise, local leader has directed the 
 community effort there is a good school. Where no such -leader 
 exists the community languishes. 
 
 I. BETTER COUNTY SUPERVISION NEEDED. 
 
 I am fully convinced that the first requisite to any substantial 
 improvement in the rural schools of South Carolina is a better plan 
 of supervision. With an efficient County Superintendent adequately 
 remunerated for his services and enabled to spend all his time visiting 
 the schools and directing their development, the whole county may 
 have what is now possible only in the most advanced communities. 
 Jt has been my observation that people are willing to listen to the 
 advice of a man who has carefully studied their needs and who pre- 
 sents a well-digested plan of action. The County Superintendent is 
 the educational engineer of the county. 
 
 The greatest difference between the city schools and the country 
 schools of this State consists in the better supervision of the city 
 schools. The city of Columbia, for example, has fewer teachers than 
 any county in the State. It has only about 3,500 chddren enrolled., 
 In this city there is a superintendent who receives a salary of not less 
 than $2,000 per year, who devotes all his time to the supervision of 
 the schools. Each building has a principal, who gives part of his 
 time to supervision, and, in addition, there are supervisors of primary 
 methods, manual training, sewing and music. In common with the 
 other city schools of the United States, Columbia spends from eight 
 to ten per cent, of its total school expenditures for supervision. 
 Moreover, the schools of Columbia are concentrated into a small area, 
 which makes supervision comparatively easy. Most of the teachers 
 are college graduates and have received special preparation for 
 teaching. To these teachers are assigned the children of one grade 
 only and the problem of teaching is thus immensely simplified. The 
 teachers hold their positions from year to year and their work pro- 
 ceeds with a certain mechanical regularity. 
 
 In the schools of a neighboring county there are 150 teachers and 
 
more than 8,000 pupils. As in- other counties of the State, most of 
 these teachers are without college training or other special prepara- 
 tion for their work. They are earnest, conscientious young people 
 who have completed the work of the common schools and have 
 secured a teacher's certificate. More than half of them change places 
 every year. Each teacher must teach all grades of work in a school 
 where the children are irregular in attendance and poorly classified. 
 The task before her is infinitely more difficult than that which con- 
 fronts the teacher in the city school. If any teachers in the United 
 States need help and supervision, it is the rural teachers. The county 
 should pay for the services of a trained and experienced man, who 
 should devote all his time to organizing his county, stimulating 
 educational interest, visiting the schools and assisting the untrained 
 teachers in their arduous tasks. The typical county in South Caro- 
 lina pays its county superintendent $700 per year, which is less than 
 two per cent, of the county school expenditures. The payment of 
 this meager compensation assumes that he is expected to devote only 
 part of his time to the duties of his office, and that he will make a 
 living at some other occupation. The State is getting excellent 
 returns on the money invested. 
 
 Moreover, the superintendent of one of our city schools is elected 
 for a term of years by a stable Board of Trustees. The county super- 
 intendent in South Carolina must oflfer himself before the primary 
 and, at considerable expense, make the race for the office. Through- 
 cut his term he must continually trim his sails to the varying winds 
 of popular opinion. This inevitably prevents the adoption of a com- 
 prehensive and consistent educational policy. I am thoroughly con- 
 vinced that to remedy this unfortunate state of afifairs and to provide 
 cur rural schools with adequate and stable supervision is the first 
 great duty of the people of South Carolina in the development of a 
 lural school system. 
 
 A Remedy Suggested: Allow me to suggest a scheme of super- 
 vision which in my opinion would meet our needs: 
 
 1st. There should be a county board of education, elected by the 
 people, appointed by the State Board of Education, appointed by 
 the State Superintendent of Education or the Governor on the 
 recommendation of the legislative delegation, or in some other man- 
 ner, to serve for six years, the terms of one-third of the Board 
 expiring every two years. 
 
2d. This County Board of Education should select the county 
 superintendent of schools just as the City School Board selects the 
 city superintendent. 
 
 3d. This election should be for a term of four years. 
 
 4th. The county superintendent should be paid a salary which 
 will enable him to devote his entire time to the supervision of the 
 schools. The minimum salary should be $1,200 per year, 
 
 5th. The county board of education should also be authorized and 
 empowered to employ such assistance to the county superintendent 
 of education as is necessary to the thorough supervision of the rural 
 schools and the training of the rural teachers. 
 
 6th. The county board of education should be empowered to levy 
 a special county tax, not to exceed one mill, to be devoted to the 
 supervision of the rural schools. 
 
 When these things are done we may look forward to an era of 
 steady improvement and the development of a county system of 
 schools. 
 
 II. THE TRAININX; OF TEACHERS FOR THE RURAL 
 SCHOOLS. 
 
 Any one who visits the remoter rural sections of South Carolina 
 and observes the unfavorable conditions under which the teachers 
 are working can not fail to be impressed with the noble spirit of 
 these young people whose labors mean so much to the State. (I say 
 young advisedly, because most of them are young). On them rests 
 finally the responsibility of training the rising generation to efficient 
 citizenship. Only a small per cent, of them have graduated from 
 college, or even from a high school. Few have had any professional 
 preparation for their work other than an occasional short term sum- 
 mer school for teachers. 
 
 The graduates of the normal schools, which give special prepara- 
 tion for teaching, find places in the towns and cities of the State 
 where the work is more congenial and the remuneration higher. 
 
 Winthrop College and the Department of Education at the Uni- 
 versity have done a great work in the training of teachers, but their 
 work has failed to reach the rural school in any thorough manner. 
 
 Most of the Winthrop students whom we find teaching in the rural 
 schools are those who have attended the college one or two years 
 and have not taken any of the pedagogical work. As a total result, 
 it is usual to find in the rural school of South Carolina a teacher 
 
8 
 
 possessed of intelUg-ence, and often enthusiasm, but who has never 
 studied the special problems involved in teaching. The methods she 
 employs are those which have been handed down from generation 
 to generation. The ordinary school routine in many instances might 
 have been found in the rural schools of the State forty years ago. 
 These teachers are frequently eager for ideas which will assist them. 
 In my work I have seen a half hour's assistance from the trained 
 supervisor completely change a teacher's method of teaching primary 
 reading. The training of these trachcrs is, next to providing efficient 
 supervision, the supreme educational task of the State. Of course 
 the ideally trained teacher should be a college graduate, who has also 
 completed a normal course and has developed her skill by successful 
 experience. It will be a long time before the rural schools of South 
 Carolina will be provided with such teachers. It is unnatural to 
 expect the college graduate to seek work in a rural community when 
 a more remunerative city school is calling for her. As long as 
 seventy-five per cent, of the teaching force in South Carolina are 
 women, we may expect even the professionally trained college 
 graduate to marry after a few years of teaching and leave her place 
 to a less experienced successor. The average teaching life in South 
 Carolina is less than four years. This instability is naturally more 
 evident in the rural community where the conditions of work are 
 less favorable. We may expect it to continue for many years and 
 must adapt our policies to it. • 
 
 Proposed Remedies: 
 
 In my opinion the first step in the training of the rural teachers 
 should be the appointment in each county of a trained Supervisor of 
 Methods who should visit the schools, observe the work of the 
 teachers, assist them in organizing their schools, in classifying their 
 pupils, and in the adoption of correct methods of teaching. This 
 supervisor should hold district and county meetings of the teachers, 
 should prepare outlines of work, organize county reading circles, and 
 meet the needs of the teachers as they appear from visits to the indi- 
 vidual schools. A few years of such intelligent direction by a trained 
 supervisor will double the efficiency of our unskilled rural teachers. 
 The University of South Carolina and Winthrop College would find 
 their widest field of usefulness in training these county supervisors. 
 
 The next step in the training of teachers should be the re-establish- 
 ment of the State Summer School for Teachers at Winthrop College. 
 The work of the summer courses should be specially adapted to the 
 
needs of the rural schools. The. methods of organizing and classi- 
 fying rural schools, methods of teaching the elementary subjects, and 
 the adaptation of the course of study to the special needs of rural 
 life should be emphasized in every possible way. 
 
 I feci that the policy of the State looking to the professional train- 
 ing of teachers has, in many respects, been short-sighted. Every 
 year we spend $70,000 in scholarships in State institutions, for the 
 training of teachers. While the State thus lavishes money freely for 
 the education of people who may possibly teach, it has for many 
 years refused to appropriate the most modest sum for the improve- 
 ment of the teachers who are nozv actually at work in the schools of 
 South Carolina. Every facility should be offered to encourage the 
 rural teachers of South Carolina to better professional training. It 
 might be that a reward by the State for work done would produce 
 equally as good results as the payment in advance for work which 
 we hope a scholarship student may do. 
 
 In my opinion three months' courses to be offered during the 
 regular school year should be planned for Winthrop College, 
 designed specifically to help teachers who are actually at work and 
 who expect to continue in the profession. Such courses are offered 
 in many States, and while they are in no sense a substitute for a full 
 course, they will at least eliminate some of the crudest of the preva- 
 lent errors. 
 
 I 
 
 Recognition of College Diplomas: The State Board of Education 
 has recognized the diplomas of many State and denominational 
 colleges in South Carolina as credentials upon which teachers' cer- 
 tificates shall be issued. While the academic training of many of 
 these colleges is excellent, they offer in many cases no work which 
 gives special training for teaching. We should recognize frankly 
 the fact that the very best instruction in higher mathematics, ancient 
 languages, chemistry, English literature, engineering, or military 
 science does not prevent the young teacher from making the most 
 egregious blunders in organizing his school, or in teaching primary 
 reading and arithmetic. Even a three months' course in the elements 
 of practical pedagogy would prevent the worst of these mistakes. 
 If our State law continues to recognize a college diploma as entitling 
 the holder to a teacher's certificate, with this privilege should be 
 coupled as a prerequisite the presentation of a certificate that the 
 applicant has taken at least a three months' course in some approved 
 school giving normal training. 
 
10 
 
 The Certification of Teachers: The present method of 
 granting teachers' certificates in this State has produced 
 a chaos which only one in actual touch with the situation 
 can appreciate. The State Board of Education sends out twice 
 every year a uniform set of examination questions for teachers' 
 certificates. The papers written in answer to these questions are 
 graded by forty-three county boards of education with forty-three 
 different standards. On the results of these examinations county 
 certificates are issued. Some counties recognize the certificates of 
 ether counties, while others refuse this recognition. Some county 
 superintendents and county boards are careful in issuing certificates, 
 while in other counties at least twenty-five per cent, of the teachers 
 £re teaching on certificates improperly and illegally granted. 
 
 There is in existence no complete list of all the qualified teachers 
 cf the State, and the compilation of such a list is impossible. Each 
 county superintendent merely knows the registered teachers in his 
 cwn county. This fact prevents a free exchange of teachers from 
 one county to another and makes the Teachers' Agency the principal 
 method of communication between teachers and school boards. As 
 a partial result of a system which limits the teacher's field of 
 acquaintance, it is a conservative estimate to say that one-fourth of 
 ihe common school teachers teaching this year in South Carolina 
 £re paying a percentage of their salaries to teachers' agencies for 
 services rendered in securing their present positions. In my opinion, 
 the examination questions should be prepared under the direction of 
 the State Board of Education, the examination held by the county 
 superintendent, as at present, the papers graded by some central 
 authority, and a certificate good anywhere in the State issued 
 thereon. The State Superintendent of Education could then have in 
 l.'is office a complete roster of all persons qualified to teach in South 
 Carolina and copies of this roster could be on file in the office of 
 every county superintendent in the State. This would bring some 
 order out of the present chaos and would be a material relief to all 
 parties. 
 
 III. SCHOOL FINANCES. 
 
 The fact that the common school expenditures for South Carolina 
 have doubled in the past seven years should be a source of gratifica- 
 tion to every patriotic citizen. Of course we all recognize the fact, 
 l:owever. that our expenditures are still far below the standard of the 
 United States. 
 
There are three elements which should always enter into school 
 support — State taxation, county taxation and local taxation. 
 
 The mere existence of a State school system is a recognition of the 
 fact that the welfare of the whole State is to be conserved only by 
 providing schools for all sections. All parts of the commonwealth 
 have contributed to the production of the wealth concentrated largely 
 in the cities and larger industrial enterprises, and this wealth should 
 share in the taxation for the maintenance of schools in the poorer 
 sections. Such State taxation is provided for in the constitution and 
 the principle has been given practical recognition by the Legislature 
 jn the School Extension Act, the High School Act and the School 
 Building Act. It should receive In the future even larger recog- 
 nition. 
 
 The county element is embodied in the constitution of the State 
 in the form of the three-mill tax. 
 
 The increase in the number of districts voting a special levy for 
 the support of their schools has been specially gratifying during the 
 past year. The last Legislature very wisely conditioned State aid 
 under the Extension Act on the voting of at least a two-mill special 
 tax. Since the money raised by special taxation is spent under the 
 direction of a local representative of those who pay the taxes and for 
 the support of their local schools, it is one of the most popular forms 
 of taxation in South Carolina. With the additional incentive of 
 State aid to those who help themselves, this form of taxation is des- 
 tined to become universal. 
 
 In connection with the voting of special taxes difficulties have 
 arisen in many counties in the State because of the indefiniteness of 
 the district lines and because the county tax books are kept by 
 townships, rather than by school districts. It frequently happens that 
 because of this indefiniteness certain residents of the district escape 
 the special tax, and the poll tax and dog tax are improperly appor- 
 tioned. If the district lines were definitely established by the county 
 board of education and the duplicate list were entered in the audi- 
 tor's books, alphabetically by school districts, rather than by town- 
 ships, copies of the list could be made by the county superintendent 
 of education and checked up by the district trustees with much more 
 satisfactory results. There is at least one county in the State which 
 pursues this plan with eminent satisfaction. The money saved to the 
 county school fund in one year by such a procedure would pay the 
 entire cost of a county survey to fix district boundaries. 
 
IV. SCHOOL ATTENDANCE. 
 
 An examination of the statistics of the State Superintendent will 
 reveal the fact that the school attendance in the rural districts of 
 South Carolina is far from satisfactory. In the course of my visits 
 in many counties during the past two months I have rarely found 
 more than fifty per cent, of the ordinary annual enrollment actually 
 in school. In many instances not more than twenty per cent, of the 
 children ordinarily enrolled were in school. This statement does 
 not take into consideration the children who should be in school, but 
 who do not attend at all during the session. I have made diligent 
 inquiry as to the cause of this negligence. Sometimes the children 
 are picking cotton or attending to some other farm work. More fre- 
 quently they have simply "not started yet." I have been more 
 impressed with our negligence along this line since a recent visit to 
 the schools of Indiana, where in a whole county the percentage of 
 attendance for the first two months of the session this year was over 
 ninety-five per cent. With all our educational endeavor, it is impos- 
 sible to teach children who are not in school. If the farm work 
 prevents the children from coming in October, the schools should 
 not be opened until the children can attend. The opening of the 
 schools should be made an important event in the community and 
 teachers and trustees should all combine to secure a full enrollment 
 on the first day. The present irregular entrance and more irregular 
 attendance prevent classification and graduation of the pupils and 
 nullify the best efforts of a good teacher. 
 
 Compulsory Attendance Lazv: I am thoroughly convinced that 
 the time is ripe in South Carolina for the beginning of a compulsory 
 attendance law. Only by such a law will we get into the schools some 
 of the children who need most the advantages which the school 
 ofTers. There are counties in the State where public opinion is 
 sufficiently advanced to enforce such a law and these counties should 
 be given the privilege of bringing to pass a better state of affairs in 
 school attendance. In the meantime, every citizen of South Carolina 
 who believes that an educated citizenship is the only guarantee of 
 prosperity and true greatness, should lend his voice to the develop- 
 ment of a sentiment which will put the children of the State in school 
 and decrease the percentage of illiteracy. 
 
 Definition of Enrollment: As contributory to better school 
 attendance. I would suggest the advisability of changing the defini- 
 tion of enrollment, upon which the constitutional three-mill tax is 
 
13 
 
 apportioned to the districts of the county. At present, by the defini- 
 tion of the Legislature, ten days during the previous scholastic 
 session is necessary to enrollment. This encourages negligence as to 
 regular attendance. If this definition were changed to average daily 
 atrendance, it would give to teachers, trustees and patrons a pecu- 
 niary incentive to regular school attendance and bring about at once 
 material improvement in conditions. 
 
 V. CONSOLIDATION OF SCHOOLS AND TRANSPORTA- 
 TION OF PUPILS. 
 
 We have far too many rural schools in South Carolina. All over 
 the State we find these small schools taught by one teacher and 
 housed in buildings poorly adapted to school purposes, devoid of all 
 beauty or attractiveness, and unprovided with the most neecessary 
 facilities for school work. The teacher has all grades of pupils from 
 the beginners to the high school. She has frequently as many as 
 thirty-five recitations per day and even then her pupils are poorly 
 graded and classified. The school does not appeal to the pride of 
 the community and does not grow in the affections of the pupils. 
 Only the most inexperienced teacher can be induced to undertake 
 the arduous task, and changes are an annual occurence. Such a 
 school has never satisfied the progressive rural community. In many 
 sections of the State, fortunately, there is a strong movement toward 
 the consolidation of thqse weak schools into stronger schools employ- 
 ing two or more teachers. Such schools may be more easily housed 
 in\ comfortable building, are provided with better equipment, and 
 offer greater opportunities for satisfactory work to pupil and teacher. 
 Frequently these consolidated schools become rural high schools and 
 true centres of community life. It should be a State policy to accel- 
 erate in every way this educational movement, which has made 
 notable progress in many States of the United States and has never 
 failed to bring better educational conditions. With our sparse white 
 population in South Carolina it is more difficult than in some States 
 to bring to a central school enough children for two or three 
 teachers. Several communities in the State have adopted the plan 
 of transporting at public cost the more distant children in the dis- 
 trict. This plan has been used for years in other sections of the 
 country and always with great satisfaction. I believe that it should 
 be encouraged by offering special aid to consolidated schools which 
 are willing to undertake it. The School Extension Act now limits 
 
14 
 
 the State appropriation to the amount raised by special taxation, not 
 to exceed $ioo. I believe that a further appropriation of $ioo to 
 consolidated schools employing two or more teachers to be used in 
 n.aintaining wagons for the transportation of pupils would speedily 
 convince the State of the feasibility of the transportation idea. In 
 lio case should the total State appropriation to the district exceed 
 the local tax. 
 
 VI. SCHOOL BUILDINGS. 
 
 Perhaps the greatest advantage which has accrued to the State 
 from the School Building Act passed by the last Legislature has 
 been the opportunity given the State Board to suggest plans for 
 school builcHngs, and to insist that the buildings erected by State aid 
 should conform to certain well-recognized principles of school 
 architecture. If this Act should be continued for five years, we 
 shall witness notable improvement in school buildings all over the 
 State. Nearly all the States issue special bulletins on rural school 
 architecture for the information of those charged with the erection 
 of buildings. Such a bulletin has been issued by Clemson College at 
 the request of the State Department of Education and will, it is 
 hoped, perform a much needed service for South Carolina. 
 
 VII. CLASSIFICATION OF RURAL SCHOOLS. 
 
 Great differences exist in the efficiency of Jthe rural schools of the 
 State. In one community we find a school housed in an adequate 
 building, provided with satisfactory equipment, taught by two or 
 more teachers with professional training and successful experience, 
 and continuing for nine months in the year. This district has per- 
 haps voted a special tax and has exerted itself in every way to 
 develop a school which will meet the needs of a progressive com- 
 munity. 
 
 In a neighboring district will be found a miserable makeshift of 
 a school building violating every principle of common sense and 
 hygiene, taught by an untrained and inexperienced teacher with a 
 third grade certificate. The district perhaps does not vote a special 
 tax and the school continues for only four months in the year, with 
 very irregular attendance. In the record of the county superin- 
 tendent and the State Superintendent of Education there 
 is nothing to indicate the difference in these two schools. 
 if the Department of Education were authorized to de- 
 velop a scheme of classification by which the rural schools 
 
cf the State could be grouped into classes on the basis of building 
 and equipment, number and efficiency of teaching force, length of 
 term, enrollment and attendance, there would be a constant incentive 
 to pupils, teacher and community to advance from the lower to the 
 higher class. A county certificate might be given to all pupils who 
 complete satisfactorily the course of study in the elementary school. 
 
 VIII. THE ADAPTATION OF THE COURSE OF STUDY 
 TO THE NEEDS OF RURAL LIFE. 
 
 It has been frequently charged that education tends to take the 
 boy or girl away from the farm. Many of our text-books seem to 
 have been made with the city school in mind and the ideas held 
 before the pupils are not those connected with the farm and country 
 life. As far as possible, the course of study in the rural school 
 should take its material from the life of the pupil and the community, 
 should open his eyes to the possibilities of the farm, and should 
 awaken in him the desire to develop the country into a satisfactory 
 place of abode for a man of refined and cultivated tastes, rather than 
 lead him away from it into the pursuits of the town or city. This 
 adaptation of the course of study is one of the problems which has 
 not yet been worked out, but which is now in the process of solution. 
 The great work which has been done by "The Boys' Corn Club" in 
 South Carolina during the past three years under the direction of the 
 County Superintendents of Education and the Farm Demonstration 
 Agents reveals the possibilities of this work of adaptation. If our 
 educated boys are to become interested in agriculture as a pursuit, 
 their attention must be turned in this direction while they are young. 
 The best method of turning the boy's thoughts to agriculture is 
 through some definite agricultural experiment in which he is 
 engaged. The rural school should be the centre of inspiration in all 
 work of this kind. Many agencies are now at work for the improve- 
 ment of the agriculture of the State. All these forces should be 
 correlated for work in the schools and should co-operate through a 
 State director of agricultural education, who should be an official of 
 the State Department of Education. Clemson College, the Univer- 
 sity and Winthrop College should ofifer special courses for teachers 
 of agriculture in rural schools and this work should receive special 
 assistance by State appropriations. 
 
IX. NEGRO EDUCATION. 
 
 Since the great bulk of the negroes of South Carolina live in the 
 country, negro education is largely a rural school problem. Last 
 year the State spent $368,000 on the education of the negro children. 
 While this amount is not large when reckoned on a per capita basis, 
 it is large enough to demand better supervision in its expenditure 
 than has been customary in South Carolina. It has been my obser- 
 vation that the negro schools of South Carolina are for the most 
 part without supervision of any kind. Frequently the county super- 
 intendent does not know where they are located and sometimes the 
 district board can not tell where the negro school is taught. It is 
 customary for the board of trustees to allot a certain amount of 
 money to the negroes and allow them to use it as they please. A 
 teacher is employed and no further questions are asked, except 
 concerning enrollment at the end of the session. In determining this 
 enrollment there are gross irregularities all over the State. Since 
 the apportionment of the constitutional three-mill tax is made to the 
 district on the total enrollment of whites and blacks, it is as impor- 
 tant to have as correct reports from the negro schools as from the 
 white. Sometimes the salary of the negro teacher is made dependent 
 on the number of pupils enrolled and a direct incentive is given to 
 the teacher to pad the returns and secure to the district an unfair 
 advantage in the apportionment of the coiyity funds. Frequently 
 mistakes in reports occur from ignorance on the part of the teacher. 
 Since the negro country school is without supervision of any 
 kind, it has in most cases reverted to the most primitive type and is 
 wholly without adaptation to the practical needs of the negro race. 
 I believe the time has come for the school authorities to recognize 
 their responsibility to the State in the supervision and direction of 
 negro education and the prevention of the needless waste now illus- 
 trated in nearly every negro school in the State. The objections to 
 negro education arise chiefly from the feeling that it unfits the negro 
 for the place he must fill in the life of the State, and that the so-called 
 educated negro too often becomes a loafer or a political agitator. If 
 this objection be well founded, it is not a condemnation of education 
 in general, but of the particular kind of negro education which we 
 have been supporting. True education for every man must include 
 preparation for efficiency. The best education for the negro is that 
 which will enable him to do best the work which constitutes his 
 contribution to the welfare of the State. This work at present is 
 
I? 
 
 manual, and largely agricultural. If the negroes in South Carolina 
 are to cultivate the soil, the education which they receive should 
 enable thein) to cultivate the soil more intelligently and to make it 
 yield better returns to them and to the owners. Practical instruction 
 in agriculture and household arts, in cleanliness and sanitation, with 
 the rudiments of a common school education will mean most to the 
 negro and most to us all. Can we not devise a movement similar to 
 the Boys' Corn Club as a means of producing a more intelligent 
 cultivation of the soil on the part of the race which for years to come 
 will form the principal agricultural class in South Carolina? This 
 question should challenge the wisdom and patriotism of the educa- 
 tional leaders of the State. 
 
 X. THE OUTLOOK. 
 
 The educational outlook in South Carolina is most auspicious. 
 Observers of wide experience have recently said that conditions are 
 more favorable now for the rapid progress of educational movements 
 in South Carolina than in any other Southern State. 
 
 All the civic and educational forces are working together to a 
 common end. The spirit of co-operation needs only to be organized 
 to insure success. The revision of the school law now in progress 
 will give us the machinery with which to utilize the splendid forces 
 now arrayed for popular education. 
 
 XI. REPORT OF MISS LEILA A. RUSSELL, 
 
 County Supervisor of York County. 
 "Mr. W. K. Tate, State Supervisor of Elementary Rural ScJiooh. 
 
 "Dear Sir: The following report on my work is respectfully 
 submitted. 
 
 "For the past two months all my efforts have been directed toward 
 upbuilding the rural schools of York County. In the interest of 
 this work a trip to Washington was made the latter part of August. 
 Here a conference with Dr. Wickliffe Rose and Prof. A. P. Bcur- 
 land and two days spent in the Department of Agriculture and the 
 Bureau of Education securing aids and suggestions were invaluable 
 to me. The enthusiasm and inspiration thus gained gave impetus to 
 the work begun a few weeks later in York County with its forty- 
 five school districts and about ninety schools for white children — a 
 rich field for supervision. 
 
i8 
 
 "The schools of the county did not open, as a general thing, until 
 the last c f October or the first of November, many of them not 
 before the fifteenth ; hence the greater part of the two months has 
 teen spent in investigating conditions, talking with trustees and 
 patrons, and making practical suggestions for improvement in 
 grounds, buildings and equipment. 
 
 "Thirty-seven school communities in nineteen school districts have 
 been visited. Wherever a school was found in session time has 
 been spent in observing the work of the teachers, in teaching for 
 them, and in discussing with them the difficulties arising in their 
 work. In sections where consolidation is needed meetings of patrons 
 have been held, the plan with all its advantages presented, and its 
 adoption urged. One of the most difficult problems connected with 
 this work of consolidation is the location of the consolidated school 
 building, each patron wishing it to be very convenient for his 
 children. Believing that this consolidation is the panacea for most 
 of the woes of rural schools, I have been trying to bring about the 
 establishment of five consolidated schools. To this end six meetings 
 of the patrons of the schools to be consolidated have been held. 
 
 "Mr. W. K. Tate, State Supervisor of Rural Schools, has spent 
 a week with me, aiding greatly in leading the people to make defi- 
 rite decisions. In school district No. 5, an unconstitutional district 
 containing an area of about seventy-five square miles, the people 
 have decided to take the steps necessary jto divide the district into 
 three districts. Two of these will have one school each, three schools 
 being united in one case, in the other two. In the third district there 
 are three schools, but it is believed that one of them will eventually 
 aborb the other two. When these districts have been secured, an 
 attempt to levy a special tax will be made in at least two of them. 
 
 "Local taxation is becoming a more popular thing in York County. 
 As a result of two meetings of patrons held, one in school district 
 No. 18 and the other in No. 41, the people at once circulated petitions 
 calling for an election to decide whether or not a special tax levy 
 should be made. 
 
 "The county press has taken great interest m the work and has 
 been used freely to arouse the people in the country to the fact that 
 their schools need attention. 
 
 "I have written a personal letter making helpful suggestions to 
 every teacher whose name could be secured, and have prepared and 
 sent to them my bulletin. Suggestions for Rural Schools, together 
 with several other bulletins bearing on school work. 
 
19 
 
 "It is planned to have township exhibits of rural school work next 
 spring, and later to make a county exhibit. It is planned, further, 
 to orp^anize the teachers of the various townships into reading circles 
 for the study of some line of work that will make them more efficient 
 as educational forces in their communities. Catawba Township is 
 the only one that has been organized thus far. Here the teachers are 
 going to study Kern's "Among Country Schools." 
 
 "Leila A. Russell, 
 "County Supervisor Rural Schools, York County." 
 Respectfully submitted, 
 
 W. K. TATE, 
 State Supervisor Elementary Rural Schools. 
 
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