Model Kural School ANNOUNCEMENT The Mavyville Normal School announces the opening at the begin- ning of the school year of 1913-14, or at the latest only a few weeks after that time, of its new Model Rural School provided for by the last legislature and intended as an illustration to the state at large of what a consolidated, two-teacher rural school should and may be. The purpose is to make the Model Rural School exhibit the best things that are practicable and feasible upon the sides of building, grounds, equipment, teacher, course of study, daily program, methods of instruction, management of children, and social center activities—in a word to make the school a rich source of inspiration and helpful suggestions to all, especially teachers and school officials, who are interested in rural education and the general development of country life. While the Model Rural School is to be a two-teacher school and is primarily intended as a practicable and feasible ideal of what is rapidly coming to be the most common type of consolidated rural school; the one- room, or rather the one-teacher, rural schools, of which there are nearly 5,000 in the state will not be forgotten, but every possible effort will be made through the Model Rural School to improve them, without encourag- ing their multiplication, in all essential wavs. The Model Rural School is evidence of the interest of the state at large in promoting rural welfare and, also, of the clear perception of ~ plain duty and of enterprise upon the part of the Mayville Normal School, which is the first institution in the Northwest and one of only five or six in the whole United States to undertake the model rural school project in a complete and thoroughgoing way. The normal school welcomes sugges- tions from all sources of any things whatever that will make its Model Rural School of the greatest service to the state. The Model Rural School will mean greatly improved facilities at the normal school for the training of rural school teachers. Young men and women wishing to prepare for work in the rural schools should fully under- stand the distinctly superior advantages now to be offered them by the Mavyville Normal School through its Model Rural School. ‘DIOJMBID “A YT pus ‘AAD "TL Yuva ‘UOSMaIOR OTUIBT “TOTAL, “fF HH “ISTOM CAA Gf ‘TOATIIH SV “SOUL ‘preMdsoFY parvyory—yst1 07 4JoT % ‘preuoqeoyw ‘DO 'N pure ‘4,009 ‘suosivd ‘AM ‘QHUg “| pxtq—ystI 0} Joy Sutpusys NOILLVOONGH WO GUVOd ALVIS AHL VU of | Library Champaign-Urbana Che State Board of Eduratinon The first state board of education for North Dakota, created by the last legislature, came into power on July |. The board consists of nine members—five ex officio, the presidents of the university and the agricul- tural college, the state superintendent, and the two public school inspectors; and four appointive—the presidents of a state normal school and a state industrial school, a county superintendent, and a male citizen not engaged in education. ‘The state superintendent is president of the board and his deputy is secretary. [he first and present personnel of the board is indi- cated on the opposite page. The board must hold six regular meetings and may hold six special meetings each year, and any meeting may be held anywhere within the state at the board’s pleasure. [he new board displaces the State Board of Examiners, the State High School Board, and the State Agricultural and Training School Board and assumes all their powers and duties. In addition the board is authorized to make the necessary rules for the classi- fication of the elementary schools and for administering the state aid for such schools. ‘[he board, or its authorized representatives, may also visit and inspect any of the state educational institutions and may require of them reports giving such information as either the board or the state superintendent desires. ‘The first meeting of the board was held in Bismarck with all mem- bers present on July |. [The board completed its permanent organization by electing three standing committees corresponding to the main divisions of its work—the Committee on Examinations and Certificates. (Messrs. Smith, Hillyer, and Taylor), the Commitee on High Schools and County Agricultural and Training Schools (Messrs. McVey, Worst, and Hey- ward), and the Committee on Rural, Graded, and Consolidated Schools (Messrs. Crawford and Macdonald, and Miss Sorenson). As nearly as possible the authority of these committees is limited to investigation and recommendation, and final decision and execution reserved to the board as a whole. The board has taken up its work with a progressive spirit but with due regard for conditions as it finds them and without any disposition to proceed violently. At its first meeting it accepted the rules and regulations of the three boards it displaced as a temporary basis of work. Undoubt- edly new policies as well as modifications of old ones may be expected from the board but only after careful deliberation. The creation of this board, as that of the Board of Control for Penal and Charitable Institutions, illustrates the marked tendency throughout the whole country toward greater centralization of administrative control. Just how far this tendency should be permitted to operate is a difficult question, but it is probably true that, upon the whole, North Dakota has more to fear, especially in education, from decentralization than centrali- zation of power, and, if so, one should not expect the disappearance of the State Board of Education but rather an improvement in its formation and an extension of its field of activity. OU La 3 0112 105661711 THE SUMMER SCHOOL AND THE MAYVILLE CHAUTAUQUA This year’s summer school began on [uesday, July 8, and closed on Wednesday, August | 3, and was very successful in every way. All things, even the weather, seemed to conspire to make work pleasant for both students and teachers, and, outside of the regular work, there was cer- tainly no dearth of good things in the way of lectures, entertainments, picnics, out-door games, etc. An outside attraction of special interest to those attending the summer school was the Mayville Chautauqua which was conducted by the city for five days from July 9 to 13. Nearly every student bought a season ticket at the specially reduced price and the summer school program was so arranged that all students could attend the entire Chautauqua without missing any classes. [he Chautauqua afforded a splendid opportunity to the students of the summer school to hear some excellent lecturers and some musical and literary talent of the best kind. This first Mayville Chautaugua was financed by the leading business men of Mayville, who knew what the educational value of a well con- ducted Chautauqua would be not only to Mayville and the surrounding country but to the students who came to the summer school from more distant parts of the state. [he Chautauqua proved a success in every way, even financially, and there is at present no reason to doubt that the Mayville Chautauqua has become a permanent institution. ‘There is every assurance that the students who come to the summer school for 1914 will have even better Chautauqua advantages than those who were at this year’s summer school. Certainly the educational opportunity offered by the May- ville Chautauqua is a most valuable supplement to that which has long been offered by the Mayville Summer School. THE ENTERTAINMENT COURSE Each year the normal school conducts a course of cultured entertain- ments which presents a number of well-known lecturers and musical and literary artists. ‘The last five courses have included Elias Day and Oranne Truitt Day, Ross Crane, Ernest Wray O'Neal, the Minneapolis Symphony Quartette, Ralph Parlette, The Chicago Ladies Orchestra, The Brush Comedy Company, The Eva Bartlett Macey Company, Col. G. W. Bain, The Parland-Newhall Company, The Castle Square Entertainers, The Chicago Operatic Company, Edward Burton MacDowell, William Sterling Battis, The University of North Dakota Glee Club, Capt. Rich- mond Pearson Hobson, The Cambrian National Glee Singers, The Sol Marcosson—lIon Jackson Company, Edmund Vance Cooke, The Dixie Jubilee Singers, The Cambridge Players, Henry L. Southwick, Otto Meyer and Madame Thurston, The Fisher Shipp Concert Company, [he Pasmore Trio, J. M. Cleary, and The International Operatic Company.