teacher, which is a much more serious matter in the country than in the city. This brings us again to the work of the high school, the normal school, the college, and the summer school, and to the distribution of suitable literature devoted to the immediate problems of the rural school and community. COOPERATION IN BEHALF OF CIVIC EDUCATION. These are some of the more important aspects and tendencies of civic education at the present time. The subject can not be closed, however, without reference to the increasing interest and activity, on the part of many widely different educational and civic organizations in all parts of the country, in the promotion of effective civic education. Heretofore these organizations have worked along their respective lines, largely independent of each other. One of the most promising tendencies at present is that toward organized cooperation among many of these agencies through a common channel. During the last year the committee on civic education of the National Municipal League took the initiative for the establishment of a "clearing house," through which information should be gathered on every phase of the subject, thus making available to all who are working in this field the best thought and experience to be found anywhere relating to the problem as a whole or in its parts. With the cooperation of this committee, the Bureau of Education has established a Division. of Civic Education, which has undertaken to perform the clearinghouse function referred to. A number of organizations are now cooperating through its channels, including the National Municipal League, the National Education Association, the American Political Science Association, the Committee on Immigrants in America, women's clubs, and others. Cooperation has also been established with school authorities, normal schools, universities and colleges, and teachers in every part of the country. The Division of Civic Education of course has the advantage of close cooperation with the other divisions of the bureau, such as those of higher, secondary, rural, vocational, and home education, the Division of School Gardens, etc. That the work of this division meets a real need is clearly indicated by the generous and appreciative response to its efforts from the schools and others interested in the development of a better citizenship. CHAPTER XIX. NEGRO EDUCATION. By THOMAS JESSE JONES, CONTENTS.-State supervisors-The Jeanes fund-Teacher training-Educational meetings-Church boards and private donations-New educational buildings-Cooperation. Material progress in the two chief problems of Negro education— better trained teachers and more helpful supervision was made during the past year. In Virginia, Kentucky, and Arkansas, where State supervisors of Negro schools have been longest at work, the effectiveness of their efforts is constantly increasing. Results in these States have been so encouraging that the General Education Board, cooperating with the State departments of education, has now placed supervisors in the States of Alabama, North Carolina, and Georgia. Tennessee has also decided to appoint a special supervisor of Negro schools. The Jeanes fund county teachers, in their visits to rural schools, not only supervise the industrial work of the school, but also aid the teachers in other ways. The Phelps-Stokes fund makes appropriations to the work of the Jeanes fund, and, in cooperation with the Bureau of Education, is inaugurating a plan for a bureau of information concerning private schools. The Slater fund is interesting itself more and more in the training of teachers, particularly in the encouragement of county teacher-training schools, whose aim is to supply teachers to rural schools. These agencies work together in every way possible and are constantly evolving new plans for supplementing each other. STATE SUPERVISORS. The following brief statement sums up the activities of the State supervisors: (1) The promotion of a practical education, by lending aid to county supervising teachers in their organization of industrial classes, by organizing boys and girls into agricultural clubs, and by encouraging the purchase and cultivation of small plats of land for school gardens. 73226°- -ED 1914-VOL 1-27 417 (2) The improvement of present school facilities by the consolidation of rural schools and the proper classification and gradation of all schools, by the organization of school improvement leagues, and by interesting the white people of the community in the work of the school. (3) The improvement of teachers by developing the teachertraining work of State normal schools, by devoting attention to State and county teachers' meetings, and by personally promoting among the teachers a spirit of service. From this wide range of activities each supervisor has selected the activities most suitable to the State in which he is employed. An exhaustive survey of the schools of three counties in Alabama was made by the supervisor of rural schools and the supervisor of Negro schools in order to obtain detailed knowledge of conditions. Every school in the three counties was visited. The consideration given to the Negro schools was as complete as that given to the white schools. In most cases the visit was made in company with the county superintendent. An effort was made to impress the facts about the school upon some patron and upon the teacher, so that an intelligent local interest in the school would be created. Later the knowledge will be used to improve the county educational systems. In Arkansas detailed statistics concerning the public schools for Negroes were collected and special attention was given to teachers' meetings and institutes. Arkansas is active in building new schoolhouses for Negroes, and the supervisor gives invaluable suggestions as to plans for the buildings and grounds. In Georgia the supervisor adopted the new plan of having a special Jeanes fund teacher assist him in his work. As these State supervisors have a whole State to cover, they can not spend much time in one place. Accordingly, it was considered wise to have a teacher stop for a week or two in the county to stimulate the interest which had been aroused in school improvement and industrial work by the supervisor's visit. The work of the North Carolina supervisor was concentrated on the 19 counties that have county supervisors. He visited all of these counties except one, spending several days in county, township, and community meetings. Mr. Newbold, the supervisor, reports that he— has been able to organize 13 counties for the purpose of developing home-makers' club work. The counties cooperated with the General Education Board, each giving $50 or more to the work. The traveling supervisor for this work in Virginia was secured to visit each of the 13 supervisors in North Carolina to help them in the preliminary stages of their work. At a demonstration conference held May 26-27, 1914, in Raleigh, N. C., these home-making club agents or supervisors received special instruction in their work from a representative of the Bureau of Plant Industry. A course of study for public and private Negro schools has also been worked out, following a conference of the leading school men in the State. It is expected that another conference will be held to discuss this course of study before it is presented to the schools for adoption. In Kentucky and Virginia school improvement and industrial supervision have developed steadily. In the States that have had supervisors longest, as well as in the States where the supervisors are just beginning their work, the confidence of both whites and Negroes has been won. THE JEANES FUND. The Jeanes fund is now in its fifth year. No additions have been made to the fund except an appropriation of $2,500 to its work from the Phelps-Stokes fund. The plan of the Georgia supervisor for having a Jeanes fund teacher assist the State supervisor gives promise of development. The Jeanes fund divides its work as follows: The Slater fund, in cooperation with county superintendents, is fostering teacher-training schools whose object is the inexpensive training of Negro teachers in the county where the teachers live. The schools are parts of the public-school system. A sufficient num ber of these schools would supply a far stronger teaching force for the Negro rural schools. Conditions of service, small pay, and short term of school now make it practically impossible to secure teachers from outside the county to teach in public schools. The result is that many of the positions in county schools are filled by teachers whose schooling is little better than that of the pupils they teach. The plan of strengthening a county school by adding teacher-training subjects to its curriculum was first tried in Tangipahoa Parish, La. The superintendent felt the need of better teachers and decided to train them at home. He interested the Slater fund in his plan, and results were so satisfactory that the fund is now aiding four such schools and has promised to aid others-four in North Carolina, three in Arkansas, and several in other Southern States. That educators think well of the plan is indicated by the following opinions selected from a number recently published by Dr. James H. Dillard. Supt. Luther Elrod, Jackson County, Ga.: * We have already begun something of that kind in our county. * * The board of education has recently erected a building at a cost of something like $1,000. They erected it for the use of a white school, but it was discontinued after the first year. Near this, not more than a quarter of a mile, is a Negro school of a hundred or more pupils. It is my purpose to convert this new house into an industrial school for Negroes. I have planned also to get some land that surrounds the building for an experiment farm. The State college at Athens will cooperate with us in having this conducted on a scientific basis. Former State Supt. Henry J. Willingham, Alabama: The idea, in my opinion, is a most excellent one; by judicious management such a school can probably be maintained without additional machinery in a considerable number of counties of Alabama. The county boards, of course, hold the strategic point in bringing about such an arrangement. With the beginning of next year's work under the new law in this State allowing county boards to employ assistants to the county superintendent, this additional feature will be brought to their attention in the hope of accomplishing something along the line suggested State Supt. J. Y. Joyner, North Carolina: I approve most heartily of your suggestion of a county industrial training school for Negro teachers. Certainly one of the most serious obstacles to progress in the Negro schools is the inefficiency of the teachers. The salaries paid them in most counties will not command well-trained teachers, and home provision for inexpensive training of the county teaching force, such as you suggest, is in my opinion both wise and practical. In addition to the stimulus to teacher-training schools, there has been an increased interest in teachers' meetings and institutes. In Arkansas five industrial summer normals were held, enrolling 750 teachers; in North Carolina monthly letters of progress have been issued to the supervisors, and a meeting was held December, 1913, in which the leading educators of the State discussed at length |