The Siftings Herald

THE ARKANSAS SCHOOL SITUATION.

In the consideration of the Arkansas school situation there are two defects that are outstanding. These are poorly prepared teachers and short school terms. Laws passed by the recent legislature are calculated to overcome these objections to some extent. In a review of the school program of the state. Superintendent J. P. Womack said:

"According to the figures in this office, forty thousand Arkansas children are attending school under teachers who have not more than an eighth grade education. In addition to these, eighty thousand children are under teachers with less than high school education. It is safe to assume that a great majority of these teachers are without professional training. When we remember that a four-year high school course and at least a half-year of normal training is considered a minimum standard of training for teachers, it will readily appear that the teachers of these one hundred and twenty thousand children fall far short. and that the children are correspondingly under privileged.

"The average school term for the State is six months and four days. Since this figure includes schools in towns and cities which usually are run nine months in the year, you will see that the rural school term with a large number of schools is considerable less than six months. In fact, one-tenth of all the school children of the State attend school less than four months in the year. In some counties, outside of three or four towns, the average school term is from four to five months and. in general, the poorer teachers are to be found in the shorter term schools. It is easy to see then that the children of these schools are doubly handicapped.

"Insufficient funds is the explanation of the latter situation and to a large extent of the former. Most districts would maintain longer schools if they had the money, and most teachers would go to school and improve themselves if they had the money to do so. But when you remember the average salary of teachers in Arkansas is only $483.40 per year and that this average includes all the higher paid teachers of the State, you will be bound to see that an army of teachers have far less than that amount to live on. A young man or woman contemplating entering the teaching profession and seeing only $300 or $400 per year as a possible salary, does not feel justified in spending a term of years in high school and college preparing for his work.' He cannot borrow the money to go to school with a reasonable prospect of being able to repay the money by teaching If we are to have better teachers it is absolutely necessary to provide a living wage for them."