ise to
secure wide acceptance as a method of dealing with the problem. Greater
possibilities undoubtedly exist in the comparatively recent movement
toward combining normal training with the regular high school course.
Provision for such courses now exists in New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio,
Texas, Minnesota, Iowa, Kansas, Nebraska, and a number of other States.

Combining normal training with high school education has first of all
the advantage of bringing such training _to_ prospective teachers,
instead of requiring the teachers to leave home and incur additional
expense in seeking their training. From the standpoint of the public it
has the merit of economy, in that it utilizes buildings, equipment, and
organization already in existence instead of requiring new.

But whatever may be the method employed, the rural teachers should
receive better preparation for their work than they now have. This
means, _first_, that the State must make adequate provision for the
teacher to receive his training at a minimum of expense and trouble; and
_second_, that the standard of requirement must be such that the teacher
will be obliged to secure adequate preparation before being admitted to
the school. Even with the present status of our rural schools it is not
too much to require that every teacher shall have had _at least a
four-year high school education_, and that _a reasonable amount of
normal training_ be had either in conjunction with the high school
course, or subsequent to its completion. Indiana, for example, has found
this requirement entirely feasible, and a great influence in bettering
the tone of the rural school.

Wherever the rural teacher secures his training, however, one condition
must obtain: this preparation must familiarize him with the spirit and
needs of the agricultural community, and imbue him with enthusiasm for
service in this field. It is not infrequently the case that town high
school graduates, themselves never having lived in the country, possess
neither the sympathy nor the understanding necessary to enable them to
offer a high grade of service in the rural school. Not a few of them
feel above the work of such a position, and look with contempt or pity
upon the life of the farm. The successful rural teacher must be able to
identify himself very completely with the interests and activities of
the community; nor can this be done in any half-hearted, sentimental, or
professional manner. It must be a spont