aneous and natural response
arising from a true interest in the people, a knowledge of their lives,
and a sincere desire for their welfare. Any preparation that does not
result in this spirit, and train in the ability to realize it in action,
does not fit for the rural school.

_Salaries of rural teachers_

The salaries paid teachers in general in different types of schools are
one measure, though not a perfect one, of their efficiency. Salary is
not a perfect measure of efficiency, (1) because economic ability to pay
is a modifying influence. When the early New England teacher was
receiving ten or twelve dollars a month and "boarding round," he was
probably getting all that the community could afford to pay him,
although he was often a college student, and not infrequently a
well-trained graduate. The salaries paid in the various occupations are
not (2) based upon any definite standards of the value of service. For
example, the _chef_ in a hotel may receive more than the superintendent
of schools, and the football coach more than the college president; yet
we would hardly want to conclude that the services of the cook and the
athlete are worth more to society than the services of educators. And
within the vocation of teaching itself there is (3) no fixed standard
for judging teaching efficiency. Nevertheless, in general, teaching
efficiency is in considerable degree measured by differences in salaries
paid in different localities and in the various levels of school work.

Based on the standard of salary as a measure, the teaching efficiency of
rural teachers is, as we should expect from starting nearly all of our
beginners here, considerably below that in towns or cities. A study by
Coffman[6] of more than five thousand widely distributed teachers as to
age, sex, salary, etc., shows that the average man in the rural school
receives an annual salary of $390; in town schools, of $613; and in city
schools, of $919. The average woman in the rural school receives an
annual salary of $366; in town schools, of $492; and in city schools, of
$591. Men in towns, therefore, receive one and one half times as much as
men in the country, and in cities, two and one half times as much as in
the country. Women in towns receive a little more than one and one third
times as much as women in the country, and in the cities almost one and
two thirds times as much as women in the country.

The actual amount of salary paid rural teachers