ssional schools; 54.2 per cent became teachers by
taking examinations instead of by going through normal schools and
colleges of education.

The investigation of the United States Bureau of Education referred to
above brings out the striking fact that about one third of the rural
teachers have had no professional preparation whatever, not even summer
courses or other short courses. It was discovered that 4 per cent of
them had less than eight years of elementary training, and that 45 per
cent of the rural teachers have completed four years of high-school
work, but have not done more.

A bulletin of the United States Bureau of Education[37] presents the
following facts regarding the training of rural school-teachers: The
average rural school-teacher remains in the teaching profession less
than four school years of 140 days each. This means a complete turn-over
of teachers every four years, or that about 87,500 new teachers must be
provided annually. During the school year ending 1915 the normal schools
graduated 21,944 students. It is quite certain that most of these found
positions in towns and cities, as did most of those graduating from
schools of education in universities and colleges. Therefore the great
majority of the 87,500 new teachers needed annually for the rural
schools must go to their work professionally unprepared.

Extracts from the reports of county superintendents in various states
show the same low level of qualifications; one reports that nearly 40
per cent of his teachers have been untrained and inexperienced. The
following quotations are taken almost at random from the 1916 reports of
county superintendents filed in the office of the state Superintendent
of Public Education of North Dakota,[38] and might be duplicated by
reports from almost any other state having a largely rural population.

Bowman County:

During the last two years (1914 and 1915) nearly 40 per cent of our
teachers have been untrained and inexperienced. We are trying to
convince our school boards that training for teaching is just as
essential as training for any other vocation in life, and that the
trained teacher is worth more and should receive more pay than the
untrained, and that the sooner we engage trained teachers for our
schools the sooner we will have better schools.

Logan County:

There is a lack of permanency in the teaching force (due to lack of
resident teachers--o