er. It should
not entail upon the school or upon the teacher a vast complicated
machinery or an endless routine of red tape. If it does this it defeats
its true aim. Here again the country schools have attempted to imitate
the city schools. In all cities grading is much more systematized, and
is pushed to a greater extent than it is or should be in the country.
Owing to the necessities of the situation and also to the convenience of
the plan in the cities, the grades, with their appropriate books, amount
of work, and plan of procedure, are much more definite than is possible
or desirable in the country. To grade the country schools as definitely
and as systematically as is done in the city would be to do them an
irreparable injury. The country would make a great mistake to imitate
the city school systems in its courses of study.

=Red Tape.=--It sometimes happens that county and state superintendents,
in performing the duties of their office, think it necessary to impose
upon the country schools a variety of tests, examinations, reports, and
what-not, which accomplish but little and may result in positive injury.
To pile up complications and intricacies having no practical educational
value is utterly useless. It indicates the lack of a true conception of
the school situation. Such haphazard methods will not teach alone any
more than a saw will saw alone. Behind it all must be the simple, great
teacher, and for him all these things, beyond a reasonable extent, are
hindrances to progress.

=Length of Term.=--In very many country districts the terms are
frequently only six months in the year. This should be extended to eight
at least. Even in this case, it gives the rural school a shorter term
than the city school, which usually has nine or ten months each year.
But it is very probable that the simplicity of rural school life and
rural school teaching will enable pupils to do as much in eight months
as is done in the city in nine.

=Individual Work.=--Individual work should be the rule in many subjects.
There is no need, on account of numbers, of a lock-step. In the cities,
where the teacher has probably an average of 35 to 40 children, all the
pupils are held together and in line. In such cases the great danger is
to those above the average. There is the danger of forming what might be
called the "slow habit." The bright pupils are retarded in their work,
for they are capable of much more than they do. In such cases th