Part 6 (1/2)

One of the Governor's first acts was a survey of road conditions A complete network of 10,000 miles of inter-county roads was ht county seats Of the 10,000the larger cities, were designated ascalled for improvement of the main market roads entirely at state expense, which the remainder of the system was to be built on a fifty-fifty basis, the state furnishi+ng half the funds, and the county in which the road lies, the other half

All road iiven such an irammes to-day call for an expenditure of 30,000,000 annually, including federal aid Popular dehway department and county co the Schools

As a pupil in a one-rooe of the shortcos and possibilities of the Ohio educational systeirl should be given the saes that accrued to those of the city

The purpose of the Governor's school prograive Ohio a co-ordinates system of State, county and district supervision, to require nor of all teachers, and, above all, to pave the way for speedier centralization and consolidation of the one-room district school Results have been beyond the expectations of school men, every breath and opposition to the system has bloay, and it may truthfully be said that it has becoanization has stimulated interest in education in all respects and has made possible a more recent establishment of a state-wide teachers' pensions syste of financial support of schools through a State and county aid plan Salaries of teachers have been increased the last six years from a minimum of 40 a month to a statutory e occasioned by the ill be solved without much delay in Ohio, as county and state normal schools report prospective increases in attendance of fifty to one hundred per cent or even greater for next year

The time had come in 1913 when the little district school with its narrow curriculum and crude methods of instruction did not meet the needs and purposes of modern industrial and social life in Ohio It had not kept step with rural econoress In the whole State it was the one evidence of retardation, an institution of bygone days which had deteriorated instead of having iht of every child to educational opportunities for developnized by the State in the school system as it existed at that tieneral assembly in January, 1913, recommended that a complete school survey be made A survey commission was created To acquaint school patrons with the object of the survey in progress and to get them to discuss in their own communities the defects and the needs of the schools, Noveht burned in every school building in the State that night

Delegates were appointed to attend a state-wide educational congress the next month, and in January, 1914, the Governor called a special session to enact the rural school code

The survey report disclosed that not half of the teachers of the State ever had attended high school, nor had nor stones for young teachers before securing positions in village and city schools, agriculture was scarcely taught, schools ithout equips were twenty years old or older, unsanitary, poorly lighted, without ventilation and insufficiently heated

With one stroke the new school code created county supervision districts under the control of county boards, elected by the presidents of village and townshi+p boards; provided for county superintendents and supervisors over smaller districts within the county; required acade of all new teachers henceforth, and gave communities wider powers to centralize and consolidate schools

At present ninety-five per cent of the eleh school teachers are required to be college graduates or have equivalent scholastic attainment The most coreat extent eli practices in an atteive to each child opportunity for developreat stimulation of public school sentiment is manifested by a closer co-operation and correlation of the school and the hoirls' club work, achievement courses, home projects and other school extension and co of responsibility to the coreater interest and responsibility of the boards of education toward the school; a willingness of the people to votedemand for consolidation and centralization; a better trained class of teachers, increased school attendance, especially in high schools where it has increased from fifty to one hundred per cent

School administration is much more efficient as is deh schools, vitalized by its articulation with the industrial activities of the community, county uniformity of textbooks, selection and correlation of textbookinterests and needs of childhood, uniform system of reports and records, and the like

School centers have been made to coincide with social and business centers Convenient districts have been for rural districts have been united in accordance with the trend of the community interests and activities Weak districts have been eliminated by the transfer of their territory to other districts, thereby strengthening property valuations