PROGRESS THROUGH THE GRADES.

The rate of progress of children through the grades of the elementary school is an important factor in determining the efficiency of a school system and is closely related to the matter of attendance. In the future, complete records showing the age at entrance; promotion or non-promotion, with reasons for the latter, should be kept for each child as he progresses through the elementary grades. The following tables show the age-grade distribution for two white elementary schools in Brunswick and for the entire Brunswick system. For comparison a table showing similar facts for the Columbia (S. C.) system is also given.

Age-grade distribution of white children in the two elementary schools of Brunswick

Age-grade distribution for the entire Brunswick system (1918–19).

Age-grade distribution of Columbia (S. C.) white and negro children compared (1917). .

OBSERVATIONS ON PRECEDING TABLES.

It is usually assumed that children enter the grades at the age of 6 and if they make normal progress complete one grade a year. The normal age for children in the first grade is 6 years; in the second, 7; in the third, 8; and so on. Children who are younger than the normal age are considered under-age, those who are above the normal age are classed as over-age. However, a two-year rather than a one-year span was used in the foregoing tables, so that normal age as here defined extends over a two-year period in each grade. Children who are 6 or 7 years old in the first grade are classed as "normal;" those who are 7 or 8 years old are "normal" for the second grade, and so on. The allowance is therefore liberal. The data given can not be interpreted literally. It is possible that a child old for his grade is really making normal or even rapid progress, since illness or late entrance may be accountable for over-ageness, or even lack of attendance. In the absence of complete records, it is impossible to make conclusive deductions. A few apparent conclusions seem justified.

1. The system does not get uniform results; the different schools are entirely unlike. The percentage of over-age children is higher in the Purvis than in the Glynn school. It is far greater in the country than in the city. The reasons for this should be studied carefully in order that proper and intelligent steps to remedy it may be taken. Complete records kept through a period of years are necessary for such a study.

2. While the percentage of children of normal age is not excessively low, there are surprisingly few children in the Brunswick schools young for their grades. The data given for comparison show this very plainly. This condition is probably due somewhat to irregular attendance; but other causes, class organization particularly, will need to receive attention and study in order that this condition may be relieved.

3. It is apparent that there are altogether too many overage children in the lower grades, and that there are a large number of children 2 years and more overage. This condition indicates the need of special classes and better grading.

All of which points the fact which has been brought out in other parts of this report that a system of recording these and other significant facts about the schools of Glynn County should be devised in order that an intelligent study of the progress of the system in efficiency may from time to time be made.

5. AMEND THE SPECIAL ACT UNDER WHICH THE SCHOOLS ARE CONTROLLED TO PROVIDE FOR AN ELECTIVE BOARD AND TO MAKE THE COUNTY A SINGLE TAXATION UNIT FOR SCHOOL PURPOSES.

Glynn County is one of four counties in the State of Georgia in which the public school system is governed by preconstitutional legislation. The other three are Richmond County, Chatham County, and Bibb County. The original act regulating public instruction in the County of Glynn was passed in 1873 and confirmed by the constitutional convention of 1877. The act, modified by later enactments, was consolidated and amended by the act of the general assembly of 1914, which sets forth the provisions under which the schools are now operating.

EXCELLENT FEATURES OF THE ACT.

This act as it now stands is so admirable that it might well serve in a number of important respects as a model for the State. It has taken advanced ground, for example, in providing for the appointment by the board of a county superintendent rather than making this a political office, as does the school code of the State, through requiring that he be elected by the people. This wise provision enables the board to go anywhere for a superintendent and should operate in the direction of getting persons specially trained for the work.

Moreover, the act wisely distinguishes between the legislative and judicial functions properly belonging to a board of education and the executive functions which should properly be delegated to appointees. To quote the act on this point:

Be it further enacted that it is the intention of this act to invest completely in the board of education the control and management of all the public schools of Glynn County. That the execution of their orders, rules, and regulations be performed by their official appointees and employees other than themselves * * *

In matters, too, of taxation for school maintenance this act has taken advanced ground for it provides that the county board of education shall fix the rate, thereby investing that body which knows most about the schools and their needs with the authority it requires to carry its plans for improvement into effect.

THE COUNTY SHOULD COMPRISE A SINGLE UNIT FOR SCHOOL TAXATION AND EXPENDITURE.

In an important particular, however, the act of 1914, under which Glynn County schools are operating, in the judgment of the Federal commission, should be amended, namely, in respect to its method of raising and expending taxes for school purposes.

As matters now stand, Glynn County has two taxation districts for school purposes, the City of Brunswick and that portion of the county outside the city limits of Brunswick. While the county board has jurisdiction over both districts, fixing within the statutory limits of 8 mills, in the one district, and 5 mills in the other, the tax rate for the schools, nevertheless, the act of 1914 requires that the taxes derived from each district shall be expended in the district from which they are collected. Although the act in limiting the taxation districts to two is in advance of the general school code of Georgia, which permits the forming of a number of local taxation districts within a county, yet the commission is convinced that Glynn County, in this matter, should go a step further and abolish all distinction between the City of Brunswick and the rural portion of the county in respect both to taxation and to expenditures for education.

A child living in the remote and isolated parts of Glynn County ought to have equal chance with the child living in the City of Brunswick for getting at least the minimum essentials of an education. Upon the rural resident, quite as much as upon the resident of the city, rests responsibility for shaping the policies of State and of Nation. It is quite as important that the school help the country child to determine where his tastes and aptitudes lay and to give him the training necessary for the development of these to the point where he becomes a worthy self-supporting member of society, making his contribution to its needs, as it is for the school to prepare city children for finding their place and work in the world. Obviously, a child living in Brobston, or Everett, or Zuta, sparsely settled places, as they are, with poor land values, is not going to have the educational advantages of a child living in Brunswick unless conditions are equalized in some way. Much can of course be done to improve opportunities through consolidating schools, transporting pupils, and securing better school organization, matters discussed in other parts of this report, but, in the end, all such matters rest back upon the financial support which can be secured.

INTERESTS OF BRUNSWICK AND OF ADJACENT COUNTRY IDENTICAL. The interests of the City of Brunswick and of the country lying back of her are not different; they are identical. Never will Brunswick become the city which her geographical situation, her climate, and her remarkable natural harbor warrant until the country stretching all about her has been developed and settled. Thousands of acres of overflow land of inexhaustible fertility lie all about which if reclaimed and drained would be splendidly adapted to truck raising and intensive farming, providing an area capable of supporting an immense population. Furthermore, her proximity to the great

markets of the country by train and by vessel, coupled with the foregoing features, gives to Brunswick unusual' agricultural possibilities. It is, then, of direct concern to Brunswick that the county of Glynn shall be given all the assistance possible along every line of progress. Moreover, in no activity, it should be added, is this more important than in the effort to provide good schools for the children of those who establish their homes in the country.

In the process of equalizing the educational opportunity for the country and city child the revision should be upward for both. Abolishing lines between the City of Brunswick and the county outside, permitting a flat school tax to be placed on the county as a whole, sufficient to make generous provision for all the children of the county, and permitting the board of education to distribute the income among the schools so that equal opportunity shall be given all, are surely of such importance that no further delay in securing the necessary authority through amending the 1914 act should be permitted.

6. THE SYSTEM NEEDS A STRONGER TEACHING STAFF AND MORE EFFECTIVE CLASSROOM WORK.

IN THE ELEMENTARY SCHOOLS OF BRUNSWICK.

The teachers in the City of Brunswick give, on the whole, an impression of dignity, pleasing personality, interest in their work and possibility for professional achievement. One is not impressed with any evidence of unity of purpose, of loyalty to the school or to the system, or of strong professional spirit in the teaching corps. Each teacher is concerned with her grade or room. With two exceptions, all of the elementary teachers had some experience before they were engaged in Brunswick and about half of them have been in the system from two to seven years. Ten are teaching for the first time in the system this year. As a whole they are reasonably well prepared. At least half have academic and professional training equivalent to graduation from a standard normal school. Two have no professional training beyond that obtained at one or two summer normal courses, following graduation from high school; one has completed a college course. The corps as a whole while not strong is reasonably well trained but shows the need of forceful leadership and of intelligent direction.

The discipline throughout the system, with a few exceptions, is unfortunate. The rooms are not well kept, papers are scattered about the floor, and dust covers storage boxes and fills the corners. Walls and ceilings which are unsightly in color and even unclean add to the gloom of buildings badly lighted. The stoves used to heat the rooms are rusty and unsightly. Storage closets and book