Page:History of Public School Education in Arizona.djvu/113

Rh lage communities is inevitable. Of the Arizona high schools, three are in villages with about 1,000 inhabitants, 12 are in communities with 2,500 inhabitants or less (counted as rural communities in the census), and 14 are in towns of over 2,500.

Of the list of buildings reported there yet remains one of wood—that at Tombstone erected in 1885. The next oldest is the one at Morenci, built in 1905. The cost has varied from $260,000 for the house at Phoenix, built in 1911, down to $8,000 for that at Willcox, built the same year. The total cost of 22 buildings is given as $1,350,000, or an average of about $60,000 each. In a majority of cases the houses seem well supplied with rooms, some of them having 24, 25, 30, and that at Phoenix 48 rooms. The heating is in most cases modern—either steam or hot air. Most schools are supplied with some laboratory facilities. Fifteen report such facilities in biology, valued at $5,570; 24 report laboratories for physics, valued at $22,650; 22 in chemistry, worth $13,150; 7 in agriculture, worth $1,800; 22 report manual training equipment, worth $47,900; 21 domestic science, worth $26,050; 23 commercial equipment, worth $19,700. The term varied between 36 and 40 weeks, with an average of a fraction over 37. Of the 22 buildings reported, 1 was created in 1908, 4 in 1909, 2 in 1911, 3 in 1912, 2 in 1913, 3 in 1914, 2 in 1915, and 3 in 1916, with two others under construction. These dates show clearly that the modern school idea has taken a firm hold on the Arizona mind; and the material used—brick, brick and concrete, or stone in all structures except the oldest—shows that they are planned for a long future. About half of these schools were fortunately abundantly supplied with grounds and 13 had trees.

A detailed study of the teaching force of the Arizona High Schools was undertaken in the spring of 1916 and revealed as it progressed some interesting facts. In this study the faculties of 24 high schools were considered. Of the 208 high-school teachers reported, 141 were holders of bachelors’ degrees, including graduates of standard colleges and universities, but excluding normal schools and commercial colleges. This number of college graduates gives a higher proportion than is found in some of the older States, notwithstanding the urgings in this direction of the North Central Association of Colleges and Secondary Schools; 28 of these teachers held advanced degrees, like A.M. and Ph.D.; 56 had pursued postgraduate studies; 91 had been trained in or graduated from normal schools, 11 in business colleges, and one in a technical school. Nearly half of these teachers were then following courses at summer schools and 84 per cent came into Arizona from without the State, mainly from Illinois and Kansas. The cosmopolitan character of their education is shown by the 153 educational institutions which they represent; about 85 per cent of these teachers got their preliminary experience in other