This study deals with a special phase of the education systems of five small nations that have contributed much to the advancement and civilization of mankind. These countries include Denmark, Norway, Sweden, the Netherlands, and Finland. They are highly literate peoples accustomed to self-government and capable of carrying it on effectively, a capability that is due in great measure to their good schools. As near neighbors they have many common racial, cultural, and linguistic inheritances and have passed through much the same political and social development, facing similar dangers, sharing the same hopes and aspirations, and basing their lives on principles that they and other folk of culture believe to be fundamental. Those principles they are handing on to their children and are educating their teachers to help do it. Yet each of these nations has its peculiar characteristics of language, literature, culture, and form of government and in the field of education has set up a distinctive system worked out through centuries and decades for its special purposes. Those differences make it necessary to present for each country a separate account of the education of teachers and to explain the school organization and the kinds of schools in which they work. (Contains 39 tables and 5 graphs.) Individual sections contain footnotes and bibliography. [Best copy available has been provided.]