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+Project Gutenberg's New Ideals in Rural Schools, by George Herbert Betts
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: New Ideals in Rural Schools
+
+Author: George Herbert Betts
+
+Release Date: April 24, 2007 [EBook #21213]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK NEW IDEALS IN RURAL SCHOOLS ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Tom Roch, Marcia Brooks and the Online
+Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This
+file was produced from images produced by Core Historical
+Literature in Agriculture (CHLA), Cornell University)
+
+
+
+
+
+
+Riverside Educational Monographs
+
+EDITED BY HENRY SUZZALLO
+
+PROFESSOR OF THE PHILOSOPHY OF EDUCATION
+TEACHERS COLLEGE, COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY
+
+NEW IDEALS IN RURAL SCHOOLS
+
+BY
+
+GEORGE HERBERT BETTS, PH. D.
+
+PROFESSOR OF PSYCHOLOGY
+CORNELL COLLEGE, IOWA
+
+[Illustration]
+
+HOUGHTON MIFFLIN COMPANY
+BOSTON, NEW YORK AND CHICAGO
+
+The Riverside Press Cambridge
+
+COPYRIGHT, 1913, BY GEORGE HERBERT BETTS
+
+ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS
+
+
+     EDITOR'S INTRODUCTION                               v
+
+     PREFACE                                            ix
+
+  I. THE RURAL SCHOOL AND ITS PROBLEM                    1
+
+ II. THE SOCIAL ORGANIZATION OF THE RURAL SCHOOL        25
+
+III. THE CURRICULUM OF THE RURAL SCHOOL                 57
+
+ IV. THE TEACHING OF THE RURAL SCHOOL                   92
+
+     OUTLINE                                           121
+
+
+
+
+EDITOR'S INTRODUCTION
+
+
+In presenting a second monograph on the rural school problem in this
+series we register our sense of the importance of rural education. Too
+long have the rural schools suffered from neglect. Both the local
+communities and the State have overlooked the needs of the rural school
+system. At the present hour there is an earnest awakening of interest in
+rural life and its institutions. Already there is a small but certain
+movement of people toward the country and the vocation of agriculture. A
+period of agricultural prosperity, the reaction of men and women against
+the artificialities of city life, the development of farming through the
+application of science, and numerous other factors have made country
+life more congenial and have focused attention upon its further needs.
+It is natural, therefore, that the rural school should receive an
+increased share of attention.
+
+Educational administrators, legislators, and publicists have become
+aware of their responsibility to provide the financial support and the
+efficient organization that is needed to develop country schools. The
+more progressive of them are striving earnestly to provide laws that
+will aid rather than hamper the rural school system. In his monograph on
+_The Improvement of the Rural School_, Professor Cubberley has done much
+to interpret current efforts of this type. From the standpoint of state
+administration he has contributed much definite information and
+constructive suggestion as to how the State shall respond to the
+fundamental need for (1) more money, (2) better organization, and (3)
+real supervision for rural schools.
+
+It is not so clear, however, that rural patrons, school directors, and
+teachers have become fully aware of their duty in the matter of rural
+school improvement. To be sure much has been done by way of experiment
+in many rural communities; but it can scarcely be said that rural
+communities in general are thoroughly awake to the importance of their
+schools. The evidence to the contrary is cumulative. The first immediate
+need is to reawaken interest in the school as a center of rural life,
+and to suggest ways and means of transmuting this communal interest into
+effective institutional methods. To this end, Professor Betts has been
+asked to treat the rural school problem from a standpoint somewhat
+different from that assumed by Professor Cubberley; that is, from the
+point of view of the local community immediately related to, and
+concerned with, the rural school. In consequence his presentation
+emphasizes the things that ought to be done by the local
+authorities,--parent, trustee, and teacher. Its soundness may well be
+judged by the pertinent order of his discussion. Having stated his
+problem, he initiates his discussion by suggesting how the social
+relations of the school are to be reorganized; only later does he pass
+to the detail of curricula and teaching methods. It is a clear
+recognition of the fact that the community is the crucial factor in the
+making of a school. The State by sound fiscal and legislative policies
+may do much to make possible a better country school; but only the local
+authorities can realize it. The trained teacher with modern notions of
+efficiency may attempt to enlarge the curriculum and to employ newer
+methods of teaching, but his talents are useless if he is hampered by a
+conservative, unappreciative, and indifferent community. When the school
+becomes a social center of the community's interest and life, there will
+be no difficulty in achieving any policy which the State permits or
+which a skilled teacher urges. Scattered schools will be consolidated,
+and isolated ungraded schools will be improved. Given an interested
+community, the modern teacher can vitalize every feature of the school,
+changing the formal curriculum into an interesting and liberalizing
+interpretation of country life and the pedantic drills and tasks of
+instruction into a skillful ministry to real and abiding human wants.
+
+
+
+
+PREFACE
+
+
+No rural population has yet been able permanently to maintain itself
+against the lure of the town or the city. Each civilization at one stage
+of its development comprises a large proportion of rural people. But the
+urban movement soon begins, and continues until all are living in
+villages, towns, and cities. Such has been the movement of population in
+all the older countries of high industrial development, as England,
+France, and Germany. A similar movement is at present going on rapidly
+in the United States.
+
+No great social movement ever comes by chance; it is always to be
+explained by deep-seated and adequate causes. The causes lying back of
+the rapid growth of our cities at the expense of our rural districts are
+very far from simple. They involve a great complex of social,
+educational, and economic forces. As the spirit of adventure and
+pioneering finds less to stimulate it, the gregarious impulse, the
+tendency to flock together for our work and our play, gains in
+ascendancy. Growing out of the greater intellectual opportunities and
+demands of modern times, the standard of education has greatly
+advanced. And under the incentive of present-day economic success and
+luxury, comfortable circumstances and a moderate competence no longer
+satisfy our people. Hence they turn to the city, looking to find there
+the coveted social, educational, or economic opportunities.
+
+It is doubtful, therefore, whether, even with improved conditions of
+country life, the urbanization of our rural people can be wholly
+checked. But it can be greatly retarded if the right agencies are set at
+work. The rural school should be made and can be made one of the most
+important of these agencies, although at the present time its influence
+is chiefly negative. With the hope of offering some help, however
+slight, in adjusting the rural school to its problem, this little volume
+is written by one who himself belongs to the rural community by birth
+and early education and occupation.
+
+G. H. B.
+CORNELL COLLEGE, _February_, 1913.
+
+
+
+
+NEW IDEALS IN RURAL SCHOOLS
+
+
+
+
+I
+
+THE RURAL SCHOOL AND ITS PROBLEM
+
+_The general problem of the rural school_
+
+
+The general problem of the rural school is the same as that of any other
+type of school--to render to the community the largest possible returns
+upon its investment in education with the least possible waste. Schools
+are great education factories set up at public expense. The raw material
+consists of the children of succeeding generations, helpless and
+inefficient because of ignorance and immaturity. The school is to turn
+out as its product men and women ready and able to take up their part in
+the great world of activities going on about them. It is in this way, in
+efficient education, that society gets its return for its investment in
+the schools.
+
+The word "education" has in recent years been taking on a new and more
+vital meaning. In earlier times the value of education was assumed, or
+vaguely taken on faith. Education was supposed to consist of so much
+"learning," or a given amount of "discipline," or a certain quantity of
+"culture." Under the newer definition, education may include all these
+things, but it must do more; it _must relate itself immediately and
+concretely to the business of living_. We no longer inquire of one how
+much he knows, or the degree to which his powers have been "cultivated";
+but rather to what extent his education has led to a more fruitful life
+in the home, the state, the church, and other social institutions; how
+largely it has helped him to more effective work in a worthy occupation;
+and whether it has resulted in greater enjoyment and appreciation of the
+finer values of personal experience,--in short, whether for him
+education spells _efficiency_.
+
+We are thus coming to see that education must enable the individual to
+meet the real problems of actual experience as they are confronted in
+the day's life. Nor can the help rendered be indefinite, intangible, or
+in any degree uncertain. It must definitely adjust one to his place, and
+cause him to grow in it, accomplishing the most for himself and for
+society; it must add to the largeness of his personal life, and at the
+same time increase his working efficiency.
+
+This is to say that one's education must (1) furnish him with the
+particular _knowledge_ required for the life that he is to live, whether
+it be in the shop, on the farm, or in the profession. For knowledge lies
+at the basis of all efficiency and success in whatever occupation.
+Education must (2) shape the _attitude_, so that the individual will
+confront his part of the world's work or its play in the right spirit.
+It must not leave him a parasite, whether from wealth or from poverty,
+ready to prey upon others; but must make him willing and glad to do his
+share. Education must (3) also give the individual training in
+_technique_, or the skill required in his different activities; not to
+do this is at best but to leave him a well-informed and well-intentioned
+bungler, falling far short of efficiency.
+
+The great function of the school, therefore, is to supply the means by
+which the requisite _knowledge_, _attitude_, and _skill_ can be
+developed. It is true that the child does not depend on the school alone
+for his knowledge, his attitude, and his skill. For the school is only
+one of many influences operating on his life. Much of the most vital
+knowledge is not taught in the school but picked up outside; a great
+part of the child's attitude toward life is formed through the
+relations of the home, the community, and the various other points of
+contact with society; and much of his skill in doing is developed in a
+thousand ways without being taught. Yet the fact remains that the school
+is organized and supported by society to make sure about these things,
+to see that the child does not lack in knowledge, attitude, or skill.
+They must not be left to chance; where the educative influences outside
+the school have not been sufficient, the school must take hold. Its part
+is to supplement and organize with conscious purpose what the other
+agencies have accomplished in the education of the child. The ultimate
+purpose of the school is _to make certain of efficiency_.
+
+The means by which the school is to accomplish these ends are (1) the
+_social organization_ of the school, or the life and activities that go
+on in the school from day to day; (2) the _curriculum_, or the
+subject-matter which the child is given to master; and (3) the
+_instruction_ or the work of the teacher in helping the pupils to master
+the subject-matter of the curriculum and adjust themselves to the
+organization of the school.
+
+These factors will of necessity differ, however, according to the
+particular type of school in question. It will therefore be necessary to
+inquire into the special problem of the rural school before entering
+into a discussion of the means by which it is to accomplish its aim.
+
+
+_The special problem of the rural school_
+
+Each type of school has not only its general problem which is common to
+all schools, but also its special problem which makes it different from
+every other class of schools. The special problem of any type of school
+grows out of the nature and needs of the community which supports the
+school. Thus the city school, whose pupils are to live the industrial
+and social life of an urban community, confronts a different problem
+from that of a rural school, whose pupils are to live in a farming
+community. Each type of school must suit its curriculum, its
+organization, and its instruction to the demands to be met by its
+pupils. The knowledge taught, the attitudes and tastes developed, and
+the skill acquired must be related to the life to be lived and the
+responsibilities to be undertaken.
+
+The rural school must therefore be different in many respects from the
+town and city school. In its organization, its curriculum, and its
+spirit, it must be adapted to the requirements of the rural community.
+For, while many pupils from the rural schools ultimately follow other
+occupations than farming, yet the primary function of the rural school
+is to educate for the life of the farm. It thus becomes evident that the
+only way to understand the problem of the rural school is first to
+understand the rural community. What are its industries, the character
+of its people, their economic status, their standards of living, their
+needs, their social life?
+
+The rural community is industrially homogeneous. There exists here no
+such a diversified mixture of industries as in the city. All are engaged
+in the same line of work. Agriculture is the sole occupation. Hence the
+economic interests and problems all center around this one line. The
+success or failure of crops, the introduction of a different method of
+cultivation or a new variety of grain, or the invention of an
+agricultural implement interests all alike. The farmer engaged in
+planting his corn knows that for miles around all other farmers are
+similarly employed; if he is cutting his hay or harvesting his grain,
+hundreds of other mowing machines and harvesters are at work on
+surrounding farms.
+
+This fund of common interest and experience tends to social as well as
+industrial homogeneity. Good-fellowship, social responsiveness and
+neighborliness rest on a basis of common labor, common problems, and
+common welfare. Like-mindedness and the spirit of coöperation are after
+all more a matter of similar occupational interests than of nationality.
+
+Another factor tending to make the rural community socially more
+homogeneous than the city community is its relatively stable population,
+and the fact that the stream of immigration is slow in reaching the
+farm. It is true that the European nations are well represented among
+our agricultural population; but for the most part they are not
+foreigners of the first generation. They have assimilated the American
+spirit, and become familiar with American institutions. The great flood
+of raw immigrants fresh from widely diverse nations stops in the large
+centers of population, and does not reach the farm.
+
+The prevailing spirit of democracy is still another influence favoring
+homogeneity in the rural community. Much less of social stratification
+exists in the country than in the city. Social planes are not so clearly
+defined nor so rigidly maintained. Financial prosperity is more likely
+to take the direction of larger barns and more acres than of social
+ostentation and exclusiveness.
+
+America has no servile and ignorant peasantry. The agricultural class
+constituting our rural population represents a high grade of natural
+intelligence and integrity. Great political and moral reforms find more
+favorable soil in the rural regions than in the cities. The demagogue
+and the "boss" find farmers impossible to control to their selfish ends.
+Vagabonds and idlers are out of place among them. They are a
+hard-headed, capable, and industrious class. As a rule, American farmers
+are well-to-do, not only earning a good living for their families, but
+constantly extending their holdings. Their farms are increasingly well
+improved, stocked, and supplied with labor-saving and efficient
+machinery. Their land is constantly growing in value, and at the same
+time yielding larger returns for the money and labor invested in it.
+
+The standard of living is distinctly lower in farm homes than in town
+and city homes of the same financial status. The house is generally
+comfortable, but small. It is behind the times in many easily accessible
+modern conveniences possessed by the great majority of city dwellers.
+The bath, modern plumbing and heating, the refrigerator, and other
+kindred appliances can be had in the country home as well as the city.
+Their lack is a matter of standards rather than of necessity. They will
+be introduced into thousands of rural homes as soon as their need is
+realized.
+
+The possibilities for making the rural home beautiful and attractive are
+unequaled in the city for any except the very rich. It is not necessary
+that the farmhouse shall be crowded for space; its outlook and
+surroundings can be arranged to give it an ęsthetic quality wholly
+impossible in the ordinary city home. That this is true is proved by
+many inexpensive farmhouses that are a delight to the eye. On the other
+hand, it must be admitted that a large proportion of farmhouses are
+lacking in both architectural attractiveness and environmental effect.
+Not infrequently the barns and sheds are so placed as to crowd the house
+into the background, and the yards for stock allowed to infringe upon
+the domain of the garden and the lawn. All this can be easily remedied
+and will be when the ęsthetic taste of the dwellers on the farm comes to
+be offended by the incongruous and ugly.
+
+No stinting in the abundance of food is known on the farm. The farmer
+supplies the tables of the world, and can himself live off the fat of
+the land. Grains, vegetables, meats, eggs, butter, milk, and fruits are
+his stock in trade. If there is any lack in the farmer's table, it is
+due to carelessness in providing or preparing the food, and not to
+forced economy.
+
+While the farming population in general live well, yet many tables are
+lacking in variety, especially in fruit and vegetables. Time and
+interest are so taken up with the larger affairs of crops and stock,
+that the garden goes by default in many instances. There is no market
+readily at hand offering fruit and vegetables for sale as in the city,
+and hence the farm table loses in attractiveness to the appetite and in
+hygienic excellence. It is probable that the prosperous city workman
+sits down to a better table than does the farmer, in spite of the great
+advantage possessed by the latter.
+
+The population of rural communities is necessarily scattering. The
+nature of farming renders it impossible for people to herd together as
+is the case in many other industries. This has its good side, but also
+its bad. There are no rural slums for the breeding of poverty and crime;
+but on the other hand, there is an isolation and monotony that tend to
+become deadening in their effects on the individual. Stress and
+over-strain does not all come from excitement and the rush of
+competition; it may equally well originate in lack of variety and
+unrelieved routine. How true this is is seen in the fact that insanity,
+caused in this instance chiefly by the stress of monotony, prevails
+among the farming people of frontier communities out of all proportion
+to the normal ratio.
+
+Farming is naturally the most healthful of the industrial occupations.
+The work is for the greater part done in the open air and sunshine, and
+possesses sufficient variety to be interesting. The rural population
+constitutes the high vitality class of the nation, and must be
+constantly drawn upon to supply the brain, brawn, and nerve for the work
+of the city. The farmer is, on the whole, prosperous; he is therefore
+hopeful and cheerful, and labors in good spirit. That so many farmers
+and farmers' wives break down or age prematurely is due, not to the
+inherent nature of their work, but to a lack of balance in the life of
+the farm. It is not so much the work that kills, as the _continuity of
+the work_ unrelieved by periods of rest and recreation. With the
+opportunities highly favorable for the best type of healthful living, no
+inconsiderable proportion of our agricultural population are shortening
+their lives and lowering their efficiency by unnecessary over-strain and
+failure to conform to the most fundamental and elementary laws of
+hygienic living, especially with reference to the relief from labor that
+comes through change and recreation.
+
+The rural community affords few opportunities for social recreations and
+amusements. Not only are the people widely separated from each other by
+distance, but the work of the farm is exacting, and often requires all
+the hours of the day not demanded for sleep. While the city offers many
+opportunities for choice of recreation or amusement, the country affords
+almost none. The city worker has his evenings, usually Saturday
+afternoon, and all day Sunday free to use as he chooses. Such is not the
+case on the farm; for after the day in the field the chores must be
+done, and the stock cared for. And even on Sunday, the routine must be
+carried out. The work of the farm has a tendency, therefore, to become
+much of a grind, and certainly will become so unless some limit is set
+to the exactions of farm labor on the time and strength of the worker.
+It separates the individual from his fellows in the greater part of the
+farm work and gives him little opportunity for social recreations or
+play.
+
+One of the best evidences that the conditions of life and work on the
+farm need to be improved is the number of people who are leaving the
+farm for the city. This movement has been especially rapid during the
+last thirty years of our history, and has continued until approximately
+one half our people now live in towns or cities. Not only is this loss
+of agricultural population serious to farming itself, creating a
+shortage of labor for the work of the farm, but it results in crowding
+other occupations already too full. There is no doubt that we have too
+many lawyers, doctors, merchants, clerks, and the like for the number of
+workers engaged in fundamental productive vocations. Smaller farms,
+cultivated intensively, would be a great economic advantage to the
+country, and would take care of a far larger proportion of our people
+than are now engaged in agriculture.
+
+All students of social affairs agree that the movement of our people to
+towns and cities should be checked and the tide turned the other way. So
+important is the matter considered that a concerted national movement
+has recently been undertaken to study the conditions of rural life with
+a view to making it more attractive and so stopping the drain to the
+city.
+
+Middle-aged farmers move to the town or city for two principal reasons:
+to educate their children and to escape from the monotony of rural
+life. Young people desert the farm for the city for a variety of
+reasons, prominent among which are a desire for better education, escape
+from the monotony and grind of the farm life, and the opportunity for
+the social advantages and recreations of the city. That the retired
+farmer is usually disappointed and unhappy in his town home, and that
+the youth often finds the glamour of the city soon to fade, is true. But
+this does not solve the problem. The flux to the town or city still goes
+on, and will continue to do so until the natural desire for social and
+intellectual opportunities and for recreation and amusement is
+adequately met in rural life.
+
+Farming as an industry has already felt the effects of a new interest in
+rural life. Probably no other industrial occupation has undergone such
+rapid changes within the last generation as has agriculture. The rapid
+advance in the value of land, the introduction of new forms of farm
+machinery, and above all the application of science to the raising of
+crops and stock, have almost reconstructed the work of the farm within a
+decade.
+
+Special "corn trains" and "dairy trains" have traversed nearly every
+county in many States, teaching the farmers scientific methods.
+Lecturers on scientific agriculture have found their way into many
+communities. The Federal Government has encouraged in every way the
+spread of information and the development of enthusiasm in agriculture.
+The agricultural schools have given courses of instruction during the
+winter to farmers. Farmers' institutes have been organized; corn-judging
+and stock-judging contests have been held; prizes have been offered for
+the best results in the raising of grains, vegetables, or stock. New
+varieties of grains have been introduced, improved methods of
+cultivation discovered, and means of enriching and conserving the soil
+devised. Stock-breeding and the care of animals is rapidly becoming a
+science. Farming bids fair soon to become one of the skilled
+occupations.
+
+Such, then, is a brief view of the situation of which the rural school
+is a part. It ministers to the education of almost half of the American
+people. This industrial group are engaged in the most fundamental of all
+occupations, the one upon which all national welfare and progress
+depend. They control a large part of the wealth of the country, the
+capital invested in agriculture being more than double that invested in
+manufactures. Agricultural wealth is rapidly increasing, both through
+the rise in the value of land and through improved methods of farming.
+The conditions of life on the farm have greatly improved during the last
+decade. Rural telephones reach almost every home; free mail delivery is
+being rapidly extended in almost every section of the country; the
+automobile is coming to be a part of the equipment of many farms; and
+the trolley is rapidly pushing out along the country roads.
+
+Yet, in spite of these hopeful tendencies, the rural community shows
+signs of deterioration in many places. Rural population is steadily
+decreasing in proportion to the total aggregate of population. Interest
+in education is at a low ebb, the farm children having educational
+opportunities below those of any other class of our people. For, while
+town and city schools have been improving until they show a high type of
+efficiency, the rural school has barely held its own, or has, in many
+places, even gone backward. The rural community confronts a puzzling
+problem which is still far from solution.
+
+Certain points of attack upon this problem are, however, perfectly clear
+and obvious. _First_, educational facilities must be improved for rural
+children, and their education be better adapted to farm life; _second_,
+greater opportunities must be provided for recreation and social
+intercourse for both young and old; _third_, the program of farm work
+must be arranged to allow reasonable time for rest and recreation;
+_fourth_, books, pictures, lectures, concerts, and entertainments must
+be as accessible to the farm as to the town. These conditions must be
+met, not because of the dictum of any person, but because they are a
+fundamental demand of human nature, and must be reckoned with.
+
+What, then, is the relation of the rural school to these problems of the
+rural community? How can it be a factor in their solution? What are its
+opportunities and responsibilities?
+
+
+_The adjustment of the rural school to its problem_
+
+As has been already stated, the problem of any type of school is to
+serve its constituency. This is to be done through relating the
+curriculum, the organization, and the teaching of the school to the
+immediate interests and needs of the people dependent on the school for
+their education. That the rural school has not yet fully adjusted itself
+to its problem need hardly be argued.
+
+It has as good material to work upon in the boys and girls from the farm
+as any type of schools in the country. They come of good stock; they
+are healthy and vigorous; and they are early trained to serious work and
+responsibility. Yet a very large proportion of these children possess
+hardly the rudiments of an education when they quit the rural school.
+Many of them go to school for only a few months in the year, compulsory
+education laws either being laxly enforced or else altogether lacking. A
+very small percentage of the children of the farm ever complete eight
+grades of schooling, and not a large proportion finish more than half of
+this amount.
+
+This leaves the child who has to depend on the rural school greatly
+handicapped in education. He has but a doubtful proficiency in the
+mechanics of reading, and has read but little. He knows the elements of
+spelling, writing, and number, but has small skill in any of them. He
+knows little of history or literature, less of music, nothing of art,
+and has but a superficial smattering of science. Of matters relating to
+his life and activities on the farm he has heard almost nothing. The
+rural child is not illiterate, but he is too close to the border of
+illiteracy for the demands of a twentieth-century civilization; it is
+fair neither to the child nor to society.
+
+The rural school seems in some way relatively to have lost ground in
+our educational system. The grades of the town school have felt the
+stimulus of the high school for which they are preparing, and have had
+the care and supervision of competent administrators. The rural school
+is isolated and detached, and has had no adequate administrative system
+to care for its interests. No wonder, then, that certain grave faults in
+adjustment have grown up. A few of the most obvious of these faults may
+next claim our attention.
+
+_The rural school is inadequate in its scope._ The children of the farm
+have as much need for education and as much right to it as those who
+live in towns and cities. Yet the rural school as a rule never attempts
+to offer more than the eight grades of the elementary curriculum, and
+seldom reaches this amount. It not infrequently happens that no pupils
+are in attendance beyond the fifth or the sixth grade. This may be due
+either to the small number of children in the district, or, more often,
+to lack of interest to continue in school beyond the simplest elements
+of reading, writing, and number. It is true that certain States, such as
+Illinois and Wisconsin, have established a system of township high
+schools, where secondary education equal to that to be had in the
+cities is available to rural children. In other States a county high
+school is maintained for the benefit of rural school graduates. In still
+others, arrangements are made by which those who complete the eight
+grades of rural schools are received into the town high schools with the
+tuition paid by the rural school districts. The movement toward
+secondary education supplied by the rural community for its children is
+yet in its infancy, however, and has hardly touched the larger problem
+of affording adequate opportunities for the education of farm children.
+
+_The grading and organization of the rural school is haphazard and
+faulty._ This is partly because of the small enrollment and irregular
+attendance, and partly because of the inexperience and lack of
+supervision of the teacher. Children are often found pursuing studies in
+three or four different grades at the same time. And even more often
+they omit altogether certain fundamental studies because they or their
+parents have a notion that these studies are unnecessary. Sometimes,
+owing to the small number in attendance, or to the poor classification,
+several grades are entirely lacking, or else they are maintained for
+only one or two pupils. On the other hand, classes are often found
+following each other at an interval of only a few weeks, thereby
+multiplying classes until the teacher is frequently attempting the
+impossible task of teaching twenty-five or thirty classes a day.
+Children differing in age by five or six years, and possessing
+corresponding degrees of ability, are often found reciting in the same
+classes. That efficient work is impossible under these conditions is too
+obvious to require discussion.
+
+_The rural schools possess inadequate buildings and equipment._ The
+average rural schoolhouse consists of one room, with perhaps a small
+hallway. The building is constructed without reference to architectural
+effect, resembling nothing so much as a large box with a roof on it. It
+is barren and uninviting as to its interior. The walls are often of
+lumber painted some dull color, and dingy through years of use. The
+windows are frequently dirty, and covered only by worn and tattered
+shades. There is usually no attempt to decorate the room with pictures,
+or to relieve its ugliness and monotony in any way. The library consists
+of a few dozens of volumes, not always supplied with a case for their
+protection. Of apparatus there is almost none. The work of the farm is
+done with efficient modern equipment, the work of the farmer's school
+with inadequate and antiquated equipment.
+
+While the length of the school year is increasing in the rural
+districts, _the term is yet much shorter than in town and city schools_.
+Many communities have not more than six months of school, and few more
+than eight. This shortage is rendered all the more serious by the
+irregular attendance of the rural school children. A considerable amount
+of absence on the part of the younger ones is unavoidable under present
+conditions when the distance is great and the weather bad. After all
+allowance is made for this fact, however, there is still an immense
+amount of unnecessary waste of time through non-attendance. Many rural
+schools show an average attendance for the year of not more than sixty
+per cent of the enrollment. Going to school is not yet considered a
+serious business by many of the rural patrons, and truant officers are
+not so easily available in the country as in the city.
+
+_In financial support the rural school has of necessity been behind the
+city school._ Wealth is not piled up on a small area in agricultural
+communities as is the case in the city. It would often require square
+miles of land to equal in value certain city blocks. But making full
+allowance for this difference, the farmers have not supported their
+schools as well as is done by the patrons of town and city schools. The
+school taxes for rural districts are much lower than in city districts,
+in most instances not more than half as high. It is this conservatism in
+expenditure that is responsible for many of the defects in the rural
+school, and particularly for the relatively inefficient teaching that is
+done. The rural teachers are the least educated, the least experienced,
+and the most poorly paid of any class of our teachers. They consist
+almost wholly of girls, a large proportion of whom are under twenty
+years of age, and who continue teaching not more than a year or two. Not
+only is this the case, but effective supervision of the teaching is
+wholly impossible because of the large area assigned to the county or
+district superintendent of rural schools. In no great industrial project
+should we think of placing our youngest and most inexperienced workers
+in the hardest and most important positions, and this without
+supervision of their work.
+
+The rural school has not, therefore, yet been adjusted to its problem.
+It has a splendid field of work, but is not developing it. Our farming
+population have capacity for education and need it, but they are not
+securing it. There is plenty of money available for the support of the
+rural school, but the school is not getting it. Enough well-equipped
+teachers can be had for the rural schools, but the standards have not
+yet required adequate preparation, nor the pay been sufficient to
+warrant extensive expenditure for it.
+
+In the rural school is found the most important and puzzling educational
+problem of the present day. If our agricultural population are not to
+fall behind other favored classes of industrial workers in intelligence
+and preparation for the activities that are to engage them, the rural
+school must begin working out a better adjustment to its problem. Its
+curriculum must be broader and richer, and more closely related to the
+life and interests of the farm. The organization of the school, both on
+the intellectual and the social side, must bring it more closely into
+touch with the interests and needs of the rural community. The support
+and administration of rural education must be improved. Teachers for the
+rural schools must be better educated and better paid, and their
+teaching must be correspondingly more efficient. The following pages
+will be given to a discussion of these problems of adjustment.
+
+
+
+
+II
+
+THE SOCIAL ORGANIZATION OF THE RURAL SCHOOL
+
+
+Every school possesses two types of organization: (1) an _intellectual_
+organization involving the selection and arrangement of a curriculum,
+and its presentation through instruction; and (2) a _social_
+organization involving, on the one hand, the inter-relations of the
+school and the community, and on the other the relations of the pupils
+with each other and the teacher.
+
+
+_The rural school and the community_
+
+The rural school and community are not at present in vital touch with
+each other. The community is not getting enough from the school toward
+making life larger, happier, and more efficient; it is not giving enough
+to the school either in helpful coöperation or financial support.
+
+In general, it must be said that most of our rural people, the patrons
+of the rural school, have not yet conceived education broadly. They
+think of the school as having fulfilled its function when it has
+supplied the simplest rudiments of reading, writing, and number. And,
+naturally enough, the rural school has conceived its function in the
+same narrow light; for it is controlled very completely by its patrons,
+and a stream cannot rise higher than its source.
+
+Because of its isolation, the pressing insistence of its toil, and the
+monotony of its environment, the rural community is in constant danger
+of intellectual and social stagnation. It has far more need that its
+school shall be a stimulating, organizing, socializing force than has
+the town or city. For the city has a dozen social centres entirely
+outside the school: its public parks, theatres, clubs, churches, and
+streets, even, serve to stimulate, entertain, and educate. But the rural
+community is wanting in all these social forces; it is lacking in both
+intellectual and social stimulus and variety.
+
+One of the most pressing needs of country districts is a common
+neighborhood center for both young and old, which shall stand as an
+organizing, welding, vitalizing force, uniting the community on a basis
+of common interests and activities. For while, as we have seen, the
+rural population as a whole are markedly homogeneous, there is after
+all but little of common acquaintanceship and mingling among them.
+Thousands of rural families live lives of almost complete social
+isolation and lack of contact with neighbors.
+
+This condition is one of the gravest drawbacks to farm life. The social
+impulse and the natural desire for recreation and amusement are as
+strong in country boys and girls as in their city cousins, yet the
+country offers young people few opportunities for satisfying these
+impulses and desires. The normal social tendencies of youth are
+altogether too strong to be crushed out by repression; they are too
+valuable to be neglected; and they are too dangerous to be left to take
+their own course wholly unguided. The rural community can never hope to
+hold its boys and girls permanently to the life of the farm until it has
+recognized the necessity for providing for the expression and
+development of the spontaneous social impulses of youth.
+
+Furthermore, the social monotony and lack of variety of the rural
+community is a grave moral danger to its young people. It is a common
+impression that the great city is strewn thick with snares and pitfalls
+threatening to morals, but that the country is free from such
+temptations. The public dance halls and cheap theaters of the city are
+beyond doubt a great and constant menace to youthful ideals and purity.
+But the country, going to the opposite extreme, with its almost utter
+lack of recreation and amusement places, offers temptations no less
+insidious and fatal.
+
+The great difficulty at this point is that young people in rural
+communities are thrown together almost wholly in isolated pairs instead
+of in social groups; and that there are no objective resources of
+amusement or entertainment to claim their interest and attention away
+from themselves. They are freed from all chaperonage and the restraints
+of the conventions obtaining in social groups at the very time in their
+lives when these are most needed as steadying and controlling forces.
+The result is that the country districts, which ought to be of all
+places in the world the freest from temptation and peril to the morals
+of our young people, are really more dangerous than the cities. The
+sequel is found in the fact that a larger proportion of country girls
+than of city girls go astray. Nor is the rural community more successful
+in the morals of its boys than its girls. In other words, the lack of
+opportunities for free and normal social experience, the consequent
+ignorance of social conventions, and the absence of healthful amusement
+and recreation, make the rural community a most unsafe place in which
+to rear a family.
+
+But the necessity for social recreation and amusement does not apply to
+the young people alone. Their fathers and mothers are suffering from the
+same limitations, though of course with entirely different results. The
+danger here is that of premature aging and stagnation. While the toil of
+the city worker is relieved by change and variety, his mind rested and
+his mood enlivened by the stimulus from many lines of diversion, the
+lives of the dwellers on the farm are constantly threatened by a deadly
+sameness and monotony.
+
+The indisputable tendency of farmers and their wives to age so rapidly,
+and so early to fall into the ranks of "fogyism," is due far more to
+lack of variety and recreation and to dearth of intellectual stimulus
+than to hard labor, severe as this often is. Age is more than the flight
+of the years, the stoop of the form, or the hardening of the arteries;
+it is also the atrophy of the intellect and the fading away of the
+emotions resulting from disuse. The farmer needs occasionally to have
+something more exciting than the alternation of the day's work with the
+nightly "chores." And his wife should now and then have an opportunity
+to meet people other than those for whom she cooks and sews.
+
+But what has all this to do with the social organization of the rural
+school? Much. The country cannot have its theaters, parks, and crowded
+thoroughfares like the city. But it needs and must have _some_ social
+center, where its people may assemble for recreation, entertainment, and
+intellectual growth and development. And what is more natural and
+feasible than that the public school should be this center? Here is an
+institution already belonging to the whole people, and set apart for the
+intellectual training of the young. Why should it not also be made to
+minister to the intellectual needs of their elders as well, and to the
+social needs of all? _Why should not the public school building, now in
+use but six hours a day for little more than half the year, be open at
+all times when it can be helpful to any portion of the community?_
+
+If young people are to develop naturally, if they are to make full use
+of their social as well as their intellectual powers, if they are to be
+satisfied with their surroundings, they must be provided with suitable
+opportunities for social mingling and recreation in groups. This is
+nature's way; there is no other way. The school might and should afford
+this opportunity. There is not the least reason why the school building,
+when it is adapted to this purpose, should not be the common
+neighborhood meeting place for all sorts of young people's parties,
+picnics, entertainments, athletic contests, and every other form of
+amusement approved in the community.
+
+Such a use of the school property would yield large returns to the
+community for the small additional expense required. It would serve to
+weld the school and community more closely together. It would vastly
+change the attitude of the young toward the school. It would save much
+of the dissatisfaction of young people with the life of the farm. It
+would prove a great safeguard to youthful morals. It would lead the
+community itself to a new sense of its duty toward the social life of
+the young, and to a new concept of the school as a part of the community
+organization. Finally, this broadened service of the school to its
+community would have a reflex influence on the school itself, vitalizing
+every department of its activities, and giving it a new vision of its
+opportunities.
+
+The first obstacle that will appear in the way of such a plan is the
+inadequacy of the present type of country schoolhouse. And this is a
+serious matter; for the barren, squalid little building of the present
+day would never fit into such a project. But this type of schoolhouse
+must go--is going. It is a hundred years behind our civilization, and
+wholly inadequate to present needs. Passing for later discussion the
+method by which these buildings are to be supplanted by better ones, let
+us consider further the details of the plan of making the school the
+neighborhood center.
+
+First of all, each school must supply a larger area and a greater number
+of people than at present. It is financially impossible to erect good
+buildings to the number of our present schools. Nor are there pupils
+enough in the small district as now organized to make a school, nor
+people enough successfully to use the school as a neighborhood center.
+
+Let each township, or perhaps somewhat smaller area, select a central,
+well-adapted site and thereon erect a modern, well-equipped school
+building. But this building must not be just the traditional schoolhouse
+with its classrooms and rows of desks. For it is to be more than a place
+where the children will study and recite lessons from books; it is to be
+the place where all the people of the neighborhood, _old and young_,
+will assemble for entertainment, amusement, and instruction. Here will
+be held community picnics, social entertainments, young people's
+parties, lectures, concerts, debating contests, agricultural courses for
+the farmers, school programs, spreads and banquets, and whatever else
+may belong to the common social and intellectual life of the community.
+
+The modern rural school building will therefore be home-like as well as
+school-like. In addition to its classrooms it will contain an assembly
+room capable of seating several hundred people. The seating of this room
+may be removable so that the floor can be cleared for social purposes or
+the room used for a dining-room. One or two smaller rooms will be needed
+for social functions, club and committee meetings. These rooms should be
+made attractive with good furniture, rugs, couches, and pictures. The
+building will contain well-equipped laboratories for manual training and
+domestic science, the latter of which will be found serviceable in
+connection with serving picnics, "spreads," and the like. The entire
+building should be architecturally attractive, well heated and
+ventilated, commodious, well furnished, and decorated with good
+pictures. In it should be housed a library containing several thousand
+well-selected books, besides magazines and newspapers. The laboratories
+and equipment should be fully equal to those found in the town schools,
+but should be adapted to the work of the rural school.
+
+The grounds surrounding the rural school building can easily be ample in
+area, and beautiful in outlook and decoration. Here will be the
+neighborhood athletic grounds for both boys and girls, shade trees for
+picnics, flowers and shrubs, and ground enough for a school garden
+connected with the instruction in agriculture. Nor is it too much to
+believe that the district will in the future erect on the school grounds
+a cottage for the principal of the school and his family, and thus offer
+an additional inducement for strong, able men to devote their energies
+to education in the rural communities.
+
+Now contrast this schoolhouse and equipment with the typical rural
+building of the present. Adjoining a prosperous farm, with its large
+house, its accompanying barns, silos, machine houses, and all the
+equipment necessary to modern farming, is the little schoolhouse. It is
+a dilapidated shell of a rectangular box, barren of every vestige of
+beauty or attractiveness both inside and out. At the rear are two
+outbuildings which are an offense to decency and a menace to morals.
+Within the schoolhouse the painted walls are dingy with smoke and grime.
+The windows are broken and dirty, no pictures adorn the walls. The floor
+is washed but once or twice a year. The room is heated by an ugly box of
+a stove, and ventilated only by means of windows which frequently are
+nailed shut. The grounds present a wilderness of weeds, rubbish, and
+piles of ashes. It is all an outrage against the rights of the country
+child, and an indictment of the intelligence and ideals of a large
+proportion of our people.
+
+If it is said that the plan proposed to remedy this situation is
+revolutionary, it will be admitted. What our rural schools of to-day
+need is _not improvement but reorganization_. For only in this radical
+way can they be made a factor in the vitalizing and conserving of the
+rural community which, unless some new leaven is introduced, is surely
+destined to disorganization and decay.
+
+
+_The consolidation of rural schools_
+
+The first step in reorganizing the rural schools is _consolidation_. Our
+rural school organization, buildings, and equipment are a full century
+behind our industrial and social advancement. The present plan of
+attempting to run a school on approximately every four square miles of
+territory originated at a time of poverty, and when the manufacturing
+industries were all carried on in the homes and small shops. Our rural
+people are now well-to-do, and manufacturing has moved over into a
+well-organized set of factories; but the isolated little school,
+shamefully housed, meagerly equipped, poorly attended, and unskillfully
+taught, still remains.
+
+Such a system of schools leaves our rural people educationally on a par
+with the days of cradling the grain and threshing it with a flail; of
+planting corn by hand and cultivating it with a hoe; of lighting the
+house with a tallow dip, and traveling by stage-coach.
+
+The well-meant attempts to "improve" the rural school as now organized
+are futile. The proposal to solve the problem by raising the standards
+for teachers, desirable as this is; by the raising of salaries; or by
+bettering the type of the little schoolhouse, are at best but temporary
+makeshifts, and do not touch the root of the problem. The first and most
+fundamental step is to eliminate the little shacks of houses that dot
+our prairies every two miles along the country roads.
+
+For not only is it impossible to supply adequate buildings so near
+together, but it is even more impossible to find children enough to
+constitute a real school in such small districts. There is no way of
+securing a full head of interest and enthusiasm with from five to ten or
+twelve pupils in a school. The classes are too small and the number of
+children too limited to permit the organization of proper games and
+plays, or a reasonable variety of association through mingling together.
+
+Furthermore, it will never be possible to pay adequate salaries to the
+teachers in these small schools. Nor will any ambitious and
+well-prepared teacher be willing to remain in such a position, where he
+is obliged to invest his time and influence with so few pupils, and
+where all conditions are so adverse.
+
+The chief barrier to the centralization of rural education has been
+local prejudice and pride. In many cases a true sentimental value has
+attached to "the little red schoolhouse." Its praises have been sung,
+and orator and writer have expanded upon the glories of our common
+schools, until it is no wonder that their pitiful inadequacy has been
+overlooked by many of their patrons.
+
+In other cases opposition has arisen to giving up the small local
+school because of the selfish fear that the loss of the school would
+lower the value of adjacent property. Still others have feared that
+consolidation would mean higher school taxes, and have opposed it upon
+this ground.
+
+But whatever the causes of the opposition to consolidation, this
+opposition must cease before the rural school can fulfill its function
+and before the rural child can have educational opportunities even
+approximating those given the town child. And until this is
+accomplished, the exodus from the farm will continue and ought to
+continue. Pride, prejudice, and penury must not be allowed to deprive
+the farm boys and girls of their right to education and normal
+development.
+
+The movement toward consolidation of rural schools and transportation of
+the children to a central school has already attained considerable
+headway in many regions of the country.[1] It is now a part of the rural
+school system in thirty-two States. Massachusetts, the leader in
+consolidation, began in 1869. The movement at first grew slowly in all
+the States, not only having local opposition to overcome, but also
+meeting the problem of bad country roads interfering with the
+transportation of pupils.
+
+During the past half-dozen years, however, consolidation has been
+gaining headway, and is now going on at least five times as fast as the
+average for the twenty-five years preceding 1906. Indiana is at present
+the banner State in the rapidity of consolidation, the expenditure for
+conveyance having considerably more than trebled since 1904. The broad
+and general sweep of the movement, together with the fact that it is
+practically unheard of for schools that have once tried consolidation to
+go back to the old system, seems to indicate that the rural education of
+the not distant future will, except in a few regions, be carried on in
+consolidated schools.
+
+The relative cost of maintaining district and consolidated schools is an
+important factor. Yet this factor must not be given undue prominence. It
+is true that the cost of education must be kept at a reasonable ratio
+with the standard of living of a community. But it is also true that the
+consolidated rural school must be looked upon as an indispensable
+country-life institution, and hence as having claim to a more generous
+basis of support than that accorded the district school.
+
+While it is impossible, owing to such widely varying conditions, to
+make an absolutely exact statement of the relative expense of the two
+types of schools, yet it has been shown in many different instances that
+the cost of schooling per day in consolidated schools is but slightly,
+if any, above that in most district schools.
+
+The aggregate annual cost is usually somewhat higher in the consolidated
+schools, owing to the fact of a greatly increased attendance. A
+comparison made between the cost per day's schooling in the smaller
+district schools and consolidated schools almost invariably shows a
+lower expenditure for the latter. For example, the fifteen districts in
+Hardin County, Iowa, having in 1908 an enrollment of nine or less,
+averaged a cost of 27.5 cents a day for each pupil.[2] At the same time
+the cost per day in the consolidated rural schools of northeastern Ohio
+was only 17.4 cents a day, the district schools being more than
+fifty-seven per cent higher than the consolidated. Similar comparisons
+show the same trend in many other localities. In a great many of the
+small district schools the cost per pupil is as high as in consolidated
+schools where a high school course is also provided. It has been found
+that the average cost per year of schooling a child in a consolidated
+school is but little above thirty dollars, while in practically all
+smaller district schools it far exceeds this amount, not infrequently
+going above fifty dollars. This means that average rural districts that
+are putting at least thirty dollars a year into the schooling of each
+child can, by consolidating their schools, secure greatly improved
+educational facilities with no heavier financial burden.
+
+Not the least important of the advantages growing out of rural school
+consolidation is the improved attendance. Experience has shown that
+fully twenty-five per cent more children of school age are enrolled
+under the consolidated than under the district system. The advantage of
+this one factor alone can hardly be over-estimated, but the increase in
+regularity of attendance is also as great. The average daily attendance
+of rural schools throughout the country is approximately sixty per cent
+of the enrollment, and in entire States falls below fifty per cent. It
+has been found that consolidation, with its attendant conveyance of
+pupils, commonly increases the average daily attendance by as much as
+twenty-five per cent.
+
+It is true that in many regions it may at present prove impossible to
+consolidate all the rural schools. In places where the population is so
+sparse as to require transportation for very long distances, or where
+the country roads are still in such a condition in wet seasons as to be
+practically impassable, consolidation must of necessity be delayed. In
+such communities, however, the rural school need not be completely at a
+standstill. Much can be done to make even the one-room schoolhouse
+attractive and hygienic. With almost no expense, the grounds can be set
+with shade trees, shrubs, and perennial flowering plants. The yard can
+be made into a lawn in front, and into an athletic ground at the sides
+or the rear. Enough ground can be added to provide for all these things,
+and a school garden besides. The building can be rendered more inviting
+through better architecture, and more attention to decoration and
+cleanliness. An adequate supply of books and other equipment can be
+provided. While the isolated rural school can never take the place of
+the consolidated school, while it should always be looked upon as only
+temporarily occupying a place later to be filled by a more efficient
+type of school, it can after all be rendered much more efficient than it
+is at present. And since the one-room school will without doubt for
+years to come be required as a supplement of the consolidated school,
+it should receive the same careful thought and effort toward its
+improvement that is being accorded the school of better type.
+
+
+_Financial support of the rural school_
+
+The rural school has never had adequate financial support. There has
+been good reason for this in many regions of the country where farm
+property was low in value, the land sparsely settled and not all
+improved, or else covered by heavy mortgages. As these conditions have
+gradually disappeared and the agricultural population become more
+prosperous, the school has in some degree shared the general prosperity.
+But not fully. A smaller proportion of the margin of wealth above living
+necessities is going into rural education now than in the earlier days
+of less prosperity. While the farmer has vastly "improved" his farm, he
+has improved his school but little. While he has been adding modern
+machinery and adopting scientific methods in caring for his grain and
+stock, his children have not had the advantage of an increasingly
+efficient school.
+
+The poverty of the rural school finds its explanation in two facts: (1)
+the relatively low value of the taxable property of the rural as
+compared with the town or city district, and (2) the lower rate of local
+school tax paid in country than in urban districts. The first of these
+disadvantages of the rural district cannot be remedied; but for the
+second, there seems to be no valid economic reason.
+
+The approximate difference in the local school-tax rate paid in urban
+and rural districts is shown in the following instances, which might be
+duplicated from other States:--
+
+In Kansas, the local school tax paid in 1910 by towns and cities was
+above eighty per cent more than that paid by country districts. In
+Missouri, the current report of the State Superintendent shows towns and
+cities seventy-five per cent higher than the country. In Minnesota,
+towns and cities average nearly three times the rate paid by rural
+districts. In Ohio, towns and cities are more than ten per cent higher
+than rural districts, even where the rural district maintains a full
+elementary and high school course. In Nebraska and Iowa, the town and
+city rate is about double that of country districts.
+
+When there is added to this difference the further fact that town and
+city property is commonly assessed at more nearly its full value than
+rural property, the discrepancy becomes all the greater.
+
+It is not meant, of course, that farmers should pay as high a school-tax
+rate for the elementary rural school as that paid by town patrons who
+also have a high school available. But, on the other hand, if better
+school facilities are to be furnished the country children, rural
+property should bear its full share of the taxes required. The farmer
+should be willing to pay as much for the education of his child as the
+city dweller pays for a similar education for his.
+
+During the last generation farmers have been increasing in wealth faster
+than any other class of industrial workers. Their land has doubled in
+value, barns have been built, machinery has been added, automobiles
+purchased, and large bank credits established. Yet very little of this
+increased prosperity has reached the school. Library, reference works,
+maps, charts, and other apparatus are usually lacking. In Iowa, as a
+fair example, a sum of not less than ten nor more than fifteen cents a
+year for each pupil of school age in the district is required by law to
+be expended for library books. Yet in not a few districts the law is a
+dead letter or the money grudgingly spent! In many rural schools the
+teacher has to depend on the proceeds of a "social," an "exhibition,"
+or a "box party" to secure a few dollars for books or pictures for the
+neighborhood school, and sometimes even buys brooms and dust pans from
+the fund secured in this way.
+
+This is all wrong. The school should be put on a business basis. It
+should have the necessary tools with which to accomplish its work, and
+not be forced to waste the time and opportunity of childhood for want of
+a few dollars expended for equipment. Its patrons should realize that
+just as it pays to supply factory, shop, or farm with the best of
+instruments for carrying on the work, so it pays in the school. Cheap
+economy is always wasteful, and never more wasteful than when it
+cripples the efficiency of education.
+
+State aid for rural schools has been proposed and in some instances
+tried, as a mode of solving their financial problem. Where this system
+has been given a fair trial, as for example in Minnesota, it has
+resulted in two great advantages: (1) it has encouraged the local
+community to freer expenditure of their own money for school purposes,
+since the contribution of the State is conditioned on the amount
+expended by the district. This is an important achievement, since it
+serves to train the community to the idea of more liberal local
+taxation for school purposes, and it is probable that the greater part
+of the support of our schools will continue to come from this source.
+Another advantage of state aid is (2) that it serves to equalize
+educational opportunities, and hence to maintain a true educational
+democracy. Wealthier localities are caused to contribute to the
+educational facilities of those less favored, and a common advancement
+thereby secured.
+
+While the theory of state aid to rural education is wholly defensible,
+and while it has worked well in practice, yet there is one safeguard
+that needs to be considered. It is manifestly unfair to ask the people
+of towns and cities to help pay for the support of the rural schools
+through the medium of the State treasury except on condition that the
+patrons of the rural schools themselves do their fair share. Mr. "A,"
+living in a town where he pays twenty mills school tax, ought not to be
+asked to help improve Mr. "B's" rural school, while Mr. "B" is himself
+paying but ten mills of school tax. The farmer is as able as any one
+else to pay a fair rate of taxation for his school, and should be
+willing to do so before asking for aid from other taxation sources.
+Rural education must not be placed on the basis of a missionary
+enterprise. State aid should be used to compensate for the difference
+in the economic _basis_ for taxation in different localities, and not
+for a difference in the _rates_ of taxation between localities equally
+able to pay the same rate.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+We may conclude, then, that while neither the rural school nor the
+community has been fully aware of the possibilities for mutual
+helpfulness and coöperation, yet there are many hopeful signs that both
+are awakening to a sense of responsibility. Federal and state
+commissions have been created to study the rural problem, national and
+state teachers' associations are seeking a solution of the rural school
+question, and, better still, the patrons of the rural schools are in
+many places alive to the pressing need for better educational facilities
+for their children.
+
+Growing out of these influences and the faithful work of many state and
+county superintendents, and not a few of the rural teachers themselves,
+a spirit of progress is gaining headway. Several thousand consolidated
+schools are now rendering excellent service to their patrons and at the
+same time acting as a stimulus to other communities to follow their
+example. State aid to rural education is no longer an experiment. The
+people are in many localities voluntarily and gladly increasing their
+taxes in order that they may improve their schools. Teachers' salaries
+are being increased, better equipment provided, and buildings rendered
+more habitable.
+
+The great educational problem of the immediate future will be to
+encourage and guide the movement which is now getting under way. For
+mistakes made now will handicap both community and school for years to
+come. The attempt to secure better schools by "improving" conditions in
+local districts should be definitely abandoned except in localities
+where conditions make consolidation impracticable for the present. The
+new consolidated school building should take definitely into account the
+fact that the school is to become the _neighborhood social center_, and
+the structure should be planned as much with this function in view as
+with its uses for school purposes. The new type of rural school is not
+to aim simply to give a better intellectual training, but is at the same
+time to relate this training to the conditions and needs of our
+agricultural population. And all who have to do with the rural schools
+in any way are to seek to make the school a true vitalizing factor in
+the community--a leaven, whose influence shall permeate every line of
+interest and activity of its patrons and lead to a fuller and richer
+life.
+
+
+_The rural school and its pupils_
+
+One of the surest tests of any school is the attitude of the pupils--the
+spirit of loyalty, coöperation, and devotion they manifest with
+reference to their education. Do they, on the whole, look upon the
+school as an opportunity or an imposition? Do they consider it _their_
+school, and make its interests and welfare their concern, or do they
+think of it as the teacher's school, or the board's school or the
+district's school? These questions are of supreme importance, for the
+question of attitude, quite as much as that of ability, determines the
+use made of opportunity.
+
+It must be admitted that throughout our entire school system there
+remains something to be desired in the spirit of coöperation between
+pupils and schools. The feeling of loyalty which the child has for his
+home does not extend commensurately to the school. Too often the school
+is looked upon as something forced upon the child, for his welfare,
+perhaps, but after all not as forming an interesting and vital part of
+his present experience. It is often rather a place where so much time
+and effort and inconvenience must be paid for so many grades and
+promotions, and where, incidentally, preparation is supposed to be made
+for some future demands very dimly conceived. At best, there is
+frequently a lack of feeling of full identity of interests between the
+child and the school.
+
+The youth, immaturity, and blindness of childhood make it impossible, of
+course, for children to conceive of their school in a spirit of full
+appreciation. On the other hand, the very nature of childhood is
+responsiveness and readiness of coöperation in any form of interesting
+activity,--is loyalty of attitude toward what is felt to minister to
+personal happiness and well-being. In so far, therefore, as there exists
+any lack of loyalty and coöperation of pupils toward their school, the
+reasons for such defection are to be sought first of all in the school,
+and not in the child.
+
+While this negative attitude of the pupils exists in some degree in all
+our schools, it is undoubtedly more marked in our rural schools than in
+others. In a negligible number of cases does this lack of coöperation
+take the form of overt rebellion against the authority of the school. It
+is manifested in other ways, many of them wholly unconscious to the
+child, as, for example, lack of desire to attend school, and
+indifference to its activities when present.
+
+Attending school is the most important occupation that can engage the
+child. Yet the indifference of children and their parents alike to the
+necessity for schooling makes the small and irregular attendance of
+rural school pupils one of the most serious problems with which
+educators have to deal. County superintendents have in many places
+offered prizes and diplomas with the hope of bettering attendance, but
+such incentives do not reach the source of the difficulty. The remedy
+must finally lie in a fundamental change of attitude toward the school
+and its opportunities. Good attendance must spring from interest in the
+school work and a feeling of its value, rather than from any artificial
+incentives.
+
+How great a problem poor attendance at rural schools is, may be realized
+from the fact that, in spite of compulsory education laws, not more than
+seventy per cent of the children accessible to the rural school are
+enrolled, and of this number only about sixty per cent are in daily
+attendance. This is to say that under one half of our farm children are
+daily receiving the advantages of even the rural school. In some States
+this proportion will fall as low as three tenths instead of one half.
+In many rich agricultural counties of the Middle West, having a farming
+population of approximately ten thousand, not more than forty or fifty
+pupils per year complete the eight grades of the rural school.
+
+If the rural school is to be able to claim the regular attendance and
+spontaneous coöperation of the children it must (1) be reasonably
+accessible to them, (2) be attractive and interesting in itself, and (3)
+offer work the value and application of which are evident.
+
+The inaccessibility of the rural school has always been one of its
+greatest disadvantages. In a large proportion of cases, a walk of from a
+mile to a mile and a half along country roads or across cultivated
+fields has been required to reach the schoolhouse. During inclement
+weather, or when deep snow covers the ground, this distance proves
+almost prohibitive for all the smaller children. Wet feet and drenched
+clothing have been followed by severe colds, coughs, bronchitis, or
+worse, and the children have not only suffered educationally, but been
+endangered physically as well.
+
+It has been found in all instances that public conveyance of pupils to
+the consolidated schools greatly increases rural school patronage. It
+makes the school accessible. The regular wagon service does away with
+the "hit-and-miss" method of determining for each succeeding day whether
+it is advisable for the child to start for school. So important is this
+factor in securing attendance, that a careful study by Knorr[3] of the
+attendance in Ohio district and consolidated schools shows twenty-seven
+per cent more of the total school population in school under the
+influence of public conveyance and other features peculiar to
+consolidation than under the district system. He concludes that, broadly
+speaking, by a system of consolidated schools with public conveyance,
+rural school attendance can be increased by at least one fourth.
+
+The life in the typical rural school is not sufficiently interesting and
+attractive to secure a strong hold upon the pupils. The dreary ugliness
+of the physical surroundings has already been referred to. And even in
+districts where the building and grounds have been made reasonably
+attractive, there is yet wanting a powerful factor--the influence of the
+social incentive that comes from numbers. In hundreds of our rural
+schools the daily attendance is less than a dozen pupils, frequently not
+representing more than three or four families. The classes can therefore
+contain not more than two or three pupils, and often only one. There is
+no possibility of organizing games, or having the fun and frolic
+possible to larger groups of children. Add to this the fact that the
+teaching is often spiritless and uninspiring, and the reason becomes
+still more plain why so many rural children drop out of school with
+scarcely the rudiments of an education.
+
+Here, again, the consolidated school, with its attractive building, its
+improved equipment, its larger body of pupils, and its better teaching,
+appears as a solution of the difficulty. For it does what the present
+type of district school can never do--it makes school life interesting
+and attractive to its pupils, and this brings to bear upon them one of
+the strongest incentives to continue in school and secure an education.
+
+Finally, much of the work of the school has not appealed to the pupils
+as interesting or valuable. This has not been altogether the fault of
+the curriculum, but often has come from the lack of adaptability of the
+work to the pupils studying it. Through frequent changes of teachers,
+poor classification, and irregularity of attendance, rural pupils have
+often been forced to go over and over the same ground, without any
+reference to whether they were ready to advance or not. In other cases,
+careless grading has placed children in studies for which they were
+utterly unprepared, and from which they could get nothing but
+discouragement and dislike for school. In still other instances the
+course pursued has been ill-balanced, and in no degree correlated. Often
+the whim of the child determines whether he will or will not study
+certain subjects, the teacher lacking either the knowledge or insistence
+to bring about a better organization of the work.
+
+The unskilled character of the rural school-teaching force, and the
+impossibility of securing any reasonable supervision as the system is at
+present organized, make us again turn to the consolidated school as the
+remedy for these adverse conditions. For with its improved attendance,
+its skilled teaching, and its better supervision, it easily and
+naturally renders such conditions impossible. Give the consolidated
+school, in addition, the greatly enriched curriculum which it will find
+possible to offer its pupils, and the vexing question of the relation of
+the rural school to its pupils will be far toward solution.
+
+Let us next consider somewhat in detail the curriculum of the rural
+school.
+
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[Footnote 1: See "Consolidated Rural Schools," Bulletin 232, U. S.
+Department of Agriculture.]
+
+[Footnote 2: Bulletin 232, U. S. Department of Agriculture, p. 38.]
+
+[Footnote 3: Bulletin 232, U. S. Department of Agriculture, p. 51.]
+
+
+
+
+III
+
+THE CURRICULUM OF THE RURAL SCHOOL
+
+
+If we grant the economic ability to support good schools, then the
+curriculum offered by any type of school, the scope of subject-matter
+given the pupils to master, is a measure of the educational ideals of
+those maintaining and using the schools. If the curriculum is broad, and
+representative of the various great fields of human culture; if it
+relates itself to the life and needs of its patrons; if it is adapted to
+the interests and activities of its pupils, it may be said that the
+people believe in education as a right of the individual and as a
+preparation for successful living. But if, on the other hand, the
+curriculum is meager and narrow, consisting only of the rudiments of
+knowledge, and not related to the life of the people or the interests of
+the pupils, then it may well be concluded that education is not highly
+prized, that it is not understood, or that it is looked upon as an
+incidental.
+
+
+_The scope of the rural school curriculum_
+
+Modern conditions require a broader and more thorough education than
+that demanded by former times, and far more than the typical district
+rural school affords. The old-time school offered only the "three R's,"
+and this was thought sufficient for an education. But these times have
+passed. Not only has society greatly increased in wealth during the last
+half-century, but it has also grown much in intelligence. Many more
+people are being educated now than formerly, and they are also being
+vastly better educated. For the concept of what constitutes an education
+has changed, and the curriculum has grown correspondingly broader and
+richer.
+
+It is therefore no longer possible to express the educational status of
+a community in the percentage of people who can merely read and write.
+Educational progress has become a national ideal. The elementary schools
+in towns and cities have been greatly strengthened both in curriculum
+and teaching. High schools have been organized and splendidly equipped,
+and their attendance has rapidly increased.
+
+But all this development has hardly touched the rural school. The
+curriculum offered is pitifully narrow even for an elementary school,
+and very few high schools are supported by rural communities. In fact, a
+large proportion of our rural population are receiving an education but
+little in advance of that offered a hundred years ago in similar
+schools. This is not fair to the children born and reared on the farm;
+it is not fair to one of the greatest and most important industries of
+our country; and it cannot but result disastrously in the end.
+
+If the rural school is to meet its problem, it must extend the scope of
+its curriculum. It was formerly thought by many that education, except
+in its simplest elements, was only for those planning to enter the
+"learned professions." But this idea has given way before the onward
+sweep of the spirit of democracy, and we now conceive education as the
+right and duty of _all_. Nor by education do we mean the simple ability
+to read, write, and number.
+
+Our present-day civilization demands not only that the child shall be
+taught to read, but also that he shall be supplied with books and guided
+in his reading. Through reading as a tool he is to become familiar with
+the best in the world's literature and its history. He is not only to
+learn number, but is to be so educated that he may employ his number
+concepts in fruitful ways. He must not only be familiar with the
+mechanics of writing, but must have knowledge, interests, experience
+that will give him something to write about. The "three R's" are
+necessary tools, but they are only tools, and must be utilized in
+putting the child into possession of the best and most fruitful culture
+of the race. And, practically, they must put him into command of such
+phases of culture as touch his own life and experience and make him more
+efficient.
+
+The rural school cannot extend the scope of its curriculum simply by
+inserting in the present curriculum new studies related to the life and
+work of the farm. The modification must be deeper and more thoroughgoing
+than this. _A full elementary course of eight years and a high school
+course of four years should be easily accessible to every rural child._
+Less than this amount of education is inadequate to prepare for the life
+of the farm, and fails to put the individual into full possession of his
+powers. Nor, in most instances, should the high schooling be left to
+some adjacent town, which is to receive the rural pupils upon payment of
+tuition to the town district. Unless the town is small, and practically
+a part of the rural community, it cannot supply, either in the
+subject-matter of the curriculum or the spirit of the school, the type
+of education that the rural children should have. For in so far as the
+town or city high school leads to any specific vocation, it certainly
+does not lead toward industrial occupations, and least of all toward
+agriculture. It rather prepares for the professions, or for business
+careers. Its tendency is very strongly to draw the boys and girls away
+from the farm instead of preparing them for it.
+
+While the rural child, therefore, must be provided with a better and
+broader education, he should usually not be sent to town to get it. If
+he is, the chances are that he will stay in town and be lost to the
+farm. Indeed, this is precisely what has been happening; the town or
+city high school has been turning the country boy away from the farm.
+For not only does what one studies supply his knowledge; it also
+determines his _attitude_.
+
+If the curriculum contains no subject-matter related to the immediate
+experience and occupation of the pupil, his education is certain to
+entice him away from his old interests and activities. The farm boy
+whose studies lack all point of contact with his life and work will soon
+either lose interest in the curriculum or turn his back upon the farm.
+If the boys and girls born on the farm are to be retained in this form
+of industry, the rural school must be broadened to give them an
+education equal to that afforded by town or city for its youth. If the
+rural community cannot accomplish this end, it has no claim on the
+loyalty and service of its youth. Rural children have a right to a
+well-organized, well-equipped, and well-taught elementary school of
+eight years and a high school of four years, with a curriculum adapted
+especially to their interests and needs.
+
+It is not meant, of course, that the rural school, with its present
+organization and administration, can extend the scope of its curriculum
+to make it the equal of that offered in the grades of the town or city
+school. Radical changes, such as those discussed in the preceding
+chapter, will have to be made in the rural district system before this
+is possible. That these changes are being made and the full elementary
+and high school course offered in many consolidated rural schools,
+scattered from Florida to Idaho, is proof both of the feasibility of the
+plan and of an awakened public demand for better rural education.
+
+The broadened curriculum of the rural school must contain subject-matter
+especially related to the interests and activities of the farm; upon
+this all are agreed. But it must not stop with vocational subjects
+alone. For, while one's vocation is fundamental, it is not all of life.
+Education should help directly in making a living; it must also help to
+live. Broad and permanent lines of interest must be set up and trained
+to include many forms of experience. The child must come to know
+something of the great social institutions of his day and of the history
+leading to their development. He must become familiar with the marvelous
+scientific discoveries and inventions underlying our modern
+civilization. He must be led to feel appreciation for the beautiful in
+art, literature, and music; and must have nurtured in his life a love
+for goodness and truth in every form. In short, through the curriculum
+the latent powers constituting the life capital of every normal child
+are to be stimulated and developed to the end that his life shall be
+more than mere physical existence--to the end that it shall be crowned
+with fullness of knowledge, richness of feeling, and the victory of
+worthy achievement. This is the right of every child in these prosperous
+and enlightened times,--the right of the country child as well as the
+city child. And society will not have done its duty in providing for the
+education of its youth until the children of the farm have full
+opportunities for such development.
+
+
+_The rural elementary school curriculum_
+
+By the elementary school is meant the eight grades of work below the
+high school which the rural school is now meant to cover.
+
+Whatever is put into the curriculum of a nation's schools finally
+becomes a part of national character and achievement. What the children
+study in school comes to determine their attitudes and shape their
+aptitudes. The old Greek philosophers, becoming teachers of youth,
+turned the nation into a set of students and disputants over
+philosophical questions. Sparta taught her boys the arts of war, and
+became the chief military nation of her time. Germany introduces
+technological studies into her schools, and becomes the leading country
+in the world in the arts of manufacture. Let any people emphasize in
+their schools the studies that lead to commercial and professional
+interests, and neglect those that prepare for industrial vocations, and
+the industrial welfare of the nation is sure to suffer.
+
+The curriculum of the rural school must, therefore, contain the basic
+subjects that belong to all culture,--the studies that every normal,
+intelligent person should have just because he belongs to the
+twentieth-century civilization, and in addition must include the
+subjects that afford the knowledge and develop the attitude and
+technique belonging to the life of the farm. Let us now consider this
+curriculum somewhat more in detail.
+
+_The mother tongue._ Mastery of his mother tongue is the birthright of
+every child. He should first of all be able to speak it correctly and
+with ease. He should next be able to read it with comprehension and
+enjoyment, and should become familiar with the best in its literature.
+He should be able to write it with facility, both as to its spelling and
+its composition. Finally, he should know something of the structure, or
+grammar, of the language.
+
+This requirement suggests the content of the curriculum as to English.
+The child must be given opportunity to use the language orally; he must
+be led to talk. But this implies that he must have something to say, and
+be interested in saying it. Formal "language lessons," divorced from all
+the child's interests and activities, will not meet the purpose.
+Facility in speech grows out of enthusiasm in speaking. Every recitation
+is a lesson in English, and should be used for this purpose; nor should
+the aim be correctness only, but ease and fluency as well.
+
+The child must also learn to read; not alone to pronounce the printed
+words of a page, but to grasp the thought and feeling, and express them
+in oral reading. This presupposes a mastery of the mechanics of reading,
+the letters, words, and marks employed. The only way to learn to read is
+by reading. This is true whether we refer to learning the mechanics of
+reading, to learning the apprehension and expression of thought, or to
+learning the art of appreciating and enjoying good literature.
+
+Yet, trite and self-evident as this truism is, it is constantly violated
+in teaching reading in the rural school. For the course in reading
+usually consists of a series of five readers, expected to cover seven or
+eight years of study. These readers contain less than one hundred pages
+of reading matter to the year, or but little more than half a page a day
+for the time the child should be in school. The result is that the same
+reader is read over and over, to no purpose. With a rich literature
+available for each of the eight years of the elementary school,
+comparatively few of the rural schools have supplied either
+supplementary readers or other reading books for the use of the
+children.
+
+The result is that most rural school children learn to read but
+stumblingly, and seldom attain sufficient skill and taste in reading so
+that it becomes a pleasure. Such a situation as this indicates the same
+lack of wisdom that would be shown in employing willing and skillful
+workmen to garner a rich harvest, and then sending them into the fields
+with wholly insufficient and inadequate tools. The rural school must not
+only teach the child the mechanics of reading, but lead him to read and
+love good books. This can be done only _by supplying the books and
+giving the child an opportunity to read them_.
+
+Comparatively few people like to write. The pathway of expression finds
+its way out more easily through the tongue than through the hand. Yet it
+is highly necessary that every one should in this day be able to write.
+Nor does this mean merely the ability to form letters into words and put
+them down with a pen so that they are legible. This is a fundamental
+requisite, but the mastery of penmanship, spelling, and punctuation is,
+however, only a beginning. One must be able to formulate his thoughts
+easily, to construct his sentences correctly, and to make his writing
+effective; he must learn the art of composition.
+
+Here again the principle already stated applies. The way to learn to
+write is by writing; not just by the dreary treadmill of practicing
+upon formal "compositions," but by having something to write that one
+cares to express. The written language lessons should, therefore, always
+grow out of the real interests and activities of the child in the home,
+the school, or on the farm, and should include the art of
+letter-writing, argumentation and exposition, as well as narration and
+description.
+
+The subject of formal grammar has little or no place in the grades of
+the elementary school. The grammatical relations of the language are
+complicated and beyond the power of the child at an early age. Nor does
+the study of such relations result in efficiency in the use of language,
+as is commonly supposed. Children are compelled in many schools to waste
+weary years in the study of logical relations they are too young to
+comprehend, when they should be reading, speaking, and writing their
+mother tongue under the stimulus and guidance of a teacher who is
+himself a worthy and enthusiastic model in the use of speech. Only the
+simpler grammatical forms and relations should be taught in the grades,
+and these should have immediate application to oral and written speech.
+
+_Arithmetic._ Arithmetic has for more than two hundred years formed an
+important part of the elementary school curriculum. It has been taught
+with the double object of affording mental discipline for the child, and
+of putting him into possession of an important tool of practical
+knowledge. It is safe to say that a large proportion of the patrons of
+the rural schools of the present look upon arithmetic as the most
+important subject taught in the school after the simple mechanics of
+reading. Ability to "cipher" has been thought of as constituting a large
+and important part of the educational equipment of the practical man.
+
+Without doubt, number is an essential part of the education of the
+child. Yet there is nothing in the mere art of numbering things as we
+meet them in daily experience that should make arithmetic require so
+large a proportion of time as it has been receiving. The child is
+usually started in number in the first grade, and continues it the full
+eight years of the elementary course, finally devoting three or more
+years of the high school course to its continued study. Thus, nearly one
+fourth of the entire school time of the pupil is demanded by the various
+phases of the number concept.
+
+The only ground upon which the expenditure of this large proportion of
+time upon number can be defended is that of _discipline_. And modern
+psychology and experimental pedagogy have shown the folly and waste of
+setting up empty discipline as an educational aim. Education time is too
+short, and the amount of rich and valuable material waiting to be
+mastered too great, to devote golden years to a relatively barren grind.
+
+It is probable that at least half the time at present devoted to
+arithmetic in the elementary school could be given to other subjects
+with no loss to the child's ability in number, and with great gain to
+his education as a whole. Not that the child knows number any too well
+now. He does not. In fact, few children finishing the elementary school
+possess any considerable degree of ability in arithmetic. They can work
+rather hard problems, if they have a textbook, and the answers by which
+to test their results. But give them a practical problem from the home,
+the farm, or the shop, and the chances are two to one that they cannot
+secure a correct result. This is not the fault of the child, but the
+fault of the kind of arithmetic he has been given, and the way it has
+been taught. We have taught him the solution of various difficult,
+analytical problems not in the least typical of the concrete problems
+to be met daily outside of school; but we have not taught him to add,
+subtract, multiply, and divide with rapidity and accuracy. We have
+required him to solve problems containing fractions with large and
+irreducible denominators such as are never met in the business world,
+but he cannot readily and with certainty handle numbers expressed in
+halves, thirds, quarters, fifths, and eighths. He has been compelled to
+sacrifice practical business efficiency in number to an attempt to train
+his powers of logical analysis.
+
+The arithmetic of the district school should be greatly simplified and
+reduced in quantity. Its quality should be greatly improved both as to
+accuracy and speed in the fundamental operations and in the various
+concrete types of problems to be met in the home, on the farm, and in
+the shop. There need be no fear that the mental training will be less
+efficient with this type of arithmetic. For mental development comes
+only where there is mastery, and there is no mastery of the arithmetic
+as it is taught in the rural school to-day.
+
+_History and civics._ Every American child should know the history and
+mode of government of his country. This is true first of all because
+this knowledge is necessary to intelligent participation in the affairs
+of a republic; but it is also necessary to the right development of the
+individual that he shall realize something of the heroism and sacrifice
+required to produce the civilization which he enjoys. Every person needs
+to extend his thought and appreciation until it is large enough to
+include other peoples and times than his own. For only in this way can
+he come to feel kinship with the race at large, and thus save himself
+from provincialism and narrowness.
+
+This is equivalent to saying that the curriculum should afford ample
+opportunity for the study of history. Nor should the history given the
+child deal chiefly with the military and political activities of the
+nation. Many text books have been little more than an account of wars
+and politics. These are not the aspects of national life that most
+interest and concern the child, especially at the age when he is in the
+elementary school. He should at this time be told about the _people_ of
+his country,--their home life, their industries, their schools and
+churches, their bravery, their hardships, adventures, and achievements.
+He must come to know something of the great men and women of his Nation
+and State, the writers, inventors, explorers, scientists, artists, and
+musicians, as well as the soldiers and statesmen.
+
+Not only does this require that the child shall have suitable textbooks
+in history, but that he shall also have an adequate library of
+interesting histories, biographies, and historical fiction adapted to
+his age and interests. For it is not enough that the child shall learn
+the elementary facts of history while he is in the elementary school;
+more important still is it that he shall develop a real interest in
+history, and form the taste for reading historical matter.
+
+The course in history must, therefore, contain such matter as the child
+will love to read; for only then will it leave the desire to read. It
+must so put a premium upon patriotism, loyalty to country, and
+high-grade citizenship that the child shall feel the impulse to emulate
+the noble men and women who have contributed to our happiness and
+welfare. The study of history, even in the elementary school, should
+eventuate in loyal, efficient citizenship.
+
+The civics taught in the elementary school should be very practical and
+concrete. The age has not yet come for a study of the federal or state
+constitution. It is rather the _functional_ aspect of government that
+should be presented at this time--the points of contact of school
+district, township, county, state and federal government with the
+individual. How the school is supported and controlled; how the bridges
+are built and roads repaired; the work of township and county affairs;
+the powers and duties of boards of health; the right of franchise and
+the use of the ballot; the work of the postal system; the making and
+enforcing of laws,--these and similar topics suggest what the child
+should come to know from the study of civics. The great problem here is
+to influence conduct in the direction of upright citizenship, and to
+give such a knowledge of the machinery, especially of local government,
+as will lead to efficient participation in its activities.
+
+_Geography and nature study._ The rural school has a great advantage
+over the city school in the teaching of geography and nature study. For
+the country child is closer to the earth and its products than the city
+child. The broad expanse of nature is always before him; life in its
+multiple forms constantly appeals to his eye and ear. He watches the
+seeds planted, and sees the crops cultivated and harvested. He has a
+very concrete sense of the earth as the home of man, and possesses a
+basis of practical knowledge for understanding the resources and
+products of his own and other countries.
+
+Geography should, therefore, be one of the most vital and useful
+branches in the rural school. It is to begin wherever the life of the
+child touches nature in his immediate environment, and proceed from this
+on out to other parts of his home land, and finally to all lands.
+
+But the geography taught must not be of the old catechism type, which
+resulted in children committing to memory the definitions of
+geographical terms instead of studying the real objects ready at hand.
+It must not concern itself with the pupil's learning the names and
+locations of dozens of places and geographical forms of no particular
+importance, instead of coming into immediate touch with natural
+environment and with the earth in the larger sense as it bears upon his
+own life. The author has expressed this idea in another place as
+follows:--
+
+"The content of geography is, therefore, synonymous with the content of
+the experience of the child as related to his own interests and
+activities, in so far as they grow out of the earth as his home. Towns
+and cities begin with the ones nearest at hand. The concept of rivers
+has its rise in the one that flows past the child's home. Valleys,
+mountains, capes, and bays are but modifications of those that lie
+within the circle of personal experience. Generalizations must come to
+be made, but they must rest upon concrete and particular instances if
+they are to constitute a reality to the learner.
+
+"What kind of people live in a country, what they work at, what they
+eat, and how they live in their homes and their schools, what weather
+they have, and what they wear, how they travel and speak and
+read,--these are more vital questions to the child than the names and
+locations of unimportant streams, towns, capes, and bays. For they are
+the things that touch his own experience, and hence appeal to his
+interest. Only as geography is given this social background, and
+concerns itself with the earth as related to social activities, can it
+fulfill its function in the elementary school."[4]
+
+_Hygiene and health._ Since health is at the basis of all success and
+happiness, nothing can be more important in the education of the child
+than the subject of practical hygiene. It has been the custom in our
+schools until recently, however, to give the child a difficult and
+uninteresting text book dealing with physiology and anatomy, but
+containing almost nothing on hygiene and the laws of health.
+
+Not only should the course in physiology emphasize the laws of hygiene,
+but this hygiene should in part have particular bearing on right living
+under the conditions imposed by the farm. Food, its variety,
+adaptability, and preparation; clothing for the different seasons; work,
+recreation, and play; care of the eyes and teeth; bathing; the
+ventilation of the home, and especially of sleeping-rooms; the effects
+of tobacco and cigarettes in checking growth and reducing efficiency;
+the more simple and obvious facts bearing on the relation of bacteria to
+the growth, preparation, and spoiling of foods; the means to be taken to
+prevent bacterial contagion of diseases,--these are some of the
+practical matters that every child should know as a result of his study
+of physiology and hygiene.
+
+But we must go one step further still. It is not enough to teach these
+things as matters of abstract theory or truth. Plenty of people know
+better hygiene than they are practicing. The subject must be presented
+so concretely and effectively and be supported by such incentives that
+it will actually lead to better habits of living--that it will _result
+in higher physical efficiency_.
+
+_Agriculture._ Agriculture is of course preeminently a subject for the
+rural school. Not only is it of immediate and direct practical
+importance, but it is coming to be looked upon as so useful a cultural
+study that it is being introduced into many city schools.
+
+It has been objected that agriculture as a science cannot be taught in
+the elementary school because of the lack of age and development of the
+pupils. This is true, but neither can any other subject be taught to
+children of this age as a complete science. It is possible, however, to
+give children in the rural elementary school much useful information
+concerning agriculture. Perhaps better still, it is possible to develop
+a scientific attitude and interest that will lead to further study of
+the subject in the high school or agricultural college, and that will in
+the mean-time serve to attach the boys and girls to the farm.
+
+The rural school pupils can be made familiar with the best modes of
+planting and cultivating the various crops, and with the diseases and
+insect enemies which threaten them; the selection of seed; the rotation
+of crops, and many other practical things applying directly to their
+home life. School gardens of vegetables and flowers constitute another
+center of interest and information, and serve to unite the school and
+the home.
+
+Similarly the animal life of the farm can be studied, and a knowledge
+gained of the best varieties of farm stock, their breeding and care.
+Insects and bird life can be observed, and their part in the growth or
+destruction of crops understood. All this is not only practicable, but
+necessary as part of the rural school curriculum. Anything less than
+this amount of practical agriculture leaves the rural school in some
+degree short of fulfilling its function.
+
+_Domestic science and manual training._ In general what is true of
+agriculture is true of domestic science and manual training. They can be
+presented in the elementary school only in the most concrete and applied
+form. But they can be successfully presented in this form, and must be
+if the rural school child is to have an equal opportunity with the town
+and city child. The girls can be taught the art of sewing, cooking, and
+serving, if only the necessary equipment and instruction are available.
+They are ready to learn, the subject-matter is adapted to their age and
+understanding, and nothing could be more vital to their interests and
+welfare.
+
+Likewise the boys can be taught the use of tools, the value and
+finishing of different kinds of woods, and can develop no little skill
+with their hands, while they are at the same time receiving mental
+development and the cultivation of practical interests from this line of
+work. It is not in the least a question of the readiness of the boys to
+take up and profit by this subject, but is only a matter of equipment
+and teaching.
+
+_Music and art._ Nor should the finer aspects of culture be left out of
+the education of the country child. He will learn music as readily as
+the city child, and love it not less. Indeed, he needs it even more as a
+part of his schooling, since the opportunities to hear and enjoy music
+are always at hand in the city, and nearly always lacking in the
+country. The child should be taught to sing and at least to understand
+and appreciate music of worthy type.
+
+The same principle will apply to art. The great masterpieces of painting
+and sculpture have as much of beauty and inspiration in them as the
+great masterpieces of literature. Yet most rural children complete their
+schooling hardly having seen in the schoolroom a worthy copy of a great
+picture, and much less have they been taught the significance of great
+works of art or been led to appreciate and love them.
+
+_Physical training._ It has been argued by many that the rural child has
+enough exercise and hence does not need physical training. But this
+position entirely misconceives the purpose of physical training. One may
+have plenty of exercise, even too much exercise, without securing a
+well-balanced physical development. Indeed, certain forms of farm work
+done by children are often so severe a tax on their strength that a
+corrective exercise is necessary in order to save stooped forms, curved
+spines, and hollow chests. Furthermore, the farm child, lacking the
+opportunities of the city child for gaining social ease and control,
+needs the development that comes from physical training to give poise,
+ease of bearing, and grace of movement.
+
+Nor must the athletic phase of physical training be overlooked. While it
+is undoubtedly true that athletics have come to occupy too large a part
+of the time and absorb too great a proportion of the interest in many
+schools, yet this is no reason for omitting avocational training wholly
+from the rural school. Children require the training and development
+that come from games and play quite as much as they need that coming
+from work. The school owes a duty to the avocational side of life as
+well as to the vocational.
+
+The curriculum here proposed is so much broader and richer than that now
+offered in the rural district school that it will appear to many to be
+visionary and impossible. That it is impossible for the old type of
+rural school will be readily admitted. But it is entirely practicable
+and possible in the reorganized consolidated school, and is being
+successfully presented, in its general aspects, at least, in many of
+these schools. It is only such an education as every rural child is
+entitled to, and is no more than the urban child is already receiving in
+the better class of town and city elementary schools. If the rural
+school cannot give the farm child an elementary education approximating
+the one out-lined, it has no claim on his loyalty or time; and he should
+in justice to himself be taken where he can receive a worthy education,
+even if he is thereby lost to the farm.
+
+But the rural boy and girl need not only a good elementary education,
+but a high school education as well. Let us next consider the rural high
+school curriculum.
+
+
+_The rural high school curriculum_
+
+This section is presented in the full knowledge that comparatively few
+localities have as yet established the rural high school. It now forms,
+however, an integral part of the consolidated rural school in not a few
+places, and is abundantly justifying the expenditure made upon it. In
+other localities the tendency is growing to send the rural child to the
+town high school, or even for the family to move to town to secure high
+schooling for the children. In still other cases, and we are obliged to
+admit that these yet constitute the rule rather than the exception, the
+farm boy or girl has no opportunity for a high school education.
+
+If we succeed in working out the so-called rural problem of our country,
+in maintaining a high standard of agricultural population and rural
+life, the rural high school must be an important factor in our problem.
+For the children of our farms need and must have an education reaching
+beyond that of the elementary school. And this schooling must prepare
+them to find the most satisfactory and successful type of life on the
+farm, instead of drawing them away from the farm.
+
+It goes without saying that the rural high school should be an
+agricultural high school. This does not mean that it shall devote itself
+exclusively to teaching agriculture; but rather that, while it offers a
+broad range of culture and information, it shall emphasize those phases
+of subject-matter that will best fit into the interests and activities
+of farm life, instead of those phases that tend to lead toward the city
+or the market-place. Its four years of work must be fully equal to that
+of the best town or city high schools, but must in some degree be
+different work. It must result in _efficiency_, and efficiency here must
+relate itself to agricultural life and pursuits.
+
+A detailed discussion of the rural high school curriculum will not be
+required. The principles already suggested as applying to the elementary
+school will govern here as well. The studies must cultivate breadth of
+view and a wide range of interests, and must at the same time bear upon
+the immediate life and experience of the pupils. The lines of study
+begun in the elementary school will be continued, with the purpose of
+securing deeper insight, more detailed knowledge, and greater
+independence of judgment and action.
+
+English should form an important part of the curriculum, with the
+double aim of securing facility in the use of the mother tongue and of
+developing a love for its literature. The rural high school graduate
+should be able to write English correctly as to spelling, punctuation,
+and grammar; he should be able to express himself effectively, either in
+writing, conversation, or the more formal speech of the rostrum. Above
+all, he should be an enthusiastic and discriminating reader, with a
+catholicity of taste and interest that will lead him beyond the
+agricultural journal and newspaper, important as these are, to the works
+of fiction, material and social science, travel and biography, current
+magazines and journals, and whatever else belongs to the intellectual
+life of an intelligent, educated man of affairs.
+
+This is asking more than is being accomplished at present by the course
+in English in the town high school, but not more than is easily within
+the range of possibility. The average high school graduate of to-day
+cannot always spell and punctuate correctly, and commonly cannot write
+well even an ordinary business letter; nor, it must be feared, has his
+study of literature had a very great influence in developing him into a
+good reader of worthy books.
+
+But all this can be remedied by vitalizing the teaching of the mother
+tongue; by lessening the proportion of time and emphasis placed upon
+critical analysis and technical literary criticism, and increasing that
+given to the drill and practice that alone can make sure of the
+fundamentals of spelling, punctuation, and the common forms of
+composition emphasized by all; and by the sympathetic, enthusiastic
+teaching of good literature adapted to the age and interests of the
+pupils from the standpoint of synthetic appreciation and enjoyment,
+rather than from the standpoint of mechanical analysis.
+
+The rural high school course in social science should be broad and
+thorough. The course in history should not give an undue proportion of
+time to ancient and medieval history, nor to war and politics. Emphasis
+should be placed on the social, industrial, and economic phases of human
+development in modern times and in our own country.
+
+Political economy should form an important branch. Especially should it
+deal with the problems of production, distribution, and consumption as
+they relate to agriculture. Matters of finance, taxation, and
+investment, while resting on general principles, should be applied to
+the problems of the farm. Nor should the economic basis of support and
+expenditure in the home be overlooked.
+
+The course in civics should not only present the general theory of
+government, but should apply concretely to the civic relations and
+duties of a rural population. Especially should it appeal to the civic
+conscience and sense of responsibility which we need among our rural
+people to make the country an antidote to the political corruption of
+the city.
+
+Material science should constitute an important section of the rural
+high school curriculum. Not only does its study afford one of the best
+means of mental development, but the subject-matter of science has a
+very direct bearing on the life and industries of the farm. To achieve
+the best results, however, the science taught must be presented from the
+concrete and applied point of view rather than from the abstract and
+general. This does not mean that a hodge-podge of unrelated facts shall
+be taught in the place of science; indeed, such a method would defeat
+the whole purpose of the course. It means, however, that the general
+laws and principles of science shall be carried out to their practical
+bearing on the problems of the home and the farm, and not be left just
+as general laws or abstract principles unapplied.
+
+The botany and zoölogy of the rural high school will, of course, have a
+strong agricultural trend. It will sacrifice the old logical
+classifications and study of generic types of animals and plants for the
+more interesting and useful study of the fauna and flora of the
+locality. The various farm crops, their weed enemies, the helpful and
+harmful insects and birds, the animal life of the barnyard, horticulture
+and floriculture, and the elements of bacteriology, will constitute
+important elements in the course.
+
+The course in physics will develop the general principles of the
+subject, and will then apply these principles to the machinery of the
+farm, to the heating, lighting, and ventilation of houses, to the
+drainage of soil, the plumbing of buildings, and a hundred other
+practical problems bearing on the life of the farm. Chemistry will be
+taught as related to the home, foods, soils, and crops. A concrete
+geology will lead to a better understanding of soils, building
+materials, and drainage. Physiology and hygiene will seek as their aim
+longer life and higher personal efficiency.
+
+The course in agriculture, whether presented separately or in
+conjunction with botany and zoölogy, must be comprehensive and
+thorough. Not only should it give a complete and practical knowledge of
+the selection of seed; the planting, cultivating, and harvesting of
+crops; the improvement and conservation of the soil; the breeding and
+care of stock, etc., but it must serve to create and develop a
+scientific attitude toward farming. The farmer should come to look upon
+his work as offering the largest opportunities for the employment of
+technical knowledge, judgment, and skill. That such an attitude will
+yield large returns in success is attested by many farmers to-day who
+are applying scientific methods to their work.
+
+Manual training and domestic science should receive especial emphasis in
+the rural high school. Both subjects have undoubted educational value in
+themselves, and their practical value and importance to those looking
+forward to farm life can hardly be over-estimated. And in these as in
+other subjects, the course offered will need to be modified from that of
+the city school in order to meet the requirements of the particular
+problems to which the knowledge and training secured are to be applied.
+
+Mathematics should form a part of the rural high school curriculum, but
+the traditional courses in algebra and geometry do not meet the need.
+The ideal course would probably be a skillful combination of algebra,
+geometry, and trigonometry occupying the time of one or two years, and
+applied directly to the problems of mechanics, measurements, surveying,
+engineering, and building on the farm. Such an idea is not new, and
+textbooks are now under way providing material for such a course.
+
+In addition, there should be a thorough course in practical business
+arithmetic. By this is not meant the abstract, analytical matter so
+often taught as high school arithmetic, but concrete and applied
+commercial and industrial arithmetic, with particular reference to farm
+problems. In connection with this subject should be given a course in
+household accounts, and book-keeping, including commercial forms and
+commercial law.
+
+It is doubtful whether foreign language has any place in the rural high
+school. If offered at all, it should be only in high schools strong
+enough to offer parallel courses for election, and should never displace
+the subjects lying closer to the interests and needs of the students.
+
+The study of music and art begun in the elementary school should be
+continued in the high school, and a love for the beautiful cultivated
+not only by the matter taught, but also by the ęsthetic qualities of the
+school buildings and grounds and their decoration. On the practical
+sides these subjects will reach out to the beautifying of the farm homes
+and the life they shelter.
+
+When a well-taught curriculum of some such scope of elementary and high
+school work as that suggested is as freely available to the farm child
+as his school is available to the city child, will the country boys and
+girls have a fair chance for education. And when this comes about, the
+greatest single obstacle to keeping our young people on the farm will
+have been removed.
+
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[Footnote 4: _Social Principles of Education_, p. 264.]
+
+
+
+IV
+
+THE TEACHING OF THE RURAL SCHOOL
+
+_The importance of teaching_
+
+
+Teaching is the fundamental purpose for which the school is run. Taxes
+are levied and collected, buildings erected and equipped, and curriculum
+organized solely that teaching may go on. Children are clothed and fed
+and sent to school instead of being put at work in order that they may
+be taught. The school is classified into grades, programs are arranged,
+and regulations are enforced only to make teaching possible. Normal
+schools are established, teachers are trained, and certificates required
+in order that teaching may be more efficient.
+
+The teacher confronts a great task. On the one hand are the children,
+ignorant, immature, and undeveloped. In them lie ready to be called
+forth all the powers and capacities that will characterize their fully
+ripened manhood and womanhood. Given the right stimulus and direction,
+these powers will grow into splendid strength and capacity; lacking
+this stimulus and guidance, the powers are left crippled and incomplete.
+
+On the other hand is the subject-matter of education, the heritage of
+culture which has been accumulating through the ages. In the slow
+process of human experience, running through countless generations, men
+have made their discoveries in the fields of mathematics and science;
+they have lived great events and achievements which have become history;
+they have developed the social institutions which we call the State, the
+church, the home, and the school; they have organized great industries
+and carried on complex vocations; they have crystallized their ideals,
+their hopes, and their aspirations in literature; and have with brush
+and chisel expressed in art their concepts of truth and beauty. The best
+of all this human experience we have collected in what we call a
+curriculum, and placed it before the child for him to master, as the
+generations before him have mastered it in their common lives. For only
+in this way can the child come into full possession of his powers, and
+set them at work in a fruitful way in accomplishing his own
+life-purpose.
+
+It is the function of the teacher, therefore, to stand as an
+intermediary, as an interpreter, between the child and this great mass
+of subject-matter that lies ready for him to learn. The race has lived
+its thousands or millions of years; the individual lives but a few
+score. What former generations took centuries to work out the child can
+spend only a few months or a few years upon. Hence he must waste no time
+and opportunity; he must make no false step in his learning, for he
+cannot in his short life retrieve his mistakes. It is the work of the
+teacher, through instruction and guidance, that is, through teaching, to
+save the child time in his learning and development, and to make sure
+that he does not lose his opportunity. And this is a great
+responsibility.
+
+Thus the teacher confronts a problem that has two great factors, the
+_child_ and the _subject-matter_. He must have a knowledge of both these
+factors if his work is to be effective; for he cannot teach matter that
+he does not know, and neither can he teach a person whose nature he does
+not understand. But in addition to a knowledge of these factors, the
+teacher must also master a technique of instruction, he must train
+himself in the art of teaching.
+
+_The teacher must know the child._ It has been a rather common
+impression that if one knows a certain field of subject-matter, he will
+surely be able to teach it to others. But nothing could be further from
+the truth than such an assumption. Indeed, it is proverbial that the
+great specialists are the most wretched teachers of their subjects. The
+nature of the child's mental powers, the order of their unfoldment, the
+evolution of his interests, the incentives that appeal to him, the
+danger points in both his intellectual and his moral development,--these
+and many other things about child nature the intelligent teacher must
+clearly understand.
+
+And the teacher of the younger children needs this knowledge even more
+than the teacher of older ones. For the earlier years of the child's
+schooling are the most important years. It is at this time that he lays
+the foundation for all later learning, that he forms his habits of study
+and his attitude toward education, and that his life is given the bent
+for all its later development. Nothing can be more irrational,
+therefore, than to put the most untrained and inexperienced teachers in
+charge of the younger children. The fallacious notion that "anyone can
+teach little children" has borne tragic fruit in the stagnation and
+mediocrity of many lives whose powers were capable of great
+achievements.
+
+_The teacher must know the subject-matter._ The blind cannot
+successfully lead the blind. One whose grasp of a subject extends only
+to the simplest rudiments cannot teach these rudiments. He who has never
+himself explored a field can hardly guide others through that field; at
+least, progress through the field will be at the cost of great waste of
+time and failure to grasp the significance or beauty of what the field
+contains.
+
+Expressed more concretely, it is impossible to transplant arithmetic, or
+geography, or history, or anything else that one would teach,
+immediately from the textbook into the mind of the child. The subject
+must first come to be very fully and completely a true possession of the
+teacher. The successful teacher must also know vastly more of a subject
+than he is required to teach. For only then has he freedom; only then
+has he outlook and perspective; only then can he teach the _subject_,
+and not some particular textbook; only then can he inspire others to
+effort and achievement through his own mastery and interest. Enthusiasm
+is _caught_ and not taught.
+
+_The teacher must know the technique of instruction._ For teaching is an
+art, based upon scientific principles and requiring practice to secure
+skill. One of the greatest tasks of the teacher is to _psychologize_ the
+subject-matter for his pupils,--that is, so to select, organize, and
+present it that the child's mind naturally and easily grasps and
+appropriates it. Teaching, when it has become an art, which is to say,
+when the teacher has become an artist, is one of the most highly skilled
+vocations. It is as much more difficult than medicine as the human mind
+is more baffling than the human body; it is as much more difficult than
+preaching as the child is harder to comprehend and guide than the adult;
+it is as much more difficult than the law as life is more complex than
+logic.
+
+Yet, while we require the highest type of preparation for medicine, the
+ministry, or the law, we require but little for teaching. We pay
+enormous salaries to trained experts to apply the principles of
+scientific management to our industries or our business, but we have
+been satisfied with inexpert service for the teaching of our children.
+We are making fortunes out of the stoppage of waste in our factories,
+but allowing enormous waste to continue in our schools. _If we were to
+put into practice in teaching the thoroughly demonstrated and accepted
+scientific principles of education as we know them, we could beyond
+doubt double the educational results attained by our children._
+
+
+_Teaching in the rural school_
+
+The criticisms just made on our standards of teaching will apply in some
+degree to all our schools from the kindergarten to the university; but
+they apply more strongly to the rural schools than to any other class.
+For the rural schools are the training-ground for young, inexperienced,
+and relatively unprepared teachers. Except for the comparatively small
+proportion of the town or city teachers who are normal school or college
+trained, nearly all have served an apprenticeship in the rural schools.
+Thus the rural school, besides its other handicaps, is called upon to
+train teachers for the more favored urban schools.
+
+Careful statistical studies[5] have shown that many rural teachers, both
+men and women, have had no training beyond that of the elementary
+school. And not infrequently this training has taken place in the rural
+school of the type in which they themselves take up teaching. The
+average schooling of the men teaching in the rural schools of the entire
+country is less than two years above the elementary school, and of
+women, slightly more than two years. This is to say that our rural
+schools are taught by those who have had only about half of a high
+school course.
+
+It is evident, therefore, that the rural teacher cannot meet the
+requirement urged above in the way of preparation. He does not know his
+subject-matter. Not only has he not gone far enough in his education to
+have a substantial foundation, breadth of view, and mental perspective,
+but he frequently lacks in the simplest rudiments of the immediate
+subject-matter which he is supposed to teach. The examination papers
+written by applicants for certificates to begin rural school teaching
+often betray a woful ignorance of the most fundamental knowledge.
+Inability to spell, punctuate, or effectively use the English language
+is common. The most elementary scientific truths are frequently unknown.
+A connected view of our nation's history and knowledge of current events
+are not always possessed. The great world of literature is too often a
+closed book. And not seldom the simple relations of arithmetical number
+are beyond the grasp of the applicant. In short, our rural schools, as
+they average, require no adequate preparation of the teacher, and do not
+represent as much education in their teaching force as that needed by
+the intelligent farmer, merchant, or tradesman.
+
+The rural teacher does not know the child. But little more than children
+themselves, and with little chance for observation or for experience in
+life, it would be strange if they did. They have had no opportunity for
+professional study, and psychology and the science of education are
+unknown to them. The attempts made to remedy this fatal weakness by the
+desultory reading of a volume or two in a voluntary reading-circle
+course do not serve the purpose. The teacher needs a thorough course of
+instruction in general and applied psychology, under the tutelage of an
+enthusiastic expert who not only knows his subject, but also understands
+the problems of the teacher.
+
+The rural teacher does not know the technique of the schoolroom. The
+organizing of a school, the proper classification of pupils, the
+assignment of studies, the arrangement of a program of studies and
+recitation, the applications of suitable regulations and rules for the
+running of the school, are all matters requiring expert knowledge and
+skill. Yet the rural teacher has to undertake them without instruction
+in their principles and without supervisory guidance or help. No wonder
+that the rural school is poorly organized and managed. It presents
+problems of administration more puzzling than the town school, and yet
+here is where we put out our novices, boys and girls not yet out of
+their "teens"--young people who themselves have no concept of the
+problems of the school, no knowledge of its complex machinery, and no
+experience to serve as a guide in confronting their work. No industrial
+enterprise could exist under such irrational conditions; and neither
+could the schools, except that mental waste and bankruptcy are harder to
+measure than economic.
+
+Nor does the rural teacher know the technique of instruction any better
+than that of organization and management. The skillful conducting of a
+recitation is at least as severe a test upon mental resourcefulness and
+skill as making a speech, preaching a sermon, or conducting a lawsuit.
+For not only must the subject-matter be organized for immature minds
+unused to the formal processes of learning, but the effects of
+instruction upon the child's mind must constantly be watched by the
+teacher and interpreted with reference to further instruction. This
+skill cannot be attained empirically, by the cut-and-dried method,
+except at a frightful cost to the children. It is as if we were to turn
+a set of intelligent but untrained men loose in the community with their
+scalpels and their medicine cases to learn to be surgeons and doctors
+by experimenting upon their fellows.
+
+As would naturally be expected, therefore, the teaching in the average
+rural school is a dreary round of inefficiency. Handicapped to begin
+with by classes too small to be interesting, the rural teacher is
+mechanically hearing the recitations of some twenty-five to thirty of
+these classes per day. Lacking at the beginning the breadth of education
+that would make teaching easy, he finds it impossible to prepare for so
+many different exercises daily. The result is that the recitations are
+dull, spiritless, uninteresting. The lessons are poorly prepared by the
+pupils, poorly recited, and hence very imperfectly mastered. The more
+advanced work cannot stand on such a foundation of sand, and so,
+discouraged, the child soon drops out of school.
+
+When it is also remembered that the tenure of service of the teacher is
+very short in the rural schools, the problem becomes all the more grave.
+The average term of service in the rural schools is probably not above
+two years, and in many States considerably below this amount. This
+requires that half of the rural teachers each year shall be beginners.
+It will be impossible, of course, as long as teaching is done so largely
+by girls, who naturally will, and should, soon quit teaching for
+marriage, to secure a long period of service in the vocation. Yet the
+rural school is, as we have seen, also constantly losing its trained
+teachers to the town and city, and hence breaking in more than its share
+of novices.
+
+Added to the disadvantage inevitably coming from the brief period of
+service in teaching is a similar one growing out of a faulty method of
+administration. In a large majority of our rural schools the contract is
+made for but one term of not more than three months. This leaves the
+teacher free to accept another school at the end of the term, and not
+infrequently a school will have two or even three different teachers
+within the same year. There is a great source of waste at this point,
+owing to a change of methods, repetition of work, and the necessity of
+starting a new system of school machinery. Industrial concerns would
+hardly find it profitable to change superintendents and foremen several
+times a year. We do this in our schools only because we have not yet
+learned that it pays to apply rational business methods to education.
+
+Nothing that has been said in criticism of rural teaching ought to be
+construed as a reflection on the rural teachers personally. The fact
+that they can succeed as well as they do under conditions that are so
+adverse is the best warrant for their intelligence and devotion. It is
+not their fault that they begin teaching with inadequate knowledge of
+subject-matter, with ignorance of the nature of childhood, and without
+skill in the technique of the schoolroom. The system, and not the
+individual, is at fault. The public demands a pitifully low standard of
+efficiency in rural teaching, and the excellence of the product offered
+is not likely greatly to surpass what society asks and is ready to pay
+for.
+
+Once again we must turn to the consolidated school as the solution of
+our difficulty. The isolated district school will not be able to demand
+and secure a worthy grade of preparation for teaching. The educational
+standards will not rise high enough under this system to create a public
+demand for skilled teachers. Nor can such salaries be paid as will
+encourage thorough and extensive study and preparation for teaching.
+And, finally, the professional incentives are not sufficiently strong in
+such schools to create a true craft spirit toward teaching.
+
+While it is impossible to measure the improved results in teaching
+coming from the consolidated school in the same objective way that we
+can measure increased attendance, yet there is no doubt that one of the
+strongest arguments for the consolidated school is its more skillful and
+inspiring teaching. The increased salaries, the possibility of
+professional association with other teachers, the improved equipment,
+the better supervision, and above all, the spirit of progress and
+enthusiasm in the school itself, all serve to transform teaching from a
+treadmill routine into a joyful opportunity for inspiration and service.
+
+
+_The training of rural teachers_
+
+The training of the rural teacher has never been given the same
+consideration as that of town or city teachers. It is true that normal
+schools are available to all alike, and that in a few States the rural
+schools secure a considerable number of teachers who have had some
+normal training. But this is the exception rather than the rule. In the
+Middle Western States, for example, where there is a rich agricultural
+population, whole counties can be found in which no rural teacher has
+ever had any special training for his work. Professional requirements
+have been on a par with the meager salaries paid, and other incentives
+have not been strong enough to insure adequate preparation.
+
+State normal schools have, therefore, been of comparatively little
+assistance in fitting teachers for the rural school. First of all the
+rural school teacher ordinarily does not go to the normal school, for it
+is not demanded of him. Again, if perchance a prospective rural teacher
+should attend a normal school, a town or city grade position is usually
+waiting for him when he graduates. For, in spite of the growth of our
+normal schools, they are as yet far from being able to supply all the
+teachers required for the urban grade positions, to say nothing about
+the rural schools. The colleges and universities are, of course, still
+further removed from the rural school, since the high schools stand
+ready to employ those of their graduates who enter upon teaching.
+
+In some States, as for example, Wisconsin, county normal schools have
+been established with the special aim of preparing teachers for the
+rural schools. While this movement has helped, it does not promise to
+secure wide acceptance as a method of dealing with the problem. Greater
+possibilities undoubtedly exist in the comparatively recent movement
+toward combining normal training with the regular high school course.
+Provision for such courses now exists in New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio,
+Texas, Minnesota, Iowa, Kansas, Nebraska, and a number of other States.
+
+Combining normal training with high school education has first of all
+the advantage of bringing such training _to_ prospective teachers,
+instead of requiring the teachers to leave home and incur additional
+expense in seeking their training. From the standpoint of the public it
+has the merit of economy, in that it utilizes buildings, equipment, and
+organization already in existence instead of requiring new.
+
+But whatever may be the method employed, the rural teachers should
+receive better preparation for their work than they now have. This
+means, _first_, that the State must make adequate provision for the
+teacher to receive his training at a minimum of expense and trouble; and
+_second_, that the standard of requirement must be such that the teacher
+will be obliged to secure adequate preparation before being admitted to
+the school. Even with the present status of our rural schools it is not
+too much to require that every teacher shall have had _at least a
+four-year high school education_, and that _a reasonable amount of
+normal training_ be had either in conjunction with the high school
+course, or subsequent to its completion. Indiana, for example, has found
+this requirement entirely feasible, and a great influence in bettering
+the tone of the rural school.
+
+Wherever the rural teacher secures his training, however, one condition
+must obtain: this preparation must familiarize him with the spirit and
+needs of the agricultural community, and imbue him with enthusiasm for
+service in this field. It is not infrequently the case that town high
+school graduates, themselves never having lived in the country, possess
+neither the sympathy nor the understanding necessary to enable them to
+offer a high grade of service in the rural school. Not a few of them
+feel above the work of such a position, and look with contempt or pity
+upon the life of the farm. The successful rural teacher must be able to
+identify himself very completely with the interests and activities of
+the community; nor can this be done in any half-hearted, sentimental, or
+professional manner. It must be a spontaneous and natural response
+arising from a true interest in the people, a knowledge of their lives,
+and a sincere desire for their welfare. Any preparation that does not
+result in this spirit, and train in the ability to realize it in action,
+does not fit for the rural school.
+
+
+_Salaries of rural teachers_
+
+The salaries paid teachers in general in different types of schools are
+one measure, though not a perfect one, of their efficiency. Salary is
+not a perfect measure of efficiency, (1) because economic ability to pay
+is a modifying influence. When the early New England teacher was
+receiving ten or twelve dollars a month and "boarding round," he was
+probably getting all that the community could afford to pay him,
+although he was often a college student, and not infrequently a
+well-trained graduate. The salaries paid in the various occupations are
+not (2) based upon any definite standards of the value of service. For
+example, the _chef_ in a hotel may receive more than the superintendent
+of schools, and the football coach more than the college president; yet
+we would hardly want to conclude that the services of the cook and the
+athlete are worth more to society than the services of educators. And
+within the vocation of teaching itself there is (3) no fixed standard
+for judging teaching efficiency. Nevertheless, in general, teaching
+efficiency is in considerable degree measured by differences in salaries
+paid in different localities and in the various levels of school work.
+
+Based on the standard of salary as a measure, the teaching efficiency of
+rural teachers is, as we should expect from starting nearly all of our
+beginners here, considerably below that in towns or cities. A study by
+Coffman[6] of more than five thousand widely distributed teachers as to
+age, sex, salary, etc., shows that the average man in the rural school
+receives an annual salary of $390; in town schools, of $613; and in city
+schools, of $919. The average woman in the rural school receives an
+annual salary of $366; in town schools, of $492; and in city schools, of
+$591. Men in towns, therefore, receive one and one half times as much as
+men in the country, and in cities, two and one half times as much as in
+the country. Women in towns receive a little more than one and one third
+times as much as women in the country, and in the cities almost one and
+two thirds times as much as women in the country.
+
+The actual amount of salary paid rural teachers is perhaps more
+instructive than the comparative amounts. The income of the rural
+teacher is barely a living wage, and not even that if the teacher has no
+parental home, or a gainful occupation during vacation times. Out of an
+amount of less than four hundred dollars a year the teacher is expected
+to pay for a certificate, a few school journals and professional books,
+and attend teachers institutes or conventions, besides supporting
+himself as a teacher ought to live. It does not need argument to show
+that this meager salary forces a standard of living too low for
+efficiency. It would, therefore, be unfair to ask for efficiency with
+the present standard of salaries.
+
+Nor is it to be overlooked that efficiency and salaries must mount
+upward together. It would be as unjust to ask for higher salaries
+without increasing the grade of efficiency as to ask for efficiency on
+the present salary basis. It is probable that the eighteen- or
+nineteen-year-old boys and girls starting in to teach the rural school,
+with but little preparation above the elementary grades, are receiving
+all they are worth, at least as compared with what they could earn in
+other lines. The great point of difficulty is that they are not worth
+enough. The community cannot afford to buy the kind of educational
+service they are qualified to offer; it would be a vastly better
+investment for the public to buy higher teaching efficiency at larger
+salaries.
+
+No statistics are available to show the exact percentage of increase in
+rural teachers' salaries during recent years, but this increase has been
+considerable; and the tendency is still upward. In this as in other
+features of the rural school problem, however, it will be impossible to
+meet reasonable demands without forsaking the rural district system for
+a more centralized system of consolidated schools. To pay adequate
+salaries to the number of teachers now required for the thousands of
+small rural schools would be too heavy a drain on our economic
+resources. Under the consolidated system a considerably smaller number
+of teachers is required, and these can receive higher salaries without
+greatly increasing the amount expended for teaching. In this as in other
+phases of our educational problems, what is needed is rational business
+method, and a willingness to devote a fair proportion of our wealth to
+the education of the young.
+
+
+_Supervision of rural teaching_
+
+Our rural school teaching has never had efficient supervision. The very
+nature of rural school organization has rendered expert supervision
+impossible, no matter how able the supervising officer might be. With
+slight modifications, the office of _county superintendent_ is,
+throughout the country, typical of the attempt to provide supervision
+for the rural school. While such a system may have afforded all that
+could be expected in the pioneer days, its inadequacy to meet
+present-day demands is almost too patent to require discussion.
+
+First of all, it is physically impossible for a county superintendent to
+visit and supervise one hundred and fifty teachers at work in as many
+different schools scattered over four or five hundred square miles of
+territory. If he were to devote all his time to visiting country
+schools, he would have only one day to each school per year. When it is
+remembered that the county superintendent must also attend to an office
+that has a large amount of correspondence and clerical work, that he is
+usually commissioned with authority to oversee the building of all
+schoolhouses in his county, that he must act as judge in hearing appeals
+in school disputes, that he must conduct all teachers' examinations and
+in many instances grade the papers, and, finally, that country roads are
+often impassable, it is seen that his time for supervision is greatly
+curtailed. As a matter of fact some rural schools receive no visit from
+the county superintendent for several years at a time.
+
+A still further obstacle comes from the fact of the frequent changes of
+teachers among rural schools. A teacher visited by the county
+superintendent in a certain school this term, and advised as to how best
+to meet its problems, is likely to be in a different school next term,
+and required to meet an entirely new set of problems.
+
+This is all very different from the problem of supervision met by the
+town or city superintendent. For the town or city district is of small
+area, and the schools few and close together. If the number of teachers
+is large, the superintendent is assisted by principals of different
+schools, and by deputies. The teaching force is better prepared, and
+hence requires less close supervision. School standards are higher, and
+the coöperation of patrons more easily secured. The course of study is
+better organized, the schools better graded and equipped, and all other
+conditions more favorable to efficient supervision. It would not,
+therefore, be just to compare the results of supervision in the country
+districts with those in urban schools without making full allowance for
+these fundamental differences.
+
+The county superintendent is in many States discriminated against in
+salary as compared with other county officers, and, as a rule, no
+provision is made to compensate for traveling expenses incurred in
+visiting schools. This, in effect, places a financial penalty on the
+work of supervision, as the superintendent can remain in his office with
+considerably less expense to himself than when he is out among the
+schools. In some instances, however, an allowance is made for traveling
+expenses in addition to the regular salary, thus encouraging the
+visiting of schools, or at least removing the handicap existing under
+the older system. An attempt has also been made in some States to
+relieve the county superintendent of the greater part of the clerical
+work of his office by employing for him at county expense a clerk for
+this purpose. These two provisions have proved of great help to the
+supervisory function of the county superintendent's work, but the task
+yet looms up in impossible magnitude.
+
+The county superintendency is throughout the country almost universally
+a political office. In some States, as, for example, in Indiana, it is
+appointive by a non-partisan board. But, in general, the candidate of
+the prevailing party, or the one who is the best "mixer," secures the
+office regardless of qualifications. Sharing the fortunes of other
+political offices, the county superintendency frequently has applied to
+it the unwritten party rule of "two terms and out," thus crippling the
+efficiency of the office by frequent changes of administration and
+uncertainty of tenure.
+
+No fixed educational or professional standard of preparation for the
+county superintendency exists in the different States. If some
+reasonably high standard were required, it would do much to lessen the
+mischievous effects of making it a political office. In a large
+proportion of cases the county superintendent is only required to hold a
+middle-class certificate, and has enjoyed no better educational
+facilities than dozens of the teachers he is to supervise. The author
+has conducted teachers' institutes in the Middle West for county
+superintendents who had never attended an institute or taught a term of
+school. The salary and professional opportunities of the office are not
+sufficiently attractive to draw men from the better school positions;
+hence the great majority of county superintendents come from the village
+principalships, the grades of town schools, or even from the rural
+schools.
+
+A marked tendency of recent years has been to elect women as county
+superintendents. In Iowa, for example, half of the present county
+superintendents are women, and the proportion is increasing. In not a
+few instances women have made exceptional records as county
+superintendents, and, as a whole, are loyally devoted to their work.
+They suffer one disadvantage in this office, however, which is hard to
+overcome: they find it impossible, without undue exposure, to travel
+about the county during the cold and stormy weather of winter or when
+the roads are soaked with the spring rains. Whether they will be able to
+effect the desired coördination between the rural school and the
+agricultural interests of the community is a question yet to be settled.
+
+In spite of the limitations of the office of county superintendent,
+however, it must not be thought that this office has played an
+unimportant part in our educational development. It has exerted a marked
+influence in the upbuilding of our schools, and accomplished this under
+the most unfavorable and discouraging circumstances. Among its occupants
+have been some of the most able and efficient men and women engaged in
+our school system. But the time has come in our educational advancement
+when the rural schools should have better supervision than they are now
+getting or can get under the present system.
+
+The first step in improving the supervision, as in improving so many
+other features of the rural schools, is the reorganization of the
+system through consolidation, and the consequent reduction in the number
+of schools to be supervised. The next step is to remove the supervising
+office as far as possible from "practical" politics by making it
+appointive by a non-partisan county board, who will be at liberty to go
+anywhere for a superintendent, who will be glad to pay a good salary,
+and who will seek to retain a superintendent in office as long as he is
+rendering acceptable service to the county. The third step is to raise
+the standard of fitness for the office so that the incumbent may be a
+true intellectual leader among the teachers and people of his county.
+Nor can this preparation be of the scholastic type alone, but must be of
+such character as to adapt its possessor to the spirit and ideals of an
+agricultural people.
+
+A wholly efficient system of supervision of rural teaching, then, would
+be possible only in a system of consolidated schools, each under the
+immediate direction of a principal, himself thoroughly educated and
+especially qualified to carry on the work of a school adapted to rural
+needs. Over these schools would be the supervision of the county
+superintendent, who will stand in the same relation to the principals as
+that of the city superintendent to his ward or high school principals.
+The county superintendent will serve to unify and correlate the work of
+the different consolidated schools, and to relate all to the life and
+work of the farm.
+
+If it is said that systems of superintendence for rural schools could be
+devised more effective than the county superintendency, this may be
+granted as a matter of theory; but as a practical working program, there
+is no doubt that the office of county superintendent is a permanent part
+of our rural school system, unless the system itself is very radically
+changed. All the States, except the New England group, Ohio, and Nevada,
+now have the office of county superintendent. It is likely, therefore,
+that the plan of district superintendence permissive under the laws of
+certain States will hardly secure wide acceptance. The county as the
+unit of school administration is growing in favor, and will probably
+ultimately come to characterize the rural school system. The most
+natural step lying next ahead would, therefore, seem to be to make the
+conditions surrounding the office of county superintendent as favorable
+as possible, and then give the superintendent a sufficient number of
+deputies to make the supervision effective. These deputies should be
+selected, of course, with reference to their fitness for supervising
+particular lines of teaching, such as primary, home economics,
+agriculture, etc. A beginning has already been made in the latter line
+by the employment in some counties, with the aid of the Federal
+Government, of an agricultural expert who not only instructs the farmers
+in their fields, but also correlates his work with the rural schools.
+This principle is capable of almost indefinite extension in our school
+system.
+
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[Footnote 5: See Coffman, _The Social Composition of the Teaching
+Force_.]
+
+[Footnote 6: _The Social Composition of the Teaching Population._]
+
+
+
+
+OUTLINE
+
+
+I. THE RURAL SCHOOL AND ITS PROBLEM
+
+
+=The General Problem of the Rural School=
+
+  1. The general problem of the rural school identical
+  with that of all schools                                        1
+
+  2. The newer concept measures education by efficiency           2
+
+  3. This efficiency involves (1) knowledge,(2) attitude,
+  (3) technique, or skill                                         3
+
+  4. The purpose of the school is to make sure of
+  these factors of efficiency                                     4
+
+
+=The Special Problem of the Rural School=
+
+  1. Each type of school has its special problem                  5
+
+  2. The rural school problem originates in the nature
+  of the rural community                                          5
+
+  3. Characteristics of the rural community                       6
+
+    _a._ Its industrial homogeneity                               6
+
+    _b._ Its social homogeneity                                   7
+
+    _c._ Fundamental intelligence of the rural population         8
+
+    _d._ Economic status and standards of living                 10
+
+    _e._ Rural isolation and its social effects                  10
+
+    _f._ Rural life and physical efficiency                      11
+
+    _g._ Lack of recreations and amusement                       12
+
+  4. Recent tendencies toward progress in agricultural
+  pursuits                                                       12
+
+  5. The loss of rural population to the cities                  13
+
+
+=The Adjustment of the Rural School to its Problem=
+
+  1. Failure in adjustment of the rural school to its problem    17
+
+  2. The rudimentary education received by rural children        17
+
+  3. Failure of the rural school to participate in recent
+  educational progress                                           18
+
+  4. The rural school inadequate in its scope                    19
+
+  5. Need of better organization in the rural school             20
+
+  6. Inadequacy of rural school buildings and equipment          21
+
+  7. The financial support of the rural school                   22
+
+  8. Summary and suggestions                                     23
+
+
+II. THE SOCIAL ORGANIZATION OF THE RURAL SCHOOL
+
+
+=The Rural School and the Community=
+
+  1. The fundamental relations of school and community           25
+
+  2. Low community standards of education                        25
+
+  3. The rural community's need of a social center               26
+
+    _a._ Its social isolation a serious drawback                 27
+
+    _b._ Grave moral dangers arising from social isolation       28
+
+    _c._ Rural environment more dangerous to youth
+    than city environment                                        29
+
+    _d._ Effects of monotony on adults                           30
+
+  4. The rural school as a social center                         30
+
+  5. The ideal rural school building and equipment               32
+
+  6. Social activities centering in the school                   33
+
+  7. Reorganization needed to make the rural school
+  effective as a social and intellectual center                  34
+
+
+=The Consolidation of Rural Schools=
+
+  1. Consolidation the first step toward rural school
+  efficiency                                                     35
+
+  2. Irrationality of present district system                    36
+
+  3. Obstacles in the way of consolidation                       37
+
+  4. The present movement toward consolidation                   38
+
+  5. Effects of consolidation                                    40
+
+    _a._ On attendance                                           41
+
+    _b._ On expense                                              41
+
+    _c._ On efficiency                                           42
+
+  6. The one-room school yet needed as a part of the
+  rural system                                                   42
+
+
+=Financial Support of the Rural School=
+
+  1. Lack of adequate financial support of rural schools         43
+
+  2. Difference in city and rural basis for taxation             44
+
+  3. Low school tax characteristic of rural communities          45
+
+  4. State aid for rural schools                                 46
+
+  5. Safeguards required where the principle of state
+  aid is supplied                                                47
+
+  6. Summary and conclusion                                      48
+
+
+=The Rural School and its Pupils=
+
+  1. The spirit of the pupils as a test of the school            50
+
+  2. The negative attitude of rural pupils toward their school   51
+
+  3. Causes of this defection to be sought in the school         51
+
+  4. The problem of poor rural school attendance                 52
+
+  5. The consolidated school as a cure for indifferent
+  attitude and poor attendance                                   53
+
+
+III. THE CURRICULUM OF THE RURAL SCHOOL
+
+
+=The Scope of the Rural School Curriculum=
+
+  1. The modern demand for a broader education                   57
+
+  2. The meagerness of the rural school curriculum               58
+
+  3. The rural child requires full elementary and high
+  school course                                                  60
+
+  4. Disadvantages of sending rural child to town school         60
+
+  5. Necessary reorganization in rural school offering
+  broadened curriculum                                           62
+
+  6. General nature of the new curriculum                        62
+
+
+=The Rural Elementary School Curriculum=
+
+  1. Relation of the curriculum to social standards
+  and ideals                                                     64
+
+  2. The mother tongue                                           65
+
+    _a._ Necessity for its mastery                               65
+
+    _b._ Learning the mechanics of the language                  66
+
+    _c._ Developing the art of expression, oral and
+    written                                                      67
+
+    _d._ Creation of love for reading                            67
+
+    _e._ Formal grammar out of place in the elementary
+    school                                                       68
+
+  3. Number                                                      69
+
+    _a._ The prominent place occupied by arithmetic              69
+
+    _b._ Importance of development of the number concept         69
+
+    _c._ An undue proportion of time devoted to arithmetic       70
+
+    _d._ Desirable changes in the teaching of arithmetic         71
+
+  4. History and civics                                          71
+
+    _a._ The right and duty of every person to know
+    the history and government of his country                    72
+
+    _b._ History not to deal chiefly with war and
+    politics, but to emphasize the social and industrial side    72
+
+    _c._ The library of historical books                         73
+
+    _d._ Functional versus analytical civics                     73
+
+  5. Geography and nature study                                  74
+
+    _a._ Advantage of the rural school in this field             74
+
+    _b._ The social basis of geography                           75
+
+    _c._ Application of geography and nature study
+    to the farm                                                  75
+
+  6. Hygiene and health                                          76
+
+    _a._ Criticism of older concept of physiology for
+    the elementary school                                        76
+
+    _b._ Content of practical course in hygiene                  77
+
+    _c._ Application of hygiene to the child's health
+    and growth                                                   77
+
+  7. Agriculture                                                 78
+
+    _a._ Adaptability to the rural elementary school             78
+
+    _b._ Content of the elementary course in agriculture         79
+
+    _c._ Relation to farm life                                   79
+
+  8. Domestic science and manual training                        79
+
+    _a._ Place in elementary rural school                        80
+
+    _b._ What can be taught                                      80
+
+    _c._ Its practical application                               80
+
+  9. Music and art                                               81
+
+    _a._ Necessity in a well-balanced curriculum                 81
+
+    _b._ Appreciation rather than criticism the aim              81
+
+  10. Physical training                                          81
+
+    _a._ Need of physical training of rural children             82
+
+    _b._ Rural school athletics                                  82
+
+
+=The Rural High School Curriculum=
+
+  1. Rural high schools not yet common                           83
+
+  2. The functions of the rural high school                      84
+
+  3. English in the rural high school                            84
+
+    _a._ Its aim                                                 85
+
+    _b._ Points of difference from present high school
+    course                                                       86
+
+  4. Social science to have an applied trend                     86
+
+  5. The material sciences as related to the problems
+  of the farm                                                    87
+
+  6. Manual training and domestic science                        89
+
+  7. A modified course in high school mathematics                89
+
+  8. Foreign language not to occupy an important place           90
+
+  9. The high school course to include music and art             90
+
+
+IV. THE TEACHING OF THE RURAL SCHOOL
+
+
+=The Importance of Teaching=
+
+  1. Teaching the fundamental purpose of the school              92
+
+  2. The child and the subject-matter                            92
+
+  3. The teacher as an intermediary between child
+  and subject-matter                                             93
+
+  4. Hence the teacher must know the nature of the child         94
+
+  5. The teacher must know the subject-matter of education       95
+
+  6. Failure to measure up to this requirement                   97
+
+
+=Teaching in the Rural School=
+
+  1. The degree of training of rural teachers in the
+  subject-matter                                                 98
+
+  2. Present lack of professional training                      100
+
+  3. The effects of inexperience                                101
+
+  4. Short tenure of service in rural schools                   102
+
+  5. Level of teaching efficiency low                           103
+
+  6. Improvement through consolidated schools                   104
+
+
+=The Training of Rural Teachers=
+
+  1. Inexperienced and untrained teachers begin in
+  the rural schools                                             105
+
+  2. Normal schools supply few teachers to rural schools        106
+
+  3. A reasonable demand for training of rural teachers         107
+
+  4. Rural teacher training in normal high schools              107
+
+  5. The rural teacher's training must be adapted to
+  spirit of rural school                                        108
+
+
+=Salaries of Rural Teachers=
+
+  1. Salary as a measure of efficiency                          109
+
+  2. Salaries of rural teachers compared with town
+  and city teachers                                             110
+
+  3. Necessity of increased salaries                            111
+
+  4. Increase in salary and in efficiency must go together      111
+
+  5. Salaries in consolidated schools                           112
+
+
+=Supervision of Rural Teaching=
+
+  1. Impossibility of giving district schools efficient
+  supervision                                                   112
+
+  2. Obstacle in number of schools and frequent
+  change of teachers                                            113
+
+  3. Comparison of work of county superintendent
+  with city superintendent                                      114
+
+  4. Political handicaps on county superintendent               115
+
+  5. The necessity of better educational standards
+  and better salary for the county superintendent               116
+
+  6. Women as county superintendents                            116
+
+  7. Efficient supervision possible only under a consolidated
+  system                                                        117
+
+
+
+
+RIVERSIDE EDUCATIONAL MONOGRAPHS
+
+_GENERAL EDUCATIONAL THEORY_
+
+
+DEWEY'S MORAL PRINCIPLES IN EDUCATION                      .35
+
+ELIOT'S EDUCATION FOR EFFICIENCY                           .35
+
+ELIOT'S TENDENCY TO THE CONCRETE AND PRACTICAL IN MODERN
+EDUCATION                                                  .35
+
+EMERSON'S EDUCATION                                        .35
+
+FISKE'S THE MEANING OF INFANCY                             .35
+
+HYDE'S THE TEACHER'S PHILOSOPHY                            .35
+
+PALMER'S THE IDEAL TEACHER                                 .35
+
+PROSSER'S THE TEACHER AND OLD AGE                          .60
+
+TERMAN'S THE TEACHER'S HEALTH                              .60
+
+THORNDIKE'S INDIVIDUALITY                                  .35
+
+
+
+_ADMINISTRATION AND SUPERVISION OF SCHOOLS_
+
+
+BETTS'S NEW IDEALS IN RURAL SCHOOLS                        .60
+
+BLOOMFIELD'S VOCATIONAL GUIDANCE OF YOUTH                  .60
+
+CABOT'S VOLUNTEER HELP TO THE SCHOOLS                      .60
+
+COLE'S INDUSTRIAL EDUCATION IN ELEMENTARY SCHOOLS          .35
+
+CUBBERLEY'S CHANGING CONCEPTIONS OF EDUCATION              .35
+
+CUBBERLEY'S THE IMPROVEMENT OF RURAL SCHOOLS               .35
+
+LEWIS'S DEMOCRACY'S HIGH SCHOOL                            .60
+
+PERRY'S STATUS OF THE TEACHER                              .35
+
+SNEDDEN'S THE PROBLEM OF VOCATIONAL EDUCATION              .35
+
+TROWBRIDGE'S THE HOME SCHOOL                               .60
+
+WEEKS'S THE PEOPLE'S SCHOOL                                .60
+
+
+
+_METHODS OF TEACHING_
+
+
+BAILEY'S ART EDUCATION                                     .60
+
+BETTS'S THE RECITATION                                     .60
+
+CAMPAGNAC'S THE TEACHING OF COMPOSITION                    .35
+
+COOLEY'S LANGUAGE TEACHING IN THE GRADES                   .35
+
+DEWEY'S INTEREST AND EFFORT IN EDUCATION                   .60
+
+EARHART'S TEACHING CHILDREN TO STUDY                       .60
+
+EVANS'S TEACHING OF HIGH SCHOOL MATHEMATICS                .35
+
+FAIRCHILD'S THE TEACHING OF POETRY IN THE HIGH SCHOOL
+
+HALIBURTON AND SMITH'S TEACHING POETRY IN THE GRADES       .60
+
+HARTWELL'S THE TEACHING OF HISTORY                         .35
+
+HAYNES'S ECONOMICS IN THE SECONDARY SCHOOL                 .60
+
+KILPATRICK'S THE MONTESSORI SYSTEM EXAMINED                .35
+
+PALMER'S ETHICAL AND MORAL INSTRUCTION IN THE SCHOOLS      .35
+
+PALMER'S SELF-CULTIVATION IN ENGLISH                       .35
+
+SUZZALLO'S THE TEACHING OF PRIMARY ARITHMETIC              .60
+
+SUZZALLO'S THE TEACHING OF SPELLING                        .60
+
+
+
+
+RIVERSIDE TEXTBOOKS IN EDUCATION
+
+Edited by ELLWOOD P. CUBBERLEY, Head of the Department of Education,
+Leland Stanford, Jr., University.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+The editor and the publishers have most carefully planned this series to
+meet the needs of students of education in colleges and universities, in
+normal schools, and in teachers' training courses in high schools. The
+books will also be equally well adapted to teachers' reading circles and
+to the wide-awake, professionally ambitious superintendent and teacher.
+Each book presented in the series will embody the results of the latest
+research, and will be at the same time both scientifically accurate, and
+simple, clear, and interesting in style.
+
+The Riverside Textbooks in Education will eventually contain books on
+the following subjects:--
+
+1. History of Education.--2. Public Education in America.--3. Theory of
+Education.--4. Principles of Teaching.--5. School and Class
+Management.--6. School Hygiene.--7. School Administration.--8. Secondary
+Education.--9. Educational Psychology.--10. Educational Sociology.--11.
+The Curriculum.--12. Special Methods.
+
+
+Now Ready
+
+*RURAL LIFE AND EDUCATION.
+
+     By ELLWOOD P. CUBBERLEY. $1.50 _net_. Postpaid. Illustrated.
+
+*THE HYGIENE OF THE SCHOOL CHILD.
+
+     By LEWIS M. TERMAN, Associate Professor of Education, Leland
+     Stanford Junior University. $1.65 _net_. Postpaid. Illustrated.
+
+*THE EVOLUTION OF THE EDUCATIONAL IDEAL.
+
+     By MABEL IRENE EMERSON, First Assistant in Charge, George Bancroft
+     School, Boston. $1.00 _net_. Postpaid.
+
+*HEALTH WORK IN THE SCHOOLS.
+
+     By ERNEST B. HOAG, Medical Director, Long Beach City Schools,
+     California, and LEWIS M. TERMAN. Illustrated. $1.60 _net_.
+     Postpaid.
+
+HOUGHTON MIFFLIN COMPANY
+BOSTON   NEW YORK   CHICAGO
+
+
+
+
+The HOUGHTON MIFFLIN PROFESSIONAL LIBRARY
+
+For Teachers and Students of Education
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+_THEORY AND PRINCIPLES OF EDUCATION_
+
+AMERICAN EDUCATION
+
+     By ANDREW S. DRAPER, Commissioner of Education of the State of New
+     York. With an Introduction by NICHOLAS MURRAY BUTLER, President of
+     Columbia University. $2.00, _net_. Postpaid.
+
+GROWTH AND EDUCATION
+
+     By JOHN M. TYLER, Professor of Biology in Amherst College. $1.50,
+     _net_. Postpaid.
+
+SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT AND EDUCATION
+
+     By M. VINCENT O'SHEA, Professor of Education in the University of
+     Wisconsin. $2.00, _net_. Postpaid.
+
+THE PRINCIPLES OF EDUCATION
+
+     By WILLIAM C. RUEDIGER, Ph. D., Assistant Professor of Educational
+     Psychology in the Teachers College of the George Washington
+     University. $1.25, _net_. Postpaid.
+
+THE INDIVIDUAL IN THE MAKING
+
+     By EDWIN A. KIRKPATRICK, Teacher of Psychology, Child Study and
+     School Laws, State Normal School, Fitchburg, Mass. $1.25, _net_.
+     Postpaid.
+
+A THEORY OF MOTIVES, IDEALS, AND VALUES IN EDUCATION
+
+     By WILLIAM E. CHANCELLOR, Superintendent of Schools, Norwalk, Conn.
+     $1.75, _net_. Postpaid.
+
+EDUCATION AND THE LARGER LIFE
+
+     By C. HANFORD HENDERSON. $1.30, _net_. Postage 13 cents.
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+
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+     College, Columbia University. $1.25, _net_. Postpaid.
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+
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+BEGINNINGS IN INDUSTRIAL EDUCATION
+
+     By PAUL H. HANUS, Professor of the History and Art of Teaching in
+     Harvard University. $1.00, _net_. Postpaid.
+
+PRACTICAL ASPECTS AND PROBLEMS
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+ETHICS FOR CHILDREN. A Guide for Teachers and Parents
+
+     By ELLA LYMAN CABOT, Member of the Massachusetts Board of
+     Education. $1.25, _net_. Postpaid.
+
+CHARACTER BUILDING IN SCHOOL
+
+     By JANE BROWNLEE, formerly Principal of Lagrange School, Toledo,
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+
+HOW TO TELL STORIES TO CHILDREN
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+     By SARA CONE BRYANT. $1.00, _net_. Postpaid.
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+TALKS ON TEACHING LITERATURE
+
+     By ARLO BATES, Professor of English Literature in the Massachusetts
+     Institute of Technology. Professor Bates is also the author of
+     "Talks on the Study of Literature," "Talks on Writing English,"
+     etc. $1.30, _net_. Postpaid.
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+LITERATURE AND LIFE IN SCHOOL
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+     Normal University. $1.25, _net_. Postpaid.
+
+THE KINDERGARTEN
+
+     By SUSAN BLOW, PATTY HILL, and ELIZABETH HARRISON, assisted by
+     other members of the Committee of Nineteen of the International
+     Kindergarten Union. With a Preface by LUCY WHEELOCK and an
+     Introduction by ANNIE LAWS, Chairman of the Committee. 16mo. $1.25
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+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of New Ideals in Rural Schools, by 
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+Title: New Ideals in Rural Schools
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+Author: George Herbert Betts
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+
+    <h3>Riverside Educational Monographs</h3>
+    <h4>EDITED BY HENRY SUZZALLO</h4>
+    <h5>PROFESSOR OF THE PHILOSOPHY OF EDUCATION<br />
+    TEACHERS COLLEGE, COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY</h5>
+    <h1>NEW IDEALS IN RURAL SCHOOLS</h1>
+    <h3>BY</h3>
+    <h2>GEORGE HERBERT BETTS, <span class="smcap">Ph</span>.D.</h2>
+    <h4>PROFESSOR OF PSYCHOLOGY<br />
+    CORNELL COLLEGE, IOWA</h4>
+    <div class="figcenter" style="width: 70px;">
+      <img src="images/p0001.jpg" width="70" height="99" alt="p0001" title="" />
+    </div>
+    <h4>HOUGHTON MIFFLIN COMPANY<br />
+    BOSTON, NEW YORK AND CHICAGO</h4>
+    <center>
+      The Riverside Press Cambridge
+    </center>
+    <br />
+    <center>
+      COPYRIGHT, 1913, BY GEORGE HERBERT BETTS<br />
+      ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
+    </center>
+    <h3>CONTENTS</h3>
+    <!-- Autogenerated TOC. Modify or delete as required. -->
+    <ul>
+      <li><a href="#EDITORS_INTRODUCTION"><span class="smcap">Editor's
+      Introduction</span></a><span class="ralign"><a href="#Page_v">v</a></span></li>
+      <li style="list-style: none"><br />
+      </li>
+      <li><a href="#PREFACE"><span class="smcap">Preface</span></a><span
+      class="ralign"><a href="#Page_ix">ix</a></span></li>
+      <li style="list-style: none"><br />
+      </li>
+      <li><a href="#I">I.</a><span style="margin-left: 1.5em;"><span class="smcap">The
+      Rural School and Its Problem</span></span><span class="ralign"><a
+      href="#Page_1">1</a></span></li>
+      <li style="list-style: none"><br />
+      </li>
+      <li><a href="#II">II.</a><span style="margin-left: 1.1em;"><span class="smcap">The
+      Social Organization of the Rural School</span></span><span class="ralign"><a
+      href="#Page_25">25</a></span></li>
+      <li style="list-style: none"><br />
+      </li>
+      <li><a href="#III">III.</a><span style="margin-left: .7em;"><span class="smcap">The
+      Curriculum of the Rural School</span></span><span class="ralign"><a
+      href="#Page_57">57</a></span></li>
+      <li style="list-style: none"><br />
+      </li>
+      <li><a href="#IV">IV.</a><span style="margin-left: 1em;"><span class="smcap">The
+      Teaching of the Rural School</span></span><span class="ralign"><a
+      href="#Page_92">92</a></span></li>
+      <li style="list-style: none"><br />
+      </li>
+      <li><a href="#OUTLINE"><span class="smcap">Outline</span></a><span
+      class="ralign"><a href="#Page_121">121</a></span></li>
+      <li style="list-style: none"><br />
+      </li>
+    </ul>
+    <!-- End Autogenerated TOC. -->
+    <hr style="width: 65%;" />
+    <h2><a name="EDITORS_INTRODUCTION" id="EDITORS_INTRODUCTION"></a>EDITOR'S
+    INTRODUCTION</h2>
+    <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_v" id="Page_v">[Pg v]</a></span>
+    <div style="margin-left: 3em;">
+      <p>In presenting a second monograph on the rural school problem in this series we
+      register our sense of the importance of rural education. Too long have the rural
+      schools suffered from neglect. Both the local communities and the State have
+      overlooked the needs of the rural school system. At the present hour there is an
+      earnest awakening of interest in rural life and its institutions. Already there is
+      a small but certain movement of people toward the country and the vocation of
+      agriculture. A period of agricultural prosperity, the reaction of men and women
+      against the artificialities of city life, the development of farming through the
+      application of science, and numerous other factors have made country life more
+      congenial and have focused attention upon its further needs. It is natural,
+      therefore, that the rural school should receive an increased share of
+      attention.</p>
+      <p>Educational administrators, legislators, and publicists have become aware of
+      their responsibility to provide the financial support and the efficient
+      organization that is needed to develop<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_vi"
+      id="Page_vi">[Pg vi]</a></span> country schools. The more progressive of them are
+      striving earnestly to provide laws that will aid rather than hamper the rural
+      school system. In his monograph on <i>The Improvement of the Rural School</i>,
+      Professor Cubberley has done much to interpret current efforts of this type. From
+      the standpoint of state administration he has contributed much definite information
+      and constructive suggestion as to how the State shall respond to the fundamental
+      need for (1) more money, (2) better organization, and (3) real supervision for
+      rural schools.</p>
+      <p>It is not so clear, however, that rural patrons, school directors, and teachers
+      have become fully aware of their duty in the matter of rural school improvement. To
+      be sure much has been done by way of experiment in many rural communities; but it
+      can scarcely be said that rural communities in general are thoroughly awake to the
+      importance of their schools. The evidence to the contrary is cumulative. The first
+      immediate need is to reawaken interest in the school as a center of rural life, and
+      to suggest ways and means of transmuting this communal interest into effective
+      institutional methods. To this end, Professor Betts has been asked to treat the
+      rural school problem from a standpoint somewhat different<span class='pagenum'><a
+      name="Page_vii" id="Page_vii">[Pg vii]</a></span> from that assumed by Professor
+      Cubberley; that is, from the point of view of the local community immediately
+      related to, and concerned with, the rural school. In consequence his presentation
+      emphasizes the things that ought to be done by the local authorities,&mdash;parent,
+      trustee, and teacher. Its soundness may well be judged by the pertinent order of
+      his discussion. Having stated his problem, he initiates his discussion by
+      suggesting how the social relations of the school are to be reorganized; only later
+      does he pass to the detail of curricula and teaching methods. It is a clear
+      recognition of the fact that the community is the crucial factor in the making of a
+      school. The State by sound fiscal and legislative policies may do much to make
+      possible a better country school; but only the local authorities can realize it.
+      The trained teacher with modern notions of efficiency may attempt to enlarge the
+      curriculum and to employ newer methods of teaching, but his talents are useless if
+      he is hampered by a conservative, unappreciative, and indifferent community. When
+      the school becomes a social center of the community's interest and life, there will
+      be no difficulty in achieving any policy which the State permits or which a skilled
+      teacher urges. Scattered schools<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_viii"
+      id="Page_viii">[Pg viii]</a></span> will be consolidated, and isolated ungraded
+      schools will be improved. Given an interested community, the modern teacher can
+      vitalize every feature of the school, changing the formal curriculum into an
+      interesting and liberalizing interpretation of country life and the pedantic drills
+      and tasks of instruction into a skillful ministry to real and abiding human
+      wants.</p>
+    </div>
+    <hr style="width: 65%;" />
+    <h2><a name="PREFACE" id="PREFACE"></a>PREFACE</h2>
+    <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_ix" id="Page_ix">[Pg ix]</a></span>
+    <div style="margin-left: 3em;">
+      <p>No rural population has yet been able permanently to maintain itself against the
+      lure of the town or the city. Each civilization at one stage of its development
+      comprises a large proportion of rural people. But the urban movement soon begins,
+      and continues until all are living in villages, towns, and cities. Such has been
+      the movement of population in all the older countries of high industrial
+      development, as England, France, and Germany. A similar movement is at present
+      going on rapidly in the United States.</p>
+      <p>No great social movement ever comes by chance; it is always to be explained by
+      deep-seated and adequate causes. The causes lying back of the rapid growth of our
+      cities at the expense of our rural districts are very far from simple. They involve
+      a great complex of social, educational, and economic forces. As the spirit of
+      adventure and pioneering finds less to stimulate it, the gregarious impulse, the
+      tendency to flock together for our work and our play, gains in ascendancy. Growing
+      out of the greater intellectual opportunities and demands of modern<span
+      class='pagenum'><a name="Page_x" id="Page_x">[Pg x]</a></span> times, the
+      standard of education has greatly advanced. And under the incentive of present-day
+      economic success and luxury, comfortable circumstances and a moderate competence no
+      longer satisfy our people. Hence they turn to the city, looking to find there the
+      coveted social, educational, or economic opportunities.</p>
+      <p>It is doubtful, therefore, whether, even with improved conditions of country
+      life, the urbanization of our rural people can be wholly checked. But it can be
+      greatly retarded if the right agencies are set at work. The rural school should be
+      made and can be made one of the most important of these agencies, although at the
+      present time its influence is chiefly negative. With the hope of offering some
+      help, however slight, in adjusting the rural school to its problem, this little
+      volume is written by one who himself belongs to the rural community by birth and
+      early education and occupation.</p>
+      <span style="margin-left: 32em;">G. H. B.</span>
+      <p><span class="smcap">Cornell College</span>, <i>February</i>, 1913.</p>
+    </div>
+    <hr style="width: 35%;" />
+    <h1>NEW IDEALS IN RURAL SCHOOLS</h1>
+    <h2><a name="I" id="I"></a>I</h2>
+    <h3>THE RURAL SCHOOL AND ITS PROBLEM</h3>
+    <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1" id="Page_1">[Pg 1]</a></span>
+    <h4><i>The general problem of the rural school</i></h4>
+    <p>The general problem of the rural school is the same as that of any other type of
+    school&mdash;to render to the community the largest possible returns upon its
+    investment in education with the least possible waste. Schools are great education
+    factories set up at public expense. The raw material consists of the children of
+    succeeding generations, helpless and inefficient because of ignorance and immaturity.
+    The school is to turn out as its product men and women ready and able to take up
+    their part in the great world of activities going on about them. It is in this way,
+    in efficient education, that society gets its return for its investment in the
+    schools.</p>
+    <p>The word "education" has in recent years been taking on a new and more vital
+    meaning. In earlier times the value of education was as<span class='pagenum'><a
+    name="Page_2" id="Page_2">[Pg 2]</a></span>sumed, or vaguely taken on faith.
+    Education was supposed to consist of so much "learning," or a given amount of
+    "discipline," or a certain quantity of "culture." Under the newer definition,
+    education may include all these things, but it must do more; it <i>must relate itself
+    immediately and concretely to the business of living</i>. We no longer inquire of one
+    how much he knows, or the degree to which his powers have been "cultivated"; but
+    rather to what extent his education has led to a more fruitful life in the home, the
+    state, the church, and other social institutions; how largely it has helped him to
+    more effective work in a worthy occupation; and whether it has resulted in greater
+    enjoyment and appreciation of the finer values of personal experience,&mdash;in
+    short, whether for him education spells <i>efficiency</i>.</p>
+    <p>We are thus coming to see that education must enable the individual to meet the
+    real problems of actual experience as they are confronted in the day's life. Nor can
+    the help rendered be indefinite, intangible, or in any degree uncertain. It must
+    definitely adjust one to his place, and cause him to grow in it, accomplishing the
+    most for himself and for society; it must add to the largeness of his personal life,
+    and at the same time increase his working efficiency.<span class='pagenum'><a
+    name="Page_3" id="Page_3">[Pg 3]</a></span></p>
+    <p>This is to say that one's education must (1) furnish him with the particular
+    <i>knowledge</i> required for the life that he is to live, whether it be in the shop,
+    on the farm, or in the profession. For knowledge lies at the basis of all efficiency
+    and success in whatever occupation. Education must (2) shape the <i>attitude</i>, so
+    that the individual will confront his part of the world's work or its play in the
+    right spirit. It must not leave him a parasite, whether from wealth or from poverty,
+    ready to prey upon others; but must make him willing and glad to do his share.
+    Education must (3) also give the individual training in <i>technique</i>, or the
+    skill required in his different activities; not to do this is at best but to leave
+    him a well-informed and well-intentioned bungler, falling far short of
+    efficiency.</p>
+    <p>The great function of the school, therefore, is to supply the means by which the
+    requisite <i>knowledge</i>, <i>attitude</i>, and <i>skill</i> can be developed. It is
+    true that the child does not depend on the school alone for his knowledge, his
+    attitude, and his skill. For the school is only one of many influences operating on
+    his life. Much of the most vital knowledge is not taught in the school but picked up
+    outside; a great part of the child's attitude toward life is formed through the
+    rela<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_4" id="Page_4">[Pg 4]</a></span>tions of the
+    home, the community, and the various other points of contact with society; and much
+    of his skill in doing is developed in a thousand ways without being taught. Yet the
+    fact remains that the school is organized and supported by society to make sure about
+    these things, to see that the child does not lack in knowledge, attitude, or skill.
+    They must not be left to chance; where the educative influences outside the school
+    have not been sufficient, the school must take hold. Its part is to supplement and
+    organize with conscious purpose what the other agencies have accomplished in the
+    education of the child. The ultimate purpose of the school is <i>to make certain of
+    efficiency</i>.</p>
+    <p>The means by which the school is to accomplish these ends are (1) the <i>social
+    organization</i> of the school, or the life and activities that go on in the school
+    from day to day; (2) the <i>curriculum</i>, or the subject-matter which the child is
+    given to master; and (3) the <i>instruction</i> or the work of the teacher in helping
+    the pupils to master the subject-matter of the curriculum and adjust themselves to
+    the organization of the school.</p>
+    <p>These factors will of necessity differ, however, according to the particular type
+    of school in question. It will therefore be necessary to inquire<span
+    class='pagenum'><a name="Page_5" id="Page_5">[Pg 5]</a></span> into the special
+    problem of the rural school before entering into a discussion of the means by which
+    it is to accomplish its aim.</p>
+    <h4><i>The special problem of the rural school</i></h4>
+    <p>Each type of school has not only its general problem which is common to all
+    schools, but also its special problem which makes it different from every other class
+    of schools. The special problem of any type of school grows out of the nature and
+    needs of the community which supports the school. Thus the city school, whose pupils
+    are to live the industrial and social life of an urban community, confronts a
+    different problem from that of a rural school, whose pupils are to live in a farming
+    community. Each type of school must suit its curriculum, its organization, and its
+    instruction to the demands to be met by its pupils. The knowledge taught, the
+    attitudes and tastes developed, and the skill acquired must be related to the life to
+    be lived and the responsibilities to be undertaken.</p>
+    <p>The rural school must therefore be different in many respects from the town and
+    city school. In its organization, its curriculum, and its spirit, it must be adapted
+    to the requirements of the rural community. For, while many pupils from<span
+    class='pagenum'><a name="Page_6" id="Page_6">[Pg 6]</a></span> the rural schools
+    ultimately follow other occupations than farming, yet the primary function of the
+    rural school is to educate for the life of the farm. It thus becomes evident that the
+    only way to understand the problem of the rural school is first to understand the
+    rural community. What are its industries, the character of its people, their economic
+    status, their standards of living, their needs, their social life?</p>
+    <p>The rural community is industrially homogeneous. There exists here no such a
+    diversified mixture of industries as in the city. All are engaged in the same line of
+    work. Agriculture is the sole occupation. Hence the economic interests and problems
+    all center around this one line. The success or failure of crops, the introduction of
+    a different method of cultivation or a new variety of grain, or the invention of an
+    agricultural implement interests all alike. The farmer engaged in planting his corn
+    knows that for miles around all other farmers are similarly employed; if he is
+    cutting his hay or harvesting his grain, hundreds of other mowing machines and
+    harvesters are at work on surrounding farms.</p>
+    <p>This fund of common interest and experience tends to social as well as industrial
+    homogeneity. Good-fellowship, social responsiveness and neigh<span class='pagenum'><a
+    name="Page_7" id="Page_7">[Pg 7]</a></span>borliness rest on a basis of common labor,
+    common problems, and common welfare. Like-mindedness and the spirit of
+    co&ouml;peration are after all more a matter of similar occupational interests than
+    of nationality.</p>
+    <p>Another factor tending to make the rural community socially more homogeneous than
+    the city community is its relatively stable population, and the fact that the stream
+    of immigration is slow in reaching the farm. It is true that the European nations are
+    well represented among our agricultural population; but for the most part they are
+    not foreigners of the first generation. They have assimilated the American spirit,
+    and become familiar with American institutions. The great flood of raw immigrants
+    fresh from widely diverse nations stops in the large centers of population, and does
+    not reach the farm.</p>
+    <p>The prevailing spirit of democracy is still another influence favoring homogeneity
+    in the rural community. Much less of social stratification exists in the country than
+    in the city. Social planes are not so clearly defined nor so rigidly maintained.
+    Financial prosperity is more likely to take the direction of larger barns and more
+    acres than of social ostentation and exclusiveness.</p>
+    <p>America has no servile and ignorant peasan<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_8"
+    id="Page_8">[Pg 8]</a></span>try. The agricultural class constituting our rural
+    population represents a high grade of natural intelligence and integrity. Great
+    political and moral reforms find more favorable soil in the rural regions than in the
+    cities. The demagogue and the "boss" find farmers impossible to control to their
+    selfish ends. Vagabonds and idlers are out of place among them. They are a
+    hard-headed, capable, and industrious class. As a rule, American farmers are
+    well-to-do, not only earning a good living for their families, but constantly
+    extending their holdings. Their farms are increasingly well improved, stocked, and
+    supplied with labor-saving and efficient machinery. Their land is constantly growing
+    in value, and at the same time yielding larger returns for the money and labor
+    invested in it.</p>
+    <p>The standard of living is distinctly lower in farm homes than in town and city
+    homes of the same financial status. The house is generally comfortable, but small. It
+    is behind the times in many easily accessible modern conveniences possessed by the
+    great majority of city dwellers. The bath, modern plumbing and heating, the
+    refrigerator, and other kindred appliances can be had in the country home as well as
+    the city. Their lack is a matter of standards rather than<span class='pagenum'><a
+    name="Page_9" id="Page_9">[Pg 9]</a></span> of necessity. They will be introduced
+    into thousands of rural homes as soon as their need is realized.</p>
+    <p>The possibilities for making the rural home beautiful and attractive are unequaled
+    in the city for any except the very rich. It is not necessary that the farmhouse
+    shall be crowded for space; its outlook and surroundings can be arranged to give it
+    an &aelig;sthetic quality wholly impossible in the ordinary city home. That this is
+    true is proved by many inexpensive farmhouses that are a delight to the eye. On the
+    other hand, it must be admitted that a large proportion of farmhouses are lacking in
+    both architectural attractiveness and environmental effect. Not infrequently the
+    barns and sheds are so placed as to crowd the house into the background, and the
+    yards for stock allowed to infringe upon the domain of the garden and the lawn. All
+    this can be easily remedied and will be when the &aelig;sthetic taste of the dwellers
+    on the farm comes to be offended by the incongruous and ugly.</p>
+    <p>No stinting in the abundance of food is known on the farm. The farmer supplies the
+    tables of the world, and can himself live off the fat of the land. Grains,
+    vegetables, meats, eggs, butter, milk, and fruits are his stock in trade. If
+    there<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_10" id="Page_10">[Pg 10]</a></span> is any
+    lack in the farmer's table, it is due to carelessness in providing or preparing the
+    food, and not to forced economy.</p>
+    <p>While the farming population in general live well, yet many tables are lacking in
+    variety, especially in fruit and vegetables. Time and interest are so taken up with
+    the larger affairs of crops and stock, that the garden goes by default in many
+    instances. There is no market readily at hand offering fruit and vegetables for sale
+    as in the city, and hence the farm table loses in attractiveness to the appetite and
+    in hygienic excellence. It is probable that the prosperous city workman sits down to
+    a better table than does the farmer, in spite of the great advantage possessed by the
+    latter.</p>
+    <p>The population of rural communities is necessarily scattering. The nature of
+    farming renders it impossible for people to herd together as is the case in many
+    other industries. This has its good side, but also its bad. There are no rural slums
+    for the breeding of poverty and crime; but on the other hand, there is an isolation
+    and monotony that tend to become deadening in their effects on the individual. Stress
+    and over-strain does not all come from excitement and the rush of competition; it may
+    equally well originate in<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_11" id="Page_11">[Pg
+    11]</a></span> lack of variety and unrelieved routine. How true this is is seen in
+    the fact that insanity, caused in this instance chiefly by the stress of monotony,
+    prevails among the farming people of frontier communities out of all proportion to
+    the normal ratio.</p>
+    <p>Farming is naturally the most healthful of the industrial occupations. The work is
+    for the greater part done in the open air and sunshine, and possesses sufficient
+    variety to be interesting. The rural population constitutes the high vitality class
+    of the nation, and must be constantly drawn upon to supply the brain, brawn, and
+    nerve for the work of the city. The farmer is, on the whole, prosperous; he is
+    therefore hopeful and cheerful, and labors in good spirit. That so many farmers and
+    farmers' wives break down or age prematurely is due, not to the inherent nature of
+    their work, but to a lack of balance in the life of the farm. It is not so much the
+    work that kills, as the <i>continuity of the work</i> unrelieved by periods of rest
+    and recreation. With the opportunities highly favorable for the best type of
+    healthful living, no inconsiderable proportion of our agricultural population are
+    shortening their lives and lowering their efficiency by unnecessary over-strain and
+    failure to conform to the most funda<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_12"
+    id="Page_12">[Pg 12]</a></span>mental and elementary laws of hygienic living,
+    especially with reference to the relief from labor that comes through change and
+    recreation.</p>
+    <p>The rural community affords few opportunities for social recreations and
+    amusements. Not only are the people widely separated from each other by distance, but
+    the work of the farm is exacting, and often requires all the hours of the day not
+    demanded for sleep. While the city offers many opportunities for choice of recreation
+    or amusement, the country affords almost none. The city worker has his evenings,
+    usually Saturday afternoon, and all day Sunday free to use as he chooses. Such is not
+    the case on the farm; for after the day in the field the chores must be done, and the
+    stock cared for. And even on Sunday, the routine must be carried out. The work of the
+    farm has a tendency, therefore, to become much of a grind, and certainly will become
+    so unless some limit is set to the exactions of farm labor on the time and strength
+    of the worker. It separates the individual from his fellows in the greater part of
+    the farm work and gives him little opportunity for social recreations or play.</p>
+    <p>One of the best evidences that the conditions of life and work on the farm need to
+    be improved is the number of people who are leaving the<span class='pagenum'><a
+    name="Page_13" id="Page_13">[Pg 13]</a></span> farm for the city. This movement has
+    been especially rapid during the last thirty years of our history, and has continued
+    until approximately one half our people now live in towns or cities. Not only is this
+    loss of agricultural population serious to farming itself, creating a shortage of
+    labor for the work of the farm, but it results in crowding other occupations already
+    too full. There is no doubt that we have too many lawyers, doctors, merchants,
+    clerks, and the like for the number of workers engaged in fundamental productive
+    vocations. Smaller farms, cultivated intensively, would be a great economic advantage
+    to the country, and would take care of a far larger proportion of our people than are
+    now engaged in agriculture.</p>
+    <p>All students of social affairs agree that the movement of our people to towns and
+    cities should be checked and the tide turned the other way. So important is the
+    matter considered that a concerted national movement has recently been undertaken to
+    study the conditions of rural life with a view to making it more attractive and so
+    stopping the drain to the city.</p>
+    <p>Middle-aged farmers move to the town or city for two principal reasons: to educate
+    their children and to escape from the monotony of rural<span class='pagenum'><a
+    name="Page_14" id="Page_14">[Pg 14]</a></span> life. Young people desert the farm for
+    the city for a variety of reasons, prominent among which are a desire for better
+    education, escape from the monotony and grind of the farm life, and the opportunity
+    for the social advantages and recreations of the city. That the retired farmer is
+    usually disappointed and unhappy in his town home, and that the youth often finds the
+    glamour of the city soon to fade, is true. But this does not solve the problem. The
+    flux to the town or city still goes on, and will continue to do so until the natural
+    desire for social and intellectual opportunities and for recreation and amusement is
+    adequately met in rural life.</p>
+    <p>Farming as an industry has already felt the effects of a new interest in rural
+    life. Probably no other industrial occupation has undergone such rapid changes within
+    the last generation as has agriculture. The rapid advance in the value of land, the
+    introduction of new forms of farm machinery, and above all the application of science
+    to the raising of crops and stock, have almost reconstructed the work of the farm
+    within a decade.</p>
+    <p>Special "corn trains" and "dairy trains" have traversed nearly every county in
+    many States, teaching the farmers scientific methods. Lectur<span class='pagenum'><a
+    name="Page_15" id="Page_15">[Pg 15]</a></span>ers on scientific agriculture have
+    found their way into many communities. The Federal Government has encouraged in every
+    way the spread of information and the development of enthusiasm in agriculture. The
+    agricultural schools have given courses of instruction during the winter to farmers.
+    Farmers' institutes have been organized; corn-judging and stock-judging contests have
+    been held; prizes have been offered for the best results in the raising of grains,
+    vegetables, or stock. New varieties of grains have been introduced, improved methods
+    of cultivation discovered, and means of enriching and conserving the soil devised.
+    Stock-breeding and the care of animals is rapidly becoming a science. Farming bids
+    fair soon to become one of the skilled occupations.</p>
+    <p>Such, then, is a brief view of the situation of which the rural school is a part.
+    It ministers to the education of almost half of the American people. This industrial
+    group are engaged in the most fundamental of all occupations, the one upon which all
+    national welfare and progress depend. They control a large part of the wealth of the
+    country, the capital invested in agriculture being more than double that invested in
+    manufactures. Agricultural wealth is rapidly increas<span class='pagenum'><a
+    name="Page_16" id="Page_16">[Pg 16]</a></span>ing, both through the rise in the value
+    of land and through improved methods of farming. The conditions of life on the farm
+    have greatly improved during the last decade. Rural telephones reach almost every
+    home; free mail delivery is being rapidly extended in almost every section of the
+    country; the automobile is coming to be a part of the equipment of many farms; and
+    the trolley is rapidly pushing out along the country roads.</p>
+    <p>Yet, in spite of these hopeful tendencies, the rural community shows signs of
+    deterioration in many places. Rural population is steadily decreasing in proportion
+    to the total aggregate of population. Interest in education is at a low ebb, the farm
+    children having educational opportunities below those of any other class of our
+    people. For, while town and city schools have been improving until they show a high
+    type of efficiency, the rural school has barely held its own, or has, in many places,
+    even gone backward. The rural community confronts a puzzling problem which is still
+    far from solution.</p>
+    <p>Certain points of attack upon this problem are, however, perfectly clear and
+    obvious. <i>First</i>, educational facilities must be improved for rural children,
+    and their education be better adapted to farm life; <i>second</i>, greater
+    opportunities must be<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_17" id="Page_17">[Pg
+    17]</a></span> provided for recreation and social intercourse for both young and old;
+    <i>third</i>, the program of farm work must be arranged to allow reasonable time for
+    rest and recreation; <i>fourth</i>, books, pictures, lectures, concerts, and
+    entertainments must be as accessible to the farm as to the town. These conditions
+    must be met, not because of the dictum of any person, but because they are a
+    fundamental demand of human nature, and must be reckoned with.</p>
+    <p>What, then, is the relation of the rural school to these problems of the rural
+    community? How can it be a factor in their solution? What are its opportunities and
+    responsibilities?</p>
+    <h4><i>The adjustment of the rural school to its problem</i></h4>
+    <p>As has been already stated, the problem of any type of school is to serve its
+    constituency. This is to be done through relating the curriculum, the organization,
+    and the teaching of the school to the immediate interests and needs of the people
+    dependent on the school for their education. That the rural school has not yet fully
+    adjusted itself to its problem need hardly be argued.</p>
+    <p>It has as good material to work upon in the boys and girls from the farm as any
+    type of schools<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_18" id="Page_18">[Pg
+    18]</a></span> in the country. They come of good stock; they are healthy and
+    vigorous; and they are early trained to serious work and responsibility. Yet a very
+    large proportion of these children possess hardly the rudiments of an education when
+    they quit the rural school. Many of them go to school for only a few months in the
+    year, compulsory education laws either being laxly enforced or else altogether
+    lacking. A very small percentage of the children of the farm ever complete eight
+    grades of schooling, and not a large proportion finish more than half of this
+    amount.</p>
+    <p>This leaves the child who has to depend on the rural school greatly handicapped in
+    education. He has but a doubtful proficiency in the mechanics of reading, and has
+    read but little. He knows the elements of spelling, writing, and number, but has
+    small skill in any of them. He knows little of history or literature, less of music,
+    nothing of art, and has but a superficial smattering of science. Of matters relating
+    to his life and activities on the farm he has heard almost nothing. The rural child
+    is not illiterate, but he is too close to the border of illiteracy for the demands of
+    a twentieth-century civilization; it is fair neither to the child nor to society.</p>
+    <p>The rural school seems in some way relatively<span class='pagenum'><a
+    name="Page_19" id="Page_19">[Pg 19]</a></span> to have lost ground in our educational
+    system. The grades of the town school have felt the stimulus of the high school for
+    which they are preparing, and have had the care and supervision of competent
+    administrators. The rural school is isolated and detached, and has had no adequate
+    administrative system to care for its interests. No wonder, then, that certain grave
+    faults in adjustment have grown up. A few of the most obvious of these faults may
+    next claim our attention.</p>
+    <p><i>The rural school is inadequate in its scope</i>. The children of the farm have
+    as much need for education and as much right to it as those who live in towns and
+    cities. Yet the rural school as a rule never attempts to offer more than the eight
+    grades of the elementary curriculum, and seldom reaches this amount. It not
+    infrequently happens that no pupils are in attendance beyond the fifth or the sixth
+    grade. This may be due either to the small number of children in the district, or,
+    more often, to lack of interest to continue in school beyond the simplest elements of
+    reading, writing, and number. It is true that certain States, such as Illinois and
+    Wisconsin, have established a system of township high schools, where secondary
+    education equal to that to be<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_20" id="Page_20">[Pg
+    20]</a></span> had in the cities is available to rural children. In other States a
+    county high school is maintained for the benefit of rural school graduates. In still
+    others, arrangements are made by which those who complete the eight grades of rural
+    schools are received into the town high schools with the tuition paid by the rural
+    school districts. The movement toward secondary education supplied by the rural
+    community for its children is yet in its infancy, however, and has hardly touched the
+    larger problem of affording adequate opportunities for the education of farm
+    children.</p>
+    <p><i>The grading and organization of the rural school is haphazard and faulty</i>.
+    This is partly because of the small enrollment and irregular attendance, and partly
+    because of the inexperience and lack of supervision of the teacher. Children are
+    often found pursuing studies in three or four different grades at the same time. And
+    even more often they omit altogether certain fundamental studies because they or
+    their parents have a notion that these studies are unnecessary. Sometimes, owing to
+    the small number in attendance, or to the poor classification, several grades are
+    entirely lacking, or else they are maintained for only one or two pupils. On<span
+    class='pagenum'><a name="Page_21" id="Page_21">[Pg 21]</a></span> the other hand,
+    classes are often found following each other at an interval of only a few weeks,
+    thereby multiplying classes until the teacher is frequently attempting the impossible
+    task of teaching twenty-five or thirty classes a day. Children differing in age by
+    five or six years, and possessing corresponding degrees of ability, are often found
+    reciting in the same classes. That efficient work is impossible under these
+    conditions is too obvious to require discussion.</p>
+    <p><i>The rural schools possess inadequate buildings and equipment</i>. The average
+    rural schoolhouse consists of one room, with perhaps a small hallway. The building is
+    constructed without reference to architectural effect, resembling nothing so much as
+    a large box with a roof on it. It is barren and uninviting as to its interior. The
+    walls are often of lumber painted some dull color, and dingy through years of use.
+    The windows are frequently dirty, and covered only by worn and tattered shades. There
+    is usually no attempt to decorate the room with pictures, or to relieve its ugliness
+    and monotony in any way. The library consists of a few dozens of volumes, not always
+    supplied with a case for their protection. Of apparatus there is almost none. The
+    work of the farm is done with efficient modern<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_22"
+    id="Page_22">[Pg 22]</a></span> equipment, the work of the farmer's school with
+    inadequate and antiquated equipment.</p>
+    <p>While the length of the school year is increasing in the rural districts, <i>the
+    term is yet much shorter than in town and city schools</i>. Many communities have not
+    more than six months of school, and few more than eight. This shortage is rendered
+    all the more serious by the irregular attendance of the rural school children. A
+    considerable amount of absence on the part of the younger ones is unavoidable under
+    present conditions when the distance is great and the weather bad. After all
+    allowance is made for this fact, however, there is still an immense amount of
+    unnecessary waste of time through non-attendance. Many rural schools show an average
+    attendance for the year of not more than sixty per cent of the enrollment. Going to
+    school is not yet considered a serious business by many of the rural patrons, and
+    truant officers are not so easily available in the country as in the city.</p>
+    <p><i>In financial support the rural school has of necessity been behind the city
+    school</i>. Wealth is not piled up on a small area in agricultural communities as is
+    the case in the city. It would often require square miles of land to equal in value
+    certain city blocks. But making full allowance<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_23"
+    id="Page_23">[Pg 23]</a></span> for this difference, the farmers have not supported
+    their schools as well as is done by the patrons of town and city schools. The school
+    taxes for rural districts are much lower than in city districts, in most instances
+    not more than half as high. It is this conservatism in expenditure that is
+    responsible for many of the defects in the rural school, and particularly for the
+    relatively inefficient teaching that is done. The rural teachers are the least
+    educated, the least experienced, and the most poorly paid of any class of our
+    teachers. They consist almost wholly of girls, a large proportion of whom are under
+    twenty years of age, and who continue teaching not more than a year or two. Not only
+    is this the case, but effective supervision of the teaching is wholly impossible
+    because of the large area assigned to the county or district superintendent of rural
+    schools. In no great industrial project should we think of placing our youngest and
+    most inexperienced workers in the hardest and most important positions, and this
+    without supervision of their work.</p>
+    <p>The rural school has not, therefore, yet been adjusted to its problem. It has a
+    splendid field of work, but is not developing it. Our farming population have
+    capacity for education and need<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_24"
+    id="Page_24">[Pg 24]</a></span> it, but they are not securing it. There is plenty of
+    money available for the support of the rural school, but the school is not getting
+    it. Enough well-equipped teachers can be had for the rural schools, but the standards
+    have not yet required adequate preparation, nor the pay been sufficient to warrant
+    extensive expenditure for it.</p>
+    <p>In the rural school is found the most important and puzzling educational problem
+    of the present day. If our agricultural population are not to fall behind other
+    favored classes of industrial workers in intelligence and preparation for the
+    activities that are to engage them, the rural school must begin working out a better
+    adjustment to its problem. Its curriculum must be broader and richer, and more
+    closely related to the life and interests of the farm. The organization of the
+    school, both on the intellectual and the social side, must bring it more closely into
+    touch with the interests and needs of the rural community. The support and
+    administration of rural education must be improved. Teachers for the rural schools
+    must be better educated and better paid, and their teaching must be correspondingly
+    more efficient. The following pages will be given to a discussion of these problems
+    of adjustment.</p>
+    <hr style="width: 65%;" />
+    <h2><a name="II" id="II"></a>II</h2>
+    <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_25" id="Page_25">[Pg 25]</a></span>
+    <h3><b>THE SOCIAL ORGANIZATION OF THE RURAL SCHOOL</b></h3>
+    <p>Every school possesses two types of organization: (1) an <i>intellectual</i>
+    organization involving the selection and arrangement of a curriculum, and its
+    presentation through instruction; and (2) a <i>social</i> organization involving, on
+    the one hand, the inter-relations of the school and the community, and on the other
+    the relations of the pupils with each other and the teacher.</p>
+    <h4><i>The rural school and the community</i></h4>
+    <p>The rural school and community are not at present in vital touch with each other.
+    The community is not getting enough from the school toward making life larger,
+    happier, and more efficient; it is not giving enough to the school either in helpful
+    co&ouml;peration or financial support.</p>
+    <p>In general, it must be said that most of our rural people, the patrons of the
+    rural school, have not yet conceived education broadly. They think<span
+    class='pagenum'><a name="Page_26" id="Page_26">[Pg 26]</a></span> of the school as
+    having fulfilled its function when it has supplied the simplest rudiments of reading,
+    writing, and number. And, naturally enough, the rural school has conceived its
+    function in the same narrow light; for it is controlled very completely by its
+    patrons, and a stream cannot rise higher than its source.</p>
+    <p>Because of its isolation, the pressing insistence of its toil, and the monotony of
+    its environment, the rural community is in constant danger of intellectual and social
+    stagnation. It has far more need that its school shall be a stimulating, organizing,
+    socializing force than has the town or city. For the city has a dozen social centres
+    entirely outside the school: its public parks, theatres, clubs, churches, and
+    streets, even, serve to stimulate, entertain, and educate. But the rural community is
+    wanting in all these social forces; it is lacking in both intellectual and social
+    stimulus and variety.</p>
+    <p>One of the most pressing needs of country districts is a common neighborhood
+    center for both young and old, which shall stand as an organizing, welding,
+    vitalizing force, uniting the community on a basis of common interests and
+    activities. For while, as we have seen, the rural population as a whole are markedly
+    homogeneous,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_27" id="Page_27">[Pg 27]</a></span>
+    there is after all but little of common acquaintanceship and mingling among them.
+    Thousands of rural families live lives of almost complete social isolation and lack
+    of contact with neighbors.</p>
+    <p>This condition is one of the gravest drawbacks to farm life. The social impulse
+    and the natural desire for recreation and amusement are as strong in country boys and
+    girls as in their city cousins, yet the country offers young people few opportunities
+    for satisfying these impulses and desires. The normal social tendencies of youth are
+    altogether too strong to be crushed out by repression; they are too valuable to be
+    neglected; and they are too dangerous to be left to take their own course wholly
+    unguided. The rural community can never hope to hold its boys and girls permanently
+    to the life of the farm until it has recognized the necessity for providing for the
+    expression and development of the spontaneous social impulses of youth.</p>
+    <p>Furthermore, the social monotony and lack of variety of the rural community is a
+    grave moral danger to its young people. It is a common impression that the great city
+    is strewn thick with snares and pitfalls threatening to morals, but that the country
+    is free from such temptations. The public dance halls and cheap theaters of the
+    city<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_28" id="Page_28">[Pg 28]</a></span> are
+    beyond doubt a great and constant menace to youthful ideals and purity. But the
+    country, going to the opposite extreme, with its almost utter lack of recreation and
+    amusement places, offers temptations no less insidious and fatal.</p>
+    <p>The great difficulty at this point is that young people in rural communities are
+    thrown together almost wholly in isolated pairs instead of in social groups; and that
+    there are no objective resources of amusement or entertainment to claim their
+    interest and attention away from themselves. They are freed from all chaperonage and
+    the restraints of the conventions obtaining in social groups at the very time in
+    their lives when these are most needed as steadying and controlling forces. The
+    result is that the country districts, which ought to be of all places in the world
+    the freest from temptation and peril to the morals of our young people, are really
+    more dangerous than the cities. The sequel is found in the fact that a larger
+    proportion of country girls than of city girls go astray. Nor is the rural community
+    more successful in the morals of its boys than its girls. In other words, the lack of
+    opportunities for free and normal social experience, the consequent ignorance of
+    social conventions, and the absence of healthful amusement and recreation, make
+    the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_29" id="Page_29">[Pg 29]</a></span> rural
+    community a most unsafe place in which to rear a family.</p>
+    <p>But the necessity for social recreation and amusement does not apply to the young
+    people alone. Their fathers and mothers are suffering from the same limitations,
+    though of course with entirely different results. The danger here is that of
+    premature aging and stagnation. While the toil of the city worker is relieved by
+    change and variety, his mind rested and his mood enlivened by the stimulus from many
+    lines of diversion, the lives of the dwellers on the farm are constantly threatened
+    by a deadly sameness and monotony.</p>
+    <p>The indisputable tendency of farmers and their wives to age so rapidly, and so
+    early to fall into the ranks of "fogyism," is due far more to lack of variety and
+    recreation and to dearth of intellectual stimulus than to hard labor, severe as this
+    often is. Age is more than the flight of the years, the stoop of the form, or the
+    hardening of the arteries; it is also the atrophy of the intellect and the fading
+    away of the emotions resulting from disuse. The farmer needs occasionally to have
+    something more exciting than the alternation of the day's work with the nightly
+    "chores." And his wife should now and then<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_30"
+    id="Page_30">[Pg 30]</a></span> have an opportunity to meet people other than those
+    for whom she cooks and sews.</p>
+    <p>But what has all this to do with the social organization of the rural school?
+    Much. The country cannot have its theaters, parks, and crowded thoroughfares like the
+    city. But it needs and must have <i>some</i> social center, where its people may
+    assemble for recreation, entertainment, and intellectual growth and development. And
+    what is more natural and feasible than that the public school should be this center?
+    Here is an institution already belonging to the whole people, and set apart for the
+    intellectual training of the young. Why should it not also be made to minister to the
+    intellectual needs of their elders as well, and to the social needs of all? <i>Why
+    should not the public school building, now in use but six hours a day for little more
+    than half the year, be open at all times when it can be helpful to any portion of the
+    community?</i></p>
+    <p>If young people are to develop naturally, if they are to make full use of their
+    social as well as their intellectual powers, if they are to be satisfied with their
+    surroundings, they must be provided with suitable opportunities for social mingling
+    and recreation in groups. This is nature's way; there is no other way. The
+    school<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_31" id="Page_31">[Pg 31]</a></span> might
+    and should afford this opportunity. There is not the least reason why the school
+    building, when it is adapted to this purpose, should not be the common neighborhood
+    meeting place for all sorts of young people's parties, picnics, entertainments,
+    athletic contests, and every other form of amusement approved in the community.</p>
+    <p>Such a use of the school property would yield large returns to the community for
+    the small additional expense required. It would serve to weld the school and
+    community more closely together. It would vastly change the attitude of the young
+    toward the school. It would save much of the dissatisfaction of young people with the
+    life of the farm. It would prove a great safeguard to youthful morals. It would lead
+    the community itself to a new sense of its duty toward the social life of the young,
+    and to a new concept of the school as a part of the community organization. Finally,
+    this broadened service of the school to its community would have a reflex influence
+    on the school itself, vitalizing every department of its activities, and giving it a
+    new vision of its opportunities.</p>
+    <p>The first obstacle that will appear in the way of such a plan is the inadequacy of
+    the present type of country schoolhouse. And this is a seri<span class='pagenum'><a
+    name="Page_32" id="Page_32">[Pg 32]</a></span>ous matter; for the barren, squalid
+    little building of the present day would never fit into such a project. But this type
+    of schoolhouse must go&mdash;is going. It is a hundred years behind our civilization,
+    and wholly inadequate to present needs. Passing for later discussion the method by
+    which these buildings are to be supplanted by better ones, let us consider further
+    the details of the plan of making the school the neighborhood center.</p>
+    <p>First of all, each school must supply a larger area and a greater number of people
+    than at present. It is financially impossible to erect good buildings to the number
+    of our present schools. Nor are there pupils enough in the small district as now
+    organized to make a school, nor people enough successfully to use the school as a
+    neighborhood center.</p>
+    <p>Let each township, or perhaps somewhat smaller area, select a central,
+    well-adapted site and thereon erect a modern, well-equipped school building. But this
+    building must not be just the traditional schoolhouse with its classrooms and rows of
+    desks. For it is to be more than a place where the children will study and recite
+    lessons from books; it is to be the place where all the people of the neighborhood,
+    <i>old and young</i>, will<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_33" id="Page_33">[Pg
+    33]</a></span> assemble for entertainment, amusement, and instruction. Here will be
+    held community picnics, social entertainments, young people's parties, lectures,
+    concerts, debating contests, agricultural courses for the farmers, school programs,
+    spreads and banquets, and whatever else may belong to the common social and
+    intellectual life of the community.</p>
+    <p>The modern rural school building will therefore be home-like as well as
+    school-like. In addition to its classrooms it will contain an assembly room capable
+    of seating several hundred people. The seating of this room may be removable so that
+    the floor can be cleared for social purposes or the room used for a dining-room. One
+    or two smaller rooms will be needed for social functions, club and committee
+    meetings. These rooms should be made attractive with good furniture, rugs, couches,
+    and pictures. The building will contain well-equipped laboratories for manual
+    training and domestic science, the latter of which will be found serviceable in
+    connection with serving picnics, "spreads," and the like. The entire building should
+    be architecturally attractive, well heated and ventilated, commodious, well
+    furnished, and decorated with good pictures. In it should be housed a library
+    con<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_34" id="Page_34">[Pg 34]</a></span>taining
+    several thousand well-selected books, besides magazines and newspapers. The
+    laboratories and equipment should be fully equal to those found in the town schools,
+    but should be adapted to the work of the rural school.</p>
+    <p>The grounds surrounding the rural school building can easily be ample in area, and
+    beautiful in outlook and decoration. Here will be the neighborhood athletic grounds
+    for both boys and girls, shade trees for picnics, flowers and shrubs, and ground
+    enough for a school garden connected with the instruction in agriculture. Nor is it
+    too much to believe that the district will in the future erect on the school grounds
+    a cottage for the principal of the school and his family, and thus offer an
+    additional inducement for strong, able men to devote their energies to education in
+    the rural communities.</p>
+    <p>Now contrast this schoolhouse and equipment with the typical rural building of the
+    present. Adjoining a prosperous farm, with its large house, its accompanying barns,
+    silos, machine houses, and all the equipment necessary to modern farming, is the
+    little schoolhouse. It is a dilapidated shell of a rectangular box, barren of every
+    vestige of beauty or attractiveness both inside and out. At the rear are two
+    outbuildings<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_35" id="Page_35">[Pg 35]</a></span>
+    which are an offense to decency and a menace to morals. Within the schoolhouse the
+    painted walls are dingy with smoke and grime. The windows are broken and dirty, no
+    pictures adorn the walls. The floor is washed but once or twice a year. The room is
+    heated by an ugly box of a stove, and ventilated only by means of windows which
+    frequently are nailed shut. The grounds present a wilderness of weeds, rubbish, and
+    piles of ashes. It is all an outrage against the rights of the country child, and an
+    indictment of the intelligence and ideals of a large proportion of our people.</p>
+    <p>If it is said that the plan proposed to remedy this situation is revolutionary, it
+    will be admitted. What our rural schools of to-day need is <i>not improvement but
+    reorganization</i>. For only in this radical way can they be made a factor in the
+    vitalizing and conserving of the rural community which, unless some new leaven is
+    introduced, is surely destined to disorganization and decay.</p>
+    <h4><i>The consolidation of rural schools</i></h4>
+    <p>The first step in reorganizing the rural schools is <i>consolidation</i>. Our
+    rural school organization, buildings, and equipment are a full century behind our
+    industrial and social advancement. The<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_36"
+    id="Page_36">[Pg 36]</a></span> present plan of attempting to run a school on
+    approximately every four square miles of territory originated at a time of poverty,
+    and when the manufacturing industries were all carried on in the homes and small
+    shops. Our rural people are now well-to-do, and manufacturing has moved over into a
+    well-organized set of factories; but the isolated little school, shamefully housed,
+    meagerly equipped, poorly attended, and unskillfully taught, still remains.</p>
+    <p>Such a system of schools leaves our rural people educationally on a par with the
+    days of cradling the grain and threshing it with a flail; of planting corn by hand
+    and cultivating it with a hoe; of lighting the house with a tallow dip, and traveling
+    by stage-coach.</p>
+    <p>The well-meant attempts to "improve" the rural school as now organized are futile.
+    The proposal to solve the problem by raising the standards for teachers, desirable as
+    this is; by the raising of salaries; or by bettering the type of the little
+    schoolhouse, are at best but temporary makeshifts, and do not touch the root of the
+    problem. The first and most fundamental step is to eliminate the little shacks of
+    houses that dot our prairies every two miles along the country roads.<span
+    class='pagenum'><a name="Page_37" id="Page_37">[Pg 37]</a></span></p>
+    <p>For not only is it impossible to supply adequate buildings so near together, but
+    it is even more impossible to find children enough to constitute a real school in
+    such small districts. There is no way of securing a full head of interest and
+    enthusiasm with from five to ten or twelve pupils in a school. The classes are too
+    small and the number of children too limited to permit the organization of proper
+    games and plays, or a reasonable variety of association through mingling
+    together.</p>
+    <p>Furthermore, it will never be possible to pay adequate salaries to the teachers in
+    these small schools. Nor will any ambitious and well-prepared teacher be willing to
+    remain in such a position, where he is obliged to invest his time and influence with
+    so few pupils, and where all conditions are so adverse.</p>
+    <p>The chief barrier to the centralization of rural education has been local
+    prejudice and pride. In many cases a true sentimental value has attached to "the
+    little red schoolhouse." Its praises have been sung, and orator and writer have
+    expanded upon the glories of our common schools, until it is no wonder that their
+    pitiful inadequacy has been overlooked by many of their patrons.</p>
+    <p>In other cases opposition has arisen to giving<span class='pagenum'><a
+    name="Page_38" id="Page_38">[Pg 38]</a></span> up the small local school because of
+    the selfish fear that the loss of the school would lower the value of adjacent
+    property. Still others have feared that consolidation would mean higher school taxes,
+    and have opposed it upon this ground.</p>
+    <p>But whatever the causes of the opposition to consolidation, this opposition must
+    cease before the rural school can fulfill its function and before the rural child can
+    have educational opportunities even approximating those given the town child. And
+    until this is accomplished, the exodus from the farm will continue and ought to
+    continue. Pride, prejudice, and penury must not be allowed to deprive the farm boys
+    and girls of their right to education and normal development.</p>
+    <p>The movement toward consolidation of rural schools and transportation of the
+    children to a central school has already attained considerable headway in many
+    regions of the country.<a name="FNanchor_1_1" id="FNanchor_1_1"></a><a
+    href="#Footnote_1_1" class="fnanchor">[1]</a> It is now a part of the rural school
+    system in thirty-two States. Massachusetts, the leader in consolidation, began in
+    1869. The movement at first grew slowly in all the States, not only having local
+    opposition to overcome, but also meeting the problem of bad country roads interfering
+    with the transportation of pupils.</p>
+    <p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_39" id="Page_39">[Pg 39]</a></span>During the
+    past half-dozen years, however, consolidation has been gaining headway, and is now
+    going on at least five times as fast as the average for the twenty-five years
+    preceding 1906. Indiana is at present the banner State in the rapidity of
+    consolidation, the expenditure for conveyance having considerably more than trebled
+    since 1904. The broad and general sweep of the movement, together with the fact that
+    it is practically unheard of for schools that have once tried consolidation to go
+    back to the old system, seems to indicate that the rural education of the not distant
+    future will, except in a few regions, be carried on in consolidated schools.</p>
+    <p>The relative cost of maintaining district and consolidated schools is an important
+    factor. Yet this factor must not be given undue prominence. It is true that the cost
+    of education must be kept at a reasonable ratio with the standard of living of a
+    community. But it is also true that the consolidated rural school must be looked upon
+    as an indispensable country-life institution, and hence as having claim to a more
+    generous basis of support than that accorded the district school.</p>
+    <p>While it is impossible, owing to such widely<span class='pagenum'><a
+    name="Page_40" id="Page_40">[Pg 40]</a></span> varying conditions, to make an
+    absolutely exact statement of the relative expense of the two types of schools, yet
+    it has been shown in many different instances that the cost of schooling per day in
+    consolidated schools is but slightly, if any, above that in most district
+    schools.</p>
+    <p>The aggregate annual cost is usually somewhat higher in the consolidated schools,
+    owing to the fact of a greatly increased attendance. A comparison made between the
+    cost per day's schooling in the smaller district schools and consolidated schools
+    almost invariably shows a lower expenditure for the latter. For example, the fifteen
+    districts in Hardin County, Iowa, having in 1908 an enrollment of nine or less,
+    averaged a cost of 27.5 cents a day for each pupil.<a name="FNanchor_2_2"
+    id="FNanchor_2_2"></a><a href="#Footnote_2_2" class="fnanchor">[2]</a> At the same
+    time the cost per day in the consolidated rural schools of northeastern Ohio was only
+    17.4 cents a day, the district schools being more than fifty-seven per cent higher
+    than the consolidated. Similar comparisons show the same trend in many other
+    localities. In a great many of the small district schools the cost per pupil is as
+    high as in consolidated schools where a high school course is also provided. It has
+    been found that the average cost per year of schooling a child in a con<span
+    class='pagenum'><a name="Page_41" id="Page_41">[Pg 41]</a></span>solidated school is
+    but little above thirty dollars, while in practically all smaller district schools it
+    far exceeds this amount, not infrequently going above fifty dollars. This means that
+    average rural districts that are putting at least thirty dollars a year into the
+    schooling of each child can, by consolidating their schools, secure greatly improved
+    educational facilities with no heavier financial burden.</p>
+    <p>Not the least important of the advantages growing out of rural school
+    consolidation is the improved attendance. Experience has shown that fully twenty-five
+    per cent more children of school age are enrolled under the consolidated than under
+    the district system. The advantage of this one factor alone can hardly be
+    over-estimated, but the increase in regularity of attendance is also as great. The
+    average daily attendance of rural schools throughout the country is approximately
+    sixty per cent of the enrollment, and in entire States falls below fifty per cent. It
+    has been found that consolidation, with its attendant conveyance of pupils, commonly
+    increases the average daily attendance by as much as twenty-five per cent.</p>
+    <p>It is true that in many regions it may at present prove impossible to consolidate
+    all the rural<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_42" id="Page_42">[Pg 42]</a></span>
+    schools. In places where the population is so sparse as to require transportation for
+    very long distances, or where the country roads are still in such a condition in wet
+    seasons as to be practically impassable, consolidation must of necessity be delayed.
+    In such communities, however, the rural school need not be completely at a
+    standstill. Much can be done to make even the one-room schoolhouse attractive and
+    hygienic. With almost no expense, the grounds can be set with shade trees, shrubs,
+    and perennial flowering plants. The yard can be made into a lawn in front, and into
+    an athletic ground at the sides or the rear. Enough ground can be added to provide
+    for all these things, and a school garden besides. The building can be rendered more
+    inviting through better architecture, and more attention to decoration and
+    cleanliness. An adequate supply of books and other equipment can be provided. While
+    the isolated rural school can never take the place of the consolidated school, while
+    it should always be looked upon as only temporarily occupying a place later to be
+    filled by a more efficient type of school, it can after all be rendered much more
+    efficient than it is at present. And since the one-room school will without doubt for
+    years to come be required as a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_43"
+    id="Page_43">[Pg 43]</a></span> supplement of the consolidated school, it should
+    receive the same careful thought and effort toward its improvement that is being
+    accorded the school of better type.</p>
+    <h4><i>Financial support of the rural school</i></h4>
+    <p>The rural school has never had adequate financial support. There has been good
+    reason for this in many regions of the country where farm property was low in value,
+    the land sparsely settled and not all improved, or else covered by heavy mortgages.
+    As these conditions have gradually disappeared and the agricultural population become
+    more prosperous, the school has in some degree shared the general prosperity. But not
+    fully. A smaller proportion of the margin of wealth above living necessities is going
+    into rural education now than in the earlier days of less prosperity. While the
+    farmer has vastly "improved" his farm, he has improved his school but little. While
+    he has been adding modern machinery and adopting scientific methods in caring for his
+    grain and stock, his children have not had the advantage of an increasingly efficient
+    school.</p>
+    <p>The poverty of the rural school finds its explanation in two facts: (1) the
+    relatively low value<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_44" id="Page_44">[Pg
+    44]</a></span> of the taxable property of the rural as compared with the town or city
+    district, and (2) the lower rate of local school tax paid in country than in urban
+    districts. The first of these disadvantages of the rural district cannot be remedied;
+    but for the second, there seems to be no valid economic reason.</p>
+    <p>The approximate difference in the local school-tax rate paid in urban and rural
+    districts is shown in the following instances, which might be duplicated from other
+    States:&mdash;</p>
+    <p>In Kansas, the local school tax paid in 1910 by towns and cities was above eighty
+    per cent more than that paid by country districts. In Missouri, the current report of
+    the State Superintendent shows towns and cities seventy-five per cent higher than the
+    country. In Minnesota, towns and cities average nearly three times the rate paid by
+    rural districts. In Ohio, towns and cities are more than ten per cent higher than
+    rural districts, even where the rural district maintains a full elementary and high
+    school course. In Nebraska and Iowa, the town and city rate is about double that of
+    country districts.</p>
+    <p>When there is added to this difference the further fact that town and city
+    property is commonly assessed at more nearly its full value than<span
+    class='pagenum'><a name="Page_45" id="Page_45">[Pg 45]</a></span> rural property, the
+    discrepancy becomes all the greater.</p>
+    <p>It is not meant, of course, that farmers should pay as high a school-tax rate for
+    the elementary rural school as that paid by town patrons who also have a high school
+    available. But, on the other hand, if better school facilities are to be furnished
+    the country children, rural property should bear its full share of the taxes
+    required. The farmer should be willing to pay as much for the education of his child
+    as the city dweller pays for a similar education for his.</p>
+    <p>During the last generation farmers have been increasing in wealth faster than any
+    other class of industrial workers. Their land has doubled in value, barns have been
+    built, machinery has been added, automobiles purchased, and large bank credits
+    established. Yet very little of this increased prosperity has reached the school.
+    Library, reference works, maps, charts, and other apparatus are usually lacking. In
+    Iowa, as a fair example, a sum of not less than ten nor more than fifteen cents a
+    year for each pupil of school age in the district is required by law to be expended
+    for library books. Yet in not a few districts the law is a dead letter or the money
+    grudgingly spent! In many rural schools the teacher<span class='pagenum'><a
+    name="Page_46" id="Page_46">[Pg 46]</a></span> has to depend on the proceeds of a
+    "social," an "exhibition," or a "box party" to secure a few dollars for books or
+    pictures for the neighborhood school, and sometimes even buys brooms and dust pans
+    from the fund secured in this way.</p>
+    <p>This is all wrong. The school should be put on a business basis. It should have
+    the necessary tools with which to accomplish its work, and not be forced to waste the
+    time and opportunity of childhood for want of a few dollars expended for equipment.
+    Its patrons should realize that just as it pays to supply factory, shop, or farm with
+    the best of instruments for carrying on the work, so it pays in the school. Cheap
+    economy is always wasteful, and never more wasteful than when it cripples the
+    efficiency of education.</p>
+    <p>State aid for rural schools has been proposed and in some instances tried, as a
+    mode of solving their financial problem. Where this system has been given a fair
+    trial, as for example in Minnesota, it has resulted in two great advantages: (1) it
+    has encouraged the local community to freer expenditure of their own money for school
+    purposes, since the contribution of the State is conditioned on the amount expended
+    by the district. This is an important achievement, since it serves to train the
+    community to the idea of more liberal<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_47"
+    id="Page_47">[Pg 47]</a></span> local taxation for school purposes, and it is
+    probable that the greater part of the support of our schools will continue to come
+    from this source. Another advantage of state aid is (2) that it serves to equalize
+    educational opportunities, and hence to maintain a true educational democracy.
+    Wealthier localities are caused to contribute to the educational facilities of those
+    less favored, and a common advancement thereby secured.</p>
+    <p>While the theory of state aid to rural education is wholly defensible, and while
+    it has worked well in practice, yet there is one safeguard that needs to be
+    considered. It is manifestly unfair to ask the people of towns and cities to help pay
+    for the support of the rural schools through the medium of the State treasury except
+    on condition that the patrons of the rural schools themselves do their fair share.
+    Mr. "A," living in a town where he pays twenty mills school tax, ought not to be
+    asked to help improve Mr. "B's" rural school, while Mr. "B" is himself paying but ten
+    mills of school tax. The farmer is as able as any one else to pay a fair rate of
+    taxation for his school, and should be willing to do so before asking for aid from
+    other taxation sources. Rural education must not be placed on the basis of a
+    missionary enterprise. State aid<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_48"
+    id="Page_48">[Pg 48]</a></span> should be used to compensate for the difference in
+    the economic <i>basis</i> for taxation in different localities, and not for a
+    difference in the <i>rates</i> of taxation between localities equally able to pay the
+    same rate.</p>
+    <br />
+
+    <p>We may conclude, then, that while neither the rural school nor the community has
+    been fully aware of the possibilities for mutual helpfulness and co&ouml;peration,
+    yet there are many hopeful signs that both are awakening to a sense of
+    responsibility. Federal and state commissions have been created to study the rural
+    problem, national and state teachers' associations are seeking a solution of the
+    rural school question, and, better still, the patrons of the rural schools are in
+    many places alive to the pressing need for better educational facilities for their
+    children.</p>
+    <p>Growing out of these influences and the faithful work of many state and county
+    superintendents, and not a few of the rural teachers themselves, a spirit of progress
+    is gaining headway. Several thousand consolidated schools are now rendering excellent
+    service to their patrons and at the same time acting as a stimulus to other
+    communities to follow their example. State aid to rural education is no longer an
+    experiment.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_49" id="Page_49">[Pg 49]</a></span>
+    The people are in many localities voluntarily and gladly increasing their taxes in
+    order that they may improve their schools. Teachers' salaries are being increased,
+    better equipment provided, and buildings rendered more habitable.</p>
+    <p>The great educational problem of the immediate future will be to encourage and
+    guide the movement which is now getting under way. For mistakes made now will
+    handicap both community and school for years to come. The attempt to secure better
+    schools by "improving" conditions in local districts should be definitely abandoned
+    except in localities where conditions make consolidation impracticable for the
+    present. The new consolidated school building should take definitely into account the
+    fact that the school is to become the <i>neighborhood social center</i>, and the
+    structure should be planned as much with this function in view as with its uses for
+    school purposes. The new type of rural school is not to aim simply to give a better
+    intellectual training, but is at the same time to relate this training to the
+    conditions and needs of our agricultural population. And all who have to do with the
+    rural schools in any way are to seek to make the school a true vitalizing factor in
+    the community&mdash;a leaven, whose influence shall permeate every<span
+    class='pagenum'><a name="Page_50" id="Page_50">[Pg 50]</a></span> line of interest
+    and activity of its patrons and lead to a fuller and richer life.</p>
+    <h4><i>The rural school and its pupils</i></h4>
+    <p>One of the surest tests of any school is the attitude of the pupils&mdash;the
+    spirit of loyalty, co&ouml;peration, and devotion they manifest with reference to
+    their education. Do they, on the whole, look upon the school as an opportunity or an
+    imposition? Do they consider it <i>their</i> school, and make its interests and
+    welfare their concern, or do they think of it as the teacher's school, or the board's
+    school or the district's school? These questions are of supreme importance, for the
+    question of attitude, quite as much as that of ability, determines the use made of
+    opportunity.</p>
+    <p>It must be admitted that throughout our entire school system there remains
+    something to be desired in the spirit of co&ouml;peration between pupils and schools.
+    The feeling of loyalty which the child has for his home does not extend
+    commensurately to the school. Too often the school is looked upon as something forced
+    upon the child, for his welfare, perhaps, but after all not as forming an interesting
+    and vital part of his present experience. It is often rather a place where so much
+    time and effort and inconven<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_51" id="Page_51">[Pg
+    51]</a></span>ience must be paid for so many grades and promotions, and where,
+    incidentally, preparation is supposed to be made for some future demands very dimly
+    conceived. At best, there is frequently a lack of feeling of full identity of
+    interests between the child and the school.</p>
+    <p>The youth, immaturity, and blindness of childhood make it impossible, of course,
+    for children to conceive of their school in a spirit of full appreciation. On the
+    other hand, the very nature of childhood is responsiveness and readiness of
+    co&ouml;peration in any form of interesting activity,&mdash;is loyalty of attitude
+    toward what is felt to minister to personal happiness and well-being. In so far,
+    therefore, as there exists any lack of loyalty and co&ouml;peration of pupils toward
+    their school, the reasons for such defection are to be sought first of all in the
+    school, and not in the child.</p>
+    <p>While this negative attitude of the pupils exists in some degree in all our
+    schools, it is undoubtedly more marked in our rural schools than in others. In a
+    negligible number of cases does this lack of co&ouml;peration take the form of overt
+    rebellion against the authority of the school. It is manifested in other ways, many
+    of them wholly unconscious to the child, as, for example,<span class='pagenum'><a
+    name="Page_52" id="Page_52">[Pg 52]</a></span> lack of desire to attend school, and
+    indifference to its activities when present.</p>
+    <p>Attending school is the most important occupation that can engage the child. Yet
+    the indifference of children and their parents alike to the necessity for schooling
+    makes the small and irregular attendance of rural school pupils one of the most
+    serious problems with which educators have to deal. County superintendents have in
+    many places offered prizes and diplomas with the hope of bettering attendance, but
+    such incentives do not reach the source of the difficulty. The remedy must finally
+    lie in a fundamental change of attitude toward the school and its opportunities. Good
+    attendance must spring from interest in the school work and a feeling of its value,
+    rather than from any artificial incentives.</p>
+    <p>How great a problem poor attendance at rural schools is, may be realized from the
+    fact that, in spite of compulsory education laws, not more than seventy per cent of
+    the children accessible to the rural school are enrolled, and of this number only
+    about sixty per cent are in daily attendance. This is to say that under one half of
+    our farm children are daily receiving the advantages of even the rural school. In
+    some States this proportion will fall as low as three tenths instead<span
+    class='pagenum'><a name="Page_53" id="Page_53">[Pg 53]</a></span> of one half. In
+    many rich agricultural counties of the Middle West, having a farming population of
+    approximately ten thousand, not more than forty or fifty pupils per year complete the
+    eight grades of the rural school.</p>
+    <p>If the rural school is to be able to claim the regular attendance and spontaneous
+    co&ouml;peration of the children it must (1) be reasonably accessible to them, (2) be
+    attractive and interesting in itself, and (3) offer work the value and application of
+    which are evident.</p>
+    <p>The inaccessibility of the rural school has always been one of its greatest
+    disadvantages. In a large proportion of cases, a walk of from a mile to a mile and a
+    half along country roads or across cultivated fields has been required to reach the
+    schoolhouse. During inclement weather, or when deep snow covers the ground, this
+    distance proves almost prohibitive for all the smaller children. Wet feet and
+    drenched clothing have been followed by severe colds, coughs, bronchitis, or worse,
+    and the children have not only suffered educationally, but been endangered physically
+    as well.</p>
+    <p>It has been found in all instances that public conveyance of pupils to the
+    consolidated schools greatly increases rural school patronage. It makes<span
+    class='pagenum'><a name="Page_54" id="Page_54">[Pg 54]</a></span> the school
+    accessible. The regular wagon service does away with the "hit-and-miss" method of
+    determining for each succeeding day whether it is advisable for the child to start
+    for school. So important is this factor in securing attendance, that a careful study
+    by Knorr<a name="FNanchor_3_3" id="FNanchor_3_3"></a><a href="#Footnote_3_3"
+    class="fnanchor">[3]</a> of the attendance in Ohio district and consolidated schools
+    shows twenty-seven per cent more of the total school population in school under the
+    influence of public conveyance and other features peculiar to consolidation than
+    under the district system. He concludes that, broadly speaking, by a system of
+    consolidated schools with public conveyance, rural school attendance can be increased
+    by at least one fourth.</p>
+    <p>The life in the typical rural school is not sufficiently interesting and
+    attractive to secure a strong hold upon the pupils. The dreary ugliness of the
+    physical surroundings has already been referred to. And even in districts where the
+    building and grounds have been made reasonably attractive, there is yet wanting a
+    powerful factor&mdash;the influence of the social incentive that comes from numbers.
+    In hundreds of our rural schools the daily attendance is less than a dozen pupils,
+    frequently not representing more than three or four families. The classes can
+    therefore<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_55" id="Page_55">[Pg 55]</a></span>
+    contain not more than two or three pupils, and often only one. There is no
+    possibility of organizing games, or having the fun and frolic possible to larger
+    groups of children. Add to this the fact that the teaching is often spiritless and
+    uninspiring, and the reason becomes still more plain why so many rural children drop
+    out of school with scarcely the rudiments of an education.</p>
+    <p>Here, again, the consolidated school, with its attractive building, its improved
+    equipment, its larger body of pupils, and its better teaching, appears as a solution
+    of the difficulty. For it does what the present type of district school can never
+    do&mdash;it makes school life interesting and attractive to its pupils, and this
+    brings to bear upon them one of the strongest incentives to continue in school and
+    secure an education.</p>
+    <p>Finally, much of the work of the school has not appealed to the pupils as
+    interesting or valuable. This has not been altogether the fault of the curriculum,
+    but often has come from the lack of adaptability of the work to the pupils studying
+    it. Through frequent changes of teachers, poor classification, and irregularity of
+    attendance, rural pupils have often been forced to go over and over the same ground,
+    without any reference<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_56" id="Page_56">[Pg
+    56]</a></span> to whether they were ready to advance or not. In other cases, careless
+    grading has placed children in studies for which they were utterly unprepared, and
+    from which they could get nothing but discouragement and dislike for school. In still
+    other instances the course pursued has been ill-balanced, and in no degree
+    correlated. Often the whim of the child determines whether he will or will not study
+    certain subjects, the teacher lacking either the knowledge or insistence to bring
+    about a better organization of the work.</p>
+    <p>The unskilled character of the rural school-teaching force, and the impossibility
+    of securing any reasonable supervision as the system is at present organized, make us
+    again turn to the consolidated school as the remedy for these adverse conditions. For
+    with its improved attendance, its skilled teaching, and its better supervision, it
+    easily and naturally renders such conditions impossible. Give the consolidated
+    school, in addition, the greatly enriched curriculum which it will find possible to
+    offer its pupils, and the vexing question of the relation of the rural school to its
+    pupils will be far toward solution.</p>
+    <p>Let us next consider somewhat in detail the curriculum of the rural school.</p>
+    <div class="footnotes">
+      <h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3>
+      <div class="footnote">
+        <p><a name="Footnote_1_1" id="Footnote_1_1"></a><a href="#FNanchor_1_1"><span
+        class="label">[1]</span></a> See "Consolidated Rural Schools," Bulletin 232, U.
+        S. Department of Agriculture.</p>
+      </div>
+      <div class="footnote">
+        <p><a name="Footnote_2_2" id="Footnote_2_2"></a><a href="#FNanchor_2_2"><span
+        class="label">[2]</span></a> Bulletin 232, U. S. Department of Agriculture, p.
+        38.</p>
+      </div>
+      <div class="footnote">
+        <p><a name="Footnote_3_3" id="Footnote_3_3"></a><a href="#FNanchor_3_3"><span
+        class="label">[3]</span></a> Bulletin 232, U. S. Department of Agriculture, p.
+        51.</p>
+      </div>
+    </div>
+    <hr style="width: 65%;" />
+    <h2><a name="III" id="III"></a>III</h2>
+    <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_57" id="Page_57">[Pg 57]</a></span>
+    <h3>THE CURRICULUM OF THE RURAL SCHOOL</h3>
+    <p>If we grant the economic ability to support good schools, then the curriculum
+    offered by any type of school, the scope of subject-matter given the pupils to
+    master, is a measure of the educational ideals of those maintaining and using the
+    schools. If the curriculum is broad, and representative of the various great fields
+    of human culture; if it relates itself to the life and needs of its patrons; if it is
+    adapted to the interests and activities of its pupils, it may be said that the people
+    believe in education as a right of the individual and as a preparation for successful
+    living. But if, on the other hand, the curriculum is meager and narrow, consisting
+    only of the rudiments of knowledge, and not related to the life of the people or the
+    interests of the pupils, then it may well be concluded that education is not highly
+    prized, that it is not understood, or that it is looked upon as an incidental.</p>
+    <h4><i>The scope of the rural school curriculum</i></h4>
+    <p>Modern conditions require a broader and more<span class='pagenum'><a
+    name="Page_58" id="Page_58">[Pg 58]</a></span> thorough education than that demanded
+    by former times, and far more than the typical district rural school affords. The
+    old-time school offered only the "three R's," and this was thought sufficient for an
+    education. But these times have passed. Not only has society greatly increased in
+    wealth during the last half-century, but it has also grown much in intelligence. Many
+    more people are being educated now than formerly, and they are also being vastly
+    better educated. For the concept of what constitutes an education has changed, and
+    the curriculum has grown correspondingly broader and richer.</p>
+    <p>It is therefore no longer possible to express the educational status of a
+    community in the percentage of people who can merely read and write. Educational
+    progress has become a national ideal. The elementary schools in towns and cities have
+    been greatly strengthened both in curriculum and teaching. High schools have been
+    organized and splendidly equipped, and their attendance has rapidly increased.</p>
+    <p>But all this development has hardly touched the rural school. The curriculum
+    offered is pitifully narrow even for an elementary school, and very few high schools
+    are supported by rural communities. In fact, a large proportion of our rural<span
+    class='pagenum'><a name="Page_59" id="Page_59">[Pg 59]</a></span> population are
+    receiving an education but little in advance of that offered a hundred years ago in
+    similar schools. This is not fair to the children born and reared on the farm; it is
+    not fair to one of the greatest and most important industries of our country; and it
+    cannot but result disastrously in the end.</p>
+    <p>If the rural school is to meet its problem, it must extend the scope of its
+    curriculum. It was formerly thought by many that education, except in its simplest
+    elements, was only for those planning to enter the "learned professions." But this
+    idea has given way before the onward sweep of the spirit of democracy, and we now
+    conceive education as the right and duty of <i>all</i>. Nor by education do we mean
+    the simple ability to read, write, and number.</p>
+    <p>Our present-day civilization demands not only that the child shall be taught to
+    read, but also that he shall be supplied with books and guided in his reading.
+    Through reading as a tool he is to become familiar with the best in the world's
+    literature and its history. He is not only to learn number, but is to be so educated
+    that he may employ his number concepts in fruitful ways. He must not only be familiar
+    with the mechanics of writing, but must have knowledge, interests,<span
+    class='pagenum'><a name="Page_60" id="Page_60">[Pg 60]</a></span> experience that
+    will give him something to write about. The "three R's" are necessary tools, but they
+    are only tools, and must be utilized in putting the child into possession of the best
+    and most fruitful culture of the race. And, practically, they must put him into
+    command of such phases of culture as touch his own life and experience and make him
+    more efficient.</p>
+    <p>The rural school cannot extend the scope of its curriculum simply by inserting in
+    the present curriculum new studies related to the life and work of the farm. The
+    modification must be deeper and more thoroughgoing than this. <i>A full elementary
+    course of eight years and a high school course of four years should be easily
+    accessible to every rural child</i>. Less than this amount of education is inadequate
+    to prepare for the life of the farm, and fails to put the individual into full
+    possession of his powers. Nor, in most instances, should the high schooling be left
+    to some adjacent town, which is to receive the rural pupils upon payment of tuition
+    to the town district. Unless the town is small, and practically a part of the rural
+    community, it cannot supply, either in the subject-matter of the curriculum or the
+    spirit of the school, the type of education that the rural children should have. For
+    in so far as<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_61" id="Page_61">[Pg 61]</a></span>
+    the town or city high school leads to any specific vocation, it certainly does not
+    lead toward industrial occupations, and least of all toward agriculture. It rather
+    prepares for the professions, or for business careers. Its tendency is very strongly
+    to draw the boys and girls away from the farm instead of preparing them for it.</p>
+    <p>While the rural child, therefore, must be provided with a better and broader
+    education, he should usually not be sent to town to get it. If he is, the chances are
+    that he will stay in town and be lost to the farm. Indeed, this is precisely what has
+    been happening; the town or city high school has been turning the country boy away
+    from the farm. For not only does what one studies supply his knowledge; it also
+    determines his <i>attitude</i>.</p>
+    <p>If the curriculum contains no subject-matter related to the immediate experience
+    and occupation of the pupil, his education is certain to entice him away from his old
+    interests and activities. The farm boy whose studies lack all point of contact with
+    his life and work will soon either lose interest in the curriculum or turn his back
+    upon the farm. If the boys and girls born on the farm are to be retained in this form
+    of industry, the rural school must be broadened to give them<span class='pagenum'><a
+    name="Page_62" id="Page_62">[Pg 62]</a></span> an education equal to that afforded by
+    town or city for its youth. If the rural community cannot accomplish this end, it has
+    no claim on the loyalty and service of its youth. Rural children have a right to a
+    well-organized, well-equipped, and well-taught elementary school of eight years and a
+    high school of four years, with a curriculum adapted especially to their interests
+    and needs.</p>
+    <p>It is not meant, of course, that the rural school, with its present organization
+    and administration, can extend the scope of its curriculum to make it the equal of
+    that offered in the grades of the town or city school. Radical changes, such as those
+    discussed in the preceding chapter, will have to be made in the rural district system
+    before this is possible. That these changes are being made and the full elementary
+    and high school course offered in many consolidated rural schools, scattered from
+    Florida to Idaho, is proof both of the feasibility of the plan and of an awakened
+    public demand for better rural education.</p>
+    <p>The broadened curriculum of the rural school must contain subject-matter
+    especially related to the interests and activities of the farm; upon this all are
+    agreed. But it must not stop with vocational subjects alone. For, while one's
+    vocation is fundamental, it is not all of life. Education<span class='pagenum'><a
+    name="Page_63" id="Page_63">[Pg 63]</a></span> should help directly in making a
+    living; it must also help to live. Broad and permanent lines of interest must be set
+    up and trained to include many forms of experience. The child must come to know
+    something of the great social institutions of his day and of the history leading to
+    their development. He must become familiar with the marvelous scientific discoveries
+    and inventions underlying our modern civilization. He must be led to feel
+    appreciation for the beautiful in art, literature, and music; and must have nurtured
+    in his life a love for goodness and truth in every form. In short, through the
+    curriculum the latent powers constituting the life capital of every normal child are
+    to be stimulated and developed to the end that his life shall be more than mere
+    physical existence&mdash;to the end that it shall be crowned with fullness of
+    knowledge, richness of feeling, and the victory of worthy achievement. This is the
+    right of every child in these prosperous and enlightened times,&mdash;the right of
+    the country child as well as the city child. And society will not have done its duty
+    in providing for the education of its youth until the children of the farm have full
+    opportunities for such development.</p>
+    <h4><i>The rural elementary school curriculum</i></h4>
+    <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_64" id="Page_64">[Pg 64]</a></span>
+    <p>By the elementary school is meant the eight grades of work below the high school
+    which the rural school is now meant to cover.</p>
+    <p>Whatever is put into the curriculum of a nation's schools finally becomes a part
+    of national character and achievement. What the children study in school comes to
+    determine their attitudes and shape their aptitudes. The old Greek philosophers,
+    becoming teachers of youth, turned the nation into a set of students and disputants
+    over philosophical questions. Sparta taught her boys the arts of war, and became the
+    chief military nation of her time. Germany introduces technological studies into her
+    schools, and becomes the leading country in the world in the arts of manufacture. Let
+    any people emphasize in their schools the studies that lead to commercial and
+    professional interests, and neglect those that prepare for industrial vocations, and
+    the industrial welfare of the nation is sure to suffer.</p>
+    <p>The curriculum of the rural school must, therefore, contain the basic subjects
+    that belong to all culture,&mdash;the studies that every normal, intelligent person
+    should have just because he belongs to the twentieth-century civilization, and in
+    addi<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_65" id="Page_65">[Pg 65]</a></span>tion must
+    include the subjects that afford the knowledge and develop the attitude and technique
+    belonging to the life of the farm. Let us now consider this curriculum somewhat more
+    in detail.</p>
+    <p><i>The mother tongue</i>. Mastery of his mother tongue is the birthright of every
+    child. He should first of all be able to speak it correctly and with ease. He should
+    next be able to read it with comprehension and enjoyment, and should become familiar
+    with the best in its literature. He should be able to write it with facility, both as
+    to its spelling and its composition. Finally, he should know something of the
+    structure, or grammar, of the language.</p>
+    <p>This requirement suggests the content of the curriculum as to English. The child
+    must be given opportunity to use the language orally; he must be led to talk. But
+    this implies that he must have something to say, and be interested in saying it.
+    Formal "language lessons," divorced from all the child's interests and activities,
+    will not meet the purpose. Facility in speech grows out of enthusiasm in speaking.
+    Every recitation is a lesson in English, and should be used for this purpose; nor
+    should the aim be correctness only, but ease and fluency as well.</p>
+    <p>The child must also learn to read; not alone<span class='pagenum'><a
+    name="Page_66" id="Page_66">[Pg 66]</a></span> to pronounce the printed words of a
+    page, but to grasp the thought and feeling, and express them in oral reading. This
+    presupposes a mastery of the mechanics of reading, the letters, words, and marks
+    employed. The only way to learn to read is by reading. This is true whether we refer
+    to learning the mechanics of reading, to learning the apprehension and expression of
+    thought, or to learning the art of appreciating and enjoying good literature.</p>
+    <p>Yet, trite and self-evident as this truism is, it is constantly violated in
+    teaching reading in the rural school. For the course in reading usually consists of a
+    series of five readers, expected to cover seven or eight years of study. These
+    readers contain less than one hundred pages of reading matter to the year, or but
+    little more than half a page a day for the time the child should be in school. The
+    result is that the same reader is read over and over, to no purpose. With a rich
+    literature available for each of the eight years of the elementary school,
+    comparatively few of the rural schools have supplied either supplementary readers or
+    other reading books for the use of the children.</p>
+    <p>The result is that most rural school children learn to read but stumblingly, and
+    seldom attain<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_67" id="Page_67">[Pg 67]</a></span>
+    sufficient skill and taste in reading so that it becomes a pleasure. Such a situation
+    as this indicates the same lack of wisdom that would be shown in employing willing
+    and skillful workmen to garner a rich harvest, and then sending them into the fields
+    with wholly insufficient and inadequate tools. The rural school must not only teach
+    the child the mechanics of reading, but lead him to read and love good books. This
+    can be done only <i>by supplying the books and giving the child an opportunity to
+    read them</i>.</p>
+    <p>Comparatively few people like to write. The pathway of expression finds its way
+    out more easily through the tongue than through the hand. Yet it is highly necessary
+    that every one should in this day be able to write. Nor does this mean merely the
+    ability to form letters into words and put them down with a pen so that they are
+    legible. This is a fundamental requisite, but the mastery of penmanship, spelling,
+    and punctuation is, however, only a beginning. One must be able to formulate his
+    thoughts easily, to construct his sentences correctly, and to make his writing
+    effective; he must learn the art of composition.</p>
+    <p>Here again the principle already stated applies. The way to learn to write is by
+    writing;<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_68" id="Page_68">[Pg 68]</a></span> not
+    just by the dreary treadmill of practicing upon formal "compositions," but by having
+    something to write that one cares to express. The written language lessons should,
+    therefore, always grow out of the real interests and activities of the child in the
+    home, the school, or on the farm, and should include the art of letter-writing,
+    argumentation and exposition, as well as narration and description.</p>
+    <p>The subject of formal grammar has little or no place in the grades of the
+    elementary school. The grammatical relations of the language are complicated and
+    beyond the power of the child at an early age. Nor does the study of such relations
+    result in efficiency in the use of language, as is commonly supposed. Children are
+    compelled in many schools to waste weary years in the study of logical relations they
+    are too young to comprehend, when they should be reading, speaking, and writing their
+    mother tongue under the stimulus and guidance of a teacher who is himself a worthy
+    and enthusiastic model in the use of speech. Only the simpler grammatical forms and
+    relations should be taught in the grades, and these should have immediate application
+    to oral and written speech.</p>
+    <p><i>Arithmetic</i>. Arithmetic has for more than two<span class='pagenum'><a
+    name="Page_69" id="Page_69">[Pg 69]</a></span> hundred years formed an important part
+    of the elementary school curriculum. It has been taught with the double object of
+    affording mental discipline for the child, and of putting him into possession of an
+    important tool of practical knowledge. It is safe to say that a large proportion of
+    the patrons of the rural schools of the present look upon arithmetic as the most
+    important subject taught in the school after the simple mechanics of reading. Ability
+    to "cipher" has been thought of as constituting a large and important part of the
+    educational equipment of the practical man.</p>
+    <p>Without doubt, number is an essential part of the education of the child. Yet
+    there is nothing in the mere art of numbering things as we meet them in daily
+    experience that should make arithmetic require so large a proportion of time as it
+    has been receiving. The child is usually started in number in the first grade, and
+    continues it the full eight years of the elementary course, finally devoting three or
+    more years of the high school course to its continued study. Thus, nearly one fourth
+    of the entire school time of the pupil is demanded by the various phases of the
+    number concept.</p>
+    <p>The only ground upon which the expenditure<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_70"
+    id="Page_70">[Pg 70]</a></span> of this large proportion of time upon number can be
+    defended is that of <i>discipline</i>. And modern psychology and experimental
+    pedagogy have shown the folly and waste of setting up empty discipline as an
+    educational aim. Education time is too short, and the amount of rich and valuable
+    material waiting to be mastered too great, to devote golden years to a relatively
+    barren grind.</p>
+    <p>It is probable that at least half the time at present devoted to arithmetic in the
+    elementary school could be given to other subjects with no loss to the child's
+    ability in number, and with great gain to his education as a whole. Not that the
+    child knows number any too well now. He does not. In fact, few children finishing the
+    elementary school possess any considerable degree of ability in arithmetic. They can
+    work rather hard problems, if they have a textbook, and the answers by which to test
+    their results. But give them a practical problem from the home, the farm, or the
+    shop, and the chances are two to one that they cannot secure a correct result. This
+    is not the fault of the child, but the fault of the kind of arithmetic he has been
+    given, and the way it has been taught. We have taught him the solution of various
+    difficult, analytical problems not in the least typical of the concrete<span
+    class='pagenum'><a name="Page_71" id="Page_71">[Pg 71]</a></span> problems to be met
+    daily outside of school; but we have not taught him to add, subtract, multiply, and
+    divide with rapidity and accuracy. We have required him to solve problems containing
+    fractions with large and irreducible denominators such as are never met in the
+    business world, but he cannot readily and with certainty handle numbers expressed in
+    halves, thirds, quarters, fifths, and eighths. He has been compelled to sacrifice
+    practical business efficiency in number to an attempt to train his powers of logical
+    analysis.</p>
+    <p>The arithmetic of the district school should be greatly simplified and reduced in
+    quantity. Its quality should be greatly improved both as to accuracy and speed in the
+    fundamental operations and in the various concrete types of problems to be met in the
+    home, on the farm, and in the shop. There need be no fear that the mental training
+    will be less efficient with this type of arithmetic. For mental development comes
+    only where there is mastery, and there is no mastery of the arithmetic as it is
+    taught in the rural school to-day.</p>
+    <p><i>History and civics</i>. Every American child should know the history and mode
+    of government of his country. This is true first of all because this knowledge is
+    necessary to intelligent partici<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_72"
+    id="Page_72">[Pg 72]</a></span>pation in the affairs of a republic; but it is also
+    necessary to the right development of the individual that he shall realize something
+    of the heroism and sacrifice required to produce the civilization which he enjoys.
+    Every person needs to extend his thought and appreciation until it is large enough to
+    include other peoples and times than his own. For only in this way can he come to
+    feel kinship with the race at large, and thus save himself from provincialism and
+    narrowness.</p>
+    <p>This is equivalent to saying that the curriculum should afford ample opportunity
+    for the study of history. Nor should the history given the child deal chiefly with
+    the military and political activities of the nation. Many text books have been little
+    more than an account of wars and politics. These are not the aspects of national life
+    that most interest and concern the child, especially at the age when he is in the
+    elementary school. He should at this time be told about the <i>people</i> of his
+    country,&mdash;their home life, their industries, their schools and churches, their
+    bravery, their hardships, adventures, and achievements. He must come to know
+    something of the great men and women of his Nation and State, the writers, inventors,
+    explorers, scientists,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_73" id="Page_73">[Pg
+    73]</a></span> artists, and musicians, as well as the soldiers and statesmen.</p>
+    <p>Not only does this require that the child shall have suitable textbooks in
+    history, but that he shall also have an adequate library of interesting histories,
+    biographies, and historical fiction adapted to his age and interests. For it is not
+    enough that the child shall learn the elementary facts of history while he is in the
+    elementary school; more important still is it that he shall develop a real interest
+    in history, and form the taste for reading historical matter.</p>
+    <p>The course in history must, therefore, contain such matter as the child will love
+    to read; for only then will it leave the desire to read. It must so put a premium
+    upon patriotism, loyalty to country, and high-grade citizenship that the child shall
+    feel the impulse to emulate the noble men and women who have contributed to our
+    happiness and welfare. The study of history, even in the elementary school, should
+    eventuate in loyal, efficient citizenship.</p>
+    <p>The civics taught in the elementary school should be very practical and concrete.
+    The age has not yet come for a study of the federal or state constitution. It is
+    rather the <i>functional</i> aspect of government that should be presented at<span
+    class='pagenum'><a name="Page_74" id="Page_74">[Pg 74]</a></span> this time&mdash;the
+    points of contact of school district, township, county, state and federal government
+    with the individual. How the school is supported and controlled; how the bridges are
+    built and roads repaired; the work of township and county affairs; the powers and
+    duties of boards of health; the right of franchise and the use of the ballot; the
+    work of the postal system; the making and enforcing of laws,&mdash;these and similar
+    topics suggest what the child should come to know from the study of civics. The great
+    problem here is to influence conduct in the direction of upright citizenship, and to
+    give such a knowledge of the machinery, especially of local government, as will lead
+    to efficient participation in its activities.</p>
+    <p><i>Geography and nature study</i>. The rural school has a great advantage over the
+    city school in the teaching of geography and nature study. For the country child is
+    closer to the earth and its products than the city child. The broad expanse of nature
+    is always before him; life in its multiple forms constantly appeals to his eye and
+    ear. He watches the seeds planted, and sees the crops cultivated and harvested. He
+    has a very concrete sense of the earth as the home of man, and possesses a basis of
+    practical knowledge for<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_75" id="Page_75">[Pg
+    75]</a></span> understanding the resources and products of his own and other
+    countries.</p>
+    <p>Geography should, therefore, be one of the most vital and useful branches in the
+    rural school. It is to begin wherever the life of the child touches nature in his
+    immediate environment, and proceed from this on out to other parts of his home land,
+    and finally to all lands.</p>
+    <p>But the geography taught must not be of the old catechism type, which resulted in
+    children committing to memory the definitions of geographical terms instead of
+    studying the real objects ready at hand. It must not concern itself with the pupil's
+    learning the names and locations of dozens of places and geographical forms of no
+    particular importance, instead of coming into immediate touch with natural
+    environment and with the earth in the larger sense as it bears upon his own life. The
+    author has expressed this idea in another place as follows:&mdash;</p>
+    <p>"The content of geography is, therefore, synonymous with the content of the
+    experience of the child as related to his own interests and activities, in so far as
+    they grow out of the earth as his home. Towns and cities begin with the ones nearest
+    at hand. The concept of rivers has its rise in the one that flows past the child's
+    home.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_76" id="Page_76">[Pg 76]</a></span> Valleys,
+    mountains, capes, and bays are but modifications of those that lie within the circle
+    of personal experience. Generalizations must come to be made, but they must rest upon
+    concrete and particular instances if they are to constitute a reality to the
+    learner.</p>
+    <p>"What kind of people live in a country, what they work at, what they eat, and how
+    they live in their homes and their schools, what weather they have, and what they
+    wear, how they travel and speak and read,&mdash;these are more vital questions to the
+    child than the names and locations of unimportant streams, towns, capes, and bays.
+    For they are the things that touch his own experience, and hence appeal to his
+    interest. Only as geography is given this social background, and concerns itself with
+    the earth as related to social activities, can it fulfill its function in the
+    elementary school."<a name="FNanchor_4_4" id="FNanchor_4_4"></a><a
+    href="#Footnote_4_4" class="fnanchor">[4]</a></p>
+    <p><i>Hygiene and health</i>. Since health is at the basis of all success and
+    happiness, nothing can be more important in the education of the child than the
+    subject of practical hygiene. It has been the custom in our schools until recently,
+    however, to give the child a difficult and uninteresting text book dealing with
+    physiology and anatomy, but<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_77" id="Page_77">[Pg
+    77]</a></span> containing almost nothing on hygiene and the laws of health.</p>
+    <p>Not only should the course in physiology emphasize the laws of hygiene, but this
+    hygiene should in part have particular bearing on right living under the conditions
+    imposed by the farm. Food, its variety, adaptability, and preparation; clothing for
+    the different seasons; work, recreation, and play; care of the eyes and teeth;
+    bathing; the ventilation of the home, and especially of sleeping-rooms; the effects
+    of tobacco and cigarettes in checking growth and reducing efficiency; the more simple
+    and obvious facts bearing on the relation of bacteria to the growth, preparation, and
+    spoiling of foods; the means to be taken to prevent bacterial contagion of
+    diseases,&mdash;these are some of the practical matters that every child should know
+    as a result of his study of physiology and hygiene.</p>
+    <p>But we must go one step further still. It is not enough to teach these things as
+    matters of abstract theory or truth. Plenty of people know better hygiene than they
+    are practicing. The subject must be presented so concretely and effectively and be
+    supported by such incentives that it will actually lead to better habits of
+    living&mdash;that it will <i>result in higher physical efficiency</i>.<span
+    class='pagenum'><a name="Page_78" id="Page_78">[Pg 78]</a></span></p>
+    <p><i>Agriculture</i>. Agriculture is of course preeminently a subject for the rural
+    school. Not only is it of immediate and direct practical importance, but it is coming
+    to be looked upon as so useful a cultural study that it is being introduced into many
+    city schools.</p>
+    <p>It has been objected that agriculture as a science cannot be taught in the
+    elementary school because of the lack of age and development of the pupils. This is
+    true, but neither can any other subject be taught to children of this age as a
+    complete science. It is possible, however, to give children in the rural elementary
+    school much useful information concerning agriculture. Perhaps better still, it is
+    possible to develop a scientific attitude and interest that will lead to further
+    study of the subject in the high school or agricultural college, and that will in the
+    mean-time serve to attach the boys and girls to the farm.</p>
+    <p>The rural school pupils can be made familiar with the best modes of planting and
+    cultivating the various crops, and with the diseases and insect enemies which
+    threaten them; the selection of seed; the rotation of crops, and many other practical
+    things applying directly to their home life. School gardens of vegetables and
+    flowers<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_79" id="Page_79">[Pg 79]</a></span>
+    constitute another center of interest and information, and serve to unite the school
+    and the home.</p>
+    <p>Similarly the animal life of the farm can be studied, and a knowledge gained of
+    the best varieties of farm stock, their breeding and care. Insects and bird life can
+    be observed, and their part in the growth or destruction of crops understood. All
+    this is not only practicable, but necessary as part of the rural school curriculum.
+    Anything less than this amount of practical agriculture leaves the rural school in
+    some degree short of fulfilling its function.</p>
+    <p><i>Domestic science and manual training</i>. In general what is true of
+    agriculture is true of domestic science and manual training. They can be presented in
+    the elementary school only in the most concrete and applied form. But they can be
+    successfully presented in this form, and must be if the rural school child is to have
+    an equal opportunity with the town and city child. The girls can be taught the art of
+    sewing, cooking, and serving, if only the necessary equipment and instruction are
+    available. They are ready to learn, the subject-matter is adapted to their age and
+    understanding, and nothing could be more vital to their interests and welfare.<span
+    class='pagenum'><a name="Page_80" id="Page_80">[Pg 80]</a></span></p>
+    <p>Likewise the boys can be taught the use of tools, the value and finishing of
+    different kinds of woods, and can develop no little skill with their hands, while
+    they are at the same time receiving mental development and the cultivation of
+    practical interests from this line of work. It is not in the least a question of the
+    readiness of the boys to take up and profit by this subject, but is only a matter of
+    equipment and teaching.</p>
+    <p><i>Music and art</i>. Nor should the finer aspects of culture be left out of the
+    education of the country child. He will learn music as readily as the city child, and
+    love it not less. Indeed, he needs it even more as a part of his schooling, since the
+    opportunities to hear and enjoy music are always at hand in the city, and nearly
+    always lacking in the country. The child should be taught to sing and at least to
+    understand and appreciate music of worthy type.</p>
+    <p>The same principle will apply to art. The great masterpieces of painting and
+    sculpture have as much of beauty and inspiration in them as the great masterpieces of
+    literature. Yet most rural children complete their schooling hardly having seen in
+    the schoolroom a worthy copy of a great picture, and much less have they been taught
+    the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_81" id="Page_81">[Pg 81]</a></span>
+    significance of great works of art or been led to appreciate and love them.</p>
+    <p><i>Physical training</i>. It has been argued by many that the rural child has
+    enough exercise and hence does not need physical training. But this position entirely
+    misconceives the purpose of physical training. One may have plenty of exercise, even
+    too much exercise, without securing a well-balanced physical development. Indeed,
+    certain forms of farm work done by children are often so severe a tax on their
+    strength that a corrective exercise is necessary in order to save stooped forms,
+    curved spines, and hollow chests. Furthermore, the farm child, lacking the
+    opportunities of the city child for gaining social ease and control, needs the
+    development that comes from physical training to give poise, ease of bearing, and
+    grace of movement.</p>
+    <p>Nor must the athletic phase of physical training be overlooked. While it is
+    undoubtedly true that athletics have come to occupy too large a part of the time and
+    absorb too great a proportion of the interest in many schools, yet this is no reason
+    for omitting avocational training wholly from the rural school. Children require the
+    training and development that come from games and play quite as much as they need
+    that coming<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_82" id="Page_82">[Pg 82]</a></span>
+    from work. The school owes a duty to the avocational side of life as well as to the
+    vocational.</p>
+    <p>The curriculum here proposed is so much broader and richer than that now offered
+    in the rural district school that it will appear to many to be visionary and
+    impossible. That it is impossible for the old type of rural school will be readily
+    admitted. But it is entirely practicable and possible in the reorganized consolidated
+    school, and is being successfully presented, in its general aspects, at least, in
+    many of these schools. It is only such an education as every rural child is entitled
+    to, and is no more than the urban child is already receiving in the better class of
+    town and city elementary schools. If the rural school cannot give the farm child an
+    elementary education approximating the one out-lined, it has no claim on his loyalty
+    or time; and he should in justice to himself be taken where he can receive a worthy
+    education, even if he is thereby lost to the farm.</p>
+    <p>But the rural boy and girl need not only a good elementary education, but a high
+    school education as well. Let us next consider the rural high school curriculum.</p>
+    <h4><i>The rural high school curriculum</i></h4>
+    <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_83" id="Page_83">[Pg 83]</a></span>
+    <p>This section is presented in the full knowledge that comparatively few localities
+    have as yet established the rural high school. It now forms, however, an integral
+    part of the consolidated rural school in not a few places, and is abundantly
+    justifying the expenditure made upon it. In other localities the tendency is growing
+    to send the rural child to the town high school, or even for the family to move to
+    town to secure high schooling for the children. In still other cases, and we are
+    obliged to admit that these yet constitute the rule rather than the exception, the
+    farm boy or girl has no opportunity for a high school education.</p>
+    <p>If we succeed in working out the so-called rural problem of our country, in
+    maintaining a high standard of agricultural population and rural life, the rural high
+    school must be an important factor in our problem. For the children of our farms need
+    and must have an education reaching beyond that of the elementary school. And this
+    schooling must prepare them to find the most satisfactory and successful type of life
+    on the farm, instead of drawing them away from the farm.<span class='pagenum'><a
+    name="Page_84" id="Page_84">[Pg 84]</a></span></p>
+    <p>It goes without saying that the rural high school should be an agricultural high
+    school. This does not mean that it shall devote itself exclusively to teaching
+    agriculture; but rather that, while it offers a broad range of culture and
+    information, it shall emphasize those phases of subject-matter that will best fit
+    into the interests and activities of farm life, instead of those phases that tend to
+    lead toward the city or the market-place. Its four years of work must be fully equal
+    to that of the best town or city high schools, but must in some degree be different
+    work. It must result in <i>efficiency</i>, and efficiency here must relate itself to
+    agricultural life and pursuits.</p>
+    <p>A detailed discussion of the rural high school curriculum will not be required.
+    The principles already suggested as applying to the elementary school will govern
+    here as well. The studies must cultivate breadth of view and a wide range of
+    interests, and must at the same time bear upon the immediate life and experience of
+    the pupils. The lines of study begun in the elementary school will be continued, with
+    the purpose of securing deeper insight, more detailed knowledge, and greater
+    independence of judgment and action.</p>
+    <p>English should form an important part of the<span class='pagenum'><a
+    name="Page_85" id="Page_85">[Pg 85]</a></span> curriculum, with the double aim of
+    securing facility in the use of the mother tongue and of developing a love for its
+    literature. The rural high school graduate should be able to write English correctly
+    as to spelling, punctuation, and grammar; he should be able to express himself
+    effectively, either in writing, conversation, or the more formal speech of the
+    rostrum. Above all, he should be an enthusiastic and discriminating reader, with a
+    catholicity of taste and interest that will lead him beyond the agricultural journal
+    and newspaper, important as these are, to the works of fiction, material and social
+    science, travel and biography, current magazines and journals, and whatever else
+    belongs to the intellectual life of an intelligent, educated man of affairs.</p>
+    <p>This is asking more than is being accomplished at present by the course in English
+    in the town high school, but not more than is easily within the range of possibility.
+    The average high school graduate of to-day cannot always spell and punctuate
+    correctly, and commonly cannot write well even an ordinary business letter; nor, it
+    must be feared, has his study of literature had a very great influence in developing
+    him into a good reader of worthy books.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_86"
+    id="Page_86">[Pg 86]</a></span></p>
+    <p>But all this can be remedied by vitalizing the teaching of the mother tongue; by
+    lessening the proportion of time and emphasis placed upon critical analysis and
+    technical literary criticism, and increasing that given to the drill and practice
+    that alone can make sure of the fundamentals of spelling, punctuation, and the common
+    forms of composition emphasized by all; and by the sympathetic, enthusiastic teaching
+    of good literature adapted to the age and interests of the pupils from the standpoint
+    of synthetic appreciation and enjoyment, rather than from the standpoint of
+    mechanical analysis.</p>
+    <p>The rural high school course in social science should be broad and thorough. The
+    course in history should not give an undue proportion of time to ancient and medieval
+    history, nor to war and politics. Emphasis should be placed on the social,
+    industrial, and economic phases of human development in modern times and in our own
+    country.</p>
+    <p>Political economy should form an important branch. Especially should it deal with
+    the problems of production, distribution, and consumption as they relate to
+    agriculture. Matters of finance, taxation, and investment, while resting on general
+    principles, should be applied to the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_87"
+    id="Page_87">[Pg 87]</a></span> problems of the farm. Nor should the economic basis
+    of support and expenditure in the home be overlooked.</p>
+    <p>The course in civics should not only present the general theory of government, but
+    should apply concretely to the civic relations and duties of a rural population.
+    Especially should it appeal to the civic conscience and sense of responsibility which
+    we need among our rural people to make the country an antidote to the political
+    corruption of the city.</p>
+    <p>Material science should constitute an important section of the rural high school
+    curriculum. Not only does its study afford one of the best means of mental
+    development, but the subject-matter of science has a very direct bearing on the life
+    and industries of the farm. To achieve the best results, however, the science taught
+    must be presented from the concrete and applied point of view rather than from the
+    abstract and general. This does not mean that a hodge-podge of unrelated facts shall
+    be taught in the place of science; indeed, such a method would defeat the whole
+    purpose of the course. It means, however, that the general laws and principles of
+    science shall be carried out to their practical bearing on the problems of the home
+    and the farm, and not<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_88" id="Page_88">[Pg
+    88]</a></span> be left just as general laws or abstract principles unapplied.</p>
+    <p>The botany and zo&ouml;logy of the rural high school will, of course, have a
+    strong agricultural trend. It will sacrifice the old logical classifications and
+    study of generic types of animals and plants for the more interesting and useful
+    study of the fauna and flora of the locality. The various farm crops, their weed
+    enemies, the helpful and harmful insects and birds, the animal life of the barnyard,
+    horticulture and floriculture, and the elements of bacteriology, will constitute
+    important elements in the course.</p>
+    <p>The course in physics will develop the general principles of the subject, and will
+    then apply these principles to the machinery of the farm, to the heating, lighting,
+    and ventilation of houses, to the drainage of soil, the plumbing of buildings, and a
+    hundred other practical problems bearing on the life of the farm. Chemistry will be
+    taught as related to the home, foods, soils, and crops. A concrete geology will lead
+    to a better understanding of soils, building materials, and drainage. Physiology and
+    hygiene will seek as their aim longer life and higher personal efficiency.</p>
+    <p>The course in agriculture, whether presented separately or in conjunction with
+    botany and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_89" id="Page_89">[Pg 89]</a></span>
+    zo&ouml;logy, must be comprehensive and thorough. Not only should it give a complete
+    and practical knowledge of the selection of seed; the planting, cultivating, and
+    harvesting of crops; the improvement and conservation of the soil; the breeding and
+    care of stock, etc., but it must serve to create and develop a scientific attitude
+    toward farming. The farmer should come to look upon his work as offering the largest
+    opportunities for the employment of technical knowledge, judgment, and skill. That
+    such an attitude will yield large returns in success is attested by many farmers
+    to-day who are applying scientific methods to their work.</p>
+    <p>Manual training and domestic science should receive especial emphasis in the rural
+    high school. Both subjects have undoubted educational value in themselves, and their
+    practical value and importance to those looking forward to farm life can hardly be
+    over-estimated. And in these as in other subjects, the course offered will need to be
+    modified from that of the city school in order to meet the requirements of the
+    particular problems to which the knowledge and training secured are to be
+    applied.</p>
+    <p>Mathematics should form a part of the rural high school curriculum, but the
+    traditional courses<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_90" id="Page_90">[Pg
+    90]</a></span> in algebra and geometry do not meet the need. The ideal course would
+    probably be a skillful combination of algebra, geometry, and trigonometry occupying
+    the time of one or two years, and applied directly to the problems of mechanics,
+    measurements, surveying, engineering, and building on the farm. Such an idea is not
+    new, and textbooks are now under way providing material for such a course.</p>
+    <p>In addition, there should be a thorough course in practical business arithmetic.
+    By this is not meant the abstract, analytical matter so often taught as high school
+    arithmetic, but concrete and applied commercial and industrial arithmetic, with
+    particular reference to farm problems. In connection with this subject should be
+    given a course in household accounts, and book-keeping, including commercial forms
+    and commercial law.</p>
+    <p>It is doubtful whether foreign language has any place in the rural high school. If
+    offered at all, it should be only in high schools strong enough to offer parallel
+    courses for election, and should never displace the subjects lying closer to the
+    interests and needs of the students.</p>
+    <p>The study of music and art begun in the elementary school should be continued in
+    the high<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_91" id="Page_91">[Pg 91]</a></span>
+    school, and a love for the beautiful cultivated not only by the matter taught, but
+    also by the &aelig;sthetic qualities of the school buildings and grounds and their
+    decoration. On the practical sides these subjects will reach out to the beautifying
+    of the farm homes and the life they shelter.</p>
+    <p>When a well-taught curriculum of some such scope of elementary and high school
+    work as that suggested is as freely available to the farm child as his school is
+    available to the city child, will the country boys and girls have a fair chance for
+    education. And when this comes about, the greatest single obstacle to keeping our
+    young people on the farm will have been removed.</p>
+    <div class="footnotes">
+      <h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3>
+      <div class="footnote">
+        <p><a name="Footnote_4_4" id="Footnote_4_4"></a><a href="#FNanchor_4_4"><span
+        class="label">[4]</span></a> <i>Social Principles of Education</i>, p. 264.</p>
+      </div>
+    </div>
+    <h2><a name="IV" id="IV"></a>IV</h2>
+    <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_92" id="Page_92">[Pg 92]</a></span>
+    <h3>THE TEACHING OF THE RURAL SCHOOL</h3>
+    <h4><i>The importance of teaching</i></h4>
+    <p>Teaching is the fundamental purpose for which the school is run. Taxes are levied
+    and collected, buildings erected and equipped, and curriculum organized solely that
+    teaching may go on. Children are clothed and fed and sent to school instead of being
+    put at work in order that they may be taught. The school is classified into grades,
+    programs are arranged, and regulations are enforced only to make teaching possible.
+    Normal schools are established, teachers are trained, and certificates required in
+    order that teaching may be more efficient.</p>
+    <p>The teacher confronts a great task. On the one hand are the children, ignorant,
+    immature, and undeveloped. In them lie ready to be called forth all the powers and
+    capacities that will characterize their fully ripened manhood and womanhood. Given
+    the right stimulus and direction, these powers will grow into splendid strength and
+    ca<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_93" id="Page_93">[Pg 93]</a></span>pacity;
+    lacking this stimulus and guidance, the powers are left crippled and incomplete.</p>
+    <p>On the other hand is the subject-matter of education, the heritage of culture
+    which has been accumulating through the ages. In the slow process of human
+    experience, running through countless generations, men have made their discoveries in
+    the fields of mathematics and science; they have lived great events and achievements
+    which have become history; they have developed the social institutions which we call
+    the State, the church, the home, and the school; they have organized great industries
+    and carried on complex vocations; they have crystallized their ideals, their hopes,
+    and their aspirations in literature; and have with brush and chisel expressed in art
+    their concepts of truth and beauty. The best of all this human experience we have
+    collected in what we call a curriculum, and placed it before the child for him to
+    master, as the generations before him have mastered it in their common lives. For
+    only in this way can the child come into full possession of his powers, and set them
+    at work in a fruitful way in accomplishing his own life-purpose.</p>
+    <p>It is the function of the teacher, therefore, to stand as an intermediary, as an
+    interpreter, be<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_94" id="Page_94">[Pg
+    94]</a></span>tween the child and this great mass of subject-matter that lies ready
+    for him to learn. The race has lived its thousands or millions of years; the
+    individual lives but a few score. What former generations took centuries to work out
+    the child can spend only a few months or a few years upon. Hence he must waste no
+    time and opportunity; he must make no false step in his learning, for he cannot in
+    his short life retrieve his mistakes. It is the work of the teacher, through
+    instruction and guidance, that is, through teaching, to save the child time in his
+    learning and development, and to make sure that he does not lose his opportunity. And
+    this is a great responsibility.</p>
+    <p>Thus the teacher confronts a problem that has two great factors, the <i>child</i>
+    and the <i>subject-matter</i>. He must have a knowledge of both these factors if his
+    work is to be effective; for he cannot teach matter that he does not know, and
+    neither can he teach a person whose nature he does not understand. But in addition to
+    a knowledge of these factors, the teacher must also master a technique of
+    instruction, he must train himself in the art of teaching.</p>
+    <p><i>The teacher must know the child</i>. It has been a rather common impression
+    that if one knows a certain field of subject-matter, he will surely be<span
+    class='pagenum'><a name="Page_95" id="Page_95">[Pg 95]</a></span> able to teach it to
+    others. But nothing could be further from the truth than such an assumption. Indeed,
+    it is proverbial that the great specialists are the most wretched teachers of their
+    subjects. The nature of the child's mental powers, the order of their unfoldment, the
+    evolution of his interests, the incentives that appeal to him, the danger points in
+    both his intellectual and his moral development,&mdash;these and many other things
+    about child nature the intelligent teacher must clearly understand.</p>
+    <p>And the teacher of the younger children needs this knowledge even more than the
+    teacher of older ones. For the earlier years of the child's schooling are the most
+    important years. It is at this time that he lays the foundation for all later
+    learning, that he forms his habits of study and his attitude toward education, and
+    that his life is given the bent for all its later development. Nothing can be more
+    irrational, therefore, than to put the most untrained and inexperienced teachers in
+    charge of the younger children. The fallacious notion that "anyone can teach little
+    children" has borne tragic fruit in the stagnation and mediocrity of many lives whose
+    powers were capable of great achievements.</p>
+    <p><i>The teacher must know the subject-matter</i>. The<span class='pagenum'><a
+    name="Page_96" id="Page_96">[Pg 96]</a></span> blind cannot successfully lead the
+    blind. One whose grasp of a subject extends only to the simplest rudiments cannot
+    teach these rudiments. He who has never himself explored a field can hardly guide
+    others through that field; at least, progress through the field will be at the cost
+    of great waste of time and failure to grasp the significance or beauty of what the
+    field contains.</p>
+    <p>Expressed more concretely, it is impossible to transplant arithmetic, or
+    geography, or history, or anything else that one would teach, immediately from the
+    textbook into the mind of the child. The subject must first come to be very fully and
+    completely a true possession of the teacher. The successful teacher must also know
+    vastly more of a subject than he is required to teach. For only then has he freedom;
+    only then has he outlook and perspective; only then can he teach the <i>subject</i>,
+    and not some particular textbook; only then can he inspire others to effort and
+    achievement through his own mastery and interest. Enthusiasm is <i>caught</i> and not
+    taught.</p>
+    <p><i>The teacher must know the technique of instruction</i>. For teaching is an art,
+    based upon scientific principles and requiring practice to secure skill. One of the
+    greatest tasks of the teacher is to <i>psychologize</i> the subject-matter for his
+    pupils,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_97" id="Page_97">[Pg
+    97]</a></span>&mdash;that is, so to select, organize, and present it that the child's
+    mind naturally and easily grasps and appropriates it. Teaching, when it has become an
+    art, which is to say, when the teacher has become an artist, is one of the most
+    highly skilled vocations. It is as much more difficult than medicine as the human
+    mind is more baffling than the human body; it is as much more difficult than
+    preaching as the child is harder to comprehend and guide than the adult; it is as
+    much more difficult than the law as life is more complex than logic.</p>
+    <p>Yet, while we require the highest type of preparation for medicine, the ministry,
+    or the law, we require but little for teaching. We pay enormous salaries to trained
+    experts to apply the principles of scientific management to our industries or our
+    business, but we have been satisfied with inexpert service for the teaching of our
+    children. We are making fortunes out of the stoppage of waste in our factories, but
+    allowing enormous waste to continue in our schools. <i>If we were to put into
+    practice in teaching the thoroughly demonstrated and accepted scientific principles
+    of education as we know them, we could beyond doubt double the educational results
+    attained by our children</i>.</p>
+    <h4><i>Teaching in the rural school</i></h4>
+    <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_98" id="Page_98">[Pg 98]</a></span>
+    <p>The criticisms just made on our standards of teaching will apply in some degree to
+    all our schools from the kindergarten to the university; but they apply more strongly
+    to the rural schools than to any other class. For the rural schools are the
+    training-ground for young, inexperienced, and relatively unprepared teachers. Except
+    for the comparatively small proportion of the town or city teachers who are normal
+    school or college trained, nearly all have served an apprenticeship in the rural
+    schools. Thus the rural school, besides its other handicaps, is called upon to train
+    teachers for the more favored urban schools.</p>
+    <p>Careful statistical studies<a name="FNanchor_5_5" id="FNanchor_5_5"></a><a
+    href="#Footnote_5_5" class="fnanchor">[5]</a> have shown that many rural teachers,
+    both men and women, have had no training beyond that of the elementary school. And
+    not infrequently this training has taken place in the rural school of the type in
+    which they themselves take up teaching. The average schooling of the men teaching in
+    the rural schools of the entire country is less than two years above the elementary
+    school, and of women, slightly more than two years. This is to say that our rural
+    schools are taught by those who have had only about half of a high school course.</p>
+    <p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_99" id="Page_99">[Pg 99]</a></span></p>
+    <p>It is evident, therefore, that the rural teacher cannot meet the requirement urged
+    above in the way of preparation. He does not know his subject-matter. Not only has he
+    not gone far enough in his education to have a substantial foundation, breadth of
+    view, and mental perspective, but he frequently lacks in the simplest rudiments of
+    the immediate subject-matter which he is supposed to teach. The examination papers
+    written by applicants for certificates to begin rural school teaching often betray a
+    woful ignorance of the most fundamental knowledge. Inability to spell, punctuate, or
+    effectively use the English language is common. The most elementary scientific truths
+    are frequently unknown. A connected view of our nation's history and knowledge of
+    current events are not always possessed. The great world of literature is too often a
+    closed book. And not seldom the simple relations of arithmetical number are beyond
+    the grasp of the applicant. In short, our rural schools, as they average, require no
+    adequate preparation of the teacher, and do not represent as much education in their
+    teaching force as that needed by the intelligent farmer, merchant, or tradesman.<span
+    class='pagenum'><a name="Page_100" id="Page_100">[Pg 100]</a></span></p>
+    <p>The rural teacher does not know the child. But little more than children
+    themselves, and with little chance for observation or for experience in life, it
+    would be strange if they did. They have had no opportunity for professional study,
+    and psychology and the science of education are unknown to them. The attempts made to
+    remedy this fatal weakness by the desultory reading of a volume or two in a voluntary
+    reading-circle course do not serve the purpose. The teacher needs a thorough course
+    of instruction in general and applied psychology, under the tutelage of an
+    enthusiastic expert who not only knows his subject, but also understands the problems
+    of the teacher.</p>
+    <p>The rural teacher does not know the technique of the schoolroom. The organizing of
+    a school, the proper classification of pupils, the assignment of studies, the
+    arrangement of a program of studies and recitation, the applications of suitable
+    regulations and rules for the running of the school, are all matters requiring expert
+    knowledge and skill. Yet the rural teacher has to undertake them without instruction
+    in their principles and without supervisory guidance or help. No wonder that the
+    rural school is poorly organized and managed. It presents problems of administration
+    more puz<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_101" id="Page_101">[Pg
+    101]</a></span>zling than the town school, and yet here is where we put out our
+    novices, boys and girls not yet out of their "teens"&mdash;young people who
+    themselves have no concept of the problems of the school, no knowledge of its complex
+    machinery, and no experience to serve as a guide in confronting their work. No
+    industrial enterprise could exist under such irrational conditions; and neither could
+    the schools, except that mental waste and bankruptcy are harder to measure than
+    economic.</p>
+    <p>Nor does the rural teacher know the technique of instruction any better than that
+    of organization and management. The skillful conducting of a recitation is at least
+    as severe a test upon mental resourcefulness and skill as making a speech, preaching
+    a sermon, or conducting a lawsuit. For not only must the subject-matter be organized
+    for immature minds unused to the formal processes of learning, but the effects of
+    instruction upon the child's mind must constantly be watched by the teacher and
+    interpreted with reference to further instruction. This skill cannot be attained
+    empirically, by the cut-and-dried method, except at a frightful cost to the children.
+    It is as if we were to turn a set of intelligent but untrained men loose in the
+    community with their scalpels and their medicine cases to learn to be<span
+    class='pagenum'><a name="Page_102" id="Page_102">[Pg 102]</a></span> surgeons and
+    doctors by experimenting upon their fellows.</p>
+    <p>As would naturally be expected, therefore, the teaching in the average rural
+    school is a dreary round of inefficiency. Handicapped to begin with by classes too
+    small to be interesting, the rural teacher is mechanically hearing the recitations of
+    some twenty-five to thirty of these classes per day. Lacking at the beginning the
+    breadth of education that would make teaching easy, he finds it impossible to prepare
+    for so many different exercises daily. The result is that the recitations are dull,
+    spiritless, uninteresting. The lessons are poorly prepared by the pupils, poorly
+    recited, and hence very imperfectly mastered. The more advanced work cannot stand on
+    such a foundation of sand, and so, discouraged, the child soon drops out of
+    school.</p>
+    <p>When it is also remembered that the tenure of service of the teacher is very short
+    in the rural schools, the problem becomes all the more grave. The average term of
+    service in the rural schools is probably not above two years, and in many States
+    considerably below this amount. This requires that half of the rural teachers each
+    year shall be beginners. It will be impossible, of course, as long as teaching is
+    done so largely by girls, who nat<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_103"
+    id="Page_103">[Pg 103]</a></span>urally will, and should, soon quit teaching for
+    marriage, to secure a long period of service in the vocation. Yet the rural school
+    is, as we have seen, also constantly losing its trained teachers to the town and
+    city, and hence breaking in more than its share of novices.</p>
+    <p>Added to the disadvantage inevitably coming from the brief period of service in
+    teaching is a similar one growing out of a faulty method of administration. In a
+    large majority of our rural schools the contract is made for but one term of not more
+    than three months. This leaves the teacher free to accept another school at the end
+    of the term, and not infrequently a school will have two or even three different
+    teachers within the same year. There is a great source of waste at this point, owing
+    to a change of methods, repetition of work, and the necessity of starting a new
+    system of school machinery. Industrial concerns would hardly find it profitable to
+    change superintendents and foremen several times a year. We do this in our schools
+    only because we have not yet learned that it pays to apply rational business methods
+    to education.</p>
+    <p>Nothing that has been said in criticism of rural teaching ought to be construed as
+    a reflection on the rural teachers personally. The fact that<span class='pagenum'><a
+    name="Page_104" id="Page_104">[Pg 104]</a></span> they can succeed as well as they do
+    under conditions that are so adverse is the best warrant for their intelligence and
+    devotion. It is not their fault that they begin teaching with inadequate knowledge of
+    subject-matter, with ignorance of the nature of childhood, and without skill in the
+    technique of the schoolroom. The system, and not the individual, is at fault. The
+    public demands a pitifully low standard of efficiency in rural teaching, and the
+    excellence of the product offered is not likely greatly to surpass what society asks
+    and is ready to pay for.</p>
+    <p>Once again we must turn to the consolidated school as the solution of our
+    difficulty. The isolated district school will not be able to demand and secure a
+    worthy grade of preparation for teaching. The educational standards will not rise
+    high enough under this system to create a public demand for skilled teachers. Nor can
+    such salaries be paid as will encourage thorough and extensive study and preparation
+    for teaching. And, finally, the professional incentives are not sufficiently strong
+    in such schools to create a true craft spirit toward teaching.</p>
+    <p>While it is impossible to measure the improved results in teaching coming from the
+    consolidated school in the same objective way that we can<span class='pagenum'><a
+    name="Page_105" id="Page_105">[Pg 105]</a></span> measure increased attendance, yet
+    there is no doubt that one of the strongest arguments for the consolidated school is
+    its more skillful and inspiring teaching. The increased salaries, the possibility of
+    professional association with other teachers, the improved equipment, the better
+    supervision, and above all, the spirit of progress and enthusiasm in the school
+    itself, all serve to transform teaching from a treadmill routine into a joyful
+    opportunity for inspiration and service.</p>
+    <h4><i>The training of rural teachers</i></h4>
+    <p>The training of the rural teacher has never been given the same consideration as
+    that of town or city teachers. It is true that normal schools are available to all
+    alike, and that in a few States the rural schools secure a considerable number of
+    teachers who have had some normal training. But this is the exception rather than the
+    rule. In the Middle Western States, for example, where there is a rich agricultural
+    population, whole counties can be found in which no rural teacher has ever had any
+    special training for his work. Professional requirements have been on a par with the
+    meager salaries paid, and other incentives have not been strong enough to insure
+    adequate preparation.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_106" id="Page_106">[Pg
+    106]</a></span></p>
+    <p>State normal schools have, therefore, been of comparatively little assistance in
+    fitting teachers for the rural school. First of all the rural school teacher
+    ordinarily does not go to the normal school, for it is not demanded of him. Again, if
+    perchance a prospective rural teacher should attend a normal school, a town or city
+    grade position is usually waiting for him when he graduates. For, in spite of the
+    growth of our normal schools, they are as yet far from being able to supply all the
+    teachers required for the urban grade positions, to say nothing about the rural
+    schools. The colleges and universities are, of course, still further removed from the
+    rural school, since the high schools stand ready to employ those of their graduates
+    who enter upon teaching.</p>
+    <p>In some States, as for example, Wisconsin, county normal schools have been
+    established with the special aim of preparing teachers for the rural schools. While
+    this movement has helped, it does not promise to secure wide acceptance as a method
+    of dealing with the problem. Greater possibilities undoubtedly exist in the
+    comparatively recent movement toward combining normal training with the regular high
+    school course. Provision for such courses now exists in New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio,
+    Texas, Minnesota,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_107" id="Page_107">[Pg
+    107]</a></span> Iowa, Kansas, Nebraska, and a number of other States.</p>
+    <p>Combining normal training with high school education has first of all the
+    advantage of bringing such training <i>to</i> prospective teachers, instead of
+    requiring the teachers to leave home and incur additional expense in seeking their
+    training. From the standpoint of the public it has the merit of economy, in that it
+    utilizes buildings, equipment, and organization already in existence instead of
+    requiring new.</p>
+    <p>But whatever may be the method employed, the rural teachers should receive better
+    preparation for their work than they now have. This means, <i>first</i>, that the
+    State must make adequate provision for the teacher to receive his training at a
+    minimum of expense and trouble; and <i>second</i>, that the standard of requirement
+    must be such that the teacher will be obliged to secure adequate preparation before
+    being admitted to the school. Even with the present status of our rural schools it is
+    not too much to require that every teacher shall have had <i>at least a four-year
+    high school education</i>, and that <i>a reasonable amount of normal training</i> be
+    had either in conjunction with the high school course, or subsequent to its
+    completion. Indiana, for example, has found this<span class='pagenum'><a
+    name="Page_108" id="Page_108">[Pg 108]</a></span> requirement entirely feasible, and
+    a great influence in bettering the tone of the rural school.</p>
+    <p>Wherever the rural teacher secures his training, however, one condition must
+    obtain: this preparation must familiarize him with the spirit and needs of the
+    agricultural community, and imbue him with enthusiasm for service in this field. It
+    is not infrequently the case that town high school graduates, themselves never having
+    lived in the country, possess neither the sympathy nor the understanding necessary to
+    enable them to offer a high grade of service in the rural school. Not a few of them
+    feel above the work of such a position, and look with contempt or pity upon the life
+    of the farm. The successful rural teacher must be able to identify himself very
+    completely with the interests and activities of the community; nor can this be done
+    in any half-hearted, sentimental, or professional manner. It must be a spontaneous
+    and natural response arising from a true interest in the people, a knowledge of their
+    lives, and a sincere desire for their welfare. Any preparation that does not result
+    in this spirit, and train in the ability to realize it in action, does not fit for
+    the rural school.</p>
+    <h4><i>Salaries of rural teachers</i></h4>
+    <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_109" id="Page_109">[Pg 109]</a></span>
+    <p>The salaries paid teachers in general in different types of schools are one
+    measure, though not a perfect one, of their efficiency. Salary is not a perfect
+    measure of efficiency, (1) because economic ability to pay is a modifying influence.
+    When the early New England teacher was receiving ten or twelve dollars a month and
+    "boarding round," he was probably getting all that the community could afford to pay
+    him, although he was often a college student, and not infrequently a well-trained
+    graduate. The salaries paid in the various occupations are not (2) based upon any
+    definite standards of the value of service. For example, the <i>chef</i> in a hotel
+    may receive more than the superintendent of schools, and the football coach more than
+    the college president; yet we would hardly want to conclude that the services of the
+    cook and the athlete are worth more to society than the services of educators. And
+    within the vocation of teaching itself there is (3) no fixed standard for judging
+    teaching efficiency. Nevertheless, in general, teaching efficiency is in considerable
+    degree measured by differences in salaries paid in different localities and in the
+    various levels of school work.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_110"
+    id="Page_110">[Pg 110]</a></span></p>
+    <p>Based on the standard of salary as a measure, the teaching efficiency of rural
+    teachers is, as we should expect from starting nearly all of our beginners here,
+    considerably below that in towns or cities. A study by Coffman<a name="FNanchor_6_6"
+    id="FNanchor_6_6"></a><a href="#Footnote_6_6" class="fnanchor">[6]</a> of more than
+    five thousand widely distributed teachers as to age, sex, salary, etc., shows that
+    the average man in the rural school receives an annual salary of $390; in town
+    schools, of $613; and in city schools, of $919. The average woman in the rural school
+    receives an annual salary of $366; in town schools, of $492; and in city schools, of
+    $591. Men in towns, therefore, receive one and one half times as much as men in the
+    country, and in cities, two and one half times as much as in the country. Women in
+    towns receive a little more than one and one third times as much as women in the
+    country, and in the cities almost one and two thirds times as much as women in the
+    country.</p>
+    <p>The actual amount of salary paid rural teachers is perhaps more instructive than
+    the comparative amounts. The income of the rural teacher is barely a living wage, and
+    not even that if the teacher has no parental home, or a gainful occupation during
+    vacation times. Out of an<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_111" id="Page_111">[Pg
+    111]</a></span> amount of less than four hundred dollars a year the teacher is
+    expected to pay for a certificate, a few school journals and professional books, and
+    attend teachers institutes or conventions, besides supporting himself as a teacher
+    ought to live. It does not need argument to show that this meager salary forces a
+    standard of living too low for efficiency. It would, therefore, be unfair to ask for
+    efficiency with the present standard of salaries.</p>
+    <p>Nor is it to be overlooked that efficiency and salaries must mount upward
+    together. It would be as unjust to ask for higher salaries without increasing the
+    grade of efficiency as to ask for efficiency on the present salary basis. It is
+    probable that the eighteen- or nineteen-year-old boys and girls starting in to teach
+    the rural school, with but little preparation above the elementary grades, are
+    receiving all they are worth, at least as compared with what they could earn in other
+    lines. The great point of difficulty is that they are not worth enough. The community
+    cannot afford to buy the kind of educational service they are qualified to offer; it
+    would be a vastly better investment for the public to buy higher teaching efficiency
+    at larger salaries.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_112" id="Page_112">[Pg
+    112]</a></span></p>
+    <p>No statistics are available to show the exact percentage of increase in rural
+    teachers' salaries during recent years, but this increase has been considerable; and
+    the tendency is still upward. In this as in other features of the rural school
+    problem, however, it will be impossible to meet reasonable demands without forsaking
+    the rural district system for a more centralized system of consolidated schools. To
+    pay adequate salaries to the number of teachers now required for the thousands of
+    small rural schools would be too heavy a drain on our economic resources. Under the
+    consolidated system a considerably smaller number of teachers is required, and these
+    can receive higher salaries without greatly increasing the amount expended for
+    teaching. In this as in other phases of our educational problems, what is needed is
+    rational business method, and a willingness to devote a fair proportion of our wealth
+    to the education of the young.</p>
+    <h4><i>Supervision of rural teaching</i></h4>
+    <p>Our rural school teaching has never had efficient supervision. The very nature of
+    rural school organization has rendered expert supervision impossible, no matter how
+    able the supervising officer might be. With slight modifications, the<span
+    class='pagenum'><a name="Page_113" id="Page_113">[Pg 113]</a></span> office of
+    <i>county superintendent</i> is, throughout the country, typical of the attempt to
+    provide supervision for the rural school. While such a system may have afforded all
+    that could be expected in the pioneer days, its inadequacy to meet present-day
+    demands is almost too patent to require discussion.</p>
+    <p>First of all, it is physically impossible for a county superintendent to visit and
+    supervise one hundred and fifty teachers at work in as many different schools
+    scattered over four or five hundred square miles of territory. If he were to devote
+    all his time to visiting country schools, he would have only one day to each school
+    per year. When it is remembered that the county superintendent must also attend to an
+    office that has a large amount of correspondence and clerical work, that he is
+    usually commissioned with authority to oversee the building of all schoolhouses in
+    his county, that he must act as judge in hearing appeals in school disputes, that he
+    must conduct all teachers' examinations and in many instances grade the papers, and,
+    finally, that country roads are often impassable, it is seen that his time for
+    supervision is greatly curtailed. As a matter of fact some rural schools receive no
+    visit from the county superintendent for several years at a time.<span
+    class='pagenum'><a name="Page_114" id="Page_114">[Pg 114]</a></span></p>
+    <p>A still further obstacle comes from the fact of the frequent changes of teachers
+    among rural schools. A teacher visited by the county superintendent in a certain
+    school this term, and advised as to how best to meet its problems, is likely to be in
+    a different school next term, and required to meet an entirely new set of
+    problems.</p>
+    <p>This is all very different from the problem of supervision met by the town or city
+    superintendent. For the town or city district is of small area, and the schools few
+    and close together. If the number of teachers is large, the superintendent is
+    assisted by principals of different schools, and by deputies. The teaching force is
+    better prepared, and hence requires less close supervision. School standards are
+    higher, and the co&ouml;peration of patrons more easily secured. The course of study
+    is better organized, the schools better graded and equipped, and all other conditions
+    more favorable to efficient supervision. It would not, therefore, be just to compare
+    the results of supervision in the country districts with those in urban schools
+    without making full allowance for these fundamental differences.</p>
+    <p>The county superintendent is in many States discriminated against in salary as
+    compared with other county officers, and, as a rule, no provision<span
+    class='pagenum'><a name="Page_115" id="Page_115">[Pg 115]</a></span> is made to
+    compensate for traveling expenses incurred in visiting schools. This, in effect,
+    places a financial penalty on the work of supervision, as the superintendent can
+    remain in his office with considerably less expense to himself than when he is out
+    among the schools. In some instances, however, an allowance is made for traveling
+    expenses in addition to the regular salary, thus encouraging the visiting of schools,
+    or at least removing the handicap existing under the older system. An attempt has
+    also been made in some States to relieve the county superintendent of the greater
+    part of the clerical work of his office by employing for him at county expense a
+    clerk for this purpose. These two provisions have proved of great help to the
+    supervisory function of the county superintendent's work, but the task yet looms up
+    in impossible magnitude.</p>
+    <p>The county superintendency is throughout the country almost universally a
+    political office. In some States, as, for example, in Indiana, it is appointive by a
+    non-partisan board. But, in general, the candidate of the prevailing party, or the
+    one who is the best "mixer," secures the office regardless of qualifications. Sharing
+    the fortunes of other political offices, the county superintendency frequently has
+    applied to it the unwritten<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_116" id="Page_116">[Pg
+    116]</a></span> party rule of "two terms and out," thus crippling the efficiency of
+    the office by frequent changes of administration and uncertainty of tenure.</p>
+    <p>No fixed educational or professional standard of preparation for the county
+    superintendency exists in the different States. If some reasonably high standard were
+    required, it would do much to lessen the mischievous effects of making it a political
+    office. In a large proportion of cases the county superintendent is only required to
+    hold a middle-class certificate, and has enjoyed no better educational facilities
+    than dozens of the teachers he is to supervise. The author has conducted teachers'
+    institutes in the Middle West for county superintendents who had never attended an
+    institute or taught a term of school. The salary and professional opportunities of
+    the office are not sufficiently attractive to draw men from the better school
+    positions; hence the great majority of county superintendents come from the village
+    principalships, the grades of town schools, or even from the rural schools.</p>
+    <p>A marked tendency of recent years has been to elect women as county
+    superintendents. In Iowa, for example, half of the present county superintendents are
+    women, and the proportion is increasing. In not a few instances women have<span
+    class='pagenum'><a name="Page_117" id="Page_117">[Pg 117]</a></span> made exceptional
+    records as county superintendents, and, as a whole, are loyally devoted to their
+    work. They suffer one disadvantage in this office, however, which is hard to
+    overcome: they find it impossible, without undue exposure, to travel about the county
+    during the cold and stormy weather of winter or when the roads are soaked with the
+    spring rains. Whether they will be able to effect the desired co&ouml;rdination
+    between the rural school and the agricultural interests of the community is a
+    question yet to be settled.</p>
+    <p>In spite of the limitations of the office of county superintendent, however, it
+    must not be thought that this office has played an unimportant part in our
+    educational development. It has exerted a marked influence in the upbuilding of our
+    schools, and accomplished this under the most unfavorable and discouraging
+    circumstances. Among its occupants have been some of the most able and efficient men
+    and women engaged in our school system. But the time has come in our educational
+    advancement when the rural schools should have better supervision than they are now
+    getting or can get under the present system.</p>
+    <p>The first step in improving the supervision, as in improving so many other
+    features of the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_118" id="Page_118">[Pg
+    118]</a></span> rural schools, is the reorganization of the system through
+    consolidation, and the consequent reduction in the number of schools to be
+    supervised. The next step is to remove the supervising office as far as possible from
+    "practical" politics by making it appointive by a non-partisan county board, who will
+    be at liberty to go anywhere for a superintendent, who will be glad to pay a good
+    salary, and who will seek to retain a superintendent in office as long as he is
+    rendering acceptable service to the county. The third step is to raise the standard
+    of fitness for the office so that the incumbent may be a true intellectual leader
+    among the teachers and people of his county. Nor can this preparation be of the
+    scholastic type alone, but must be of such character as to adapt its possessor to the
+    spirit and ideals of an agricultural people.</p>
+    <p>A wholly efficient system of supervision of rural teaching, then, would be
+    possible only in a system of consolidated schools, each under the immediate direction
+    of a principal, himself thoroughly educated and especially qualified to carry on the
+    work of a school adapted to rural needs. Over these schools would be the supervision
+    of the county superintendent, who will stand in the same relation to the principals
+    as that of the city<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_119" id="Page_119">[Pg
+    119]</a></span> superintendent to his ward or high school principals. The county
+    superintendent will serve to unify and correlate the work of the different
+    consolidated schools, and to relate all to the life and work of the farm.</p>
+    <p>If it is said that systems of superintendence for rural schools could be devised
+    more effective than the county superintendency, this may be granted as a matter of
+    theory; but as a practical working program, there is no doubt that the office of
+    county superintendent is a permanent part of our rural school system, unless the
+    system itself is very radically changed. All the States, except the New England
+    group, Ohio, and Nevada, now have the office of county superintendent. It is likely,
+    therefore, that the plan of district superintendence permissive under the laws of
+    certain States will hardly secure wide acceptance. The county as the unit of school
+    administration is growing in favor, and will probably ultimately come to characterize
+    the rural school system. The most natural step lying next ahead would, therefore,
+    seem to be to make the conditions surrounding the office of county superintendent as
+    favorable as possible, and then give the superintendent a sufficient number of
+    deputies to make the supervision effective. These<span class='pagenum'><a
+    name="Page_120" id="Page_120">[Pg 120]</a></span> deputies should be selected, of
+    course, with reference to their fitness for supervising particular lines of teaching,
+    such as primary, home economics, agriculture, etc. A beginning has already been made
+    in the latter line by the employment in some counties, with the aid of the Federal
+    Government, of an agricultural expert who not only instructs the farmers in their
+    fields, but also correlates his work with the rural schools. This principle is
+    capable of almost indefinite extension in our school system.</p>
+    <div class="footnotes">
+      <h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3>
+      <div class="footnote">
+        <p><a name="Footnote_5_5" id="Footnote_5_5"></a><a href="#FNanchor_5_5"><span
+        class="label">[5]</span></a> See Coffman, <i>The Social Composition of the
+        Teaching Force</i>.</p>
+      </div>
+      <div class="footnote">
+        <p><a name="Footnote_6_6" id="Footnote_6_6"></a><a href="#FNanchor_6_6"><span
+        class="label">[6]</span></a> <i>The Social Composition of the Teaching
+        Population</i>.</p>
+      </div>
+    </div>
+    <hr style="width: 65%;" />
+    <h2><a name="OUTLINE" id="OUTLINE"></a>OUTLINE</h2>
+    <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_121" id="Page_121">[Pg 121]</a></span>
+    <h3>I. THE RURAL SCHOOL AND ITS PROBLEM</h3>
+    <ul>
+      <li style="list-style: none">
+        <p><b>The General Problem of the Rural School</b></p>
+        <ol>
+          <li>The general problem of the rural school identical with that of all
+          schools<span class="ralign"><a href="#Page_1">1</a></span></li>
+          <li>The newer concept measures education by efficiency<span class="ralign"><a
+          href="#Page_2">2</a></span></li>
+          <li>This efficiency involves (1) knowledge,(2) attitude, (3) technique, or
+          skill<span class="ralign"><a href="#Page_3">3</a></span></li>
+          <li>The purpose of the school is to make sure of these factors of
+          efficiency<span class="ralign"><a href="#Page_4">4</a></span></li>
+        </ol>
+        <br />
+
+        <p><b>The Special Problem of the Rural School</b></p>
+        <ol>
+          <li>Each type of school has its special problem<span class="ralign"><a
+          href="#Page_5">5</a></span></li>
+          <li>The rural school problem originates in the nature of the rural
+          community<span class="ralign"><a href="#Page_5">5</a></span></li>
+          <li>Characteristics of the rural community<span class="ralign"><a
+          href="#Page_6">6</a></span></li>
+          <li style="list-style: none">
+            <ol type="a">
+              <li>Its industrial homogeneity<span class="ralign"><a
+              href="#Page_6">6</a></span></li>
+              <li>Its social homogeneity<span class="ralign"><a
+              href="#Page_7">7</a></span></li>
+              <li>Fundamental intelligence of the rural population<span class="ralign"><a
+              href="#Page_8">8</a></span></li>
+              <li>Economic status and standards of living<span class="ralign"><a
+              href="#Page_10">10</a></span></li>
+              <li>Rural isolation and its social effects<span class="ralign"><a
+              href="#Page_10">10</a></span></li>
+              <li>Rural life and physical efficiency<span class="ralign"><a
+              href="#Page_11">11</a></span></li>
+              <li>Lack of recreations and amusement<span class="ralign"><a
+              href="#Page_12">12</a></span></li>
+            </ol>
+          </li>
+          <li>Recent tendencies toward progress in agricultural pursuits<span
+          class="ralign"><a href="#Page_12">12</a></span></li>
+          <li>The loss of rural population to the cities<span class="ralign"><a
+          href="#Page_13">13</a></span></li>
+        </ol>
+        <br />
+      </li>
+      <li>
+        <b>The Adjustment of the Rural School to its Problem</b><br />
+        <br />
+        <ol>
+          <li>Failure in adjustment of the rural school to its problem<span
+          class="ralign"><a href="#Page_17">17</a></span></li>
+          <li>The rudimentary education received by rural children<span class="ralign"><a
+          href="#Page_17">17</a></span></li>
+          <li>Failure of the rural school to participate in recent educational
+          progress<span class="ralign"><a href="#Page_18">18</a></span></li>
+          <li>The rural school inadequate in its scope<span class="ralign"><a
+          href="#Page_19">19</a></span></li>
+          <li>Need of better organization in the rural school<span class="ralign"><a
+          href="#Page_20">20</a></span></li>
+          <li>Inadequacy of rural school buildings and equipment<span class="ralign"><a
+          href="#Page_21">21</a></span></li>
+          <li>The financial support of the rural school<span class="ralign"><a
+          href="#Page_22">22</a></span></li>
+          <li>Summary and suggestions<span class="ralign"><a
+          href="#Page_23">23</a></span></li>
+        </ol>   </li>
+    </ul>
+
+    <ul>
+      <li style="list-style: none">
+        <br />
+        <h3>II. THE SOCIAL ORGANIZATION OF THE RURAL SCHOOL</h3>
+        <p><b>The Rural School and the Community</b></p>
+        <ol>
+          <li>The fundamental relations of school and community<span class="ralign"><a
+          href="#Page_25">25</a></span></li>
+          <li>Low community standards of education<span class="ralign"><a
+          href="#Page_25">25</a></span></li>
+          <li>The rural community's need of a social center<span class="ralign"><a
+          href="#Page_26">26</a></span></li>
+          <li style="list-style: none">
+            <ol type="a">
+              <li>Its social isolation a serious drawback<span class="ralign"><a
+              href="#Page_27">27</a></span></li>
+              <li>Grave moral dangers arising from social isolation<span
+              class="ralign"><a href="#Page_28">28</a></span></li>
+              <li>Rural environment more dangerous to youth than city environment<span
+              class="ralign"><a href="#Page_29">29</a></span></li>
+              <li>Effects of monotony on adults<span class="ralign"><a
+              href="#Page_30">30</a></span></li>
+            </ol>
+          </li>
+          <li>The rural school as a social center<span class="ralign"><a
+          href="#Page_30">30</a></span></li>
+          <li>The ideal rural school building and equipment<span class="ralign"><a
+          href="#Page_32">32</a></span></li>
+          <li>Social activities centering in the school<span class="ralign"><a
+          href="#Page_33">33</a></span></li>
+          <li>Reorganization needed to make the rural school effective as a social
+          and<br />
+          intellectual center<span class="ralign"><a href="#Page_34">34</a></span></li>
+        </ol>
+        <br />
+
+        <p><b>The Consolidation of Rural Schools</b></p>
+        <ol>
+          <li>Consolidation the first step toward rural school efficiency<span
+          class="ralign"><a href="#Page_35">35</a></span></li>
+          <li>Irrationality of present district system<span class="ralign"><a
+          href="#Page_36">36</a></span></li>
+          <li>Obstacles in the way of consolidation<span class="ralign"><a
+          href="#Page_37">37</a></span></li>
+          <li>The present movement toward consolidation<span class="ralign"><a
+          href="#Page_38">38</a></span></li>
+          <li>Effects of consolidation<span class="ralign"><a
+          href="#Page_40">40</a></span></li>
+          <li style="list-style: none">
+            <ol type="a">
+              <li>On attendance<span class="ralign"><a href="#Page_41">41</a></span></li>
+              <li>On expense<span class="ralign"><a href="#Page_41">41</a></span></li>
+              <li>On efficiency<span class="ralign"><a href="#Page_42">42</a></span></li>
+            </ol>
+          </li>
+          <li>The one-room school yet needed as a part of the rural system<span
+          class="ralign"><a href="#Page_42">42</a></span></li>
+        </ol>
+        <br />
+        <p><b>Financial Support of the Rural School</b></p>
+        <ol>
+          <li>Lack of adequate financial support of rural schools<span class="ralign"><a
+          href="#Page_43">43</a></span></li>
+          <li>Difference in city and rural basis for taxation<span class="ralign"><a
+          href="#Page_44">44</a></span></li>
+          <li>Low school tax characteristic of rural communities<span class="ralign"><a
+          href="#Page_45">45</a></span></li>
+          <li>State aid for rural schools<span class="ralign"><a
+          href="#Page_46">46</a></span></li>
+          <li>Safeguards required where the principle of state aid is supplied<span
+          class="ralign"><a href="#Page_47">47</a></span></li>
+          <li>Summary and conclusion<span class="ralign"><a
+          href="#Page_48">48</a></span></li>
+        </ol>
+        <br />
+        <p><b>The Rural School and its Pupils</b></p>
+        <ol>
+          <li>The spirit of the pupils as a test of the school<span class="ralign"><a
+          href="#Page_50">50</a></span></li>
+          <li>The negative attitude of rural pupils toward their school<span
+          class="ralign"><a href="#Page_51">51</a></span></li>
+          <li>Causes of this defection to be sought in the school<span class="ralign"><a
+          href="#Page_51">51</a></span></li>
+          <li>The problem of poor rural school attendance<span class="ralign"><a
+          href="#Page_52">52</a></span></li>
+          <li>The consolidated school as a cure for indifferent attitude and poor
+          attendance<span class="ralign"><a href="#Page_53">53</a></span></li>
+        </ol>
+      </li>
+    </ul>
+
+    <ul>
+      <li style="list-style: none">
+        <br />
+        <h3>III. THE CURRICULUM OF THE RURAL SCHOOL</h3>
+        <p><b>The Scope of the Rural School Curriculum</b></p>
+        <ol>
+          <li>The modern demand for a broader education<span class="ralign"><a
+          href="#Page_57">57</a></span></li>
+          <li>The meagerness of the rural school curriculum<span class="ralign"><a
+          href="#Page_58">58</a></span></li>
+          <li>The rural child requires full elementary and high school course<span
+          class="ralign"><a href="#Page_60">60</a></span></li>
+          <li>Disadvantages of sending rural child to town school<span class="ralign"><a
+          href="#Page_60">60</a></span></li>
+          <li>Necessary reorganization in rural school offering broadened curriculum<span
+          class="ralign"><a href="#Page_62">62</a></span></li>
+          <li>General nature of the new curriculum<span class="ralign"><a
+          href="#Page_62">62</a></span></li>
+        </ol>
+        <br />
+
+        <p><b>The Rural Elementary School Curriculum</b></p>
+        <ol>
+          <li>Relation of the curriculum to social standards and ideals<span
+          class="ralign"><a href="#Page_64">64</a></span></li>
+          <li>The mother tongue<span class="ralign"><a href="#Page_65">65</a></span></li>
+          <li style="list-style: none">
+            <ol type="a">
+              <li>Necessity for its mastery<span class="ralign"><a
+              href="#Page_65">65</a></span></li>
+              <li>Learning the mechanics of the language<span class="ralign"><a
+              href="#Page_66">66</a></span></li>
+              <li>Developing the art of expression, oral and written<span
+              class="ralign"><a href="#Page_67">67</a></span></li>
+              <li>Creation of love for reading<span class="ralign"><a
+              href="#Page_67">67</a></span></li>
+              <li>Formal grammar out of place in the elementary school <span
+              class="ralign"><a href="#Page_68">68</a></span></li>
+            </ol>
+          </li>
+          <li>Number<span class="ralign"><a href="#Page_69">69</a></span></li>
+          <li style="list-style: none">
+            <ol type="a">
+              <li>The prominent place occupied by arithmetic<span class="ralign"><a
+              href="#Page_69">69</a></span></li>
+              <li>Importance of development of the number concept<span class="ralign"><a
+              href="#Page_69">69</a></span></li>
+              <li>An undue proportion of time devoted to arithmetic<span
+              class="ralign"><a href="#Page_70">70</a></span></li>
+              <li>Desirable changes in the teaching of arithmetic<span class="ralign"><a
+              href="#Page_71">71</a></span></li>
+            </ol>
+          </li>
+          <li>History and civics<span class="ralign"><a
+          href="#Page_71">71</a></span></li>
+          <li style="list-style: none">
+            <ol type="a">
+              <li>The right and duty of every person to know the history and
+              government<br />
+              of his country<span class="ralign"><a href="#Page_72">72</a></span></li>
+              <li>History not to deal chiefly with war and politics, but to emphasize
+              the<br />
+              social and industrial side<span class="ralign"><a
+              href="#Page_72">72</a></span></li>
+              <li>The library of historical books<span class="ralign"><a
+              href="#Page_73">73</a></span></li>
+              <li>Functional versus analytical civics<span class="ralign"><a
+              href="#Page_73">73</a></span></li>
+            </ol>
+          </li>
+          <li>Geography and nature study<span class="ralign"><a
+          href="#Page_74">74</a></span></li>
+          <li style="list-style: none">
+            <ol type="a">
+              <li>Advantage of the rural school in this field<span class="ralign"><a
+              href="#Page_74">74</a></span></li>
+              <li>The social basis of geography<span class="ralign"><a
+              href="#Page_75">75</a></span></li>
+              <li>Application of geography and nature study to the farm<span
+              class="ralign"><a href="#Page_75">75</a></span></li>
+            </ol>
+          </li>
+          <li>Hygiene and health<span class="ralign"><a
+          href="#Page_76">76</a></span></li>
+          <li style="list-style: none">
+            <ol type="a">
+              <li>Criticism of older concept of physiology for the elementary school<span
+              class="ralign"><a href="#Page_76">76</a></span></li>
+              <li>Content of practical course in hygiene<span class="ralign"><a
+              href="#Page_77">77</a></span></li>
+              <li>Application of hygiene to the child's health and growth<span
+              class="ralign"><a href="#Page_77">77</a></span></li>
+            </ol>
+          </li>
+          <li>Agriculture<span class="ralign"><a href="#Page_78">78</a></span></li>
+          <li style="list-style: none">
+            <ol type="a">
+              <li>Adaptability to the rural elementary school<span class="ralign"><a
+              href="#Page_78">78</a></span></li>
+              <li>Content of the elementary course in agriculture<span class="ralign"><a
+              href="#Page_79">79</a></span></li>
+              <li>Relation to farm life<span class="ralign"><a
+              href="#Page_79">79</a></span></li>
+            </ol>
+          </li>
+          <li>Domestic science and manual training<span class="ralign"><a
+          href="#Page_79">79</a></span></li>
+          <li style="list-style: none">
+            <ol type="a">
+              <li>Place in elementary rural school<span class="ralign"><a
+              href="#Page_80">80</a></span></li>
+              <li>What can be taught<span class="ralign"><a
+              href="#Page_80">80</a></span></li>
+              <li>Its practical application<span class="ralign"><a
+              href="#Page_80">80</a></span></li>
+            </ol>
+          </li>
+          <li>Music and art<span class="ralign"><a href="#Page_81">81</a></span></li>
+          <li style="list-style: none">
+            <ol type="a">
+              <li>Necessity in a well-balanced curriculum<span class="ralign"><a
+              href="#Page_81">81</a></span></li>
+              <li>Appreciation rather than criticism the aim<span class="ralign"><a
+              href="#Page_81">81</a></span></li>
+            </ol>
+          </li>
+          <li>Physical training<span class="ralign"><a href="#Page_81">81</a></span></li>
+          <li style="list-style: none">
+            <ol type="a">
+              <li>Need of physical training of rural children<span class="ralign"><a
+              href="#Page_82">82</a></span></li>
+              <li>Rural school athletics<span class="ralign"><a
+              href="#Page_82">82</a></span></li>
+            </ol>
+          </li>
+        </ol>
+        <br />
+
+        <p><b>The Rural High School Curriculum</b></p>
+        <ol>
+          <li>Rural high schools not yet common<span class="ralign"><a
+          href="#Page_83">83</a></span></li>
+          <li>The functions of the rural high school<span class="ralign"><a
+          href="#Page_84">84</a></span></li>
+          <li>English in the rural high school<span class="ralign"><a
+          href="#Page_84">84</a></span></li>
+          <li style="list-style: none">
+            <ol type="a">
+              <li>Its aim<span class="ralign"><a href="#Page_85">85</a></span></li>
+              <li>Points of difference from present high school course<span
+              class="ralign"><a href="#Page_86">86</a></span></li>
+            </ol>
+          </li>
+          <li>Social science to have an applied trend<span class="ralign"><a
+          href="#Page_86">86</a></span></li>
+          <li>The material sciences as related to the problems of the farm<span
+          class="ralign"><a href="#Page_87">87</a></span></li>
+          <li>Manual training and domestic science<span class="ralign"><a
+          href="#Page_89">89</a></span></li>
+          <li>A modified course in high school mathematics<span class="ralign"><a
+          href="#Page_89">89</a></span></li>
+          <li>Foreign language not to occupy an important place<span class="ralign"><a
+          href="#Page_90">90</a></span></li>
+          <li>The high school course to include music and art<span class="ralign"><a
+          href="#Page_90">90</a></span></li>
+        </ol>
+        <br />
+        <h3>IV. THE TEACHING OF THE RURAL SCHOOL</h3>
+        <p><b>The Importance of Teaching</b></p>
+        <ol>
+          <li>Teaching the fundamental purpose of the school<span class="ralign"><a
+          href="#Page_92">92</a></span></li>
+          <li>The child and the subject-matter<span class="ralign"><a
+          href="#Page_92">92</a></span></li>
+          <li>The teacher as an intermediary between child and subject-matter<span
+          class="ralign"><a href="#Page_93">93</a></span></li>
+          <li>Hence the teacher must know the nature of the child<span class="ralign"><a
+          href="#Page_94">94</a></span></li>
+          <li>The teacher must know the subject-matter of education<span
+          class="ralign"><a href="#Page_95">95</a></span></li>
+          <li>Failure to measure up to this requirement<span class="ralign"><a
+          href="#Page_97">97</a></span></li>
+        </ol>
+        <br />
+      </li>
+      <li>
+        <b>Teaching in the Rural School</b><br />
+        <br />
+        <ol>
+          <li>The degree of training of rural teachers in the subject-matter<span
+          class="ralign"><a href="#Page_98">98</a></span></li>
+          <li>Present lack of professional training<span class="ralign"><a
+          href="#Page_100">100</a></span></li>
+          <li>The effects of inexperience<span class="ralign"><a
+          href="#Page_101">101</a></span></li>
+          <li>Short tenure of service in rural schools<span class="ralign"><a
+          href="#Page_102">102</a></span></li>
+          <li>Level of teaching efficiency low<span class="ralign"><a
+          href="#Page_103">103</a></span></li>
+          <li>Improvement through consolidated schools<span class="ralign"><a
+          href="#Page_104">104</a></span></li>
+        </ol>
+        <br />
+
+        <p><b>The Training of Rural Teachers</b></p>
+        <ol>
+          <li>Inexperienced and untrained teachers begin in the rural schools<span
+          class="ralign"><a href="#Page_105">105</a></span></li>
+          <li>Normal schools supply few teachers to rural schools<span class="ralign"><a
+          href="#Page_106">106</a></span></li>
+          <li>A reasonable demand for training of rural teachers<span class="ralign"><a
+          href="#Page_107">107</a></span></li>
+          <li>Rural teacher training in normal high schools<span class="ralign"><a
+          href="#Page_107">107</a></span></li>
+          <li>The rural teacher's training must be adapted to spirit of rural school<span
+          class="ralign"><a href="#Page_108">108</a></span></li>
+        </ol>
+        <br />
+
+        <p><b>Salaries of Rural Teachers</b></p>
+        <ol>
+          <li>Salary as a measure of efficiency<span class="ralign"><a
+          href="#Page_109">109</a></span></li>
+          <li>Salaries of rural teachers compared with town and city teachers<span
+          class="ralign"><a href="#Page_110">110</a></span></li>
+          <li>Necessity of increased salaries<span class="ralign"><a
+          href="#Page_111">111</a></span></li>
+          <li>Increase in salary and in efficiency must go together<span
+          class="ralign"><a href="#Page_111">111</a></span></li>
+          <li>Salaries in consolidated schools<span class="ralign"><a
+          href="#Page_112">112</a></span></li>
+        </ol>
+        <br />
+        <p><b>Supervision of Rural Teaching</b></p>
+        <ol>
+          <li>Impossibility of giving district schools efficient supervision<span
+          class="ralign"><a href="#Page_112">112</a></span></li>
+          <li>Obstacle in number of schools and frequent change of teachers<span
+          class="ralign"><a href="#Page_113">113</a></span></li>
+          <li>Comparison of work of county superintendent with city superintendent<span
+          class="ralign"><a href="#Page_114">114</a></span></li>
+          <li>Political handicaps on county superintendent<span class="ralign"><a
+          href="#Page_115">115</a></span></li>
+          <li>The necessity of better educational standards and better salary for the
+          county superintendent<span class="ralign"><a
+          href="#Page_116">116</a></span></li>
+          <li>Women as county superintendents<span class="ralign"><a
+          href="#Page_116">116</a></span></li>
+          <li>Efficient supervision possible only under a consolidated system<span
+          class="ralign"><a href="#Page_117">117</a></span></li>
+        </ol>
+      </li>
+    </ul>
+    <p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_129" id="Page_129">[Pg 129]</a></span></p>
+    <hr style="width: 65%;" />
+    <h3>RIVERSIDE EDUCATIONAL MONOGRAPHS</h3>
+    <h4><i>GENERAL EDUCATIONAL THEORY</i></h4>
+    <ul>
+      <li><span class="smcap">Dewey's</span> MORAL PRINCIPLES IN EDUCATION<span
+      class="ralign">.35</span></li>
+      <li><span class="smcap">Eliot's</span> EDUCATION FOR EFFICIENCY<span
+      class="ralign">.35</span></li>
+      <li><span class="smcap">Eliot's</span> TENDENCY TO THE CONCRETE AND PRACTICAL IN
+      MODERN<br />
+      <span style="margin-left: 2em;">EDUCATION</span><span
+      class="ralign">.35</span></li>
+      <li><span class="smcap">Emerson's</span> EDUCATION<span
+      class="ralign">.35</span></li>
+      <li><span class="smcap">Fiske's</span> THE MEANING OF INFANCY<span
+      class="ralign">.35</span></li>
+      <li><span class="smcap">Hyde's</span> THE TEACHER'S PHILOSOPHY<span
+      class="ralign">.35</span></li>
+      <li><span class="smcap">Palmer's</span> THE IDEAL TEACHER<span
+      class="ralign">.35</span></li>
+      <li><span class="smcap">Prosser's</span> THE TEACHER AND OLD AGE<span
+      class="ralign">.60</span></li>
+      <li><span class="smcap">Terman's</span> THE TEACHER'S HEALTH<span
+      class="ralign">.60</span></li>
+      <li><span class="smcap">Thorndike's</span> INDIVIDUALITY<span
+      class="ralign">.35</span></li>
+    </ul>
+    <h4><i>ADMINISTRATION AND SUPERVISION OF SCHOOLS</i></h4>
+    <ul>
+      <li><span class="smcap">Betts's</span> NEW IDEALS IN RURAL SCHOOLS<span
+      class="ralign">.60</span></li>
+      <li><span class="smcap">Bloomfield's</span> VOCATIONAL GUIDANCE OF YOUTH<span
+      class="ralign">.60</span></li>
+      <li><span class="smcap">Cabot's</span> VOLUNTEER HELP TO THE SCHOOLS<span
+      class="ralign">.60</span></li>
+      <li><span class="smcap">Cole's</span> INDUSTRIAL EDUCATION IN ELEMENTARY
+      SCHOOLS<span class="ralign">.35</span></li>
+      <li><span class="smcap">Cubberley's</span> CHANGING CONCEPTIONS OF EDUCATION<span
+      class="ralign">.35</span></li>
+      <li><span class="smcap">Cubberley's</span> THE IMPROVEMENT OF RURAL SCHOOLS<span
+      class="ralign">.35</span></li>
+      <li><span class="smcap">Lewis's</span> DEMOCRACY'S HIGH SCHOOL<span
+      class="ralign">.60</span></li>
+      <li><span class="smcap">Perry's</span> STATUS OF THE TEACHER<span
+      class="ralign">.35</span></li>
+      <li><span class="smcap">Snedden's</span> THE PROBLEM OF VOCATIONAL EDUCATION<span
+      class="ralign">.35</span></li>
+      <li><span class="smcap">Trowbridge's</span> THE HOME SCHOOL<span
+      class="ralign">.60</span></li>
+      <li><span class="smcap">Weeks's</span> THE PEOPLE'S SCHOOL<span
+      class="ralign">.60</span></li>
+    </ul>
+    <h4><i>METHODS OF TEACHING</i></h4>
+    <ul>
+      <li><span class="smcap">Bailey's</span> ART EDUCATION<span
+      class="ralign">.60</span></li>
+      <li><span class="smcap">Betts's</span> THE RECITATION<span
+      class="ralign">.60</span></li>
+      <li><span class="smcap">Campagnac's</span> THE TEACHING OF COMPOSITION<span
+      class="ralign">.35</span></li>
+      <li><span class="smcap">Cooley's</span> LANGUAGE TEACHING IN THE GRADES<span
+      class="ralign">.35</span></li>
+      <li><span class="smcap">Dewey's</span> INTEREST AND EFFORT IN EDUCATION<span
+      class="ralign">.60</span></li>
+      <li><span class="smcap">Earhart's</span> TEACHING CHILDREN TO STUDY<span
+      class="ralign">.60</span></li>
+      <li><span class="smcap">Evans's</span> TEACHING OF HIGH SCHOOL MATHEMATICS<span
+      class="ralign">.35</span></li>
+      <li><span class="smcap">Fairchild's</span> THE TEACHING OF POETRY IN THE HIGH
+      SCHOOL<br />
+      <br />
+      </li>
+      <li><span class="smcap">Haliburton and Smith's</span> TEACHING POETRY IN THE
+      GRADES<span class="ralign">.60</span></li>
+      <li><span class="smcap">Hartwell's</span> THE TEACHING OF HISTORY<span
+      class="ralign">.35</span></li>
+      <li><span class="smcap">Haynes's</span> ECONOMICS IN THE SECONDARY SCHOOL<span
+      class="ralign">.60</span></li>
+      <li><span class="smcap">Kilpatrick's</span> THE MONTESSORI SYSTEM EXAMINED<span
+      class="ralign">.35</span></li>
+      <li><span class="smcap">Palmer's</span> ETHICAL AND MORAL INSTRUCTION IN THE
+      SCHOOLS<span class="ralign">.35</span></li>
+      <li><span class="smcap">Palmer's</span> SELF-CULTIVATION IN ENGLISH<span
+      class="ralign">.35</span></li>
+      <li><span class="smcap">Suzzallo's</span> THE TEACHING OF PRIMARY ARITHMETIC<span
+      class="ralign">.60</span></li>
+      <li><span class="smcap">Suzzallo's</span> THE TEACHING OF SPELLING<span
+      class="ralign">.60</span></li>
+    </ul>
+    <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_130" id="Page_130">[Pg 130]</a></span>
+    <hr style="width: 65%;" />
+    <h3>RIVERSIDE TEXTBOOKS IN EDUCATION</h3>
+    <center>
+      Edited by Ellwood P. Cubberley, Head of the<br />
+      Department of Education, Leland Stanford, Jr., University.
+    </center>
+    <hr style='width: 25%;' />
+    <blockquote>
+      <p>The editor and the publishers have most carefully planned this series to meet
+      the needs of students of education in colleges and universities, in normal schools,
+      and in teachers' training courses in high schools. The books will also be equally
+      well adapted to teachers' reading circles and to the wide-awake, professionally
+      ambitious superintendent and teacher. Each book presented in the series will embody
+      the results of the latest research, and will be at the same time both
+      scientifically accurate, and simple, clear, and interesting in style.</p>
+      <p>The Riverside Textbooks in Education will eventually contain books on the
+      following subjects:&mdash;</p>
+      <p>1. History of Education.&mdash;2. Public Education in America.&mdash;3. Theory
+      of Education.&mdash;4. Principles of Teaching.&mdash;5. School and Class
+      Management.&mdash;6. School Hygiene.&mdash;7. School Administration.&mdash;8.
+      Secondary Education.&mdash;9. Educational Psychology.&mdash;10. Educational
+      Sociology.&mdash;11. The Curriculum.&mdash;12. Special Methods.</p>
+    </blockquote>
+    <h4>Now Ready</h4>
+    <div style="margin-left: 4em;">
+      <p><b>*RURAL LIFE AND EDUCATION.</b></p>
+      <span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">By <span class="smcap">Ellwood P.
+      Cubberley</span>. $1.50 <i>net</i>. Postpaid. Illustrated.</span><br />
+
+      <p><b>*THE HYGIENE OF THE SCHOOL CHILD.</b></p>
+      <span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">By <span class="smcap">Lewis M. Terman</span>,
+      Associate Professor of Education, Leland</span><br />
+      <span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">Stanford Junior University. $1.65 <i>net</i>.
+      Postpaid. Illustrated.</span><br />
+
+      <p><b>*THE EVOLUTION OF THE EDUCATIONAL IDEAL.</b></p>
+      <span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">By <span class="smcap">Mabel Irene
+      Emerson</span>, First Assistant in Charge, George Bancroft</span><br />
+      <span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">School, Boston. $1.00 <i>net</i>.
+      Postpaid.</span><br />
+
+      <p><b>*HEALTH WORK IN THE SCHOOLS.</b></p>
+      <span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">By <span class="smcap">Ernest B. Hoag</span>,
+      Medical Director, Long Beach City Schools,</span><br />
+      <span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">California, and <span class="smcap">LEWIS M.
+      TERMAN</span>. Illustrated. $1.60 <i>net</i>.</span><br />
+      <span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">Postpaid.</span><br />
+    </div>
+    <br />
+    <center>
+      HOUGHTON MIFFLIN COMPANY
+    </center>
+    <center>
+      BOSTON<span style="margin-left: 2em;">NEW YORK</span><span
+      style="margin-left: 2em;">CHICAGO</span>
+    </center>
+    <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_131" id="Page_131">[Pg 131]</a></span>
+    <hr style="width: 65%;" />
+    <h3>The HOUGHTON MIFFLIN PROFESSIONAL LIBRARY</h3>
+    <h4>For Teachers and Students of Education</h4>
+    <hr style='width: 25%;' />
+    <h5><i>THEORY AND PRINCIPLES OF EDUCATION</i></h5>
+    <div style="margin-left: 4em;">
+      <p><b>AMERICAN EDUCATION</b></p>
+      <span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">By <span class="smcap">Andrew S. Draper</span>,
+      Commissioner of Education of the State of New</span><br />
+      <span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">York. With an Introduction by <span
+      class="smcap">Nicholas Murray Butler</span>, President of</span><br />
+      <span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">Columbia University. $2.00, <i>net</i>.
+      Postpaid.</span><br />
+
+      <p><b>GROWTH AND EDUCATION</b></p>
+      <span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">By <span class="smcap">John M. Tyler</span>,
+      Professor of Biology in Amherst College. $1.50,</span><br />
+      <span style="margin-left: 2.5em;"><i>net</i>. Postpaid.</span><br />
+
+      <p><b>SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT AND EDUCATION</b></p>
+      <span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">By <span class="smcap">M. Vincent O'Shea</span>,
+      Professor of Education in the University of</span><br />
+      <span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">Wisconsin. $2.00, <i>net</i>.
+      Postpaid.</span><br />
+
+      <p><b>THE PRINCIPLES OF EDUCATION</b></p>
+      <span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">By <span class="smcap">William C.
+      Ruediger</span>, Ph. D., Assistant Professor of Educational</span><br />
+      <span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">Psychology in the Teachers College of the George
+      Washington</span><br />
+      <span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">University. $1.25, <i>net</i>.
+      Postpaid.</span><br />
+
+      <p><b>THE INDIVIDUAL IN THE MAKING</b></p>
+      <span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">By <span class="smcap">Edwin A.
+      Kirkpatrick</span>, Teacher of Psychology, Child Study and</span><br />
+      <span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">School Laws, State Normal School, Fitchburg,
+      Mass. $1.25, <i>net</i>.</span><br />
+      <span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">Postpaid.</span><br />
+
+      <p><b>A THEORY OF MOTIVES, IDEALS, AND VALUES IN EDUCATION</b></p>
+      <span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">By <span class="smcap">William E.
+      Chancellor</span>, Superintendent of Schools, Norwalk, Conn.</span><br />
+      <span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">$1.75, <i>net</i>. Postpaid.</span><br />
+
+      <p><b>EDUCATION AND THE LARGER LIFE</b></p>
+      <span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">By <span class="smcap">C. Hanford
+      Henderson</span>. $1.30, <i>net</i>. Postage 13 cents.</span><br />
+
+      <p><b>HOW TO STUDY AND TEACHING HOW TO STUDY</b></p>
+      <span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">By <span class="smcap">Frank McMurry</span>,
+      Professor of Elementary Education in Teachers</span><br />
+      <span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">College, Columbia University. $1.25, <i>net</i>.
+      Postpaid.</span><br />
+    </div>
+    <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_132" id="Page_132">[Pg 132]</a></span>
+    <hr style="width: 65%;" />
+    <h3>The HOUGHTON MIFFLIN PROFESSIONAL LIBRARY</h3>
+    <h4>For Teachers and Students of Education</h4>
+    <hr style='width: 25%;' />
+    <div style="margin-left: 4em;">
+      <p><b>BEGINNINGS IN INDUSTRIAL EDUCATION</b></p>
+      <span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">By <span class="smcap">Paul H. Hanus</span>,
+      Professor of the History and Art of Teaching in</span><br />
+      <span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">Harvard University. $1.00, <i>net</i>.
+      Postpaid.</span><br />
+
+      <h5><i>PRACTICAL ASPECTS AND PROBLEMS</i></h5>
+      <p><b>ETHICS FOR CHILDREN</b>. A Guide for Teachers and Parents</p>
+      <span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">By <span class="smcap">Ella Lyman Cabot</span>,
+      Member of the Massachusetts Board of</span><br />
+      <span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">Education. $1.25, <i>net</i>.
+      Postpaid.</span><br />
+
+      <p><b>CHARACTER BUILDING IN SCHOOL</b></p>
+      <span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">By <span class="smcap">Jane Brownlee</span>,
+      formerly Principal of Lagrange School, Toledo,</span><br />
+      <span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">Ohio. 16mo. $1.00, <i>net</i>.
+      Postpaid.</span><br />
+
+      <p><b>HOW TO TELL STORIES TO CHILDREN</b></p>
+      <span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">By <span class="smcap">Sara Cone Bryant</span>.
+      $1.00, <i>net</i>. Postpaid.</span><br />
+
+      <p><b>TALKS ON TEACHING LITERATURE</b></p>
+      <span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">By <span class="smcap">Arlo Bates</span>,
+      Professor of English Literature in the Massachusetts</span><br />
+      <span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">Institute of Technology. Professor Bates is also
+      the author of</span><br />
+      <span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">"Talks on the Study of Literature," "Talks on
+      Writing English,"</span><br />
+      <span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">etc. $1.30, <i>net</i>. Postpaid.</span><br />
+
+      <p><b>LITERATURE AND LIFE IN SCHOOL</b></p>
+      <span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">By <span class="smcap">J. Rose Colby</span>,
+      Professor of Literature in the Illinois State</span><br />
+      <span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">Normal University. $1.25, <i>net</i>.
+      Postpaid.</span><br />
+
+      <p><b>THE KINDERGARTEN</b></p>
+      <span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">By <span class="smcap">Susan Blow, Patty
+      Hill</span>, and <span class="smcap">Elizabeth Harrison</span>, assisted
+      by</span><br />
+      <span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">other members of the Committee of Nineteen of the
+      International</span><br />
+      <span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">Kindergarten Union. With a Preface by <span
+      class="smcap">Lucy Wheelock</span> and an</span><br />
+      <span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">Introduction by <span class="smcap">Annie
+      Laws</span>, Chairman of the Committee. 16mo. $1.25</span><br />
+      <span style="margin-left: 2.5em;"><i>net</i>. Postpaid.</span><br />
+    </div>
+    <br />
+    <center>
+      HOUGHTON MIFFLIN COMPANY
+    </center>
+    <center>
+      BOSTON<span style="margin-left: 2em;">NEW YORK</span><span
+      style="margin-left: 2em;">CHICAGO</span>
+    </center>
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+<pre>
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of New Ideals in Rural Schools, by 
+George Herbert Betts
+
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+  </body>
+</html>
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+Project Gutenberg's New Ideals in Rural Schools, by George Herbert Betts
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: New Ideals in Rural Schools
+
+Author: George Herbert Betts
+
+Release Date: April 24, 2007 [EBook #21213]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK NEW IDEALS IN RURAL SCHOOLS ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Tom Roch, Marcia Brooks and the Online
+Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This
+file was produced from images produced by Core Historical
+Literature in Agriculture (CHLA), Cornell University)
+
+
+
+
+
+
+Riverside Educational Monographs
+
+EDITED BY HENRY SUZZALLO
+
+PROFESSOR OF THE PHILOSOPHY OF EDUCATION
+TEACHERS COLLEGE, COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY
+
+NEW IDEALS IN RURAL SCHOOLS
+
+BY
+
+GEORGE HERBERT BETTS, PH. D.
+
+PROFESSOR OF PSYCHOLOGY
+CORNELL COLLEGE, IOWA
+
+[Illustration]
+
+HOUGHTON MIFFLIN COMPANY
+BOSTON, NEW YORK AND CHICAGO
+
+The Riverside Press Cambridge
+
+COPYRIGHT, 1913, BY GEORGE HERBERT BETTS
+
+ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS
+
+
+     EDITOR'S INTRODUCTION                               v
+
+     PREFACE                                            ix
+
+  I. THE RURAL SCHOOL AND ITS PROBLEM                    1
+
+ II. THE SOCIAL ORGANIZATION OF THE RURAL SCHOOL        25
+
+III. THE CURRICULUM OF THE RURAL SCHOOL                 57
+
+ IV. THE TEACHING OF THE RURAL SCHOOL                   92
+
+     OUTLINE                                           121
+
+
+
+
+EDITOR'S INTRODUCTION
+
+
+In presenting a second monograph on the rural school problem in this
+series we register our sense of the importance of rural education. Too
+long have the rural schools suffered from neglect. Both the local
+communities and the State have overlooked the needs of the rural school
+system. At the present hour there is an earnest awakening of interest in
+rural life and its institutions. Already there is a small but certain
+movement of people toward the country and the vocation of agriculture. A
+period of agricultural prosperity, the reaction of men and women against
+the artificialities of city life, the development of farming through the
+application of science, and numerous other factors have made country
+life more congenial and have focused attention upon its further needs.
+It is natural, therefore, that the rural school should receive an
+increased share of attention.
+
+Educational administrators, legislators, and publicists have become
+aware of their responsibility to provide the financial support and the
+efficient organization that is needed to develop country schools. The
+more progressive of them are striving earnestly to provide laws that
+will aid rather than hamper the rural school system. In his monograph on
+_The Improvement of the Rural School_, Professor Cubberley has done much
+to interpret current efforts of this type. From the standpoint of state
+administration he has contributed much definite information and
+constructive suggestion as to how the State shall respond to the
+fundamental need for (1) more money, (2) better organization, and (3)
+real supervision for rural schools.
+
+It is not so clear, however, that rural patrons, school directors, and
+teachers have become fully aware of their duty in the matter of rural
+school improvement. To be sure much has been done by way of experiment
+in many rural communities; but it can scarcely be said that rural
+communities in general are thoroughly awake to the importance of their
+schools. The evidence to the contrary is cumulative. The first immediate
+need is to reawaken interest in the school as a center of rural life,
+and to suggest ways and means of transmuting this communal interest into
+effective institutional methods. To this end, Professor Betts has been
+asked to treat the rural school problem from a standpoint somewhat
+different from that assumed by Professor Cubberley; that is, from the
+point of view of the local community immediately related to, and
+concerned with, the rural school. In consequence his presentation
+emphasizes the things that ought to be done by the local
+authorities,--parent, trustee, and teacher. Its soundness may well be
+judged by the pertinent order of his discussion. Having stated his
+problem, he initiates his discussion by suggesting how the social
+relations of the school are to be reorganized; only later does he pass
+to the detail of curricula and teaching methods. It is a clear
+recognition of the fact that the community is the crucial factor in the
+making of a school. The State by sound fiscal and legislative policies
+may do much to make possible a better country school; but only the local
+authorities can realize it. The trained teacher with modern notions of
+efficiency may attempt to enlarge the curriculum and to employ newer
+methods of teaching, but his talents are useless if he is hampered by a
+conservative, unappreciative, and indifferent community. When the school
+becomes a social center of the community's interest and life, there will
+be no difficulty in achieving any policy which the State permits or
+which a skilled teacher urges. Scattered schools will be consolidated,
+and isolated ungraded schools will be improved. Given an interested
+community, the modern teacher can vitalize every feature of the school,
+changing the formal curriculum into an interesting and liberalizing
+interpretation of country life and the pedantic drills and tasks of
+instruction into a skillful ministry to real and abiding human wants.
+
+
+
+
+PREFACE
+
+
+No rural population has yet been able permanently to maintain itself
+against the lure of the town or the city. Each civilization at one stage
+of its development comprises a large proportion of rural people. But the
+urban movement soon begins, and continues until all are living in
+villages, towns, and cities. Such has been the movement of population in
+all the older countries of high industrial development, as England,
+France, and Germany. A similar movement is at present going on rapidly
+in the United States.
+
+No great social movement ever comes by chance; it is always to be
+explained by deep-seated and adequate causes. The causes lying back of
+the rapid growth of our cities at the expense of our rural districts are
+very far from simple. They involve a great complex of social,
+educational, and economic forces. As the spirit of adventure and
+pioneering finds less to stimulate it, the gregarious impulse, the
+tendency to flock together for our work and our play, gains in
+ascendancy. Growing out of the greater intellectual opportunities and
+demands of modern times, the standard of education has greatly
+advanced. And under the incentive of present-day economic success and
+luxury, comfortable circumstances and a moderate competence no longer
+satisfy our people. Hence they turn to the city, looking to find there
+the coveted social, educational, or economic opportunities.
+
+It is doubtful, therefore, whether, even with improved conditions of
+country life, the urbanization of our rural people can be wholly
+checked. But it can be greatly retarded if the right agencies are set at
+work. The rural school should be made and can be made one of the most
+important of these agencies, although at the present time its influence
+is chiefly negative. With the hope of offering some help, however
+slight, in adjusting the rural school to its problem, this little volume
+is written by one who himself belongs to the rural community by birth
+and early education and occupation.
+
+G. H. B.
+CORNELL COLLEGE, _February_, 1913.
+
+
+
+
+NEW IDEALS IN RURAL SCHOOLS
+
+
+
+
+I
+
+THE RURAL SCHOOL AND ITS PROBLEM
+
+_The general problem of the rural school_
+
+
+The general problem of the rural school is the same as that of any other
+type of school--to render to the community the largest possible returns
+upon its investment in education with the least possible waste. Schools
+are great education factories set up at public expense. The raw material
+consists of the children of succeeding generations, helpless and
+inefficient because of ignorance and immaturity. The school is to turn
+out as its product men and women ready and able to take up their part in
+the great world of activities going on about them. It is in this way, in
+efficient education, that society gets its return for its investment in
+the schools.
+
+The word "education" has in recent years been taking on a new and more
+vital meaning. In earlier times the value of education was assumed, or
+vaguely taken on faith. Education was supposed to consist of so much
+"learning," or a given amount of "discipline," or a certain quantity of
+"culture." Under the newer definition, education may include all these
+things, but it must do more; it _must relate itself immediately and
+concretely to the business of living_. We no longer inquire of one how
+much he knows, or the degree to which his powers have been "cultivated";
+but rather to what extent his education has led to a more fruitful life
+in the home, the state, the church, and other social institutions; how
+largely it has helped him to more effective work in a worthy occupation;
+and whether it has resulted in greater enjoyment and appreciation of the
+finer values of personal experience,--in short, whether for him
+education spells _efficiency_.
+
+We are thus coming to see that education must enable the individual to
+meet the real problems of actual experience as they are confronted in
+the day's life. Nor can the help rendered be indefinite, intangible, or
+in any degree uncertain. It must definitely adjust one to his place, and
+cause him to grow in it, accomplishing the most for himself and for
+society; it must add to the largeness of his personal life, and at the
+same time increase his working efficiency.
+
+This is to say that one's education must (1) furnish him with the
+particular _knowledge_ required for the life that he is to live, whether
+it be in the shop, on the farm, or in the profession. For knowledge lies
+at the basis of all efficiency and success in whatever occupation.
+Education must (2) shape the _attitude_, so that the individual will
+confront his part of the world's work or its play in the right spirit.
+It must not leave him a parasite, whether from wealth or from poverty,
+ready to prey upon others; but must make him willing and glad to do his
+share. Education must (3) also give the individual training in
+_technique_, or the skill required in his different activities; not to
+do this is at best but to leave him a well-informed and well-intentioned
+bungler, falling far short of efficiency.
+
+The great function of the school, therefore, is to supply the means by
+which the requisite _knowledge_, _attitude_, and _skill_ can be
+developed. It is true that the child does not depend on the school alone
+for his knowledge, his attitude, and his skill. For the school is only
+one of many influences operating on his life. Much of the most vital
+knowledge is not taught in the school but picked up outside; a great
+part of the child's attitude toward life is formed through the
+relations of the home, the community, and the various other points of
+contact with society; and much of his skill in doing is developed in a
+thousand ways without being taught. Yet the fact remains that the school
+is organized and supported by society to make sure about these things,
+to see that the child does not lack in knowledge, attitude, or skill.
+They must not be left to chance; where the educative influences outside
+the school have not been sufficient, the school must take hold. Its part
+is to supplement and organize with conscious purpose what the other
+agencies have accomplished in the education of the child. The ultimate
+purpose of the school is _to make certain of efficiency_.
+
+The means by which the school is to accomplish these ends are (1) the
+_social organization_ of the school, or the life and activities that go
+on in the school from day to day; (2) the _curriculum_, or the
+subject-matter which the child is given to master; and (3) the
+_instruction_ or the work of the teacher in helping the pupils to master
+the subject-matter of the curriculum and adjust themselves to the
+organization of the school.
+
+These factors will of necessity differ, however, according to the
+particular type of school in question. It will therefore be necessary to
+inquire into the special problem of the rural school before entering
+into a discussion of the means by which it is to accomplish its aim.
+
+
+_The special problem of the rural school_
+
+Each type of school has not only its general problem which is common to
+all schools, but also its special problem which makes it different from
+every other class of schools. The special problem of any type of school
+grows out of the nature and needs of the community which supports the
+school. Thus the city school, whose pupils are to live the industrial
+and social life of an urban community, confronts a different problem
+from that of a rural school, whose pupils are to live in a farming
+community. Each type of school must suit its curriculum, its
+organization, and its instruction to the demands to be met by its
+pupils. The knowledge taught, the attitudes and tastes developed, and
+the skill acquired must be related to the life to be lived and the
+responsibilities to be undertaken.
+
+The rural school must therefore be different in many respects from the
+town and city school. In its organization, its curriculum, and its
+spirit, it must be adapted to the requirements of the rural community.
+For, while many pupils from the rural schools ultimately follow other
+occupations than farming, yet the primary function of the rural school
+is to educate for the life of the farm. It thus becomes evident that the
+only way to understand the problem of the rural school is first to
+understand the rural community. What are its industries, the character
+of its people, their economic status, their standards of living, their
+needs, their social life?
+
+The rural community is industrially homogeneous. There exists here no
+such a diversified mixture of industries as in the city. All are engaged
+in the same line of work. Agriculture is the sole occupation. Hence the
+economic interests and problems all center around this one line. The
+success or failure of crops, the introduction of a different method of
+cultivation or a new variety of grain, or the invention of an
+agricultural implement interests all alike. The farmer engaged in
+planting his corn knows that for miles around all other farmers are
+similarly employed; if he is cutting his hay or harvesting his grain,
+hundreds of other mowing machines and harvesters are at work on
+surrounding farms.
+
+This fund of common interest and experience tends to social as well as
+industrial homogeneity. Good-fellowship, social responsiveness and
+neighborliness rest on a basis of common labor, common problems, and
+common welfare. Like-mindedness and the spirit of cooeperation are after
+all more a matter of similar occupational interests than of nationality.
+
+Another factor tending to make the rural community socially more
+homogeneous than the city community is its relatively stable population,
+and the fact that the stream of immigration is slow in reaching the
+farm. It is true that the European nations are well represented among
+our agricultural population; but for the most part they are not
+foreigners of the first generation. They have assimilated the American
+spirit, and become familiar with American institutions. The great flood
+of raw immigrants fresh from widely diverse nations stops in the large
+centers of population, and does not reach the farm.
+
+The prevailing spirit of democracy is still another influence favoring
+homogeneity in the rural community. Much less of social stratification
+exists in the country than in the city. Social planes are not so clearly
+defined nor so rigidly maintained. Financial prosperity is more likely
+to take the direction of larger barns and more acres than of social
+ostentation and exclusiveness.
+
+America has no servile and ignorant peasantry. The agricultural class
+constituting our rural population represents a high grade of natural
+intelligence and integrity. Great political and moral reforms find more
+favorable soil in the rural regions than in the cities. The demagogue
+and the "boss" find farmers impossible to control to their selfish ends.
+Vagabonds and idlers are out of place among them. They are a
+hard-headed, capable, and industrious class. As a rule, American farmers
+are well-to-do, not only earning a good living for their families, but
+constantly extending their holdings. Their farms are increasingly well
+improved, stocked, and supplied with labor-saving and efficient
+machinery. Their land is constantly growing in value, and at the same
+time yielding larger returns for the money and labor invested in it.
+
+The standard of living is distinctly lower in farm homes than in town
+and city homes of the same financial status. The house is generally
+comfortable, but small. It is behind the times in many easily accessible
+modern conveniences possessed by the great majority of city dwellers.
+The bath, modern plumbing and heating, the refrigerator, and other
+kindred appliances can be had in the country home as well as the city.
+Their lack is a matter of standards rather than of necessity. They will
+be introduced into thousands of rural homes as soon as their need is
+realized.
+
+The possibilities for making the rural home beautiful and attractive are
+unequaled in the city for any except the very rich. It is not necessary
+that the farmhouse shall be crowded for space; its outlook and
+surroundings can be arranged to give it an aesthetic quality wholly
+impossible in the ordinary city home. That this is true is proved by
+many inexpensive farmhouses that are a delight to the eye. On the other
+hand, it must be admitted that a large proportion of farmhouses are
+lacking in both architectural attractiveness and environmental effect.
+Not infrequently the barns and sheds are so placed as to crowd the house
+into the background, and the yards for stock allowed to infringe upon
+the domain of the garden and the lawn. All this can be easily remedied
+and will be when the aesthetic taste of the dwellers on the farm comes to
+be offended by the incongruous and ugly.
+
+No stinting in the abundance of food is known on the farm. The farmer
+supplies the tables of the world, and can himself live off the fat of
+the land. Grains, vegetables, meats, eggs, butter, milk, and fruits are
+his stock in trade. If there is any lack in the farmer's table, it is
+due to carelessness in providing or preparing the food, and not to
+forced economy.
+
+While the farming population in general live well, yet many tables are
+lacking in variety, especially in fruit and vegetables. Time and
+interest are so taken up with the larger affairs of crops and stock,
+that the garden goes by default in many instances. There is no market
+readily at hand offering fruit and vegetables for sale as in the city,
+and hence the farm table loses in attractiveness to the appetite and in
+hygienic excellence. It is probable that the prosperous city workman
+sits down to a better table than does the farmer, in spite of the great
+advantage possessed by the latter.
+
+The population of rural communities is necessarily scattering. The
+nature of farming renders it impossible for people to herd together as
+is the case in many other industries. This has its good side, but also
+its bad. There are no rural slums for the breeding of poverty and crime;
+but on the other hand, there is an isolation and monotony that tend to
+become deadening in their effects on the individual. Stress and
+over-strain does not all come from excitement and the rush of
+competition; it may equally well originate in lack of variety and
+unrelieved routine. How true this is is seen in the fact that insanity,
+caused in this instance chiefly by the stress of monotony, prevails
+among the farming people of frontier communities out of all proportion
+to the normal ratio.
+
+Farming is naturally the most healthful of the industrial occupations.
+The work is for the greater part done in the open air and sunshine, and
+possesses sufficient variety to be interesting. The rural population
+constitutes the high vitality class of the nation, and must be
+constantly drawn upon to supply the brain, brawn, and nerve for the work
+of the city. The farmer is, on the whole, prosperous; he is therefore
+hopeful and cheerful, and labors in good spirit. That so many farmers
+and farmers' wives break down or age prematurely is due, not to the
+inherent nature of their work, but to a lack of balance in the life of
+the farm. It is not so much the work that kills, as the _continuity of
+the work_ unrelieved by periods of rest and recreation. With the
+opportunities highly favorable for the best type of healthful living, no
+inconsiderable proportion of our agricultural population are shortening
+their lives and lowering their efficiency by unnecessary over-strain and
+failure to conform to the most fundamental and elementary laws of
+hygienic living, especially with reference to the relief from labor that
+comes through change and recreation.
+
+The rural community affords few opportunities for social recreations and
+amusements. Not only are the people widely separated from each other by
+distance, but the work of the farm is exacting, and often requires all
+the hours of the day not demanded for sleep. While the city offers many
+opportunities for choice of recreation or amusement, the country affords
+almost none. The city worker has his evenings, usually Saturday
+afternoon, and all day Sunday free to use as he chooses. Such is not the
+case on the farm; for after the day in the field the chores must be
+done, and the stock cared for. And even on Sunday, the routine must be
+carried out. The work of the farm has a tendency, therefore, to become
+much of a grind, and certainly will become so unless some limit is set
+to the exactions of farm labor on the time and strength of the worker.
+It separates the individual from his fellows in the greater part of the
+farm work and gives him little opportunity for social recreations or
+play.
+
+One of the best evidences that the conditions of life and work on the
+farm need to be improved is the number of people who are leaving the
+farm for the city. This movement has been especially rapid during the
+last thirty years of our history, and has continued until approximately
+one half our people now live in towns or cities. Not only is this loss
+of agricultural population serious to farming itself, creating a
+shortage of labor for the work of the farm, but it results in crowding
+other occupations already too full. There is no doubt that we have too
+many lawyers, doctors, merchants, clerks, and the like for the number of
+workers engaged in fundamental productive vocations. Smaller farms,
+cultivated intensively, would be a great economic advantage to the
+country, and would take care of a far larger proportion of our people
+than are now engaged in agriculture.
+
+All students of social affairs agree that the movement of our people to
+towns and cities should be checked and the tide turned the other way. So
+important is the matter considered that a concerted national movement
+has recently been undertaken to study the conditions of rural life with
+a view to making it more attractive and so stopping the drain to the
+city.
+
+Middle-aged farmers move to the town or city for two principal reasons:
+to educate their children and to escape from the monotony of rural
+life. Young people desert the farm for the city for a variety of
+reasons, prominent among which are a desire for better education, escape
+from the monotony and grind of the farm life, and the opportunity for
+the social advantages and recreations of the city. That the retired
+farmer is usually disappointed and unhappy in his town home, and that
+the youth often finds the glamour of the city soon to fade, is true. But
+this does not solve the problem. The flux to the town or city still goes
+on, and will continue to do so until the natural desire for social and
+intellectual opportunities and for recreation and amusement is
+adequately met in rural life.
+
+Farming as an industry has already felt the effects of a new interest in
+rural life. Probably no other industrial occupation has undergone such
+rapid changes within the last generation as has agriculture. The rapid
+advance in the value of land, the introduction of new forms of farm
+machinery, and above all the application of science to the raising of
+crops and stock, have almost reconstructed the work of the farm within a
+decade.
+
+Special "corn trains" and "dairy trains" have traversed nearly every
+county in many States, teaching the farmers scientific methods.
+Lecturers on scientific agriculture have found their way into many
+communities. The Federal Government has encouraged in every way the
+spread of information and the development of enthusiasm in agriculture.
+The agricultural schools have given courses of instruction during the
+winter to farmers. Farmers' institutes have been organized; corn-judging
+and stock-judging contests have been held; prizes have been offered for
+the best results in the raising of grains, vegetables, or stock. New
+varieties of grains have been introduced, improved methods of
+cultivation discovered, and means of enriching and conserving the soil
+devised. Stock-breeding and the care of animals is rapidly becoming a
+science. Farming bids fair soon to become one of the skilled
+occupations.
+
+Such, then, is a brief view of the situation of which the rural school
+is a part. It ministers to the education of almost half of the American
+people. This industrial group are engaged in the most fundamental of all
+occupations, the one upon which all national welfare and progress
+depend. They control a large part of the wealth of the country, the
+capital invested in agriculture being more than double that invested in
+manufactures. Agricultural wealth is rapidly increasing, both through
+the rise in the value of land and through improved methods of farming.
+The conditions of life on the farm have greatly improved during the last
+decade. Rural telephones reach almost every home; free mail delivery is
+being rapidly extended in almost every section of the country; the
+automobile is coming to be a part of the equipment of many farms; and
+the trolley is rapidly pushing out along the country roads.
+
+Yet, in spite of these hopeful tendencies, the rural community shows
+signs of deterioration in many places. Rural population is steadily
+decreasing in proportion to the total aggregate of population. Interest
+in education is at a low ebb, the farm children having educational
+opportunities below those of any other class of our people. For, while
+town and city schools have been improving until they show a high type of
+efficiency, the rural school has barely held its own, or has, in many
+places, even gone backward. The rural community confronts a puzzling
+problem which is still far from solution.
+
+Certain points of attack upon this problem are, however, perfectly clear
+and obvious. _First_, educational facilities must be improved for rural
+children, and their education be better adapted to farm life; _second_,
+greater opportunities must be provided for recreation and social
+intercourse for both young and old; _third_, the program of farm work
+must be arranged to allow reasonable time for rest and recreation;
+_fourth_, books, pictures, lectures, concerts, and entertainments must
+be as accessible to the farm as to the town. These conditions must be
+met, not because of the dictum of any person, but because they are a
+fundamental demand of human nature, and must be reckoned with.
+
+What, then, is the relation of the rural school to these problems of the
+rural community? How can it be a factor in their solution? What are its
+opportunities and responsibilities?
+
+
+_The adjustment of the rural school to its problem_
+
+As has been already stated, the problem of any type of school is to
+serve its constituency. This is to be done through relating the
+curriculum, the organization, and the teaching of the school to the
+immediate interests and needs of the people dependent on the school for
+their education. That the rural school has not yet fully adjusted itself
+to its problem need hardly be argued.
+
+It has as good material to work upon in the boys and girls from the farm
+as any type of schools in the country. They come of good stock; they
+are healthy and vigorous; and they are early trained to serious work and
+responsibility. Yet a very large proportion of these children possess
+hardly the rudiments of an education when they quit the rural school.
+Many of them go to school for only a few months in the year, compulsory
+education laws either being laxly enforced or else altogether lacking. A
+very small percentage of the children of the farm ever complete eight
+grades of schooling, and not a large proportion finish more than half of
+this amount.
+
+This leaves the child who has to depend on the rural school greatly
+handicapped in education. He has but a doubtful proficiency in the
+mechanics of reading, and has read but little. He knows the elements of
+spelling, writing, and number, but has small skill in any of them. He
+knows little of history or literature, less of music, nothing of art,
+and has but a superficial smattering of science. Of matters relating to
+his life and activities on the farm he has heard almost nothing. The
+rural child is not illiterate, but he is too close to the border of
+illiteracy for the demands of a twentieth-century civilization; it is
+fair neither to the child nor to society.
+
+The rural school seems in some way relatively to have lost ground in
+our educational system. The grades of the town school have felt the
+stimulus of the high school for which they are preparing, and have had
+the care and supervision of competent administrators. The rural school
+is isolated and detached, and has had no adequate administrative system
+to care for its interests. No wonder, then, that certain grave faults in
+adjustment have grown up. A few of the most obvious of these faults may
+next claim our attention.
+
+_The rural school is inadequate in its scope._ The children of the farm
+have as much need for education and as much right to it as those who
+live in towns and cities. Yet the rural school as a rule never attempts
+to offer more than the eight grades of the elementary curriculum, and
+seldom reaches this amount. It not infrequently happens that no pupils
+are in attendance beyond the fifth or the sixth grade. This may be due
+either to the small number of children in the district, or, more often,
+to lack of interest to continue in school beyond the simplest elements
+of reading, writing, and number. It is true that certain States, such as
+Illinois and Wisconsin, have established a system of township high
+schools, where secondary education equal to that to be had in the
+cities is available to rural children. In other States a county high
+school is maintained for the benefit of rural school graduates. In still
+others, arrangements are made by which those who complete the eight
+grades of rural schools are received into the town high schools with the
+tuition paid by the rural school districts. The movement toward
+secondary education supplied by the rural community for its children is
+yet in its infancy, however, and has hardly touched the larger problem
+of affording adequate opportunities for the education of farm children.
+
+_The grading and organization of the rural school is haphazard and
+faulty._ This is partly because of the small enrollment and irregular
+attendance, and partly because of the inexperience and lack of
+supervision of the teacher. Children are often found pursuing studies in
+three or four different grades at the same time. And even more often
+they omit altogether certain fundamental studies because they or their
+parents have a notion that these studies are unnecessary. Sometimes,
+owing to the small number in attendance, or to the poor classification,
+several grades are entirely lacking, or else they are maintained for
+only one or two pupils. On the other hand, classes are often found
+following each other at an interval of only a few weeks, thereby
+multiplying classes until the teacher is frequently attempting the
+impossible task of teaching twenty-five or thirty classes a day.
+Children differing in age by five or six years, and possessing
+corresponding degrees of ability, are often found reciting in the same
+classes. That efficient work is impossible under these conditions is too
+obvious to require discussion.
+
+_The rural schools possess inadequate buildings and equipment._ The
+average rural schoolhouse consists of one room, with perhaps a small
+hallway. The building is constructed without reference to architectural
+effect, resembling nothing so much as a large box with a roof on it. It
+is barren and uninviting as to its interior. The walls are often of
+lumber painted some dull color, and dingy through years of use. The
+windows are frequently dirty, and covered only by worn and tattered
+shades. There is usually no attempt to decorate the room with pictures,
+or to relieve its ugliness and monotony in any way. The library consists
+of a few dozens of volumes, not always supplied with a case for their
+protection. Of apparatus there is almost none. The work of the farm is
+done with efficient modern equipment, the work of the farmer's school
+with inadequate and antiquated equipment.
+
+While the length of the school year is increasing in the rural
+districts, _the term is yet much shorter than in town and city schools_.
+Many communities have not more than six months of school, and few more
+than eight. This shortage is rendered all the more serious by the
+irregular attendance of the rural school children. A considerable amount
+of absence on the part of the younger ones is unavoidable under present
+conditions when the distance is great and the weather bad. After all
+allowance is made for this fact, however, there is still an immense
+amount of unnecessary waste of time through non-attendance. Many rural
+schools show an average attendance for the year of not more than sixty
+per cent of the enrollment. Going to school is not yet considered a
+serious business by many of the rural patrons, and truant officers are
+not so easily available in the country as in the city.
+
+_In financial support the rural school has of necessity been behind the
+city school._ Wealth is not piled up on a small area in agricultural
+communities as is the case in the city. It would often require square
+miles of land to equal in value certain city blocks. But making full
+allowance for this difference, the farmers have not supported their
+schools as well as is done by the patrons of town and city schools. The
+school taxes for rural districts are much lower than in city districts,
+in most instances not more than half as high. It is this conservatism in
+expenditure that is responsible for many of the defects in the rural
+school, and particularly for the relatively inefficient teaching that is
+done. The rural teachers are the least educated, the least experienced,
+and the most poorly paid of any class of our teachers. They consist
+almost wholly of girls, a large proportion of whom are under twenty
+years of age, and who continue teaching not more than a year or two. Not
+only is this the case, but effective supervision of the teaching is
+wholly impossible because of the large area assigned to the county or
+district superintendent of rural schools. In no great industrial project
+should we think of placing our youngest and most inexperienced workers
+in the hardest and most important positions, and this without
+supervision of their work.
+
+The rural school has not, therefore, yet been adjusted to its problem.
+It has a splendid field of work, but is not developing it. Our farming
+population have capacity for education and need it, but they are not
+securing it. There is plenty of money available for the support of the
+rural school, but the school is not getting it. Enough well-equipped
+teachers can be had for the rural schools, but the standards have not
+yet required adequate preparation, nor the pay been sufficient to
+warrant extensive expenditure for it.
+
+In the rural school is found the most important and puzzling educational
+problem of the present day. If our agricultural population are not to
+fall behind other favored classes of industrial workers in intelligence
+and preparation for the activities that are to engage them, the rural
+school must begin working out a better adjustment to its problem. Its
+curriculum must be broader and richer, and more closely related to the
+life and interests of the farm. The organization of the school, both on
+the intellectual and the social side, must bring it more closely into
+touch with the interests and needs of the rural community. The support
+and administration of rural education must be improved. Teachers for the
+rural schools must be better educated and better paid, and their
+teaching must be correspondingly more efficient. The following pages
+will be given to a discussion of these problems of adjustment.
+
+
+
+
+II
+
+THE SOCIAL ORGANIZATION OF THE RURAL SCHOOL
+
+
+Every school possesses two types of organization: (1) an _intellectual_
+organization involving the selection and arrangement of a curriculum,
+and its presentation through instruction; and (2) a _social_
+organization involving, on the one hand, the inter-relations of the
+school and the community, and on the other the relations of the pupils
+with each other and the teacher.
+
+
+_The rural school and the community_
+
+The rural school and community are not at present in vital touch with
+each other. The community is not getting enough from the school toward
+making life larger, happier, and more efficient; it is not giving enough
+to the school either in helpful cooeperation or financial support.
+
+In general, it must be said that most of our rural people, the patrons
+of the rural school, have not yet conceived education broadly. They
+think of the school as having fulfilled its function when it has
+supplied the simplest rudiments of reading, writing, and number. And,
+naturally enough, the rural school has conceived its function in the
+same narrow light; for it is controlled very completely by its patrons,
+and a stream cannot rise higher than its source.
+
+Because of its isolation, the pressing insistence of its toil, and the
+monotony of its environment, the rural community is in constant danger
+of intellectual and social stagnation. It has far more need that its
+school shall be a stimulating, organizing, socializing force than has
+the town or city. For the city has a dozen social centres entirely
+outside the school: its public parks, theatres, clubs, churches, and
+streets, even, serve to stimulate, entertain, and educate. But the rural
+community is wanting in all these social forces; it is lacking in both
+intellectual and social stimulus and variety.
+
+One of the most pressing needs of country districts is a common
+neighborhood center for both young and old, which shall stand as an
+organizing, welding, vitalizing force, uniting the community on a basis
+of common interests and activities. For while, as we have seen, the
+rural population as a whole are markedly homogeneous, there is after
+all but little of common acquaintanceship and mingling among them.
+Thousands of rural families live lives of almost complete social
+isolation and lack of contact with neighbors.
+
+This condition is one of the gravest drawbacks to farm life. The social
+impulse and the natural desire for recreation and amusement are as
+strong in country boys and girls as in their city cousins, yet the
+country offers young people few opportunities for satisfying these
+impulses and desires. The normal social tendencies of youth are
+altogether too strong to be crushed out by repression; they are too
+valuable to be neglected; and they are too dangerous to be left to take
+their own course wholly unguided. The rural community can never hope to
+hold its boys and girls permanently to the life of the farm until it has
+recognized the necessity for providing for the expression and
+development of the spontaneous social impulses of youth.
+
+Furthermore, the social monotony and lack of variety of the rural
+community is a grave moral danger to its young people. It is a common
+impression that the great city is strewn thick with snares and pitfalls
+threatening to morals, but that the country is free from such
+temptations. The public dance halls and cheap theaters of the city are
+beyond doubt a great and constant menace to youthful ideals and purity.
+But the country, going to the opposite extreme, with its almost utter
+lack of recreation and amusement places, offers temptations no less
+insidious and fatal.
+
+The great difficulty at this point is that young people in rural
+communities are thrown together almost wholly in isolated pairs instead
+of in social groups; and that there are no objective resources of
+amusement or entertainment to claim their interest and attention away
+from themselves. They are freed from all chaperonage and the restraints
+of the conventions obtaining in social groups at the very time in their
+lives when these are most needed as steadying and controlling forces.
+The result is that the country districts, which ought to be of all
+places in the world the freest from temptation and peril to the morals
+of our young people, are really more dangerous than the cities. The
+sequel is found in the fact that a larger proportion of country girls
+than of city girls go astray. Nor is the rural community more successful
+in the morals of its boys than its girls. In other words, the lack of
+opportunities for free and normal social experience, the consequent
+ignorance of social conventions, and the absence of healthful amusement
+and recreation, make the rural community a most unsafe place in which
+to rear a family.
+
+But the necessity for social recreation and amusement does not apply to
+the young people alone. Their fathers and mothers are suffering from the
+same limitations, though of course with entirely different results. The
+danger here is that of premature aging and stagnation. While the toil of
+the city worker is relieved by change and variety, his mind rested and
+his mood enlivened by the stimulus from many lines of diversion, the
+lives of the dwellers on the farm are constantly threatened by a deadly
+sameness and monotony.
+
+The indisputable tendency of farmers and their wives to age so rapidly,
+and so early to fall into the ranks of "fogyism," is due far more to
+lack of variety and recreation and to dearth of intellectual stimulus
+than to hard labor, severe as this often is. Age is more than the flight
+of the years, the stoop of the form, or the hardening of the arteries;
+it is also the atrophy of the intellect and the fading away of the
+emotions resulting from disuse. The farmer needs occasionally to have
+something more exciting than the alternation of the day's work with the
+nightly "chores." And his wife should now and then have an opportunity
+to meet people other than those for whom she cooks and sews.
+
+But what has all this to do with the social organization of the rural
+school? Much. The country cannot have its theaters, parks, and crowded
+thoroughfares like the city. But it needs and must have _some_ social
+center, where its people may assemble for recreation, entertainment, and
+intellectual growth and development. And what is more natural and
+feasible than that the public school should be this center? Here is an
+institution already belonging to the whole people, and set apart for the
+intellectual training of the young. Why should it not also be made to
+minister to the intellectual needs of their elders as well, and to the
+social needs of all? _Why should not the public school building, now in
+use but six hours a day for little more than half the year, be open at
+all times when it can be helpful to any portion of the community?_
+
+If young people are to develop naturally, if they are to make full use
+of their social as well as their intellectual powers, if they are to be
+satisfied with their surroundings, they must be provided with suitable
+opportunities for social mingling and recreation in groups. This is
+nature's way; there is no other way. The school might and should afford
+this opportunity. There is not the least reason why the school building,
+when it is adapted to this purpose, should not be the common
+neighborhood meeting place for all sorts of young people's parties,
+picnics, entertainments, athletic contests, and every other form of
+amusement approved in the community.
+
+Such a use of the school property would yield large returns to the
+community for the small additional expense required. It would serve to
+weld the school and community more closely together. It would vastly
+change the attitude of the young toward the school. It would save much
+of the dissatisfaction of young people with the life of the farm. It
+would prove a great safeguard to youthful morals. It would lead the
+community itself to a new sense of its duty toward the social life of
+the young, and to a new concept of the school as a part of the community
+organization. Finally, this broadened service of the school to its
+community would have a reflex influence on the school itself, vitalizing
+every department of its activities, and giving it a new vision of its
+opportunities.
+
+The first obstacle that will appear in the way of such a plan is the
+inadequacy of the present type of country schoolhouse. And this is a
+serious matter; for the barren, squalid little building of the present
+day would never fit into such a project. But this type of schoolhouse
+must go--is going. It is a hundred years behind our civilization, and
+wholly inadequate to present needs. Passing for later discussion the
+method by which these buildings are to be supplanted by better ones, let
+us consider further the details of the plan of making the school the
+neighborhood center.
+
+First of all, each school must supply a larger area and a greater number
+of people than at present. It is financially impossible to erect good
+buildings to the number of our present schools. Nor are there pupils
+enough in the small district as now organized to make a school, nor
+people enough successfully to use the school as a neighborhood center.
+
+Let each township, or perhaps somewhat smaller area, select a central,
+well-adapted site and thereon erect a modern, well-equipped school
+building. But this building must not be just the traditional schoolhouse
+with its classrooms and rows of desks. For it is to be more than a place
+where the children will study and recite lessons from books; it is to be
+the place where all the people of the neighborhood, _old and young_,
+will assemble for entertainment, amusement, and instruction. Here will
+be held community picnics, social entertainments, young people's
+parties, lectures, concerts, debating contests, agricultural courses for
+the farmers, school programs, spreads and banquets, and whatever else
+may belong to the common social and intellectual life of the community.
+
+The modern rural school building will therefore be home-like as well as
+school-like. In addition to its classrooms it will contain an assembly
+room capable of seating several hundred people. The seating of this room
+may be removable so that the floor can be cleared for social purposes or
+the room used for a dining-room. One or two smaller rooms will be needed
+for social functions, club and committee meetings. These rooms should be
+made attractive with good furniture, rugs, couches, and pictures. The
+building will contain well-equipped laboratories for manual training and
+domestic science, the latter of which will be found serviceable in
+connection with serving picnics, "spreads," and the like. The entire
+building should be architecturally attractive, well heated and
+ventilated, commodious, well furnished, and decorated with good
+pictures. In it should be housed a library containing several thousand
+well-selected books, besides magazines and newspapers. The laboratories
+and equipment should be fully equal to those found in the town schools,
+but should be adapted to the work of the rural school.
+
+The grounds surrounding the rural school building can easily be ample in
+area, and beautiful in outlook and decoration. Here will be the
+neighborhood athletic grounds for both boys and girls, shade trees for
+picnics, flowers and shrubs, and ground enough for a school garden
+connected with the instruction in agriculture. Nor is it too much to
+believe that the district will in the future erect on the school grounds
+a cottage for the principal of the school and his family, and thus offer
+an additional inducement for strong, able men to devote their energies
+to education in the rural communities.
+
+Now contrast this schoolhouse and equipment with the typical rural
+building of the present. Adjoining a prosperous farm, with its large
+house, its accompanying barns, silos, machine houses, and all the
+equipment necessary to modern farming, is the little schoolhouse. It is
+a dilapidated shell of a rectangular box, barren of every vestige of
+beauty or attractiveness both inside and out. At the rear are two
+outbuildings which are an offense to decency and a menace to morals.
+Within the schoolhouse the painted walls are dingy with smoke and grime.
+The windows are broken and dirty, no pictures adorn the walls. The floor
+is washed but once or twice a year. The room is heated by an ugly box of
+a stove, and ventilated only by means of windows which frequently are
+nailed shut. The grounds present a wilderness of weeds, rubbish, and
+piles of ashes. It is all an outrage against the rights of the country
+child, and an indictment of the intelligence and ideals of a large
+proportion of our people.
+
+If it is said that the plan proposed to remedy this situation is
+revolutionary, it will be admitted. What our rural schools of to-day
+need is _not improvement but reorganization_. For only in this radical
+way can they be made a factor in the vitalizing and conserving of the
+rural community which, unless some new leaven is introduced, is surely
+destined to disorganization and decay.
+
+
+_The consolidation of rural schools_
+
+The first step in reorganizing the rural schools is _consolidation_. Our
+rural school organization, buildings, and equipment are a full century
+behind our industrial and social advancement. The present plan of
+attempting to run a school on approximately every four square miles of
+territory originated at a time of poverty, and when the manufacturing
+industries were all carried on in the homes and small shops. Our rural
+people are now well-to-do, and manufacturing has moved over into a
+well-organized set of factories; but the isolated little school,
+shamefully housed, meagerly equipped, poorly attended, and unskillfully
+taught, still remains.
+
+Such a system of schools leaves our rural people educationally on a par
+with the days of cradling the grain and threshing it with a flail; of
+planting corn by hand and cultivating it with a hoe; of lighting the
+house with a tallow dip, and traveling by stage-coach.
+
+The well-meant attempts to "improve" the rural school as now organized
+are futile. The proposal to solve the problem by raising the standards
+for teachers, desirable as this is; by the raising of salaries; or by
+bettering the type of the little schoolhouse, are at best but temporary
+makeshifts, and do not touch the root of the problem. The first and most
+fundamental step is to eliminate the little shacks of houses that dot
+our prairies every two miles along the country roads.
+
+For not only is it impossible to supply adequate buildings so near
+together, but it is even more impossible to find children enough to
+constitute a real school in such small districts. There is no way of
+securing a full head of interest and enthusiasm with from five to ten or
+twelve pupils in a school. The classes are too small and the number of
+children too limited to permit the organization of proper games and
+plays, or a reasonable variety of association through mingling together.
+
+Furthermore, it will never be possible to pay adequate salaries to the
+teachers in these small schools. Nor will any ambitious and
+well-prepared teacher be willing to remain in such a position, where he
+is obliged to invest his time and influence with so few pupils, and
+where all conditions are so adverse.
+
+The chief barrier to the centralization of rural education has been
+local prejudice and pride. In many cases a true sentimental value has
+attached to "the little red schoolhouse." Its praises have been sung,
+and orator and writer have expanded upon the glories of our common
+schools, until it is no wonder that their pitiful inadequacy has been
+overlooked by many of their patrons.
+
+In other cases opposition has arisen to giving up the small local
+school because of the selfish fear that the loss of the school would
+lower the value of adjacent property. Still others have feared that
+consolidation would mean higher school taxes, and have opposed it upon
+this ground.
+
+But whatever the causes of the opposition to consolidation, this
+opposition must cease before the rural school can fulfill its function
+and before the rural child can have educational opportunities even
+approximating those given the town child. And until this is
+accomplished, the exodus from the farm will continue and ought to
+continue. Pride, prejudice, and penury must not be allowed to deprive
+the farm boys and girls of their right to education and normal
+development.
+
+The movement toward consolidation of rural schools and transportation of
+the children to a central school has already attained considerable
+headway in many regions of the country.[1] It is now a part of the rural
+school system in thirty-two States. Massachusetts, the leader in
+consolidation, began in 1869. The movement at first grew slowly in all
+the States, not only having local opposition to overcome, but also
+meeting the problem of bad country roads interfering with the
+transportation of pupils.
+
+During the past half-dozen years, however, consolidation has been
+gaining headway, and is now going on at least five times as fast as the
+average for the twenty-five years preceding 1906. Indiana is at present
+the banner State in the rapidity of consolidation, the expenditure for
+conveyance having considerably more than trebled since 1904. The broad
+and general sweep of the movement, together with the fact that it is
+practically unheard of for schools that have once tried consolidation to
+go back to the old system, seems to indicate that the rural education of
+the not distant future will, except in a few regions, be carried on in
+consolidated schools.
+
+The relative cost of maintaining district and consolidated schools is an
+important factor. Yet this factor must not be given undue prominence. It
+is true that the cost of education must be kept at a reasonable ratio
+with the standard of living of a community. But it is also true that the
+consolidated rural school must be looked upon as an indispensable
+country-life institution, and hence as having claim to a more generous
+basis of support than that accorded the district school.
+
+While it is impossible, owing to such widely varying conditions, to
+make an absolutely exact statement of the relative expense of the two
+types of schools, yet it has been shown in many different instances that
+the cost of schooling per day in consolidated schools is but slightly,
+if any, above that in most district schools.
+
+The aggregate annual cost is usually somewhat higher in the consolidated
+schools, owing to the fact of a greatly increased attendance. A
+comparison made between the cost per day's schooling in the smaller
+district schools and consolidated schools almost invariably shows a
+lower expenditure for the latter. For example, the fifteen districts in
+Hardin County, Iowa, having in 1908 an enrollment of nine or less,
+averaged a cost of 27.5 cents a day for each pupil.[2] At the same time
+the cost per day in the consolidated rural schools of northeastern Ohio
+was only 17.4 cents a day, the district schools being more than
+fifty-seven per cent higher than the consolidated. Similar comparisons
+show the same trend in many other localities. In a great many of the
+small district schools the cost per pupil is as high as in consolidated
+schools where a high school course is also provided. It has been found
+that the average cost per year of schooling a child in a consolidated
+school is but little above thirty dollars, while in practically all
+smaller district schools it far exceeds this amount, not infrequently
+going above fifty dollars. This means that average rural districts that
+are putting at least thirty dollars a year into the schooling of each
+child can, by consolidating their schools, secure greatly improved
+educational facilities with no heavier financial burden.
+
+Not the least important of the advantages growing out of rural school
+consolidation is the improved attendance. Experience has shown that
+fully twenty-five per cent more children of school age are enrolled
+under the consolidated than under the district system. The advantage of
+this one factor alone can hardly be over-estimated, but the increase in
+regularity of attendance is also as great. The average daily attendance
+of rural schools throughout the country is approximately sixty per cent
+of the enrollment, and in entire States falls below fifty per cent. It
+has been found that consolidation, with its attendant conveyance of
+pupils, commonly increases the average daily attendance by as much as
+twenty-five per cent.
+
+It is true that in many regions it may at present prove impossible to
+consolidate all the rural schools. In places where the population is so
+sparse as to require transportation for very long distances, or where
+the country roads are still in such a condition in wet seasons as to be
+practically impassable, consolidation must of necessity be delayed. In
+such communities, however, the rural school need not be completely at a
+standstill. Much can be done to make even the one-room schoolhouse
+attractive and hygienic. With almost no expense, the grounds can be set
+with shade trees, shrubs, and perennial flowering plants. The yard can
+be made into a lawn in front, and into an athletic ground at the sides
+or the rear. Enough ground can be added to provide for all these things,
+and a school garden besides. The building can be rendered more inviting
+through better architecture, and more attention to decoration and
+cleanliness. An adequate supply of books and other equipment can be
+provided. While the isolated rural school can never take the place of
+the consolidated school, while it should always be looked upon as only
+temporarily occupying a place later to be filled by a more efficient
+type of school, it can after all be rendered much more efficient than it
+is at present. And since the one-room school will without doubt for
+years to come be required as a supplement of the consolidated school,
+it should receive the same careful thought and effort toward its
+improvement that is being accorded the school of better type.
+
+
+_Financial support of the rural school_
+
+The rural school has never had adequate financial support. There has
+been good reason for this in many regions of the country where farm
+property was low in value, the land sparsely settled and not all
+improved, or else covered by heavy mortgages. As these conditions have
+gradually disappeared and the agricultural population become more
+prosperous, the school has in some degree shared the general prosperity.
+But not fully. A smaller proportion of the margin of wealth above living
+necessities is going into rural education now than in the earlier days
+of less prosperity. While the farmer has vastly "improved" his farm, he
+has improved his school but little. While he has been adding modern
+machinery and adopting scientific methods in caring for his grain and
+stock, his children have not had the advantage of an increasingly
+efficient school.
+
+The poverty of the rural school finds its explanation in two facts: (1)
+the relatively low value of the taxable property of the rural as
+compared with the town or city district, and (2) the lower rate of local
+school tax paid in country than in urban districts. The first of these
+disadvantages of the rural district cannot be remedied; but for the
+second, there seems to be no valid economic reason.
+
+The approximate difference in the local school-tax rate paid in urban
+and rural districts is shown in the following instances, which might be
+duplicated from other States:--
+
+In Kansas, the local school tax paid in 1910 by towns and cities was
+above eighty per cent more than that paid by country districts. In
+Missouri, the current report of the State Superintendent shows towns and
+cities seventy-five per cent higher than the country. In Minnesota,
+towns and cities average nearly three times the rate paid by rural
+districts. In Ohio, towns and cities are more than ten per cent higher
+than rural districts, even where the rural district maintains a full
+elementary and high school course. In Nebraska and Iowa, the town and
+city rate is about double that of country districts.
+
+When there is added to this difference the further fact that town and
+city property is commonly assessed at more nearly its full value than
+rural property, the discrepancy becomes all the greater.
+
+It is not meant, of course, that farmers should pay as high a school-tax
+rate for the elementary rural school as that paid by town patrons who
+also have a high school available. But, on the other hand, if better
+school facilities are to be furnished the country children, rural
+property should bear its full share of the taxes required. The farmer
+should be willing to pay as much for the education of his child as the
+city dweller pays for a similar education for his.
+
+During the last generation farmers have been increasing in wealth faster
+than any other class of industrial workers. Their land has doubled in
+value, barns have been built, machinery has been added, automobiles
+purchased, and large bank credits established. Yet very little of this
+increased prosperity has reached the school. Library, reference works,
+maps, charts, and other apparatus are usually lacking. In Iowa, as a
+fair example, a sum of not less than ten nor more than fifteen cents a
+year for each pupil of school age in the district is required by law to
+be expended for library books. Yet in not a few districts the law is a
+dead letter or the money grudgingly spent! In many rural schools the
+teacher has to depend on the proceeds of a "social," an "exhibition,"
+or a "box party" to secure a few dollars for books or pictures for the
+neighborhood school, and sometimes even buys brooms and dust pans from
+the fund secured in this way.
+
+This is all wrong. The school should be put on a business basis. It
+should have the necessary tools with which to accomplish its work, and
+not be forced to waste the time and opportunity of childhood for want of
+a few dollars expended for equipment. Its patrons should realize that
+just as it pays to supply factory, shop, or farm with the best of
+instruments for carrying on the work, so it pays in the school. Cheap
+economy is always wasteful, and never more wasteful than when it
+cripples the efficiency of education.
+
+State aid for rural schools has been proposed and in some instances
+tried, as a mode of solving their financial problem. Where this system
+has been given a fair trial, as for example in Minnesota, it has
+resulted in two great advantages: (1) it has encouraged the local
+community to freer expenditure of their own money for school purposes,
+since the contribution of the State is conditioned on the amount
+expended by the district. This is an important achievement, since it
+serves to train the community to the idea of more liberal local
+taxation for school purposes, and it is probable that the greater part
+of the support of our schools will continue to come from this source.
+Another advantage of state aid is (2) that it serves to equalize
+educational opportunities, and hence to maintain a true educational
+democracy. Wealthier localities are caused to contribute to the
+educational facilities of those less favored, and a common advancement
+thereby secured.
+
+While the theory of state aid to rural education is wholly defensible,
+and while it has worked well in practice, yet there is one safeguard
+that needs to be considered. It is manifestly unfair to ask the people
+of towns and cities to help pay for the support of the rural schools
+through the medium of the State treasury except on condition that the
+patrons of the rural schools themselves do their fair share. Mr. "A,"
+living in a town where he pays twenty mills school tax, ought not to be
+asked to help improve Mr. "B's" rural school, while Mr. "B" is himself
+paying but ten mills of school tax. The farmer is as able as any one
+else to pay a fair rate of taxation for his school, and should be
+willing to do so before asking for aid from other taxation sources.
+Rural education must not be placed on the basis of a missionary
+enterprise. State aid should be used to compensate for the difference
+in the economic _basis_ for taxation in different localities, and not
+for a difference in the _rates_ of taxation between localities equally
+able to pay the same rate.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+We may conclude, then, that while neither the rural school nor the
+community has been fully aware of the possibilities for mutual
+helpfulness and cooeperation, yet there are many hopeful signs that both
+are awakening to a sense of responsibility. Federal and state
+commissions have been created to study the rural problem, national and
+state teachers' associations are seeking a solution of the rural school
+question, and, better still, the patrons of the rural schools are in
+many places alive to the pressing need for better educational facilities
+for their children.
+
+Growing out of these influences and the faithful work of many state and
+county superintendents, and not a few of the rural teachers themselves,
+a spirit of progress is gaining headway. Several thousand consolidated
+schools are now rendering excellent service to their patrons and at the
+same time acting as a stimulus to other communities to follow their
+example. State aid to rural education is no longer an experiment. The
+people are in many localities voluntarily and gladly increasing their
+taxes in order that they may improve their schools. Teachers' salaries
+are being increased, better equipment provided, and buildings rendered
+more habitable.
+
+The great educational problem of the immediate future will be to
+encourage and guide the movement which is now getting under way. For
+mistakes made now will handicap both community and school for years to
+come. The attempt to secure better schools by "improving" conditions in
+local districts should be definitely abandoned except in localities
+where conditions make consolidation impracticable for the present. The
+new consolidated school building should take definitely into account the
+fact that the school is to become the _neighborhood social center_, and
+the structure should be planned as much with this function in view as
+with its uses for school purposes. The new type of rural school is not
+to aim simply to give a better intellectual training, but is at the same
+time to relate this training to the conditions and needs of our
+agricultural population. And all who have to do with the rural schools
+in any way are to seek to make the school a true vitalizing factor in
+the community--a leaven, whose influence shall permeate every line of
+interest and activity of its patrons and lead to a fuller and richer
+life.
+
+
+_The rural school and its pupils_
+
+One of the surest tests of any school is the attitude of the pupils--the
+spirit of loyalty, cooeperation, and devotion they manifest with
+reference to their education. Do they, on the whole, look upon the
+school as an opportunity or an imposition? Do they consider it _their_
+school, and make its interests and welfare their concern, or do they
+think of it as the teacher's school, or the board's school or the
+district's school? These questions are of supreme importance, for the
+question of attitude, quite as much as that of ability, determines the
+use made of opportunity.
+
+It must be admitted that throughout our entire school system there
+remains something to be desired in the spirit of cooeperation between
+pupils and schools. The feeling of loyalty which the child has for his
+home does not extend commensurately to the school. Too often the school
+is looked upon as something forced upon the child, for his welfare,
+perhaps, but after all not as forming an interesting and vital part of
+his present experience. It is often rather a place where so much time
+and effort and inconvenience must be paid for so many grades and
+promotions, and where, incidentally, preparation is supposed to be made
+for some future demands very dimly conceived. At best, there is
+frequently a lack of feeling of full identity of interests between the
+child and the school.
+
+The youth, immaturity, and blindness of childhood make it impossible, of
+course, for children to conceive of their school in a spirit of full
+appreciation. On the other hand, the very nature of childhood is
+responsiveness and readiness of cooeperation in any form of interesting
+activity,--is loyalty of attitude toward what is felt to minister to
+personal happiness and well-being. In so far, therefore, as there exists
+any lack of loyalty and cooeperation of pupils toward their school, the
+reasons for such defection are to be sought first of all in the school,
+and not in the child.
+
+While this negative attitude of the pupils exists in some degree in all
+our schools, it is undoubtedly more marked in our rural schools than in
+others. In a negligible number of cases does this lack of cooeperation
+take the form of overt rebellion against the authority of the school. It
+is manifested in other ways, many of them wholly unconscious to the
+child, as, for example, lack of desire to attend school, and
+indifference to its activities when present.
+
+Attending school is the most important occupation that can engage the
+child. Yet the indifference of children and their parents alike to the
+necessity for schooling makes the small and irregular attendance of
+rural school pupils one of the most serious problems with which
+educators have to deal. County superintendents have in many places
+offered prizes and diplomas with the hope of bettering attendance, but
+such incentives do not reach the source of the difficulty. The remedy
+must finally lie in a fundamental change of attitude toward the school
+and its opportunities. Good attendance must spring from interest in the
+school work and a feeling of its value, rather than from any artificial
+incentives.
+
+How great a problem poor attendance at rural schools is, may be realized
+from the fact that, in spite of compulsory education laws, not more than
+seventy per cent of the children accessible to the rural school are
+enrolled, and of this number only about sixty per cent are in daily
+attendance. This is to say that under one half of our farm children are
+daily receiving the advantages of even the rural school. In some States
+this proportion will fall as low as three tenths instead of one half.
+In many rich agricultural counties of the Middle West, having a farming
+population of approximately ten thousand, not more than forty or fifty
+pupils per year complete the eight grades of the rural school.
+
+If the rural school is to be able to claim the regular attendance and
+spontaneous cooeperation of the children it must (1) be reasonably
+accessible to them, (2) be attractive and interesting in itself, and (3)
+offer work the value and application of which are evident.
+
+The inaccessibility of the rural school has always been one of its
+greatest disadvantages. In a large proportion of cases, a walk of from a
+mile to a mile and a half along country roads or across cultivated
+fields has been required to reach the schoolhouse. During inclement
+weather, or when deep snow covers the ground, this distance proves
+almost prohibitive for all the smaller children. Wet feet and drenched
+clothing have been followed by severe colds, coughs, bronchitis, or
+worse, and the children have not only suffered educationally, but been
+endangered physically as well.
+
+It has been found in all instances that public conveyance of pupils to
+the consolidated schools greatly increases rural school patronage. It
+makes the school accessible. The regular wagon service does away with
+the "hit-and-miss" method of determining for each succeeding day whether
+it is advisable for the child to start for school. So important is this
+factor in securing attendance, that a careful study by Knorr[3] of the
+attendance in Ohio district and consolidated schools shows twenty-seven
+per cent more of the total school population in school under the
+influence of public conveyance and other features peculiar to
+consolidation than under the district system. He concludes that, broadly
+speaking, by a system of consolidated schools with public conveyance,
+rural school attendance can be increased by at least one fourth.
+
+The life in the typical rural school is not sufficiently interesting and
+attractive to secure a strong hold upon the pupils. The dreary ugliness
+of the physical surroundings has already been referred to. And even in
+districts where the building and grounds have been made reasonably
+attractive, there is yet wanting a powerful factor--the influence of the
+social incentive that comes from numbers. In hundreds of our rural
+schools the daily attendance is less than a dozen pupils, frequently not
+representing more than three or four families. The classes can therefore
+contain not more than two or three pupils, and often only one. There is
+no possibility of organizing games, or having the fun and frolic
+possible to larger groups of children. Add to this the fact that the
+teaching is often spiritless and uninspiring, and the reason becomes
+still more plain why so many rural children drop out of school with
+scarcely the rudiments of an education.
+
+Here, again, the consolidated school, with its attractive building, its
+improved equipment, its larger body of pupils, and its better teaching,
+appears as a solution of the difficulty. For it does what the present
+type of district school can never do--it makes school life interesting
+and attractive to its pupils, and this brings to bear upon them one of
+the strongest incentives to continue in school and secure an education.
+
+Finally, much of the work of the school has not appealed to the pupils
+as interesting or valuable. This has not been altogether the fault of
+the curriculum, but often has come from the lack of adaptability of the
+work to the pupils studying it. Through frequent changes of teachers,
+poor classification, and irregularity of attendance, rural pupils have
+often been forced to go over and over the same ground, without any
+reference to whether they were ready to advance or not. In other cases,
+careless grading has placed children in studies for which they were
+utterly unprepared, and from which they could get nothing but
+discouragement and dislike for school. In still other instances the
+course pursued has been ill-balanced, and in no degree correlated. Often
+the whim of the child determines whether he will or will not study
+certain subjects, the teacher lacking either the knowledge or insistence
+to bring about a better organization of the work.
+
+The unskilled character of the rural school-teaching force, and the
+impossibility of securing any reasonable supervision as the system is at
+present organized, make us again turn to the consolidated school as the
+remedy for these adverse conditions. For with its improved attendance,
+its skilled teaching, and its better supervision, it easily and
+naturally renders such conditions impossible. Give the consolidated
+school, in addition, the greatly enriched curriculum which it will find
+possible to offer its pupils, and the vexing question of the relation of
+the rural school to its pupils will be far toward solution.
+
+Let us next consider somewhat in detail the curriculum of the rural
+school.
+
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[Footnote 1: See "Consolidated Rural Schools," Bulletin 232, U. S.
+Department of Agriculture.]
+
+[Footnote 2: Bulletin 232, U. S. Department of Agriculture, p. 38.]
+
+[Footnote 3: Bulletin 232, U. S. Department of Agriculture, p. 51.]
+
+
+
+
+III
+
+THE CURRICULUM OF THE RURAL SCHOOL
+
+
+If we grant the economic ability to support good schools, then the
+curriculum offered by any type of school, the scope of subject-matter
+given the pupils to master, is a measure of the educational ideals of
+those maintaining and using the schools. If the curriculum is broad, and
+representative of the various great fields of human culture; if it
+relates itself to the life and needs of its patrons; if it is adapted to
+the interests and activities of its pupils, it may be said that the
+people believe in education as a right of the individual and as a
+preparation for successful living. But if, on the other hand, the
+curriculum is meager and narrow, consisting only of the rudiments of
+knowledge, and not related to the life of the people or the interests of
+the pupils, then it may well be concluded that education is not highly
+prized, that it is not understood, or that it is looked upon as an
+incidental.
+
+
+_The scope of the rural school curriculum_
+
+Modern conditions require a broader and more thorough education than
+that demanded by former times, and far more than the typical district
+rural school affords. The old-time school offered only the "three R's,"
+and this was thought sufficient for an education. But these times have
+passed. Not only has society greatly increased in wealth during the last
+half-century, but it has also grown much in intelligence. Many more
+people are being educated now than formerly, and they are also being
+vastly better educated. For the concept of what constitutes an education
+has changed, and the curriculum has grown correspondingly broader and
+richer.
+
+It is therefore no longer possible to express the educational status of
+a community in the percentage of people who can merely read and write.
+Educational progress has become a national ideal. The elementary schools
+in towns and cities have been greatly strengthened both in curriculum
+and teaching. High schools have been organized and splendidly equipped,
+and their attendance has rapidly increased.
+
+But all this development has hardly touched the rural school. The
+curriculum offered is pitifully narrow even for an elementary school,
+and very few high schools are supported by rural communities. In fact, a
+large proportion of our rural population are receiving an education but
+little in advance of that offered a hundred years ago in similar
+schools. This is not fair to the children born and reared on the farm;
+it is not fair to one of the greatest and most important industries of
+our country; and it cannot but result disastrously in the end.
+
+If the rural school is to meet its problem, it must extend the scope of
+its curriculum. It was formerly thought by many that education, except
+in its simplest elements, was only for those planning to enter the
+"learned professions." But this idea has given way before the onward
+sweep of the spirit of democracy, and we now conceive education as the
+right and duty of _all_. Nor by education do we mean the simple ability
+to read, write, and number.
+
+Our present-day civilization demands not only that the child shall be
+taught to read, but also that he shall be supplied with books and guided
+in his reading. Through reading as a tool he is to become familiar with
+the best in the world's literature and its history. He is not only to
+learn number, but is to be so educated that he may employ his number
+concepts in fruitful ways. He must not only be familiar with the
+mechanics of writing, but must have knowledge, interests, experience
+that will give him something to write about. The "three R's" are
+necessary tools, but they are only tools, and must be utilized in
+putting the child into possession of the best and most fruitful culture
+of the race. And, practically, they must put him into command of such
+phases of culture as touch his own life and experience and make him more
+efficient.
+
+The rural school cannot extend the scope of its curriculum simply by
+inserting in the present curriculum new studies related to the life and
+work of the farm. The modification must be deeper and more thoroughgoing
+than this. _A full elementary course of eight years and a high school
+course of four years should be easily accessible to every rural child._
+Less than this amount of education is inadequate to prepare for the life
+of the farm, and fails to put the individual into full possession of his
+powers. Nor, in most instances, should the high schooling be left to
+some adjacent town, which is to receive the rural pupils upon payment of
+tuition to the town district. Unless the town is small, and practically
+a part of the rural community, it cannot supply, either in the
+subject-matter of the curriculum or the spirit of the school, the type
+of education that the rural children should have. For in so far as the
+town or city high school leads to any specific vocation, it certainly
+does not lead toward industrial occupations, and least of all toward
+agriculture. It rather prepares for the professions, or for business
+careers. Its tendency is very strongly to draw the boys and girls away
+from the farm instead of preparing them for it.
+
+While the rural child, therefore, must be provided with a better and
+broader education, he should usually not be sent to town to get it. If
+he is, the chances are that he will stay in town and be lost to the
+farm. Indeed, this is precisely what has been happening; the town or
+city high school has been turning the country boy away from the farm.
+For not only does what one studies supply his knowledge; it also
+determines his _attitude_.
+
+If the curriculum contains no subject-matter related to the immediate
+experience and occupation of the pupil, his education is certain to
+entice him away from his old interests and activities. The farm boy
+whose studies lack all point of contact with his life and work will soon
+either lose interest in the curriculum or turn his back upon the farm.
+If the boys and girls born on the farm are to be retained in this form
+of industry, the rural school must be broadened to give them an
+education equal to that afforded by town or city for its youth. If the
+rural community cannot accomplish this end, it has no claim on the
+loyalty and service of its youth. Rural children have a right to a
+well-organized, well-equipped, and well-taught elementary school of
+eight years and a high school of four years, with a curriculum adapted
+especially to their interests and needs.
+
+It is not meant, of course, that the rural school, with its present
+organization and administration, can extend the scope of its curriculum
+to make it the equal of that offered in the grades of the town or city
+school. Radical changes, such as those discussed in the preceding
+chapter, will have to be made in the rural district system before this
+is possible. That these changes are being made and the full elementary
+and high school course offered in many consolidated rural schools,
+scattered from Florida to Idaho, is proof both of the feasibility of the
+plan and of an awakened public demand for better rural education.
+
+The broadened curriculum of the rural school must contain subject-matter
+especially related to the interests and activities of the farm; upon
+this all are agreed. But it must not stop with vocational subjects
+alone. For, while one's vocation is fundamental, it is not all of life.
+Education should help directly in making a living; it must also help to
+live. Broad and permanent lines of interest must be set up and trained
+to include many forms of experience. The child must come to know
+something of the great social institutions of his day and of the history
+leading to their development. He must become familiar with the marvelous
+scientific discoveries and inventions underlying our modern
+civilization. He must be led to feel appreciation for the beautiful in
+art, literature, and music; and must have nurtured in his life a love
+for goodness and truth in every form. In short, through the curriculum
+the latent powers constituting the life capital of every normal child
+are to be stimulated and developed to the end that his life shall be
+more than mere physical existence--to the end that it shall be crowned
+with fullness of knowledge, richness of feeling, and the victory of
+worthy achievement. This is the right of every child in these prosperous
+and enlightened times,--the right of the country child as well as the
+city child. And society will not have done its duty in providing for the
+education of its youth until the children of the farm have full
+opportunities for such development.
+
+
+_The rural elementary school curriculum_
+
+By the elementary school is meant the eight grades of work below the
+high school which the rural school is now meant to cover.
+
+Whatever is put into the curriculum of a nation's schools finally
+becomes a part of national character and achievement. What the children
+study in school comes to determine their attitudes and shape their
+aptitudes. The old Greek philosophers, becoming teachers of youth,
+turned the nation into a set of students and disputants over
+philosophical questions. Sparta taught her boys the arts of war, and
+became the chief military nation of her time. Germany introduces
+technological studies into her schools, and becomes the leading country
+in the world in the arts of manufacture. Let any people emphasize in
+their schools the studies that lead to commercial and professional
+interests, and neglect those that prepare for industrial vocations, and
+the industrial welfare of the nation is sure to suffer.
+
+The curriculum of the rural school must, therefore, contain the basic
+subjects that belong to all culture,--the studies that every normal,
+intelligent person should have just because he belongs to the
+twentieth-century civilization, and in addition must include the
+subjects that afford the knowledge and develop the attitude and
+technique belonging to the life of the farm. Let us now consider this
+curriculum somewhat more in detail.
+
+_The mother tongue._ Mastery of his mother tongue is the birthright of
+every child. He should first of all be able to speak it correctly and
+with ease. He should next be able to read it with comprehension and
+enjoyment, and should become familiar with the best in its literature.
+He should be able to write it with facility, both as to its spelling and
+its composition. Finally, he should know something of the structure, or
+grammar, of the language.
+
+This requirement suggests the content of the curriculum as to English.
+The child must be given opportunity to use the language orally; he must
+be led to talk. But this implies that he must have something to say, and
+be interested in saying it. Formal "language lessons," divorced from all
+the child's interests and activities, will not meet the purpose.
+Facility in speech grows out of enthusiasm in speaking. Every recitation
+is a lesson in English, and should be used for this purpose; nor should
+the aim be correctness only, but ease and fluency as well.
+
+The child must also learn to read; not alone to pronounce the printed
+words of a page, but to grasp the thought and feeling, and express them
+in oral reading. This presupposes a mastery of the mechanics of reading,
+the letters, words, and marks employed. The only way to learn to read is
+by reading. This is true whether we refer to learning the mechanics of
+reading, to learning the apprehension and expression of thought, or to
+learning the art of appreciating and enjoying good literature.
+
+Yet, trite and self-evident as this truism is, it is constantly violated
+in teaching reading in the rural school. For the course in reading
+usually consists of a series of five readers, expected to cover seven or
+eight years of study. These readers contain less than one hundred pages
+of reading matter to the year, or but little more than half a page a day
+for the time the child should be in school. The result is that the same
+reader is read over and over, to no purpose. With a rich literature
+available for each of the eight years of the elementary school,
+comparatively few of the rural schools have supplied either
+supplementary readers or other reading books for the use of the
+children.
+
+The result is that most rural school children learn to read but
+stumblingly, and seldom attain sufficient skill and taste in reading so
+that it becomes a pleasure. Such a situation as this indicates the same
+lack of wisdom that would be shown in employing willing and skillful
+workmen to garner a rich harvest, and then sending them into the fields
+with wholly insufficient and inadequate tools. The rural school must not
+only teach the child the mechanics of reading, but lead him to read and
+love good books. This can be done only _by supplying the books and
+giving the child an opportunity to read them_.
+
+Comparatively few people like to write. The pathway of expression finds
+its way out more easily through the tongue than through the hand. Yet it
+is highly necessary that every one should in this day be able to write.
+Nor does this mean merely the ability to form letters into words and put
+them down with a pen so that they are legible. This is a fundamental
+requisite, but the mastery of penmanship, spelling, and punctuation is,
+however, only a beginning. One must be able to formulate his thoughts
+easily, to construct his sentences correctly, and to make his writing
+effective; he must learn the art of composition.
+
+Here again the principle already stated applies. The way to learn to
+write is by writing; not just by the dreary treadmill of practicing
+upon formal "compositions," but by having something to write that one
+cares to express. The written language lessons should, therefore, always
+grow out of the real interests and activities of the child in the home,
+the school, or on the farm, and should include the art of
+letter-writing, argumentation and exposition, as well as narration and
+description.
+
+The subject of formal grammar has little or no place in the grades of
+the elementary school. The grammatical relations of the language are
+complicated and beyond the power of the child at an early age. Nor does
+the study of such relations result in efficiency in the use of language,
+as is commonly supposed. Children are compelled in many schools to waste
+weary years in the study of logical relations they are too young to
+comprehend, when they should be reading, speaking, and writing their
+mother tongue under the stimulus and guidance of a teacher who is
+himself a worthy and enthusiastic model in the use of speech. Only the
+simpler grammatical forms and relations should be taught in the grades,
+and these should have immediate application to oral and written speech.
+
+_Arithmetic._ Arithmetic has for more than two hundred years formed an
+important part of the elementary school curriculum. It has been taught
+with the double object of affording mental discipline for the child, and
+of putting him into possession of an important tool of practical
+knowledge. It is safe to say that a large proportion of the patrons of
+the rural schools of the present look upon arithmetic as the most
+important subject taught in the school after the simple mechanics of
+reading. Ability to "cipher" has been thought of as constituting a large
+and important part of the educational equipment of the practical man.
+
+Without doubt, number is an essential part of the education of the
+child. Yet there is nothing in the mere art of numbering things as we
+meet them in daily experience that should make arithmetic require so
+large a proportion of time as it has been receiving. The child is
+usually started in number in the first grade, and continues it the full
+eight years of the elementary course, finally devoting three or more
+years of the high school course to its continued study. Thus, nearly one
+fourth of the entire school time of the pupil is demanded by the various
+phases of the number concept.
+
+The only ground upon which the expenditure of this large proportion of
+time upon number can be defended is that of _discipline_. And modern
+psychology and experimental pedagogy have shown the folly and waste of
+setting up empty discipline as an educational aim. Education time is too
+short, and the amount of rich and valuable material waiting to be
+mastered too great, to devote golden years to a relatively barren grind.
+
+It is probable that at least half the time at present devoted to
+arithmetic in the elementary school could be given to other subjects
+with no loss to the child's ability in number, and with great gain to
+his education as a whole. Not that the child knows number any too well
+now. He does not. In fact, few children finishing the elementary school
+possess any considerable degree of ability in arithmetic. They can work
+rather hard problems, if they have a textbook, and the answers by which
+to test their results. But give them a practical problem from the home,
+the farm, or the shop, and the chances are two to one that they cannot
+secure a correct result. This is not the fault of the child, but the
+fault of the kind of arithmetic he has been given, and the way it has
+been taught. We have taught him the solution of various difficult,
+analytical problems not in the least typical of the concrete problems
+to be met daily outside of school; but we have not taught him to add,
+subtract, multiply, and divide with rapidity and accuracy. We have
+required him to solve problems containing fractions with large and
+irreducible denominators such as are never met in the business world,
+but he cannot readily and with certainty handle numbers expressed in
+halves, thirds, quarters, fifths, and eighths. He has been compelled to
+sacrifice practical business efficiency in number to an attempt to train
+his powers of logical analysis.
+
+The arithmetic of the district school should be greatly simplified and
+reduced in quantity. Its quality should be greatly improved both as to
+accuracy and speed in the fundamental operations and in the various
+concrete types of problems to be met in the home, on the farm, and in
+the shop. There need be no fear that the mental training will be less
+efficient with this type of arithmetic. For mental development comes
+only where there is mastery, and there is no mastery of the arithmetic
+as it is taught in the rural school to-day.
+
+_History and civics._ Every American child should know the history and
+mode of government of his country. This is true first of all because
+this knowledge is necessary to intelligent participation in the affairs
+of a republic; but it is also necessary to the right development of the
+individual that he shall realize something of the heroism and sacrifice
+required to produce the civilization which he enjoys. Every person needs
+to extend his thought and appreciation until it is large enough to
+include other peoples and times than his own. For only in this way can
+he come to feel kinship with the race at large, and thus save himself
+from provincialism and narrowness.
+
+This is equivalent to saying that the curriculum should afford ample
+opportunity for the study of history. Nor should the history given the
+child deal chiefly with the military and political activities of the
+nation. Many text books have been little more than an account of wars
+and politics. These are not the aspects of national life that most
+interest and concern the child, especially at the age when he is in the
+elementary school. He should at this time be told about the _people_ of
+his country,--their home life, their industries, their schools and
+churches, their bravery, their hardships, adventures, and achievements.
+He must come to know something of the great men and women of his Nation
+and State, the writers, inventors, explorers, scientists, artists, and
+musicians, as well as the soldiers and statesmen.
+
+Not only does this require that the child shall have suitable textbooks
+in history, but that he shall also have an adequate library of
+interesting histories, biographies, and historical fiction adapted to
+his age and interests. For it is not enough that the child shall learn
+the elementary facts of history while he is in the elementary school;
+more important still is it that he shall develop a real interest in
+history, and form the taste for reading historical matter.
+
+The course in history must, therefore, contain such matter as the child
+will love to read; for only then will it leave the desire to read. It
+must so put a premium upon patriotism, loyalty to country, and
+high-grade citizenship that the child shall feel the impulse to emulate
+the noble men and women who have contributed to our happiness and
+welfare. The study of history, even in the elementary school, should
+eventuate in loyal, efficient citizenship.
+
+The civics taught in the elementary school should be very practical and
+concrete. The age has not yet come for a study of the federal or state
+constitution. It is rather the _functional_ aspect of government that
+should be presented at this time--the points of contact of school
+district, township, county, state and federal government with the
+individual. How the school is supported and controlled; how the bridges
+are built and roads repaired; the work of township and county affairs;
+the powers and duties of boards of health; the right of franchise and
+the use of the ballot; the work of the postal system; the making and
+enforcing of laws,--these and similar topics suggest what the child
+should come to know from the study of civics. The great problem here is
+to influence conduct in the direction of upright citizenship, and to
+give such a knowledge of the machinery, especially of local government,
+as will lead to efficient participation in its activities.
+
+_Geography and nature study._ The rural school has a great advantage
+over the city school in the teaching of geography and nature study. For
+the country child is closer to the earth and its products than the city
+child. The broad expanse of nature is always before him; life in its
+multiple forms constantly appeals to his eye and ear. He watches the
+seeds planted, and sees the crops cultivated and harvested. He has a
+very concrete sense of the earth as the home of man, and possesses a
+basis of practical knowledge for understanding the resources and
+products of his own and other countries.
+
+Geography should, therefore, be one of the most vital and useful
+branches in the rural school. It is to begin wherever the life of the
+child touches nature in his immediate environment, and proceed from this
+on out to other parts of his home land, and finally to all lands.
+
+But the geography taught must not be of the old catechism type, which
+resulted in children committing to memory the definitions of
+geographical terms instead of studying the real objects ready at hand.
+It must not concern itself with the pupil's learning the names and
+locations of dozens of places and geographical forms of no particular
+importance, instead of coming into immediate touch with natural
+environment and with the earth in the larger sense as it bears upon his
+own life. The author has expressed this idea in another place as
+follows:--
+
+"The content of geography is, therefore, synonymous with the content of
+the experience of the child as related to his own interests and
+activities, in so far as they grow out of the earth as his home. Towns
+and cities begin with the ones nearest at hand. The concept of rivers
+has its rise in the one that flows past the child's home. Valleys,
+mountains, capes, and bays are but modifications of those that lie
+within the circle of personal experience. Generalizations must come to
+be made, but they must rest upon concrete and particular instances if
+they are to constitute a reality to the learner.
+
+"What kind of people live in a country, what they work at, what they
+eat, and how they live in their homes and their schools, what weather
+they have, and what they wear, how they travel and speak and
+read,--these are more vital questions to the child than the names and
+locations of unimportant streams, towns, capes, and bays. For they are
+the things that touch his own experience, and hence appeal to his
+interest. Only as geography is given this social background, and
+concerns itself with the earth as related to social activities, can it
+fulfill its function in the elementary school."[4]
+
+_Hygiene and health._ Since health is at the basis of all success and
+happiness, nothing can be more important in the education of the child
+than the subject of practical hygiene. It has been the custom in our
+schools until recently, however, to give the child a difficult and
+uninteresting text book dealing with physiology and anatomy, but
+containing almost nothing on hygiene and the laws of health.
+
+Not only should the course in physiology emphasize the laws of hygiene,
+but this hygiene should in part have particular bearing on right living
+under the conditions imposed by the farm. Food, its variety,
+adaptability, and preparation; clothing for the different seasons; work,
+recreation, and play; care of the eyes and teeth; bathing; the
+ventilation of the home, and especially of sleeping-rooms; the effects
+of tobacco and cigarettes in checking growth and reducing efficiency;
+the more simple and obvious facts bearing on the relation of bacteria to
+the growth, preparation, and spoiling of foods; the means to be taken to
+prevent bacterial contagion of diseases,--these are some of the
+practical matters that every child should know as a result of his study
+of physiology and hygiene.
+
+But we must go one step further still. It is not enough to teach these
+things as matters of abstract theory or truth. Plenty of people know
+better hygiene than they are practicing. The subject must be presented
+so concretely and effectively and be supported by such incentives that
+it will actually lead to better habits of living--that it will _result
+in higher physical efficiency_.
+
+_Agriculture._ Agriculture is of course preeminently a subject for the
+rural school. Not only is it of immediate and direct practical
+importance, but it is coming to be looked upon as so useful a cultural
+study that it is being introduced into many city schools.
+
+It has been objected that agriculture as a science cannot be taught in
+the elementary school because of the lack of age and development of the
+pupils. This is true, but neither can any other subject be taught to
+children of this age as a complete science. It is possible, however, to
+give children in the rural elementary school much useful information
+concerning agriculture. Perhaps better still, it is possible to develop
+a scientific attitude and interest that will lead to further study of
+the subject in the high school or agricultural college, and that will in
+the mean-time serve to attach the boys and girls to the farm.
+
+The rural school pupils can be made familiar with the best modes of
+planting and cultivating the various crops, and with the diseases and
+insect enemies which threaten them; the selection of seed; the rotation
+of crops, and many other practical things applying directly to their
+home life. School gardens of vegetables and flowers constitute another
+center of interest and information, and serve to unite the school and
+the home.
+
+Similarly the animal life of the farm can be studied, and a knowledge
+gained of the best varieties of farm stock, their breeding and care.
+Insects and bird life can be observed, and their part in the growth or
+destruction of crops understood. All this is not only practicable, but
+necessary as part of the rural school curriculum. Anything less than
+this amount of practical agriculture leaves the rural school in some
+degree short of fulfilling its function.
+
+_Domestic science and manual training._ In general what is true of
+agriculture is true of domestic science and manual training. They can be
+presented in the elementary school only in the most concrete and applied
+form. But they can be successfully presented in this form, and must be
+if the rural school child is to have an equal opportunity with the town
+and city child. The girls can be taught the art of sewing, cooking, and
+serving, if only the necessary equipment and instruction are available.
+They are ready to learn, the subject-matter is adapted to their age and
+understanding, and nothing could be more vital to their interests and
+welfare.
+
+Likewise the boys can be taught the use of tools, the value and
+finishing of different kinds of woods, and can develop no little skill
+with their hands, while they are at the same time receiving mental
+development and the cultivation of practical interests from this line of
+work. It is not in the least a question of the readiness of the boys to
+take up and profit by this subject, but is only a matter of equipment
+and teaching.
+
+_Music and art._ Nor should the finer aspects of culture be left out of
+the education of the country child. He will learn music as readily as
+the city child, and love it not less. Indeed, he needs it even more as a
+part of his schooling, since the opportunities to hear and enjoy music
+are always at hand in the city, and nearly always lacking in the
+country. The child should be taught to sing and at least to understand
+and appreciate music of worthy type.
+
+The same principle will apply to art. The great masterpieces of painting
+and sculpture have as much of beauty and inspiration in them as the
+great masterpieces of literature. Yet most rural children complete their
+schooling hardly having seen in the schoolroom a worthy copy of a great
+picture, and much less have they been taught the significance of great
+works of art or been led to appreciate and love them.
+
+_Physical training._ It has been argued by many that the rural child has
+enough exercise and hence does not need physical training. But this
+position entirely misconceives the purpose of physical training. One may
+have plenty of exercise, even too much exercise, without securing a
+well-balanced physical development. Indeed, certain forms of farm work
+done by children are often so severe a tax on their strength that a
+corrective exercise is necessary in order to save stooped forms, curved
+spines, and hollow chests. Furthermore, the farm child, lacking the
+opportunities of the city child for gaining social ease and control,
+needs the development that comes from physical training to give poise,
+ease of bearing, and grace of movement.
+
+Nor must the athletic phase of physical training be overlooked. While it
+is undoubtedly true that athletics have come to occupy too large a part
+of the time and absorb too great a proportion of the interest in many
+schools, yet this is no reason for omitting avocational training wholly
+from the rural school. Children require the training and development
+that come from games and play quite as much as they need that coming
+from work. The school owes a duty to the avocational side of life as
+well as to the vocational.
+
+The curriculum here proposed is so much broader and richer than that now
+offered in the rural district school that it will appear to many to be
+visionary and impossible. That it is impossible for the old type of
+rural school will be readily admitted. But it is entirely practicable
+and possible in the reorganized consolidated school, and is being
+successfully presented, in its general aspects, at least, in many of
+these schools. It is only such an education as every rural child is
+entitled to, and is no more than the urban child is already receiving in
+the better class of town and city elementary schools. If the rural
+school cannot give the farm child an elementary education approximating
+the one out-lined, it has no claim on his loyalty or time; and he should
+in justice to himself be taken where he can receive a worthy education,
+even if he is thereby lost to the farm.
+
+But the rural boy and girl need not only a good elementary education,
+but a high school education as well. Let us next consider the rural high
+school curriculum.
+
+
+_The rural high school curriculum_
+
+This section is presented in the full knowledge that comparatively few
+localities have as yet established the rural high school. It now forms,
+however, an integral part of the consolidated rural school in not a few
+places, and is abundantly justifying the expenditure made upon it. In
+other localities the tendency is growing to send the rural child to the
+town high school, or even for the family to move to town to secure high
+schooling for the children. In still other cases, and we are obliged to
+admit that these yet constitute the rule rather than the exception, the
+farm boy or girl has no opportunity for a high school education.
+
+If we succeed in working out the so-called rural problem of our country,
+in maintaining a high standard of agricultural population and rural
+life, the rural high school must be an important factor in our problem.
+For the children of our farms need and must have an education reaching
+beyond that of the elementary school. And this schooling must prepare
+them to find the most satisfactory and successful type of life on the
+farm, instead of drawing them away from the farm.
+
+It goes without saying that the rural high school should be an
+agricultural high school. This does not mean that it shall devote itself
+exclusively to teaching agriculture; but rather that, while it offers a
+broad range of culture and information, it shall emphasize those phases
+of subject-matter that will best fit into the interests and activities
+of farm life, instead of those phases that tend to lead toward the city
+or the market-place. Its four years of work must be fully equal to that
+of the best town or city high schools, but must in some degree be
+different work. It must result in _efficiency_, and efficiency here must
+relate itself to agricultural life and pursuits.
+
+A detailed discussion of the rural high school curriculum will not be
+required. The principles already suggested as applying to the elementary
+school will govern here as well. The studies must cultivate breadth of
+view and a wide range of interests, and must at the same time bear upon
+the immediate life and experience of the pupils. The lines of study
+begun in the elementary school will be continued, with the purpose of
+securing deeper insight, more detailed knowledge, and greater
+independence of judgment and action.
+
+English should form an important part of the curriculum, with the
+double aim of securing facility in the use of the mother tongue and of
+developing a love for its literature. The rural high school graduate
+should be able to write English correctly as to spelling, punctuation,
+and grammar; he should be able to express himself effectively, either in
+writing, conversation, or the more formal speech of the rostrum. Above
+all, he should be an enthusiastic and discriminating reader, with a
+catholicity of taste and interest that will lead him beyond the
+agricultural journal and newspaper, important as these are, to the works
+of fiction, material and social science, travel and biography, current
+magazines and journals, and whatever else belongs to the intellectual
+life of an intelligent, educated man of affairs.
+
+This is asking more than is being accomplished at present by the course
+in English in the town high school, but not more than is easily within
+the range of possibility. The average high school graduate of to-day
+cannot always spell and punctuate correctly, and commonly cannot write
+well even an ordinary business letter; nor, it must be feared, has his
+study of literature had a very great influence in developing him into a
+good reader of worthy books.
+
+But all this can be remedied by vitalizing the teaching of the mother
+tongue; by lessening the proportion of time and emphasis placed upon
+critical analysis and technical literary criticism, and increasing that
+given to the drill and practice that alone can make sure of the
+fundamentals of spelling, punctuation, and the common forms of
+composition emphasized by all; and by the sympathetic, enthusiastic
+teaching of good literature adapted to the age and interests of the
+pupils from the standpoint of synthetic appreciation and enjoyment,
+rather than from the standpoint of mechanical analysis.
+
+The rural high school course in social science should be broad and
+thorough. The course in history should not give an undue proportion of
+time to ancient and medieval history, nor to war and politics. Emphasis
+should be placed on the social, industrial, and economic phases of human
+development in modern times and in our own country.
+
+Political economy should form an important branch. Especially should it
+deal with the problems of production, distribution, and consumption as
+they relate to agriculture. Matters of finance, taxation, and
+investment, while resting on general principles, should be applied to
+the problems of the farm. Nor should the economic basis of support and
+expenditure in the home be overlooked.
+
+The course in civics should not only present the general theory of
+government, but should apply concretely to the civic relations and
+duties of a rural population. Especially should it appeal to the civic
+conscience and sense of responsibility which we need among our rural
+people to make the country an antidote to the political corruption of
+the city.
+
+Material science should constitute an important section of the rural
+high school curriculum. Not only does its study afford one of the best
+means of mental development, but the subject-matter of science has a
+very direct bearing on the life and industries of the farm. To achieve
+the best results, however, the science taught must be presented from the
+concrete and applied point of view rather than from the abstract and
+general. This does not mean that a hodge-podge of unrelated facts shall
+be taught in the place of science; indeed, such a method would defeat
+the whole purpose of the course. It means, however, that the general
+laws and principles of science shall be carried out to their practical
+bearing on the problems of the home and the farm, and not be left just
+as general laws or abstract principles unapplied.
+
+The botany and zooelogy of the rural high school will, of course, have a
+strong agricultural trend. It will sacrifice the old logical
+classifications and study of generic types of animals and plants for the
+more interesting and useful study of the fauna and flora of the
+locality. The various farm crops, their weed enemies, the helpful and
+harmful insects and birds, the animal life of the barnyard, horticulture
+and floriculture, and the elements of bacteriology, will constitute
+important elements in the course.
+
+The course in physics will develop the general principles of the
+subject, and will then apply these principles to the machinery of the
+farm, to the heating, lighting, and ventilation of houses, to the
+drainage of soil, the plumbing of buildings, and a hundred other
+practical problems bearing on the life of the farm. Chemistry will be
+taught as related to the home, foods, soils, and crops. A concrete
+geology will lead to a better understanding of soils, building
+materials, and drainage. Physiology and hygiene will seek as their aim
+longer life and higher personal efficiency.
+
+The course in agriculture, whether presented separately or in
+conjunction with botany and zooelogy, must be comprehensive and
+thorough. Not only should it give a complete and practical knowledge of
+the selection of seed; the planting, cultivating, and harvesting of
+crops; the improvement and conservation of the soil; the breeding and
+care of stock, etc., but it must serve to create and develop a
+scientific attitude toward farming. The farmer should come to look upon
+his work as offering the largest opportunities for the employment of
+technical knowledge, judgment, and skill. That such an attitude will
+yield large returns in success is attested by many farmers to-day who
+are applying scientific methods to their work.
+
+Manual training and domestic science should receive especial emphasis in
+the rural high school. Both subjects have undoubted educational value in
+themselves, and their practical value and importance to those looking
+forward to farm life can hardly be over-estimated. And in these as in
+other subjects, the course offered will need to be modified from that of
+the city school in order to meet the requirements of the particular
+problems to which the knowledge and training secured are to be applied.
+
+Mathematics should form a part of the rural high school curriculum, but
+the traditional courses in algebra and geometry do not meet the need.
+The ideal course would probably be a skillful combination of algebra,
+geometry, and trigonometry occupying the time of one or two years, and
+applied directly to the problems of mechanics, measurements, surveying,
+engineering, and building on the farm. Such an idea is not new, and
+textbooks are now under way providing material for such a course.
+
+In addition, there should be a thorough course in practical business
+arithmetic. By this is not meant the abstract, analytical matter so
+often taught as high school arithmetic, but concrete and applied
+commercial and industrial arithmetic, with particular reference to farm
+problems. In connection with this subject should be given a course in
+household accounts, and book-keeping, including commercial forms and
+commercial law.
+
+It is doubtful whether foreign language has any place in the rural high
+school. If offered at all, it should be only in high schools strong
+enough to offer parallel courses for election, and should never displace
+the subjects lying closer to the interests and needs of the students.
+
+The study of music and art begun in the elementary school should be
+continued in the high school, and a love for the beautiful cultivated
+not only by the matter taught, but also by the aesthetic qualities of the
+school buildings and grounds and their decoration. On the practical
+sides these subjects will reach out to the beautifying of the farm homes
+and the life they shelter.
+
+When a well-taught curriculum of some such scope of elementary and high
+school work as that suggested is as freely available to the farm child
+as his school is available to the city child, will the country boys and
+girls have a fair chance for education. And when this comes about, the
+greatest single obstacle to keeping our young people on the farm will
+have been removed.
+
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[Footnote 4: _Social Principles of Education_, p. 264.]
+
+
+
+IV
+
+THE TEACHING OF THE RURAL SCHOOL
+
+_The importance of teaching_
+
+
+Teaching is the fundamental purpose for which the school is run. Taxes
+are levied and collected, buildings erected and equipped, and curriculum
+organized solely that teaching may go on. Children are clothed and fed
+and sent to school instead of being put at work in order that they may
+be taught. The school is classified into grades, programs are arranged,
+and regulations are enforced only to make teaching possible. Normal
+schools are established, teachers are trained, and certificates required
+in order that teaching may be more efficient.
+
+The teacher confronts a great task. On the one hand are the children,
+ignorant, immature, and undeveloped. In them lie ready to be called
+forth all the powers and capacities that will characterize their fully
+ripened manhood and womanhood. Given the right stimulus and direction,
+these powers will grow into splendid strength and capacity; lacking
+this stimulus and guidance, the powers are left crippled and incomplete.
+
+On the other hand is the subject-matter of education, the heritage of
+culture which has been accumulating through the ages. In the slow
+process of human experience, running through countless generations, men
+have made their discoveries in the fields of mathematics and science;
+they have lived great events and achievements which have become history;
+they have developed the social institutions which we call the State, the
+church, the home, and the school; they have organized great industries
+and carried on complex vocations; they have crystallized their ideals,
+their hopes, and their aspirations in literature; and have with brush
+and chisel expressed in art their concepts of truth and beauty. The best
+of all this human experience we have collected in what we call a
+curriculum, and placed it before the child for him to master, as the
+generations before him have mastered it in their common lives. For only
+in this way can the child come into full possession of his powers, and
+set them at work in a fruitful way in accomplishing his own
+life-purpose.
+
+It is the function of the teacher, therefore, to stand as an
+intermediary, as an interpreter, between the child and this great mass
+of subject-matter that lies ready for him to learn. The race has lived
+its thousands or millions of years; the individual lives but a few
+score. What former generations took centuries to work out the child can
+spend only a few months or a few years upon. Hence he must waste no time
+and opportunity; he must make no false step in his learning, for he
+cannot in his short life retrieve his mistakes. It is the work of the
+teacher, through instruction and guidance, that is, through teaching, to
+save the child time in his learning and development, and to make sure
+that he does not lose his opportunity. And this is a great
+responsibility.
+
+Thus the teacher confronts a problem that has two great factors, the
+_child_ and the _subject-matter_. He must have a knowledge of both these
+factors if his work is to be effective; for he cannot teach matter that
+he does not know, and neither can he teach a person whose nature he does
+not understand. But in addition to a knowledge of these factors, the
+teacher must also master a technique of instruction, he must train
+himself in the art of teaching.
+
+_The teacher must know the child._ It has been a rather common
+impression that if one knows a certain field of subject-matter, he will
+surely be able to teach it to others. But nothing could be further from
+the truth than such an assumption. Indeed, it is proverbial that the
+great specialists are the most wretched teachers of their subjects. The
+nature of the child's mental powers, the order of their unfoldment, the
+evolution of his interests, the incentives that appeal to him, the
+danger points in both his intellectual and his moral development,--these
+and many other things about child nature the intelligent teacher must
+clearly understand.
+
+And the teacher of the younger children needs this knowledge even more
+than the teacher of older ones. For the earlier years of the child's
+schooling are the most important years. It is at this time that he lays
+the foundation for all later learning, that he forms his habits of study
+and his attitude toward education, and that his life is given the bent
+for all its later development. Nothing can be more irrational,
+therefore, than to put the most untrained and inexperienced teachers in
+charge of the younger children. The fallacious notion that "anyone can
+teach little children" has borne tragic fruit in the stagnation and
+mediocrity of many lives whose powers were capable of great
+achievements.
+
+_The teacher must know the subject-matter._ The blind cannot
+successfully lead the blind. One whose grasp of a subject extends only
+to the simplest rudiments cannot teach these rudiments. He who has never
+himself explored a field can hardly guide others through that field; at
+least, progress through the field will be at the cost of great waste of
+time and failure to grasp the significance or beauty of what the field
+contains.
+
+Expressed more concretely, it is impossible to transplant arithmetic, or
+geography, or history, or anything else that one would teach,
+immediately from the textbook into the mind of the child. The subject
+must first come to be very fully and completely a true possession of the
+teacher. The successful teacher must also know vastly more of a subject
+than he is required to teach. For only then has he freedom; only then
+has he outlook and perspective; only then can he teach the _subject_,
+and not some particular textbook; only then can he inspire others to
+effort and achievement through his own mastery and interest. Enthusiasm
+is _caught_ and not taught.
+
+_The teacher must know the technique of instruction._ For teaching is an
+art, based upon scientific principles and requiring practice to secure
+skill. One of the greatest tasks of the teacher is to _psychologize_ the
+subject-matter for his pupils,--that is, so to select, organize, and
+present it that the child's mind naturally and easily grasps and
+appropriates it. Teaching, when it has become an art, which is to say,
+when the teacher has become an artist, is one of the most highly skilled
+vocations. It is as much more difficult than medicine as the human mind
+is more baffling than the human body; it is as much more difficult than
+preaching as the child is harder to comprehend and guide than the adult;
+it is as much more difficult than the law as life is more complex than
+logic.
+
+Yet, while we require the highest type of preparation for medicine, the
+ministry, or the law, we require but little for teaching. We pay
+enormous salaries to trained experts to apply the principles of
+scientific management to our industries or our business, but we have
+been satisfied with inexpert service for the teaching of our children.
+We are making fortunes out of the stoppage of waste in our factories,
+but allowing enormous waste to continue in our schools. _If we were to
+put into practice in teaching the thoroughly demonstrated and accepted
+scientific principles of education as we know them, we could beyond
+doubt double the educational results attained by our children._
+
+
+_Teaching in the rural school_
+
+The criticisms just made on our standards of teaching will apply in some
+degree to all our schools from the kindergarten to the university; but
+they apply more strongly to the rural schools than to any other class.
+For the rural schools are the training-ground for young, inexperienced,
+and relatively unprepared teachers. Except for the comparatively small
+proportion of the town or city teachers who are normal school or college
+trained, nearly all have served an apprenticeship in the rural schools.
+Thus the rural school, besides its other handicaps, is called upon to
+train teachers for the more favored urban schools.
+
+Careful statistical studies[5] have shown that many rural teachers, both
+men and women, have had no training beyond that of the elementary
+school. And not infrequently this training has taken place in the rural
+school of the type in which they themselves take up teaching. The
+average schooling of the men teaching in the rural schools of the entire
+country is less than two years above the elementary school, and of
+women, slightly more than two years. This is to say that our rural
+schools are taught by those who have had only about half of a high
+school course.
+
+It is evident, therefore, that the rural teacher cannot meet the
+requirement urged above in the way of preparation. He does not know his
+subject-matter. Not only has he not gone far enough in his education to
+have a substantial foundation, breadth of view, and mental perspective,
+but he frequently lacks in the simplest rudiments of the immediate
+subject-matter which he is supposed to teach. The examination papers
+written by applicants for certificates to begin rural school teaching
+often betray a woful ignorance of the most fundamental knowledge.
+Inability to spell, punctuate, or effectively use the English language
+is common. The most elementary scientific truths are frequently unknown.
+A connected view of our nation's history and knowledge of current events
+are not always possessed. The great world of literature is too often a
+closed book. And not seldom the simple relations of arithmetical number
+are beyond the grasp of the applicant. In short, our rural schools, as
+they average, require no adequate preparation of the teacher, and do not
+represent as much education in their teaching force as that needed by
+the intelligent farmer, merchant, or tradesman.
+
+The rural teacher does not know the child. But little more than children
+themselves, and with little chance for observation or for experience in
+life, it would be strange if they did. They have had no opportunity for
+professional study, and psychology and the science of education are
+unknown to them. The attempts made to remedy this fatal weakness by the
+desultory reading of a volume or two in a voluntary reading-circle
+course do not serve the purpose. The teacher needs a thorough course of
+instruction in general and applied psychology, under the tutelage of an
+enthusiastic expert who not only knows his subject, but also understands
+the problems of the teacher.
+
+The rural teacher does not know the technique of the schoolroom. The
+organizing of a school, the proper classification of pupils, the
+assignment of studies, the arrangement of a program of studies and
+recitation, the applications of suitable regulations and rules for the
+running of the school, are all matters requiring expert knowledge and
+skill. Yet the rural teacher has to undertake them without instruction
+in their principles and without supervisory guidance or help. No wonder
+that the rural school is poorly organized and managed. It presents
+problems of administration more puzzling than the town school, and yet
+here is where we put out our novices, boys and girls not yet out of
+their "teens"--young people who themselves have no concept of the
+problems of the school, no knowledge of its complex machinery, and no
+experience to serve as a guide in confronting their work. No industrial
+enterprise could exist under such irrational conditions; and neither
+could the schools, except that mental waste and bankruptcy are harder to
+measure than economic.
+
+Nor does the rural teacher know the technique of instruction any better
+than that of organization and management. The skillful conducting of a
+recitation is at least as severe a test upon mental resourcefulness and
+skill as making a speech, preaching a sermon, or conducting a lawsuit.
+For not only must the subject-matter be organized for immature minds
+unused to the formal processes of learning, but the effects of
+instruction upon the child's mind must constantly be watched by the
+teacher and interpreted with reference to further instruction. This
+skill cannot be attained empirically, by the cut-and-dried method,
+except at a frightful cost to the children. It is as if we were to turn
+a set of intelligent but untrained men loose in the community with their
+scalpels and their medicine cases to learn to be surgeons and doctors
+by experimenting upon their fellows.
+
+As would naturally be expected, therefore, the teaching in the average
+rural school is a dreary round of inefficiency. Handicapped to begin
+with by classes too small to be interesting, the rural teacher is
+mechanically hearing the recitations of some twenty-five to thirty of
+these classes per day. Lacking at the beginning the breadth of education
+that would make teaching easy, he finds it impossible to prepare for so
+many different exercises daily. The result is that the recitations are
+dull, spiritless, uninteresting. The lessons are poorly prepared by the
+pupils, poorly recited, and hence very imperfectly mastered. The more
+advanced work cannot stand on such a foundation of sand, and so,
+discouraged, the child soon drops out of school.
+
+When it is also remembered that the tenure of service of the teacher is
+very short in the rural schools, the problem becomes all the more grave.
+The average term of service in the rural schools is probably not above
+two years, and in many States considerably below this amount. This
+requires that half of the rural teachers each year shall be beginners.
+It will be impossible, of course, as long as teaching is done so largely
+by girls, who naturally will, and should, soon quit teaching for
+marriage, to secure a long period of service in the vocation. Yet the
+rural school is, as we have seen, also constantly losing its trained
+teachers to the town and city, and hence breaking in more than its share
+of novices.
+
+Added to the disadvantage inevitably coming from the brief period of
+service in teaching is a similar one growing out of a faulty method of
+administration. In a large majority of our rural schools the contract is
+made for but one term of not more than three months. This leaves the
+teacher free to accept another school at the end of the term, and not
+infrequently a school will have two or even three different teachers
+within the same year. There is a great source of waste at this point,
+owing to a change of methods, repetition of work, and the necessity of
+starting a new system of school machinery. Industrial concerns would
+hardly find it profitable to change superintendents and foremen several
+times a year. We do this in our schools only because we have not yet
+learned that it pays to apply rational business methods to education.
+
+Nothing that has been said in criticism of rural teaching ought to be
+construed as a reflection on the rural teachers personally. The fact
+that they can succeed as well as they do under conditions that are so
+adverse is the best warrant for their intelligence and devotion. It is
+not their fault that they begin teaching with inadequate knowledge of
+subject-matter, with ignorance of the nature of childhood, and without
+skill in the technique of the schoolroom. The system, and not the
+individual, is at fault. The public demands a pitifully low standard of
+efficiency in rural teaching, and the excellence of the product offered
+is not likely greatly to surpass what society asks and is ready to pay
+for.
+
+Once again we must turn to the consolidated school as the solution of
+our difficulty. The isolated district school will not be able to demand
+and secure a worthy grade of preparation for teaching. The educational
+standards will not rise high enough under this system to create a public
+demand for skilled teachers. Nor can such salaries be paid as will
+encourage thorough and extensive study and preparation for teaching.
+And, finally, the professional incentives are not sufficiently strong in
+such schools to create a true craft spirit toward teaching.
+
+While it is impossible to measure the improved results in teaching
+coming from the consolidated school in the same objective way that we
+can measure increased attendance, yet there is no doubt that one of the
+strongest arguments for the consolidated school is its more skillful and
+inspiring teaching. The increased salaries, the possibility of
+professional association with other teachers, the improved equipment,
+the better supervision, and above all, the spirit of progress and
+enthusiasm in the school itself, all serve to transform teaching from a
+treadmill routine into a joyful opportunity for inspiration and service.
+
+
+_The training of rural teachers_
+
+The training of the rural teacher has never been given the same
+consideration as that of town or city teachers. It is true that normal
+schools are available to all alike, and that in a few States the rural
+schools secure a considerable number of teachers who have had some
+normal training. But this is the exception rather than the rule. In the
+Middle Western States, for example, where there is a rich agricultural
+population, whole counties can be found in which no rural teacher has
+ever had any special training for his work. Professional requirements
+have been on a par with the meager salaries paid, and other incentives
+have not been strong enough to insure adequate preparation.
+
+State normal schools have, therefore, been of comparatively little
+assistance in fitting teachers for the rural school. First of all the
+rural school teacher ordinarily does not go to the normal school, for it
+is not demanded of him. Again, if perchance a prospective rural teacher
+should attend a normal school, a town or city grade position is usually
+waiting for him when he graduates. For, in spite of the growth of our
+normal schools, they are as yet far from being able to supply all the
+teachers required for the urban grade positions, to say nothing about
+the rural schools. The colleges and universities are, of course, still
+further removed from the rural school, since the high schools stand
+ready to employ those of their graduates who enter upon teaching.
+
+In some States, as for example, Wisconsin, county normal schools have
+been established with the special aim of preparing teachers for the
+rural schools. While this movement has helped, it does not promise to
+secure wide acceptance as a method of dealing with the problem. Greater
+possibilities undoubtedly exist in the comparatively recent movement
+toward combining normal training with the regular high school course.
+Provision for such courses now exists in New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio,
+Texas, Minnesota, Iowa, Kansas, Nebraska, and a number of other States.
+
+Combining normal training with high school education has first of all
+the advantage of bringing such training _to_ prospective teachers,
+instead of requiring the teachers to leave home and incur additional
+expense in seeking their training. From the standpoint of the public it
+has the merit of economy, in that it utilizes buildings, equipment, and
+organization already in existence instead of requiring new.
+
+But whatever may be the method employed, the rural teachers should
+receive better preparation for their work than they now have. This
+means, _first_, that the State must make adequate provision for the
+teacher to receive his training at a minimum of expense and trouble; and
+_second_, that the standard of requirement must be such that the teacher
+will be obliged to secure adequate preparation before being admitted to
+the school. Even with the present status of our rural schools it is not
+too much to require that every teacher shall have had _at least a
+four-year high school education_, and that _a reasonable amount of
+normal training_ be had either in conjunction with the high school
+course, or subsequent to its completion. Indiana, for example, has found
+this requirement entirely feasible, and a great influence in bettering
+the tone of the rural school.
+
+Wherever the rural teacher secures his training, however, one condition
+must obtain: this preparation must familiarize him with the spirit and
+needs of the agricultural community, and imbue him with enthusiasm for
+service in this field. It is not infrequently the case that town high
+school graduates, themselves never having lived in the country, possess
+neither the sympathy nor the understanding necessary to enable them to
+offer a high grade of service in the rural school. Not a few of them
+feel above the work of such a position, and look with contempt or pity
+upon the life of the farm. The successful rural teacher must be able to
+identify himself very completely with the interests and activities of
+the community; nor can this be done in any half-hearted, sentimental, or
+professional manner. It must be a spontaneous and natural response
+arising from a true interest in the people, a knowledge of their lives,
+and a sincere desire for their welfare. Any preparation that does not
+result in this spirit, and train in the ability to realize it in action,
+does not fit for the rural school.
+
+
+_Salaries of rural teachers_
+
+The salaries paid teachers in general in different types of schools are
+one measure, though not a perfect one, of their efficiency. Salary is
+not a perfect measure of efficiency, (1) because economic ability to pay
+is a modifying influence. When the early New England teacher was
+receiving ten or twelve dollars a month and "boarding round," he was
+probably getting all that the community could afford to pay him,
+although he was often a college student, and not infrequently a
+well-trained graduate. The salaries paid in the various occupations are
+not (2) based upon any definite standards of the value of service. For
+example, the _chef_ in a hotel may receive more than the superintendent
+of schools, and the football coach more than the college president; yet
+we would hardly want to conclude that the services of the cook and the
+athlete are worth more to society than the services of educators. And
+within the vocation of teaching itself there is (3) no fixed standard
+for judging teaching efficiency. Nevertheless, in general, teaching
+efficiency is in considerable degree measured by differences in salaries
+paid in different localities and in the various levels of school work.
+
+Based on the standard of salary as a measure, the teaching efficiency of
+rural teachers is, as we should expect from starting nearly all of our
+beginners here, considerably below that in towns or cities. A study by
+Coffman[6] of more than five thousand widely distributed teachers as to
+age, sex, salary, etc., shows that the average man in the rural school
+receives an annual salary of $390; in town schools, of $613; and in city
+schools, of $919. The average woman in the rural school receives an
+annual salary of $366; in town schools, of $492; and in city schools, of
+$591. Men in towns, therefore, receive one and one half times as much as
+men in the country, and in cities, two and one half times as much as in
+the country. Women in towns receive a little more than one and one third
+times as much as women in the country, and in the cities almost one and
+two thirds times as much as women in the country.
+
+The actual amount of salary paid rural teachers is perhaps more
+instructive than the comparative amounts. The income of the rural
+teacher is barely a living wage, and not even that if the teacher has no
+parental home, or a gainful occupation during vacation times. Out of an
+amount of less than four hundred dollars a year the teacher is expected
+to pay for a certificate, a few school journals and professional books,
+and attend teachers institutes or conventions, besides supporting
+himself as a teacher ought to live. It does not need argument to show
+that this meager salary forces a standard of living too low for
+efficiency. It would, therefore, be unfair to ask for efficiency with
+the present standard of salaries.
+
+Nor is it to be overlooked that efficiency and salaries must mount
+upward together. It would be as unjust to ask for higher salaries
+without increasing the grade of efficiency as to ask for efficiency on
+the present salary basis. It is probable that the eighteen- or
+nineteen-year-old boys and girls starting in to teach the rural school,
+with but little preparation above the elementary grades, are receiving
+all they are worth, at least as compared with what they could earn in
+other lines. The great point of difficulty is that they are not worth
+enough. The community cannot afford to buy the kind of educational
+service they are qualified to offer; it would be a vastly better
+investment for the public to buy higher teaching efficiency at larger
+salaries.
+
+No statistics are available to show the exact percentage of increase in
+rural teachers' salaries during recent years, but this increase has been
+considerable; and the tendency is still upward. In this as in other
+features of the rural school problem, however, it will be impossible to
+meet reasonable demands without forsaking the rural district system for
+a more centralized system of consolidated schools. To pay adequate
+salaries to the number of teachers now required for the thousands of
+small rural schools would be too heavy a drain on our economic
+resources. Under the consolidated system a considerably smaller number
+of teachers is required, and these can receive higher salaries without
+greatly increasing the amount expended for teaching. In this as in other
+phases of our educational problems, what is needed is rational business
+method, and a willingness to devote a fair proportion of our wealth to
+the education of the young.
+
+
+_Supervision of rural teaching_
+
+Our rural school teaching has never had efficient supervision. The very
+nature of rural school organization has rendered expert supervision
+impossible, no matter how able the supervising officer might be. With
+slight modifications, the office of _county superintendent_ is,
+throughout the country, typical of the attempt to provide supervision
+for the rural school. While such a system may have afforded all that
+could be expected in the pioneer days, its inadequacy to meet
+present-day demands is almost too patent to require discussion.
+
+First of all, it is physically impossible for a county superintendent to
+visit and supervise one hundred and fifty teachers at work in as many
+different schools scattered over four or five hundred square miles of
+territory. If he were to devote all his time to visiting country
+schools, he would have only one day to each school per year. When it is
+remembered that the county superintendent must also attend to an office
+that has a large amount of correspondence and clerical work, that he is
+usually commissioned with authority to oversee the building of all
+schoolhouses in his county, that he must act as judge in hearing appeals
+in school disputes, that he must conduct all teachers' examinations and
+in many instances grade the papers, and, finally, that country roads are
+often impassable, it is seen that his time for supervision is greatly
+curtailed. As a matter of fact some rural schools receive no visit from
+the county superintendent for several years at a time.
+
+A still further obstacle comes from the fact of the frequent changes of
+teachers among rural schools. A teacher visited by the county
+superintendent in a certain school this term, and advised as to how best
+to meet its problems, is likely to be in a different school next term,
+and required to meet an entirely new set of problems.
+
+This is all very different from the problem of supervision met by the
+town or city superintendent. For the town or city district is of small
+area, and the schools few and close together. If the number of teachers
+is large, the superintendent is assisted by principals of different
+schools, and by deputies. The teaching force is better prepared, and
+hence requires less close supervision. School standards are higher, and
+the cooeperation of patrons more easily secured. The course of study is
+better organized, the schools better graded and equipped, and all other
+conditions more favorable to efficient supervision. It would not,
+therefore, be just to compare the results of supervision in the country
+districts with those in urban schools without making full allowance for
+these fundamental differences.
+
+The county superintendent is in many States discriminated against in
+salary as compared with other county officers, and, as a rule, no
+provision is made to compensate for traveling expenses incurred in
+visiting schools. This, in effect, places a financial penalty on the
+work of supervision, as the superintendent can remain in his office with
+considerably less expense to himself than when he is out among the
+schools. In some instances, however, an allowance is made for traveling
+expenses in addition to the regular salary, thus encouraging the
+visiting of schools, or at least removing the handicap existing under
+the older system. An attempt has also been made in some States to
+relieve the county superintendent of the greater part of the clerical
+work of his office by employing for him at county expense a clerk for
+this purpose. These two provisions have proved of great help to the
+supervisory function of the county superintendent's work, but the task
+yet looms up in impossible magnitude.
+
+The county superintendency is throughout the country almost universally
+a political office. In some States, as, for example, in Indiana, it is
+appointive by a non-partisan board. But, in general, the candidate of
+the prevailing party, or the one who is the best "mixer," secures the
+office regardless of qualifications. Sharing the fortunes of other
+political offices, the county superintendency frequently has applied to
+it the unwritten party rule of "two terms and out," thus crippling the
+efficiency of the office by frequent changes of administration and
+uncertainty of tenure.
+
+No fixed educational or professional standard of preparation for the
+county superintendency exists in the different States. If some
+reasonably high standard were required, it would do much to lessen the
+mischievous effects of making it a political office. In a large
+proportion of cases the county superintendent is only required to hold a
+middle-class certificate, and has enjoyed no better educational
+facilities than dozens of the teachers he is to supervise. The author
+has conducted teachers' institutes in the Middle West for county
+superintendents who had never attended an institute or taught a term of
+school. The salary and professional opportunities of the office are not
+sufficiently attractive to draw men from the better school positions;
+hence the great majority of county superintendents come from the village
+principalships, the grades of town schools, or even from the rural
+schools.
+
+A marked tendency of recent years has been to elect women as county
+superintendents. In Iowa, for example, half of the present county
+superintendents are women, and the proportion is increasing. In not a
+few instances women have made exceptional records as county
+superintendents, and, as a whole, are loyally devoted to their work.
+They suffer one disadvantage in this office, however, which is hard to
+overcome: they find it impossible, without undue exposure, to travel
+about the county during the cold and stormy weather of winter or when
+the roads are soaked with the spring rains. Whether they will be able to
+effect the desired cooerdination between the rural school and the
+agricultural interests of the community is a question yet to be settled.
+
+In spite of the limitations of the office of county superintendent,
+however, it must not be thought that this office has played an
+unimportant part in our educational development. It has exerted a marked
+influence in the upbuilding of our schools, and accomplished this under
+the most unfavorable and discouraging circumstances. Among its occupants
+have been some of the most able and efficient men and women engaged in
+our school system. But the time has come in our educational advancement
+when the rural schools should have better supervision than they are now
+getting or can get under the present system.
+
+The first step in improving the supervision, as in improving so many
+other features of the rural schools, is the reorganization of the
+system through consolidation, and the consequent reduction in the number
+of schools to be supervised. The next step is to remove the supervising
+office as far as possible from "practical" politics by making it
+appointive by a non-partisan county board, who will be at liberty to go
+anywhere for a superintendent, who will be glad to pay a good salary,
+and who will seek to retain a superintendent in office as long as he is
+rendering acceptable service to the county. The third step is to raise
+the standard of fitness for the office so that the incumbent may be a
+true intellectual leader among the teachers and people of his county.
+Nor can this preparation be of the scholastic type alone, but must be of
+such character as to adapt its possessor to the spirit and ideals of an
+agricultural people.
+
+A wholly efficient system of supervision of rural teaching, then, would
+be possible only in a system of consolidated schools, each under the
+immediate direction of a principal, himself thoroughly educated and
+especially qualified to carry on the work of a school adapted to rural
+needs. Over these schools would be the supervision of the county
+superintendent, who will stand in the same relation to the principals as
+that of the city superintendent to his ward or high school principals.
+The county superintendent will serve to unify and correlate the work of
+the different consolidated schools, and to relate all to the life and
+work of the farm.
+
+If it is said that systems of superintendence for rural schools could be
+devised more effective than the county superintendency, this may be
+granted as a matter of theory; but as a practical working program, there
+is no doubt that the office of county superintendent is a permanent part
+of our rural school system, unless the system itself is very radically
+changed. All the States, except the New England group, Ohio, and Nevada,
+now have the office of county superintendent. It is likely, therefore,
+that the plan of district superintendence permissive under the laws of
+certain States will hardly secure wide acceptance. The county as the
+unit of school administration is growing in favor, and will probably
+ultimately come to characterize the rural school system. The most
+natural step lying next ahead would, therefore, seem to be to make the
+conditions surrounding the office of county superintendent as favorable
+as possible, and then give the superintendent a sufficient number of
+deputies to make the supervision effective. These deputies should be
+selected, of course, with reference to their fitness for supervising
+particular lines of teaching, such as primary, home economics,
+agriculture, etc. A beginning has already been made in the latter line
+by the employment in some counties, with the aid of the Federal
+Government, of an agricultural expert who not only instructs the farmers
+in their fields, but also correlates his work with the rural schools.
+This principle is capable of almost indefinite extension in our school
+system.
+
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[Footnote 5: See Coffman, _The Social Composition of the Teaching
+Force_.]
+
+[Footnote 6: _The Social Composition of the Teaching Population._]
+
+
+
+
+OUTLINE
+
+
+I. THE RURAL SCHOOL AND ITS PROBLEM
+
+
+=The General Problem of the Rural School=
+
+  1. The general problem of the rural school identical
+  with that of all schools                                        1
+
+  2. The newer concept measures education by efficiency           2
+
+  3. This efficiency involves (1) knowledge,(2) attitude,
+  (3) technique, or skill                                         3
+
+  4. The purpose of the school is to make sure of
+  these factors of efficiency                                     4
+
+
+=The Special Problem of the Rural School=
+
+  1. Each type of school has its special problem                  5
+
+  2. The rural school problem originates in the nature
+  of the rural community                                          5
+
+  3. Characteristics of the rural community                       6
+
+    _a._ Its industrial homogeneity                               6
+
+    _b._ Its social homogeneity                                   7
+
+    _c._ Fundamental intelligence of the rural population         8
+
+    _d._ Economic status and standards of living                 10
+
+    _e._ Rural isolation and its social effects                  10
+
+    _f._ Rural life and physical efficiency                      11
+
+    _g._ Lack of recreations and amusement                       12
+
+  4. Recent tendencies toward progress in agricultural
+  pursuits                                                       12
+
+  5. The loss of rural population to the cities                  13
+
+
+=The Adjustment of the Rural School to its Problem=
+
+  1. Failure in adjustment of the rural school to its problem    17
+
+  2. The rudimentary education received by rural children        17
+
+  3. Failure of the rural school to participate in recent
+  educational progress                                           18
+
+  4. The rural school inadequate in its scope                    19
+
+  5. Need of better organization in the rural school             20
+
+  6. Inadequacy of rural school buildings and equipment          21
+
+  7. The financial support of the rural school                   22
+
+  8. Summary and suggestions                                     23
+
+
+II. THE SOCIAL ORGANIZATION OF THE RURAL SCHOOL
+
+
+=The Rural School and the Community=
+
+  1. The fundamental relations of school and community           25
+
+  2. Low community standards of education                        25
+
+  3. The rural community's need of a social center               26
+
+    _a._ Its social isolation a serious drawback                 27
+
+    _b._ Grave moral dangers arising from social isolation       28
+
+    _c._ Rural environment more dangerous to youth
+    than city environment                                        29
+
+    _d._ Effects of monotony on adults                           30
+
+  4. The rural school as a social center                         30
+
+  5. The ideal rural school building and equipment               32
+
+  6. Social activities centering in the school                   33
+
+  7. Reorganization needed to make the rural school
+  effective as a social and intellectual center                  34
+
+
+=The Consolidation of Rural Schools=
+
+  1. Consolidation the first step toward rural school
+  efficiency                                                     35
+
+  2. Irrationality of present district system                    36
+
+  3. Obstacles in the way of consolidation                       37
+
+  4. The present movement toward consolidation                   38
+
+  5. Effects of consolidation                                    40
+
+    _a._ On attendance                                           41
+
+    _b._ On expense                                              41
+
+    _c._ On efficiency                                           42
+
+  6. The one-room school yet needed as a part of the
+  rural system                                                   42
+
+
+=Financial Support of the Rural School=
+
+  1. Lack of adequate financial support of rural schools         43
+
+  2. Difference in city and rural basis for taxation             44
+
+  3. Low school tax characteristic of rural communities          45
+
+  4. State aid for rural schools                                 46
+
+  5. Safeguards required where the principle of state
+  aid is supplied                                                47
+
+  6. Summary and conclusion                                      48
+
+
+=The Rural School and its Pupils=
+
+  1. The spirit of the pupils as a test of the school            50
+
+  2. The negative attitude of rural pupils toward their school   51
+
+  3. Causes of this defection to be sought in the school         51
+
+  4. The problem of poor rural school attendance                 52
+
+  5. The consolidated school as a cure for indifferent
+  attitude and poor attendance                                   53
+
+
+III. THE CURRICULUM OF THE RURAL SCHOOL
+
+
+=The Scope of the Rural School Curriculum=
+
+  1. The modern demand for a broader education                   57
+
+  2. The meagerness of the rural school curriculum               58
+
+  3. The rural child requires full elementary and high
+  school course                                                  60
+
+  4. Disadvantages of sending rural child to town school         60
+
+  5. Necessary reorganization in rural school offering
+  broadened curriculum                                           62
+
+  6. General nature of the new curriculum                        62
+
+
+=The Rural Elementary School Curriculum=
+
+  1. Relation of the curriculum to social standards
+  and ideals                                                     64
+
+  2. The mother tongue                                           65
+
+    _a._ Necessity for its mastery                               65
+
+    _b._ Learning the mechanics of the language                  66
+
+    _c._ Developing the art of expression, oral and
+    written                                                      67
+
+    _d._ Creation of love for reading                            67
+
+    _e._ Formal grammar out of place in the elementary
+    school                                                       68
+
+  3. Number                                                      69
+
+    _a._ The prominent place occupied by arithmetic              69
+
+    _b._ Importance of development of the number concept         69
+
+    _c._ An undue proportion of time devoted to arithmetic       70
+
+    _d._ Desirable changes in the teaching of arithmetic         71
+
+  4. History and civics                                          71
+
+    _a._ The right and duty of every person to know
+    the history and government of his country                    72
+
+    _b._ History not to deal chiefly with war and
+    politics, but to emphasize the social and industrial side    72
+
+    _c._ The library of historical books                         73
+
+    _d._ Functional versus analytical civics                     73
+
+  5. Geography and nature study                                  74
+
+    _a._ Advantage of the rural school in this field             74
+
+    _b._ The social basis of geography                           75
+
+    _c._ Application of geography and nature study
+    to the farm                                                  75
+
+  6. Hygiene and health                                          76
+
+    _a._ Criticism of older concept of physiology for
+    the elementary school                                        76
+
+    _b._ Content of practical course in hygiene                  77
+
+    _c._ Application of hygiene to the child's health
+    and growth                                                   77
+
+  7. Agriculture                                                 78
+
+    _a._ Adaptability to the rural elementary school             78
+
+    _b._ Content of the elementary course in agriculture         79
+
+    _c._ Relation to farm life                                   79
+
+  8. Domestic science and manual training                        79
+
+    _a._ Place in elementary rural school                        80
+
+    _b._ What can be taught                                      80
+
+    _c._ Its practical application                               80
+
+  9. Music and art                                               81
+
+    _a._ Necessity in a well-balanced curriculum                 81
+
+    _b._ Appreciation rather than criticism the aim              81
+
+  10. Physical training                                          81
+
+    _a._ Need of physical training of rural children             82
+
+    _b._ Rural school athletics                                  82
+
+
+=The Rural High School Curriculum=
+
+  1. Rural high schools not yet common                           83
+
+  2. The functions of the rural high school                      84
+
+  3. English in the rural high school                            84
+
+    _a._ Its aim                                                 85
+
+    _b._ Points of difference from present high school
+    course                                                       86
+
+  4. Social science to have an applied trend                     86
+
+  5. The material sciences as related to the problems
+  of the farm                                                    87
+
+  6. Manual training and domestic science                        89
+
+  7. A modified course in high school mathematics                89
+
+  8. Foreign language not to occupy an important place           90
+
+  9. The high school course to include music and art             90
+
+
+IV. THE TEACHING OF THE RURAL SCHOOL
+
+
+=The Importance of Teaching=
+
+  1. Teaching the fundamental purpose of the school              92
+
+  2. The child and the subject-matter                            92
+
+  3. The teacher as an intermediary between child
+  and subject-matter                                             93
+
+  4. Hence the teacher must know the nature of the child         94
+
+  5. The teacher must know the subject-matter of education       95
+
+  6. Failure to measure up to this requirement                   97
+
+
+=Teaching in the Rural School=
+
+  1. The degree of training of rural teachers in the
+  subject-matter                                                 98
+
+  2. Present lack of professional training                      100
+
+  3. The effects of inexperience                                101
+
+  4. Short tenure of service in rural schools                   102
+
+  5. Level of teaching efficiency low                           103
+
+  6. Improvement through consolidated schools                   104
+
+
+=The Training of Rural Teachers=
+
+  1. Inexperienced and untrained teachers begin in
+  the rural schools                                             105
+
+  2. Normal schools supply few teachers to rural schools        106
+
+  3. A reasonable demand for training of rural teachers         107
+
+  4. Rural teacher training in normal high schools              107
+
+  5. The rural teacher's training must be adapted to
+  spirit of rural school                                        108
+
+
+=Salaries of Rural Teachers=
+
+  1. Salary as a measure of efficiency                          109
+
+  2. Salaries of rural teachers compared with town
+  and city teachers                                             110
+
+  3. Necessity of increased salaries                            111
+
+  4. Increase in salary and in efficiency must go together      111
+
+  5. Salaries in consolidated schools                           112
+
+
+=Supervision of Rural Teaching=
+
+  1. Impossibility of giving district schools efficient
+  supervision                                                   112
+
+  2. Obstacle in number of schools and frequent
+  change of teachers                                            113
+
+  3. Comparison of work of county superintendent
+  with city superintendent                                      114
+
+  4. Political handicaps on county superintendent               115
+
+  5. The necessity of better educational standards
+  and better salary for the county superintendent               116
+
+  6. Women as county superintendents                            116
+
+  7. Efficient supervision possible only under a consolidated
+  system                                                        117
+
+
+
+
+RIVERSIDE EDUCATIONAL MONOGRAPHS
+
+_GENERAL EDUCATIONAL THEORY_
+
+
+DEWEY'S MORAL PRINCIPLES IN EDUCATION                      .35
+
+ELIOT'S EDUCATION FOR EFFICIENCY                           .35
+
+ELIOT'S TENDENCY TO THE CONCRETE AND PRACTICAL IN MODERN
+EDUCATION                                                  .35
+
+EMERSON'S EDUCATION                                        .35
+
+FISKE'S THE MEANING OF INFANCY                             .35
+
+HYDE'S THE TEACHER'S PHILOSOPHY                            .35
+
+PALMER'S THE IDEAL TEACHER                                 .35
+
+PROSSER'S THE TEACHER AND OLD AGE                          .60
+
+TERMAN'S THE TEACHER'S HEALTH                              .60
+
+THORNDIKE'S INDIVIDUALITY                                  .35
+
+
+
+_ADMINISTRATION AND SUPERVISION OF SCHOOLS_
+
+
+BETTS'S NEW IDEALS IN RURAL SCHOOLS                        .60
+
+BLOOMFIELD'S VOCATIONAL GUIDANCE OF YOUTH                  .60
+
+CABOT'S VOLUNTEER HELP TO THE SCHOOLS                      .60
+
+COLE'S INDUSTRIAL EDUCATION IN ELEMENTARY SCHOOLS          .35
+
+CUBBERLEY'S CHANGING CONCEPTIONS OF EDUCATION              .35
+
+CUBBERLEY'S THE IMPROVEMENT OF RURAL SCHOOLS               .35
+
+LEWIS'S DEMOCRACY'S HIGH SCHOOL                            .60
+
+PERRY'S STATUS OF THE TEACHER                              .35
+
+SNEDDEN'S THE PROBLEM OF VOCATIONAL EDUCATION              .35
+
+TROWBRIDGE'S THE HOME SCHOOL                               .60
+
+WEEKS'S THE PEOPLE'S SCHOOL                                .60
+
+
+
+_METHODS OF TEACHING_
+
+
+BAILEY'S ART EDUCATION                                     .60
+
+BETTS'S THE RECITATION                                     .60
+
+CAMPAGNAC'S THE TEACHING OF COMPOSITION                    .35
+
+COOLEY'S LANGUAGE TEACHING IN THE GRADES                   .35
+
+DEWEY'S INTEREST AND EFFORT IN EDUCATION                   .60
+
+EARHART'S TEACHING CHILDREN TO STUDY                       .60
+
+EVANS'S TEACHING OF HIGH SCHOOL MATHEMATICS                .35
+
+FAIRCHILD'S THE TEACHING OF POETRY IN THE HIGH SCHOOL
+
+HALIBURTON AND SMITH'S TEACHING POETRY IN THE GRADES       .60
+
+HARTWELL'S THE TEACHING OF HISTORY                         .35
+
+HAYNES'S ECONOMICS IN THE SECONDARY SCHOOL                 .60
+
+KILPATRICK'S THE MONTESSORI SYSTEM EXAMINED                .35
+
+PALMER'S ETHICAL AND MORAL INSTRUCTION IN THE SCHOOLS      .35
+
+PALMER'S SELF-CULTIVATION IN ENGLISH                       .35
+
+SUZZALLO'S THE TEACHING OF PRIMARY ARITHMETIC              .60
+
+SUZZALLO'S THE TEACHING OF SPELLING                        .60
+
+
+
+
+RIVERSIDE TEXTBOOKS IN EDUCATION
+
+Edited by ELLWOOD P. CUBBERLEY, Head of the Department of Education,
+Leland Stanford, Jr., University.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+The editor and the publishers have most carefully planned this series to
+meet the needs of students of education in colleges and universities, in
+normal schools, and in teachers' training courses in high schools. The
+books will also be equally well adapted to teachers' reading circles and
+to the wide-awake, professionally ambitious superintendent and teacher.
+Each book presented in the series will embody the results of the latest
+research, and will be at the same time both scientifically accurate, and
+simple, clear, and interesting in style.
+
+The Riverside Textbooks in Education will eventually contain books on
+the following subjects:--
+
+1. History of Education.--2. Public Education in America.--3. Theory of
+Education.--4. Principles of Teaching.--5. School and Class
+Management.--6. School Hygiene.--7. School Administration.--8. Secondary
+Education.--9. Educational Psychology.--10. Educational Sociology.--11.
+The Curriculum.--12. Special Methods.
+
+
+Now Ready
+
+*RURAL LIFE AND EDUCATION.
+
+     By ELLWOOD P. CUBBERLEY. $1.50 _net_. Postpaid. Illustrated.
+
+*THE HYGIENE OF THE SCHOOL CHILD.
+
+     By LEWIS M. TERMAN, Associate Professor of Education, Leland
+     Stanford Junior University. $1.65 _net_. Postpaid. Illustrated.
+
+*THE EVOLUTION OF THE EDUCATIONAL IDEAL.
+
+     By MABEL IRENE EMERSON, First Assistant in Charge, George Bancroft
+     School, Boston. $1.00 _net_. Postpaid.
+
+*HEALTH WORK IN THE SCHOOLS.
+
+     By ERNEST B. HOAG, Medical Director, Long Beach City Schools,
+     California, and LEWIS M. TERMAN. Illustrated. $1.60 _net_.
+     Postpaid.
+
+HOUGHTON MIFFLIN COMPANY
+BOSTON   NEW YORK   CHICAGO
+
+
+
+
+The HOUGHTON MIFFLIN PROFESSIONAL LIBRARY
+
+For Teachers and Students of Education
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+_THEORY AND PRINCIPLES OF EDUCATION_
+
+AMERICAN EDUCATION
+
+     By ANDREW S. DRAPER, Commissioner of Education of the State of New
+     York. With an Introduction by NICHOLAS MURRAY BUTLER, President of
+     Columbia University. $2.00, _net_. Postpaid.
+
+GROWTH AND EDUCATION
+
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