CHAPTER VIII

_THE TRANSFORMATION OF THE RURAL SCHOOL_

The country districts are slowly waking up to an appreciation of the fact that within their bounds lie, not only all the elements fundamental to the material wealth of the world, but that they also contain in a more or less dormant form all the essential factors of intellectual and spiritual wealth. The rural school is theoretically the best place on earth for the education of the child, not only because of its close proximity to the sources of material wealth, but because of the openness and comparative freedom of its surroundings. Then, the country school is especially effective as a place of instruction on account of its happy relation to work and industry. Too often the boys and girls of the town school go unwillingly to their class rooms with the feeling that the lessons are heavily imposed tasks.

But in the typical country school the pupils are young persons who have already experienced much of the strain of work and who go somewhat eagerly to the schoolroom, because it is in a sense recreative to them, and because of their being in a position to see more clearly what substantial training is to mean to them in the future. That is to say, a distinctive difference between the typical country child and the typical city child is this: the former believes that he is pursuing the course of instruction in a more voluntary spirit and for the sake of his own personal interests and up-building, while the latter is inclined to feel that he is performing the school tasks for the sake of some one else and because of the strict requirements of outside force or law.

RADICAL CHANGES IN THE VIEW-POINT AND METHOD

But if the theoretic worth of the rural school is to be made at all actual, some very radical changes in view-point and method must come to pass. First of all, we must keep asking the question, What is education for? And perhaps we must accept the answer that in its best form education serves the higher needs and requirements of the life we are trying to live to-day. In case of rural teachers and parents it has been too common a practice to urge the child on in his lesson-getting with the statement, or at least the suggestion, that lessons well mastered in time furnish a guarantee of a life of comparative ease and freedom from heavy toil. The sermonette preached to the boy in this situation is too often substantially as follows: "Go on, my boy, master your lessons, pass up through the grades, and be graduated. Behold So and So, a great captain of wealth, and such and such a one, a great statesman. Now, these persons are in a position to take life easy. They have wealth to spend for the employment of labor and need to do little of such thing themselves."

In other words, the view-point of the school has been radically wrong. We have been advancing the idea that education enables one to get _out of_ work, whereas we should have been urging that education of the right sort enables one to get _into_ work. That is, it means enlarged capacity for work and service and proportionately enlarged joy and contentment in the performance of worthy work of any nature whatsoever. Let rural parents once inculcate the last-named point of view upon their growing boys and girls and the attitude of the latter toward the school and its tasks will be likewise radically changed.

ALL HAVE A RIGHT TO CULTURE

And then, a second question we need to ask ourselves is, Whom is education for? or, What classes should have the benefits of it? A close comparison of the school ideals of twenty-five years ago with the most progressive ones of to-day reveals a surprising situation. Without seemingly realizing the fact, we continued for generations in this country to tax ourselves heavily for the purpose of supporting schools almost exclusively in behalf of the so-called professional classes. We said, especially to the growing boy: "Now, if you wish to become a lawyer, a physician, a minister, or a teacher, here is your opportunity. Pursue this well-arranged course, finish it up, and that all at our expense. But if you wish to become a farmer, a merchant, a craftsman of any sort, then this institution is not at your service. We will teach you to read and write and cipher, after which you may look out for yourself." Thus we were taxing the masses for the exclusive education of a few classes. To-day the best ideal is a radically different one, as it attempts to serve all worthy classes and vocations through the school administration. It assumes that artisans as well as artists and the professional classes have the same inherent right to both the practical aid and the direct culture which an educational course may furnish.

As a practical result of this new ideal, now rapidly advancing throughout the country, we are about to have an age of cultured farmers, high-minded stock raisers, refined architects and builders, and so on. That is, our newest and best educational courses are beginning to provide the means and opportunities for the education of all worthy classes. So it behooves all interested rural parents to turn their best efforts toward the transformation and the betterment of the country school. Certain specific achievements in relation thereto are now being planned for and in many instances accomplished. Let every one concerned take notice of this situation and join with all possible earnestness in the forward movement.

In his instructive monograph entitled "Changing Conceptions of Education," Professor E. P. Cubberley states the new ideal as follows:--

"The school is essentially a time- and labor-saving device, created--with us--by democracy to serve democracy's needs. To convey to the next generation the knowledge and the accumulated experience of the past is not its only function. It must equally prepare the future citizen for the to-morrow of our complex life. The school must grasp the significance of its social connections and relations, and must come to realize that its real worth and its hope of adequate reward lie in its social efficiency. There are many reasons for believing that this change is taking place rapidly at present, and that an educational sociology, needed as much by teachers to-day as an educational psychology, is now in the process of being formulated for our use."

WORK FOR A LONGER TERM

One of the first steps toward a more helpful schooling for the country youth is that of lengthening the yearly school term. In many thousands of instances, the country school is conducted for only three to five months during the year, and even this short term is indifferently attended. But the actual length of the year should be seven months or more. Many of the country districts can easily provide for eight months. The farmer should not concern himself about a small additional tax, but should have in mind rather the larger additional gain to the well-being of the young in the community. If the local tax be not sufficient for supporting a longer term and a better school, then seek to have laws authorizing the distribution of state aid to the weaker districts. This law has been actually passed in a number of the commonwealths. The act in the usual case provides a general school fund out of which the deficit for the smaller rural districts may be made up.

COMPULSORY ATTENDANCE LAWS NEEDED

The far-seeing country dweller will be glad to join in a movement in behalf of compulsory attendance at the public schools. Already a number of states have enacted fairly good laws on this subject, but some of them allow "loopholes" providing for the too easy avoidance of their requirements. Perhaps the best and most effective type of law of this class is that which requires the child under fourteen years of age to attend the entire term of the public schools, allowing for his absence only in case of sickness or in cases where it is shown upon investigation and beyond question that he is the main support and breadwinner of a family.

In connection with the legal requirements for compulsory attendance, there must, of course, be provision for the truant. Truant officers, who may be required to serve only part time and who may receive pay for actual services, are set over specified districts and required to bring in all truant school children. Although this compulsory attendance law has been in force only a few years, reports show an almost unanimous belief in its effectiveness. The reader will understand the justification of such a law to be this; namely, the inherent right of the child to be educated whether he may appreciate such right or advantage or not, and the implied right of the community to have his best service as a well-educated member of society. The effects upon crime and criminality of the neglect of the education of the young have been so thoroughly discussed of late as to require no restatement here.

BETTER SCHOOLHOUSES AND EQUIPMENT

A survey of the entire country from one side to another reveals a deplorable state of affairs in respect to the conditions of the typical rural schoolhouse. In thousands of cases, there is nothing more than a dingy, little, old one-room building, scarcely suitable as a place wherein to shelter chickens or pigs, and with nothing in the surroundings to suggest or even hint at a place where young minds are taught how to aim at the high things of life. Now, these crude structures were once a necessity. In pioneer days the little, old box schoolhouse, or even the sod structure, served a mighty purpose in the transformation of the plains and the wilderness. But times are now radically changed. The wealth of the country is abundant. Improvements of nearly every other sort have gone on as the times advanced. But too often the little, old cheap schoolhouse on the bleak country slope became a fixed habit. In setting forth plans for a newer and better country school building, the author cannot improve upon those prepared by E. T. Fairchild, State Superintendent of Public Instruction in Kansas, and published in his Seventeenth Biennial Report. We therefore quote as follows:--

1. _Location._--"In selecting a site for a school building, the questions of drainage, convenience, beauty of surroundings, and accessibility should have prime consideration. Select, if possible, some plat of ground slightly elevated, and of which the surface may be properly drained and kept free from mud. It should be especially seen to that water may not stand under the building. If the elevation is not sufficient, this trouble should be overcome by proper filling in beneath the building. The location should be as nearly as possible central with reference to the pupils of the district. But other things should also be considered. It is better that some pupils should be put to a slight disadvantage than that attractiveness of surroundings, remoteness from environment likely to interfere with the work of the school, or other essentials, should be sacrificed."

2. _The water supply._--The purity of the water supply for the school is no less important from the standpoint of health than that of the air supply. The greatest danger lies in the use of water taken from wells that are used only a portion of the year. Such water is certain to become stagnant. In the autumn before the term commences special care should be taken to pump all water out of the well and to clean the same if necessary; thereby much sickness may be avoided. The well, of course, should be so located as to avoid any contamination owing to vaults or drains.

3. _Size and adaptation of grounds._--The school grounds should contain at least three acres, and five acres would not be too much. While the cities are cramped for playgrounds and purchase them only at a high cost, the latter can be secured in the country in sufficient size and at a relatively small expense. Let it be kept constantly in mind that the school grounds should be adapted for play, that they should afford a protection from winds, and that they should also be attractive. They should likewise be adapted for school gardening and experiments in agriculture. For the purpose of play, the breadth should exceed the depth where there are separate grounds for boys and girls. Where the playground is large, the building should be centrally located with relation to the size of the grounds and should be situated well toward the front. This will provide two fair-sized and well-proportioned playgrounds. Where the grounds are small and contain but one acre, symmetry must yield to utility and the building should be located well to the front and to one side, so as to leave one well-arranged playground.

4. _Improvement of school grounds._--In writing of the value of well-arranged school grounds, Professor Albert Dickens of the Kansas State Agricultural College says:--

"This sermon on school ground improvement is one that I have tried to preach for some time. In my judgment, it is the most important and the most difficult of any of the problems in civic improvement. The average country cemetery is sorrowfully neglected, as a rule, but its treatment is careful and generous compared with the school grounds of the average country district. Some day we shall realize that all these factors of environment are formative influences, and shall not wonder that the character formed in surroundings devoid of beauty has hard, coarse, and cruel lines in its make-up.

"It is an easy matter to picture an ideal country school--its clean-swept walk to the road, its ample playground, its windbreak of evergreens, its groups of hard- and soft-wood species, borders of shrubs and beds of bulbs for early spring and perennials for summer and fall. But to get it--to find some way to overcome the serious obstacles--is worthy the attention of statesmen and club women.

"Nearly every district has made an attempt. That is one of the hard things to forget--one of the reasons so many districts fear to try again. They had a spasm of civic righteousness--an Arbor Day revival--and every patron dug a hole in the hard, dry ground; every child brought a tree, some of which were carried for miles with the roots exposed to sun and wind--and then they were planted and, in some cases, watered for the summer; and the days grew warm and the weeds grew high; and by the next fall the two or three trees yet alive were not noticed when the director went over with his mower the Friday before school opened; and so ended that attempt at a schoolyard beautiful.

"It ought to be possible to convince the patrons of every district that a single acre of land is not sufficient ground upon which to grow big, bright, broad-minded boys and girls; that two, or three, or four acres of land, well planned as to baseball diamond, basketball court and a good free run for dare-base and pull-away--that such would give the state and the world better results than if the land were devoted to corn and alfalfa. This, I believe, is the first problem of great magnitude--to get the ground--and it must be considered. Children must play. The noon hour, when they eat for five minutes and play fifty-five minutes, is all-important in a child's life."

In order to carry out the suggestions given by Professor Dickens, why not organize a general rally, perhaps on the occasion of Arbor Day, and all hands join in preparing and planting the school grounds to suitable shade trees, shrubs, and the like? The playgrounds could also be laid out and equipped on this occasion. Then, after this excellent start has been made, have the school board appoint some reliable man as caretaker of the grounds with payment of reasonable wages for what he does. Thus the good beginning will not be lost.

A MODEL RURAL SCHOOL

The State Normal School at Kirksville, Missouri, has built and equipped a model rural school for use in practical demonstration work. President John R. Kirk gives a detailed description of this building in _Successful Farming_ (April, 1911) as follows:--

"This schoolhouse has three principal floors. The basement and main floor are the same size, 28 x 36 feet, outside measurement. The basement measures 8 feet from floor to ceiling. Its floor is of concrete, underlaid with porous tile and cinders. The basement walls are of rock and concrete, protected by drain tile on outside. The basement has eight compartments.

"1. Furnace room, containing furnace inclosed by galvanized iron, also double cold air duct with electric fan, also gas water heater.

"2. Coal bin, 6 x 8 feet.

"3. Bulb or plant room, 3 x 8 feet, for fall, winter, and spring storage.

"4. Darkroom, 4 x 8 feet, for children's experiments in photography.

"5. Laundry room, 5 x 21 feet, with tubs, drain, and drying apparatus.

"6. Gymnasium or play room, 13 x 23 feet.

"7. Tank room containing a 400-gallon pneumatic pressure tank, storage battery for electricity, hand pump for emergencies, water gauge, sewer pipes, floor drain, etc.

"8. Engine room, containing gasoline engine, water pump, electrical generator, switchboard, water tank for cooling gasoline engine, weight for gas pressure, gas mixer, batteries, pipes, wires, etc.

"The pumps lift water from a well into pressure tank through pipes below the frost line. Gasoline is admitted through pipes below the frost line from two 50-gallon tanks underground, 30 feet from building. All rooms are wired for electricity and plumbed for gas. The basement is thoroughly ventilated.

"The main floor contains a school room 22 x 27 feet in the clear, lighted wholly from the north side. A ground glass in the rear admits sunlight for sanitation. Schoolroom has adjustable seats and desks, telephone, and teachers' desk. Stereopticon is hung in wall at rear. Alcove or closet on east side for books, teachers' wraps, etc. Schoolroom has a small organ, ample book cases, shelves, and apparatus. Pure air enters from above children's heads and passes out at floor into ventilating stack through fireplace.

"Main floor has two toilet rooms, each of these having lavatories, wash bowl with hot and cold water, pressure tank for hot water and for heat, shower bath with hot and cold water, ventilating apparatus, looking glass, towel rack, soap box, etc. Each toilet room is reached by a circuitous passageway furnishing room for children's wraps, overshoes, etc. The scheme secures absolute privacy in toilet rooms. All toilet room walls contain air chambers to deaden sound. The toilet rooms are clean, decent, and beautiful. They are never disfigured with vile language or other defacement.

"All rural schoolhouses with the comb of the roof running one way have attics, but the attic of this rural school is the first one and the only one that has been well utilized. This attic is 15 x 35 feet, inside measurement, all in one room; distance from floor to ceiling 7½ feet in the middle part. It is abundantly lighted through gable lights and roof lights. It contains modern manual-training benches for use of eight or ten children at one time, a gas range and other apparatus for experimental cooking. It is furnished with both gas and electric light. It has a wash bowl with hot and cold water, looking glass, towels, etc. It has a large typical kitchen sink and a drinking fountain, but no drinking cup, either common or uncommon. It has cupboards, boxes, and receptacles for various experiments in home economics. It has a disinfecting apparatus, a portable agricultural-chemistry laboratory and numerous other equipments.

"A rural school can be built here from beginning to completion with all the above-mentioned equipments of every kind, including furniture, for $2250. The heating and ventilating apparatus, the pressure tanks, gasoline engine, water pumps, dynamo, furnace, etc., can all be easily adapted to a two-room model, a three-room school, or a six-room school by having each fixture slightly larger.

"This model therefore solves the schoolbuilding question for villages, towns, and consolidated rural schools."

THE CORNELL SCHOOLHOUSE

An attractive rural schoolhouse was erected some years ago at the New York State College of Agriculture, to serve as a suggestion architecturally and otherwise to rural districts. It is a one-teacher building, and yet allows for the introduction of the new methods of teaching. It is a wooden building, with cement stucco interior, heated with hot-air furnace, and with two water toilets attached. The total cost was about $2000. The College writes as follows of the house:--

"The prevailing rural schoolhouse is a building in which pupils sit to study books. It ought to be a room in which pupils do personal work with both hands and mind. The essential feature of this new schoolhouse, therefore, is a workroom. This room occupies one-third of the floor space. Perhaps it would be better if it occupied two-thirds of the floor space. If the building is large enough, however, the two kinds of work could change places in this schoolhouse.

"The building is designed for twenty-five pupils in the main room. The folding doors and windows in the partition enable one teacher to manage both rooms.

"It has been the purpose to make the main part of the building about the size of the average rural schoolhouse, and then to add the workroom as a wing or projection. Such a room could be added to existing school buildings; or, in districts in which the building is now too large, one part of the room could be partitioned off as a workroom.

"It is the purpose, also, to make this building artistic, attractive, and homelike to children, sanitary, comfortable, and durable. The cement-plaster exterior is handsomer and warmer than wood, and on expanded metal lath it is durable. The interior of this building is very attractive. Nearly any rural schoolhouse can secure a water-supply and instal toilets as part of the school building.

"The openings between schoolroom and workroom are fitted with glazed swing sash and folding doors, so that the rooms may be used either singly or together, as desired.

"The workroom has a bay-window facing south and filled with shelves for plants. Slate blackboards of standard school heights fill the spaces about the rooms between doors and windows. The building is heated by hot air; vent flues of adequate sizes are also provided so that the rooms are ventilated.

"On the front of the building, and adding materially to its picturesque appearance, is a roomy veranda with simple square posts, from which entrance is made directly into the combined vestibule and coatroom and from this again by two doors into the schoolroom."

HELP MAKE A SCHOOL PLAY GROUND

Throughout the entire country there is at last rising a wave of enthusiasm in behalf of affording the child a better means of play. First the cities took the matter up, then the towns, and now the country districts are beginning to do their part. The farmer and his wife should feel an interest in such a matter, for they can render no better service to their community than that of joining the district teacher in an effort to equip the school grounds with play apparatus. As a suggestive outline of what materials to procure, the dimensions and cost of the same, there is given below the equipment worked out by certain officials in Colorado and described briefly in Superintendent Fairchild's report, as follows:--

A turning pole for boys may be made by setting two posts in the ground, six or eight feet apart, and running a 1 or 1¼ inch gas pipe through holes bored in the tops of the posts. The cost of such a piece of apparatus should be as follows, assuming that the necessary work will be done by the teachers and boys: Two posts, 4" x 4", 8 ft. long, 50 cents; one piece gas pipe, 8 ft. long, 15 cents.

Teeter boards may be made by planting posts ten or twelve feet apart, and placing a pole or a rounded 6 x 6 on top of them, and then placing boards, upon which the children may teeter. Individual teeter boards may be made by placing a 2 x 8 board in the ground, and fastening the teeter board to it by means of iron braces placed on each side of the upright piece. The cost of the above apparatus would be, for several teeters: Two upright posts, 6" x 6", 5 ft. long, 93 cents; one piece, 6" x 6", 12 ft. long, $1.22; four teeter boards, 2" x 8", 14 ft. long, $2.50. For individual teeter: One piece 2" x 8", 16 ft. long, 56 cents--to make upright piece 4 ft. long and teeter board 12 ft. long; two iron braces and four large screws, 25 cents.

A very attractive and desirable piece of apparatus may be made as follows: Secure a pole about ten or fifteen feet long. To the small end attach by the use of bolts one end of a wagon axle, spindle up. Upon the spindle place a wagon wheel, and to the wheel attach ropes, about as long as the pole. Place the big end of the pole in the ground three or four feet, and brace it from the four points of the compass. The ropes will hang down from the wheel in such a way that the children may take hold of them, swing, jump, and run around the pole. The one described was rather inexpensive. A telephone company donated a discarded pole, a farmer a discarded wagon wheel and axle. The only expense was that of paying a blacksmith for attaching the wheel to the pole and the cost of the ropes--about $2. It furnished one of the most attractive pieces of apparatus on the playground.

An inexpensive swing may be constructed by placing four 4 x 4's in the ground in a slanting position, two being opposite each other and meeting at the top in such a way as to form a fork. The pairs may be ten or twelve feet apart, and a pole or heavy galvanized pipe, to which swings may be attached, wired, nailed, or bolted to the crotches formed by the pieces placed in the ground. The cost of this apparatus will be: Four pieces, 4" x 4", 14 ft. long, $1.25, one piece galvanized pipe, 3", 12 ft. long, $2.50.

Boards of education could well afford to purchase one or more basketballs, and a few baseballs and bats for the boys. These things more than pay for themselves in the added interest which boys and girls who have them take in the school. For much of the apparatus suggested above the wide-awake board of education and teacher will see opportunities to use material less expensive than that suggested. And to such persons many pieces of apparatus not specified here will suggest themselves to fit particular needs and opportunities.

GENERAL INSTRUCTION IN AGRICULTURE

A great fault with the district schools has been an inclination to think that anything close at hand is too mean and common to be considered as subject matter for instruction. The thought has usually been that the school would prepare the learner for some brilliant calling away off where things are better and life is easier and more beautiful. As a result, the country schools have been educating boys and girls away from the farm. The new method is that of educating them to appreciate what is under their feet and all around them, through an intimate knowledge of the processes of nature and industry as carried on in their midst.

One of the more direct means of educating the boys and girls for a happy, contented life on the farm is to teach them while young the rudiments of agriculture. This method is now actually being put into practice in thousands of the rural schools. The state of Kansas recently enacted a law requiring all candidates for teachers' certificates to pass a test in the elements of agriculture and also requiring that the rudiments of this subject be taught in every district school. Other states have similar laws. As a result of this and like provisions, there is now a tremendous awakening in the direction named. The boys and girls in the country schools are finding new meaning and a new interest in the fields and farms upon which they are growing up.

It is a comparatively simple matter, that of teaching the young how the plant germinates and grows, how the seed is produced, and how farm crops are cared for and harvested. Likewise, it is easy to describe the elements of the various types of soil and to show how these elements contribute to the life and growth of the plant. The questions of moisture in its relation to plant life, of insects harmful and helpful to growing crops and animals, of the bird life as related in its economic aspects to farming--all such matters can be easily taught to children by the young-woman school teacher. It is only necessary for the latter to take an elementary course of instruction herself, to read a number of collateral texts, and to get into the spirit of the undertaking. In a similar manner, instruction in regard to farm animals may be given, the emphasis being placed upon the consideration of the types of live stock actually raised and marketed in the home neighborhood.

It must be emphasized that these matters relating to elementary agriculture and animal husbandry can be made just as interesting and quite as cultural as any of the subjects in the general curriculum of the schools. Wherefore, the rural dweller who catches the spirit of such instruction should lead out in the securing of public measures and public improvements looking toward an early embodiment of these new subjects within the prescribed course of study.

DOMESTIC ECONOMY AND HOME SANITATION

The time is now at hand when the district school failing to give any attention to practical household affairs is to be classed as out of date and unprogressive. Well-written texts and pamphlets covering the home-keeping subjects are now both available and cheap, so that the excuse for deferring their use is approaching the zero point.

Of course it is impracticable as yet to have apparatus for cooking and sewing installed in the one-teacher district school, but the bare rudiments of these subjects may nevertheless be taught with the expectation that home practice may be thereby improved and better understood. Perhaps the most practical method of present procedure is that of organizing an independent class of the girls of suitable age and meeting them informally. The texts and pamphlets furnished by the college extension departments may be followed. In case of graded and high school courses this work should by all means be carried on as a regular class exercise.

Home sanitation may easily and profitably be taught in the district school, even though only one or two periods per week be set apart for the purpose. Perhaps the best method of instruction is that of presenting carefully one specific lesson at a time. For example, pure drinking water, clean milk, food contamination by house flies may be treated each in its turn. Adequate charts and illustrations should be brought into service.

CONSOLIDATION OF RURAL SCHOOLS

There is much agitation nowadays in regard to consolidating the rural schools. Although present progress is slow, it seems comparatively certain that the one-teacher rural school is destined in time to become a thing of the past. However, there is no particular haste in the matter, provided some such plans as the foregoing be put into effect in case of the single school. Perhaps the sparsely settled district has the greatest justification for looking toward consolidation. It happens that there are thousands of small schools having an attendance of from five to ten pupils. In such an instance, it is practically impossible to do the best work, the children lacking the spur of rivalry and enthusiasm and the helpful lessons in social ethics offered only by the larger massing of the young at play.

In many places, three or four rural districts are uniting in this movement, the general plan being that of constructing a central building with ample working space for all, and then transporting the children to and from the school. The scheme is working well as a rule. Among the great advantages is that of a possible grading of the school so that the teacher may have time for each subject and more opportunity for specialization. Perhaps the most serious and difficult part of the plan is that of providing a safe and suitable means of conveyance to and from the school. Some excellent patterns of school wagons are already on the market, while manufacturers are constantly at work improving them. So we may expect better results as time goes on. It has already been shown very satisfactorily that the conveyance, when in charge of a well-trained driver, furnishes improved moral and physical safeguards for the child.

MORE HIGH SCHOOLS NEEDED

Not only every county, but also every rural township, should have its well-equipped high school. It is a serious matter to send boys and girls in their middle teens away to college. Many lives are thus more or less ruined simply from too early loss of the personal restraints and influence of the parents. But with a first-class high school in easy reach the young people may at least return home for the Saturday-Sunday recess and thereby continue in the close councils of their parents. And then, the rightly-managed high school will bring the student into closer touch with the local rural problems that may not be possible in case of the distant institution.

In the location of high schools intended to serve the rural interests there should be an effort to keep away from the towns and cities. In the latter places the allurements of the cheap theater and the snobbery that often invades the city high school are illustrations of the evils that serve to entice the young away from the substantial things of life. A good county or township high school located centrally and in the open country is ideal. At such a location it is vastly easier than in the city to center the attention of the students upon the rural problems, not to mention the greater availability of demonstrations on farm and garden plots.

BETTER RURAL TEACHERS NEEDED

The ideal preparation for a teacher in the rural school is a complete course in a first-class agricultural college, with the inclusion of a few terms' work in the educational subjects. So long as we send into the district schools young teachers who have been taught merely in the common text-book branches, and whose training has been exclusively pedagogical, the practice of educating the boys and girls away from the farm will go on. The country school is, in its best sense, an industrial school; and only those teachers can do best work therein who have had the personal experience in industrial training and the changed point of view which only the agricultural college can give. So if the board of trustees in any rural district really wishes to unite in supporting an effective back-to-the-farm movement, let them offer to some country-reared graduate of the agricultural college a salary of about twice or three times the amount usually paid. After a few terms of school taught by such a person, the good effects on the rural uplift will most certainly reveal themselves. But so long as school trustees continue to try to drive a sharp bargain in the employment of teachers--securing the one with the passable county certificate who will teach for the least wages--the boys will continue to run off to town for "jobs" and the parents will continue to "move to town to educate their children."

There is some hope of a new ideal in relation to the country school teacher; namely, that he shall be a man in every sense, worthy of a salary large enough to support himself and his family the year round as residents of the community. Then we shall have a profession of teaching in the rural school work.

REFERENCES

Annual Report Page County (Iowa) Schools. Miss Jessie Field, Superintendent (Clarinda).

The reader who is especially interested in this chapter is urged to become acquainted with the splendid work accomplished for the district schools of Page County, Ia., by Superintendent Jessie Field. As indicated by her published annuals, and otherwise, she has led all the other young women superintendents in the work of organizing the boys and girls into clubs and classes for the study of school gardening, bread making, grain propagation, and the like.

Report of the Committee on Industrial Education in Schools for Rural Communities, of the National Educational Association.

Among Country Schools. O. J. Kern. Ginn & Co. A clear helpful, and inspiring text.

The American Rural School. H. W. Foght. Macmillan. Covers the entire subject carefully.

The School and Society. John Dewey. McClure, Phillips & Co., New York.

The School and its Life. Charles D. Gilbert. Chapter XXII, "Home and School." McClurg.

Efficient Democracy, Wm. H. Allen. Chapter VII, "School Efficiency." Dodd, Mead & Co. A most helpful and stimulating volume.

The School as a Social Institution. Henry Suzzallo. Monograph. Houghton Mifflin Company.

Wider Use of the School Plant, Clarence Arthur Perry. Chapter VI, "School Playgrounds." Charities Publication Committee, New York.

Education in the Country for the Country. J. W. Zeller. Annual Volume N.E.A., 1910, p. 245.

Teachers for the Rural Schools; Kind Wanted; How to secure Them. L. J. Alleman. Annual Volume N.E.A., 1910, p. 280.

The State Board of Health of Maine (Augusta) issues a series of practical pamphlets on health and sanitation in the school and the home.

The Most Practical Industrial Education for the Country Child. Superintendent O. J. Kern. Annual Volume N.E.A., 1905, p. 198.

Among School Gardens. M. Louise Green, Ph.D. Charities Publication Committee, New York.

A Model Rural School House. Henry S. Curtis. Educational Foundations, April, 1911. A. S. Barnes & Co. Dr. Curtis is a national authority on the question of the school playground.

Education for Efficiency. E. Davenport. D. C. Heath. A most able plea for making the schools serve every worthy interest.

Changing Conceptions of Education. E. P. Cubberly. Monograph. Houghton Mifflin Company.

Methods of conducting Book and Demonstration Work in teaching Elementary Agriculture. O. H. Benson. Bureau of Plant Industry, Washington, D.C. An excellent guide.

Report of Committee to investigate Rural School Conditions. Superintendent E T. Fairchild and others. Address the Secretary N.E.A., Winona, Minn.