THE RURAL SCHOOL CURRICULUM
=Imitation.=--There are two processes by which all progress is attained,
namely, imitation and invention. Imitation is found everywhere, in all
spheres of thought and of action. Children are great imitators, and
adults are only children grown up. Imitation, of course, is a necessary
thing. Without it no use could be made of past experience. When it
conserves and propagates the good it is to be commended; but the
worthless and the bad are often imitated also. As imitation is necessary
for the preservation of past experience, so invention is equally
essential in blazing new paths of thought and of action. It is probably
true that all persons are more prone to imitation than to invention.
=The Country Imitates the City.=--The rural schools have always imitated
the city schools, as rural life attempts to imitate city life. Many of
the books used in rural schools have been written largely with city
conditions in mind and by authors who have been city bred or city won.
These books have about them the atmosphere and the flavor of the city.
Their selections as a rule contain references and allusions without
number to city life, and give a cityward bent; their connotation and
attitude tend to direct the mind toward the city. As a consequence even
school textbooks have been potent aids in the urban trend.
=Textbooks.=--It is not urged that the subject matter of textbooks be
made altogether rural in its applications and references. The books
should not be completely _ruralized_; nor should there be two sets of
books, one for the country and one for the city. But there should be a
more even balance between the city aspect and the rural aspect of
textbooks, whether used in the country or in the city. If some of the
texts now used were rewritten with the purpose of attaining that
balance, they would greatly assist the curriculum in both country and
city schools. There is no reason why city children should not have their
minds touched by the life, the thought, and the activities of the
country; and it is granted that country children should be made
conscious and cognizant of the life, the thought, and the activities of
the city. There is no more reason why textbooks should carry the urban
message, than that they should be dominantly ruralizing.
=An Interpreting Core.=--The experiences of country children are of all
kinds; rural life, thought, and aspirations constitute the very
development of their consciousness and minds. In all their practical
experiences rural life and thought form the anchorage of their later
academic instruction. This early experience constitutes what the
Herbartians term their "apperception mass"; and children, as well as
grown-ups, can interpret new matter only in terms of the old. The
experiences of the child, which constitute his world of thought, of
discourse, and of action, are the only means by which he grasps and
interprets new thought and experience. Consequently, the texts which
rural children use should make a strong appeal to their apperception
mass--to their old stock and store of knowledge. It is the textbooks
that bring to the old knowledge new mental material which the teacher
and the textbook together attempt to communicate to the children.
Without an interpreting center--a stock and store of old knowledge which
constitute the very mental life of the child--it is impossible for him
to assimilate the new. The old experiences are, in fact, the mental
digestive apparatus of the child. Without this center, or core, the new
instead of being assimilated is, so to speak, merely stuck on. This is
the case with much of the subject matter in city-made texts. It does not
_grow_, but soon withers and falls away. It is, then, essential that the
textbooks used in rural schools should have the rural bent and
application, the rural flavor, the rural beck and welcome.
=Rural Teachers from the City.=--A great many teachers of country
schools come from the city. A number of these are young girls having,
without blame on their part, the tone and temper, the attitude, spirit,
and training which the city gives. Their minds have been _urbanized_;
all their thoughts are city thoughts. The textbooks which they have used
have been city textbooks; their teachers have for the most part been
those in or from the city. It can scarcely be expected that such
teachers can do for the rural districts all that ought to be done. Very
naturally they inspire some of the children with the idea of ultimately
going to the city. This suggestion and this inspiration are given
unconsciously, but in the years of childhood they take deep root and
sooner or later work themselves out in an additional impetus to the
urban trend.
=A Course for Rural Teachers.=--What is needed is a course of
instruction for rural teachers, in every state of the Union. In some
states the agricultural colleges have inaugurated a movement to this
end. In such colleges, agricultural high schools, and institutions of a
similar kind in every state, a three-year course for teachers above the
eighth year, specially designed to prepare them for rural school
teaching, should be established. Such a school would furnish the proper
atmosphere and the proper courses of instruction to suffuse the minds of
these prospective teachers with appreciation and love of country life
and rural school work.
=All Not to Remain in the Country.=--It is not contended here that all
who are born and brought up in the country ought to remain there for
life. Many writers and speakers preach the gospel of "the country for
country children," but this cannot be sound. Each one, as the years go
by, should "find" himself and his own proper place. There are many
children brought up in the country who find their place best in the
heart of the great city; and there are many brought up in the cities who
ultimately find themselves and their place in the country and in its
work. While all this is true it may still be maintained that the proper
mental food for country children is the life and the activities of the
country; and if this life and these activities are made pleasant and
attractive a larger percentage of country children will remain in the
country for the benefit of both country and city.
=Mere Textbook Teaching.=--Many teachers in the country, as well as in
the city, follow literally the textbooks provided for them. Textbooks,
being common and general, must leave the application of the thought
largely to the teacher. To follow them is probably the easiest kind of
teaching, for the mind then moves along the line of least resistance.
Accordingly the tendency is merely to teach textbooks, without
libraries, laboratories, and other facilities for the application of the
thought of the text. Application and illustration are always difficult.
It frequently happens that children go through their textbooks under the
guidance of their more or less mechanical teachers, without making any
application of their knowledge. Their learning seems to be stored away
in pigeonholes and never used again. That in one pigeonhole does not
mix with that in another. Their thoughts and their education in
different fields are in no sense united. Pupils are surprised if they
are asked or expected to use their knowledge in any practical manner. A
man who had a tank, seven feet in diameter and eight feet high, about
half full of gasoline, asked his daughter, who was completing the eighth
grade, to figure out for him how many gallons it contained. She had just
been over "weights and measures" and "denominate numbers" of all kinds.
After much figuring she returned the answer that there were in it about
seven and one half gallons, without ever suspecting the ridiculousness
of the result.
=A Rich Environment.=--The country is so rich in material of all kinds
for scientific observation, that some education should be given to the
rural child in this field. Agriculture and its various activities
surround the child; nature teems with life, both animal and vegetable;
the country furnishes long stretches of meadow and woodland for
observation and study. Yet in most places the children are blind to the
beauties and wonders around them. Nature study in such an environment
should be a fascinating subject, and agriculture is full of
possibilities for the application of the thought in the textbooks.
=Who Will Teach These Things?=--But who will teach these new sciences or
open the eyes of the child to the beauties around him? Not everyone can
do it. It will require a master. Teaching "at" these things in a dull,
perfunctory way will do no good. It would be better to leave them
untaught. We have, everywhere, too much "attempting" to teach and not
enough teaching, too much seeming and not enough being, too much
appearance and not enough reality.
An example will illustrate the author's meaning. Some years ago an
experienced institute conductor in a western state found himself the
sole instructor when the teachers of the county convened. He sought
among the teachers for someone who could and would give him assistance.
One man of middle age, who had taught for many years, volunteered to
take the subject of arithmetic and to give four lessons of forty minutes
each in it during the week. This was good news to the conductor; he
congratulated himself on having found some efficient help. His
assistant, however, after talking on arithmetic for ten minutes of his
first period, reached the limit of his capacity, either of thought or of
expression, and had to stop. He could not say another word on that
subject during the week! Now if this is true of an experienced
middle-aged teacher of a subject so universally taught as arithmetic,
how much more true must it be of an instructor in a subject like
agriculture. It should not be expected that a young girl, eighteen or
twenty years of age, who has probably been brought up in the city and
who has had the subject of agriculture only one period a day for a year,
can give any adequate instruction in that branch. She would be the butt
for ridicule among the practical boys and girls in the country who
would probably know more about such things than she. She would,
therefore, lose the respect and confidence of pupils and parents, and it
would really be better for her and for all concerned not to attempt the
teaching of that subject at all. What is worth doing at all is worth
doing well. A little instruction well given and well applied is worth
any amount of "stuff" poorly done and unapplied.
=The Scientific Spirit Needed.=--There is great need of teachers who are
thoroughly imbued with the scientific spirit. In the country especially
there is need of teachers who will rouse the boys and girls to the
investigation of problems from the facts at hand and all around them.
This should be done inductively and in an investigative spirit. Our
whole system of education seems somewhat vitiated by the deductive
attitude and method of teaching--the assuming of theories handed down by
the past, without investigation or verification. This is the kind of
teaching which has paralyzed China for untold generations. The easiest
thing to do is to accept something which somebody else has formulated
and then, without further ado, to be content with it. The truly
scientific mind, the investigative mind, is one that starts with facts
or phenomena and, after observing a sufficient number of them,
formulates a conclusion and tests it. This will result in real
thinking--which is the same as "thinging." It is putting _things_ into
causal relation and constructing from them, unity out of diversity. To
induce this habit of thought, to inspire this spirit of investigation
and observation in children is the essence of teaching. To teach is to
cause others to _think_, and the man or woman who does this is a
successful teacher.
=A Course of Study.=--There should be in every rural school a simple and
suggestive course of study. This should not be as large as a textbook.
The purpose of it is not to indicate at great length and in detail
either the matter or the manner of teaching any specific subject. It
should be merely an outline of the metes and bounds in the processes and
the progress of pupils through the grades. The course of study should be
a means, not an end; it should be a servant and not a master. It should
not entail upon the school or upon the teacher a vast complicated
machinery or an endless routine of red tape. If it does this it defeats
its true aim. Here again the country schools have attempted to imitate
the city schools. In all cities grading is much more systematized, and
is pushed to a greater extent than it is or should be in the country.
Owing to the necessities of the situation and also to the convenience of
the plan in the cities, the grades, with their appropriate books, amount
of work, and plan of procedure, are much more definite than is possible
or desirable in the country. To grade the country schools as definitely
and as systematically as is done in the city would be to do them an
irreparable injury. The country would make a great mistake to imitate
the city school systems in its courses of study.
=Red Tape.=--It sometimes happens that county and state superintendents,
in performing the duties of their office, think it necessary to impose
upon the country schools a variety of tests, examinations, reports, and
what-not, which accomplish but little and may result in positive injury.
To pile up complications and intricacies having no practical educational
value is utterly useless. It indicates the lack of a true conception of
the school situation. Such haphazard methods will not teach alone any
more than a saw will saw alone. Behind it all must be the simple, great
teacher, and for him all these things, beyond a reasonable extent, are
hindrances to progress.
=Length of Term.=--In very many country districts the terms are
frequently only six months in the year. This should be extended to eight
at least. Even in this case, it gives the rural school a shorter term
than the city school, which usually has nine or ten months each year.
But it is very probable that the simplicity of rural school life and
rural school teaching will enable pupils to do as much in eight months
as is done in the city in nine.
=Individual Work.=--Individual work should be the rule in many subjects.
There is no need, on account of numbers, of a lock-step. In the cities,
where the teacher has probably an average of 35 to 40 children, all the
pupils are held together and in line. In such cases the great danger is
to those above the average. There is the danger of forming what might be
called the "slow habit." The bright pupils are retarded in their work,
for they are capable of much more than they do. In such cases the
retardation is not on account of the inability of the pupil but on
account of the system. The bright ones are held back in line with the
slow. This need not be the case in rural schools. Here, in every subject
which lends itself to the plan, each pupil should be allowed to go as
far and as fast as he can, provided that he appreciates the thought,
solves the problems, and understands the work as he goes. I once knew a
large rural school in which there were enrolled about sixty pupils,
taking the subjects of all the grades, from the first to the eighth and
even some high school subjects. In such classes as arithmetic the pupils
were, so to speak, "turned loose" and all entered upon a race for the
goal. Each one did as much as he could, his attainments being subjected
to the test of examination. The plan worked excellently; no one was
retarded, and all were intensely busy.
="Waking Up the Mind."=--The main thing in any school is not the amount
of knowledge which pupils get from textbooks or from the teacher, but
the extent to which the mind appropriates that knowledge and is "waked
up" by it. Mr. Page in his excellent classic, _The Theory and Practice
of Teaching_, has a chapter called "Waking Up the Mind" and some
excellent illustrations as to how it may be done. The main thing is not
the amount of mere knowledge or information held in memory for future
delivery, but the spirit and attitude of it all. The extent to which
children's minds are made awake and sensitive, and the extent to which
they are inspired to pursue with zest and spirit any new problem are the
best criterions of success in teaching. The spirit and method of attack
is all-important; quantity is secondary. If children have each other, so
to speak, "by the ears," over some problem from one day to the next, it
indicates that the school and the teacher are awake, that they are up
and doing, and that education, which is a process of leavening, is
taking place.
=The Overflow of Instruction.=--On account of the individual work which
is possible in the country schools, what is sometimes called the
"overflow of instruction" is an important factor in the stimulation and
the education of all the children in the room. In the city school, where
all are on a dead level, doing the same work, there is not much
information or inspiration descending from above, for there is no class
above. But in the rural school, children hear either consciously or
unconsciously much that is going on around them. They hear the larger
boys and girls recite and discuss many interesting things. These
discussions wake up minds by sowing the seeds which afterwards come to
flower and fruit in those who listen--in those who, in fact, cannot help
hearing.
I remember an incident which occurred during my experience as a pupil in
a country school. A certain county superintendent, who used to visit the
school periodically, was in the habit, on these occasions, of reading to
the school for probably half an hour. Just what he read I do not even
remember, but I recall vividly his quiet manner and attitude, his
beautiful and simple expression, and the whole tone and temper of the
man as he gathered the thought and expressed it so beautifully and so
artistically. This type of thing has great influence. It is often the
intangible thing that tells and that is valuable. In every case, that
which is most artistically done is probably that which leaves its
impression.
=Affiliation.=--In some states, notably in Minnesota, an excellent plan
is in vogue by which the schools surrounding a town or a city are
affiliated with the city schools in such a manner as to receive the
benefit of the instruction of certain special teachers from the city.
These teachers--of manual training, domestic science, agriculture,
etc.--are sent out from the city to these rural schools two or three
times a week, and in return the country children beyond a certain grade
are sent to the high school in the city. This is a process of
affiliation which is stimulating and economical, and can be encouraged
with good results.
[Illustration: A Christmas gathering at the new school]
[Illustration: A school garden in the larger center]
=The "Liking Point."=--In the teaching of all subjects the important
thing is that the pupil reach what may be termed the "liking point."
Until a pupil has reached that point in any subject of study his work
is mere drudgery--it is work which is probably disliked. The great
problem for the teacher is to bring the child as soon as possible to
this liking point, and then to keep him there. It is probable that every
pupil can be brought to the liking point of every subject by a good
teacher. Where there is difficulty in doing this, something has gone
wrong somewhere, either on the part of the pupil, his former teachers,
his parents, or his companions. When a pupil has reached the liking
point it means that he has a keen relish, an appetite for the subject,
and in this condition he will actively pursue it.
=The Teacher the Chief Factor.=--The foregoing observations imply again
that the teacher, after all, is the great factor in the success of the
school. He is the "man behind the gun"; he is the engineer at the
throttle; he is the master at the helm; he is the guide, for he has been
over the road; he is the organizer, the center of things; he is the
mainspring; he is the soul of the school, and is greater than books or
courses of study. He is the living fire at which all the children must
light their torches. Again we ask, how can this kind of person be found?
Without him true education, in its best sense, cannot be secured; with
him the paltry consideration of salary should not enter. Without such
teachers there can be no solution of the rural school problems, nor,
indeed, of the rural life problems. With him and those of his class,
there is great hope.