THE movement toward using the schoolhouse as a center for the social
activities of the community is gaining ground every year and through
this movement the school, as an organization consisting of the teacher
and pupils, is rapidly coming to have much more influence in the
community life than was formerly the case when the school was considered
as merely an organization for the teaching of academic subjects. The
need of a social center in the country districts is especially marked,
inasmuch as there is a decided tendency among the country people to
gather in small groups, based upon relationship or intimate friendship,
to the exclusion of the wider interests of the community. Little attempt
is usually made to direct in any way the outside activities or the
recreation hours of the young people and often their activities take a
direction which is distinctly unsocial.
The school in adapting itself to the community in order that it may
serve as a social center must make certain investigations, because the
need of social service and the kind of service which shall be
instituted, depends upon existing local conditions. Some of the most
necessary lines of investigation to be made by the teacher and pupils
before the most effective aid can be rendered, are those which follow:
First.--The number of farmers who own the farms upon which they live and
the number of tenant farmers.
Second.--The average size of the farms; the number of well-arranged
homes; the total number of acres devoted to each of the important crops.
Third.--The distance to the nearest market, and the number of miles of
well-kept roads.
These three points will determine largely the direction which any social
movement must take, because upon them is based the economic situation of
the community. In addition to considering the community from the
economic point of view, we may also consider the sanitary conditions
that prevail in the district, and the teacher and pupils should make a
survey of the district with the following points in mind:
First.--The sources of water supply. If water is from open wells, where
are they located, and what is the distance from barns and outhouses; are
they built in accordance with specifications from the Department of
Sanitation?
Second.--How is garbage disposed of in the neighborhood; are common
drinking cups and the common towel prohibited in the schoolroom? Is the
school furnished with a covered water tank, and does it have facilities
for washing the hands and face? Do the people of the neighborhood know
the regulations of the Department of Sanitation in regard to sanitary
conditions; is there much preventable illness in the district, and to
what extent are patent medicines used by the patrons of the school?
Third.--Are the houses, including the schoolhouses, well ventilated and
well located as far as distance from standing water or other
mosquito-breeding places is concerned? Is the floor of the schoolhouse
swept every night, and are foot scrapers and doormats provided? Does the
teacher inspect the outhouses, and are they built according to
specifications from the Department of Sanitation?
A union of all the patrons of the district is necessary if any movement
is to be carried out with telling effect, and the teacher should find
out if there is or has been any organization of the men, women, girls,
or boys in the district of a social or civic type; has the school done
anything up to the present time to improve the social life in the
district, and has it ever encouraged local fairs or exhibits of school
or agricultural products, and has it founded boys' or girls'
agricultural or home economics clubs?
How does the religious condition affect the community, and what is the
attitude of the community toward these matters and toward social
affairs? How do the young men and young women spend their leisure time?
Has the school any magazines or farm papers in its library, and how many
homes in the district have any library, or any musical instruments?
What has been the attitude of the previous teachers in the district
toward the affairs of the community; how long has each remained in the
district? Are changes in the position of the teachers frequent, and if
so, what is the reason? Have previous teachers actually resided in the
community or have they lived in the nearest town? Have the previous
teachers been professionally trained, and have they taken any interest
in the affairs of the community outside of their regular school duties?
When the school has succeeded in getting together the information noted
in the above paragraphs, it will then be in a position to determine what
lines of social activity will be best for the particular community.
The organization of men's clubs and women's clubs for the discussion of
topics of general interest and for the purpose of arousing a feeling of
community interest should be undertaken as soon as possible, the teacher
always remembering that the management of these organizations should be
in the hands of the members who compose them, and that the teacher
should act only as an adviser in case advice may be necessary. The
people should feel that on them rests the responsibility of developing
the civic and social life of the community, and the teacher should not
allow them to shift this responsibility. The organization of boys' clubs
and girls' clubs will present no difficulties to the teacher who has
made a study of the situation and who is prepared for his work. The boys
and girls are in the most easily influenced period of their lives, and
whether or not they will develop a sense of civic and social
responsibility, depends very largely upon the attitude which their
teachers take in regard to these matters.
Rural life in any community has a tendency to be monotonous and
deadening to the finer qualities. Uninterrupted and unduly prolonged
physical labor tends to the detriment of both the physical and the
mental abilities of the individual. The isolation of the country home
tends to narrow and restrict social intercourse, and the difficulty of
travel and communication increases the monotony of country life. These
circumstances do a great deal to offset the advantage of living in the
country and have contributed a great deal to the stigma that has always
been attached to the countryman.
If there is to be any reform in this isolated social life of the
community, the reform must come about through the schools. The
Government can aid to a great extent through the provision of well-kept
roads and by the establishment of means of communication such as the
telephone and the telegraph. The man who is in touch with the large
affairs of life forgets his own petty annoyances in the contemplation of
problems of greater importance, while the man who has nothing to think
about except the annoyances of his own life tends to become
self-centered and narrow.
Rural social center work in the United States has made great progress
within the last few years and has been successful in practically all the
places where it has been tried, especially if the teacher is a person of
tact and intelligence. A great deal depends upon the attitude which the
teacher has in this work, and it is not enough that the teacher should
undertake such work as a burden added to the already overcrowded
curriculum of the day, but the teacher should enter into the movement
with a sincere desire to improve the condition of the community and
bring the patrons of the district to a higher degree of efficiency as
workmen and as citizens. In every community there are many young women
and young men who are above the average school age who are compelled to
work during the day, and who are fast becoming fixed in the monotonous
life that has surrounded the older people of the community, who might
easily be interested by the teacher and influenced through the formation
of social clubs, so that they would form the nucleus for a better coming
generation of citizens. The meetings of young people should partake of
recreation as well as of serious study, and while the avowed intention
of new clubs formed by the school should be for the purpose of bettering
the social and civic condition of the people of the community, they must
be placed in as favorable a light as possible, for it should be
remembered that people will often undertake a movement which will have
decidedly beneficial results if it is disguised under the form of
recreation, when they would hesitate to give their continued assistance
to such a movement if it partook entirely of the nature of serious
study.
The Department of Education in the Island of Porto Rico is making a
special effort at the present time to interest the older girls and the
women of the towns in social betterment through the medium of mothers'
clubs and girls' clubs, organized under the direction of the teachers of
home economics. These clubs have been organized in practically all of
the towns of the Island and are meeting with general success. In many
cases the girls' clubs assume an aspect of economic improvement in that
they undertake the production of certain salable articles such as
embroidery or handwork, and the teacher in charge of the group provides
the market for the articles produced. Little has been done up to the
present in organizing the men and boys into social groups. Boy scout
organizations were widely established through the Island several years
ago, but on account of the lack of some individual to devote his time to
the organizing side of the movement they have decreased in number and in
influence. Anyone who is at all familiar with the social situation in
Porto Rico, especially in the rural districts, will see at once the
necessity of organizations of the kind mentioned above and will be
impressed with the possibilities for good in a community which can be
exercised by the rural school under the direction of an efficient, well
trained, enthusiastic teacher. The democratic form of government which
the Island enjoys demands the highest possible development of civic and
social ideas and obligations, and in order to fulfill its highest
mission the school should undertake such lines of work as will tend to
develop not only better educated people of academic attainments, but
also better trained citizens in the social and civic sense.