_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."
[Illustration: PLATE XI.
FIG. 12.--A cozy little country schoolhouse in the tall, picturesque
woods of California.
FIG 13.--This model country school building, planned by State
Superintendent E. T. Fairchild, of Kansas, is being copied in many
places.]
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.
[Illustration: PLATE XII.
FIG. 14.--The model rural school building, as constructed for practice
and demonstration work at the Kirkville (Missouri) Normal School.]
"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 7-1/2 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.
[Illustration: PLATE XIII.
FIG. 15.--A rear view of the model rural school building at the
Kirkville Normal.]
"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 1-1/4 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.
[Illustration: PLATE XIV.
FIG. 16.--Using the Babcock milk-tester in a New York school.]
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.
[Illustration: PLATE XV.
FIGS. 17-21.--This magnificent consolidated school in Winnebago County,
Illinois, was inspired by the excellent work of the well-known
Superintendent O. J. Kern. The four little one-room buildings illustrated
above gave way to it.]
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.
[Illustration: PLATE XVI.
FIG. 22.--The Cornell schoolhouse. A one-teacher building, with a
workroom or laboratory at one side that the teacher can control through
the folding doors and glass partitions. Every effort is made to render
the building and place attractive and homelike.]
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.