the consolidated schools greatly increases rural school patronage. It
makes the school accessible. The regular wagon service does away with
the "hit-and-miss" method of determining for each succeeding day whether
it is advisable for the child to start for school. So important is this
factor in securing attendance, that a careful study by Knorr[3] of the
attendance in Ohio district and consolidated schools shows twenty-seven
per cent more of the total school population in school under the
influence of public conveyance and other features peculiar to
consolidation than under the district system. He concludes that, broadly
speaking, by a system of consolidated schools with public conveyance,
rural school attendance can be increased by at least one fourth.
The life in the typical rural school is not sufficiently interesting and
attractive to secure a strong hold upon the pupils. The dreary ugliness
of the physical surroundings has already been referred to. And even in
districts where the building and grounds have been made reasonably
attractive, there is yet wanting a powerful factor--the influence of the
social incentive that comes from numbers. In hundreds of our rural
schools the daily attendance is less than a dozen pupils, frequently not
representing more than three or four families. The classes can therefore
contain not more than two or three pupils, and often only one. There is
no possibility of organizing games, or having the fun and frolic
possible to larger groups of children. Add to this the fact that the
teaching is often spiritless and uninspiring, and the reason becomes
still more plain why so many rural children drop out of school with
scarcely the rudiments of an education.
Here, again, the consolidated school, with its attractive building, its
improved equipment, its larger body of pupils, and its better teaching,
appears as a solution of the difficulty. For it does what the present
type of district school can never do--it makes school life interesting
and attractive to its pupils, and this brings to bear upon them one of
the strongest incentives to continue in school and secure an education.
Finally, much of the work of the school has not appealed to the pupils
as interesting or valuable. This has not been altogether the fault of
the curriculum, but often has come from the lack of adaptability of the
work to the pupils studying it. Through frequent changes of teachers,
poor classification, and irregularity of attendance, rural pupils have
often been forced to go over and over the same ground, without any
reference to whether they were ready to advance or not. In other cases,
careless grading has placed children in studies for which they were
utterly unprepared, and from which they could get nothing but
discouragement and dislike for school. In still other instances the
course pursued has been ill-balanced, and in no degree correlated. Often
the whim of the child determines whether he will or will not study
certain subjects, the teacher lacking either the knowledge or insistence
to bring about a better organization of the work.
The unskilled character of the rural school-teaching force, and the
impossibility of securing any reasonable supervision as the system is at
present organized, make us again turn to the consolidated school as the
remedy for these adverse conditions. For with its improved attendance,
its skilled teaching, and its better supervision, it easily and
naturally renders such conditions impossible. Give the consolidated
school, in addition, the greatly enriched curriculum which it will find
possible to offer its pupils, and the vexing question of the relation of
the rural school to its pupils will be far toward solution.
Let us next consider somewhat in detail the curriculum of the rural
school.
FOOTNOTES:
[Footnote 1: See "Consolidated Rural Schools," Bulletin 232, U. S.
Department of Agriculture.]
[Footnote 2: Bulletin 232, U. S. Department of Agriculture, p. 38.]
[Footnote 3: Bulletin 232, U. S. Department of Agriculture, p. 51.]
III
THE CURRICULUM OF THE RURAL SCHOOL
If we grant the economic ability to support good schools, then the
curriculum offered by any type of school, the scope of subject-matter
given the pupils to master, is a measure of the educational ideals of
those maintaining and using the schools. If the curriculum is broad, and
representative of the various great fields of human culture; if it
relates itself to the life and needs of its patrons; if it is adapted to
the interests and activities of its pupils, it may be said that the
people believe in education as a right of the individual and as a
preparation for successful living. But if, on the other hand, the
curriculum is meager and narrow, consisting only of the rudiments of
knowledge, and not related to the life of the people or the interests of
the pupils, then it may well be concluded that education is not highly
prized, that it is not understood, or that it is looked upon as an
incidental.
_The scope of the rural school curriculum_
Modern conditions require a broader and more thorough education than
that demanded by former times, and far more than the typical district
rural school affords. The old-time school offered only the "three R's,"
and this was thought sufficient for an education. But these times have
passed. Not only has society greatly increased in wealth during the last
half-century, but it has also grown much in intelligence. Many more
people are being educated now than formerly, and they are also being
vastly better educated. For the concept of what constitutes an education
has changed, and the curriculum has grown correspondingly broader and
richer.
It is therefore no longer possible to express the educational status of
a community in the percentage of people who can merely read and write.
Educational progress has become a national ideal. The elementary schools
in towns and cities have been greatly strengthened both in curriculum
and teaching. High schools have been organized and splendidly equipped,
and their attendance has rapidly increased.
But all this development has hardly touched the rural school. The
curriculum offered is pitifully narrow even for an elementary school,
and very few high schools are supported by rural communities. In fact, a
large proportion of our rural population are receiving an education but
little in advance of that offered a hundred years ago in similar
schools. This is not fair to the children born and reared on the farm;
it is not fair to one of the greatest and most important industries of
our country; and it cannot but result disastrously in the end.
If the rural school is to meet its problem, it must extend the scope of
its curriculum. It was formerly thought by many that education, except
in its simplest elements, was only for those planning to enter the
"learned professions." But this idea has given way before the onward
sweep of the spirit of democracy, and we now conceive education as the
right and duty of _all_. Nor by education do we mean the simple ability
to read, write, and number.
Our present-day civilization demands not only that the child shall be
taught to read, but also that he shall be supplied with books and guided
in his reading. Through reading as a tool he is to become familiar with
the best in the world's literature and its history. He is not only to
learn number, but is to be so educated that he may employ his number
concepts in fruitful ways. He must not only be familiar with the
mechanics of writing, but must have knowledge, interests, experience
that will give him something to write about. The "three R's" are
necessary tools, but they are only tools, and must be utilized in
putting the child into possession of the best and most fruitful culture
of the race. And, practically, they must put him into command of such
phases of culture as touch his own life and experience and make him more
efficient.
The rural school cannot extend the scope of its curriculum simply by
inserting in the present curriculum new studies related to the life and
work of the farm. The modification must be deeper and more thoroughgoing
than this. _A full elementary course of eight years and a high school
course of four years should be easily accessible to every rural child._
Less than this amount of education is inadequate to prepare for the life
of the farm, and fails to put the individual into full possession of his
powers. Nor, in most instances, should the high schooling be left to
some adjacent town, which is to receive the rural pupils upon payment of
tuition to the town district. Unless the town is small, and practically
a part of the rural community, it cannot supply, either in the
subject-matter of the curriculum or the spirit of the school, the type
of education that the rural children should have. For in so far as the
town or city high school leads to any specific vocation, it certainly
does not lead toward industrial occupations, and least of all toward
agriculture. It rather prepares for the professions, or for business
careers. Its tendency is very strongly to draw the boys and girls away
from the farm instead of preparing them for it.
While the rural child, therefore, must be provided with a better and
broader education, he should usually not be sent to town to get it. If
he is, the chances are that he will stay in town and be lost to the
farm. Indeed, this is precisely what has been happening; the town or
city high school has been turning the country boy away from the farm.
For not only does what one studies supply his knowledge; it also
determines his _attitude_.
If the curriculum contains no subject-matter related to the immediate
experience and occupation of the pupil, his education is certain to
entice him away from his old interests and activities. The farm boy
whose studies lack all point of contact with his life and work will soon
either lose interest in the curriculum or turn his back upon the farm.
If the boys and girls born on the farm are to be retained in this form
of industry, the rural school must be broadened to give them an
education equal to that afforded by town or city for its youth. If the
rural community cannot accomplish this end, it has no claim on the
loyalty and service of its youth. Rural children have a right to a
well-organized, well-equipped, and well-taught elementary school of
eight years and a high school of four years, with a curriculum adapted
especially to their interests and needs.
It is not meant, of course, that the rural school, with its present
organization and administration, can extend the scope of its curriculum
to make it the equal of that offered in the grades of the town or city
school. Radical changes, such as those discussed in the preceding
chapter, will have to be made in the rural district system before this
is possible. That these changes are being made and the full elementary
and high school course offered in many consolidated rural schools,
scattered from Florida to Idaho, is proof both of the feasibility of the
plan and of an awakened public demand for better rural education.
The broadened curriculum of the rural school must contain subject-matter
especially related to the interests and activities of the farm; upon
this all are agreed. But it must not stop with vocational subjects
alone. For, while one's vocation is fundamental, it is not all of life.
Education should help directly in making a living; it must also help to
live. Broad and permanent lines of interest must be set up and trained
to include many forms of experience. The child must come to know
something of the great social institutions of his day and of the history
leading to their development. He must become familiar with the marvelous
scientific discoveries and inventions underlying our modern
civilization. He must be led to feel appreciation for the beautiful in
art, literature, and music; and must have nurtured in his life a love
for goodness and truth in every form. In short, through the curriculum
the latent powers constituting the life capital of every normal child
are to be stimulated and developed to the end that his life shall be
more than mere physical existence--to the end that it shall be crowned
with fullness of knowledge, richness of feeling, and the victory of
worthy achievement. This is the right of every child in these prosperous
and enlightened times,--the right of the country child as well as the
city child. And society will not have done its duty in providing for the
education of its youth until the children of the farm have full
opportunities for such development.
_The rural elementary school curriculum_
By the elementary school is meant the eight grades of work below the
high school which the rural school is now meant to cover.
Whatever is put into the curriculum of a nation's schools finally
becomes a part of national character and achievement. What the children
study in school comes to determine their attitudes and shape their
aptitudes. The old Greek philosophers, becoming teachers of youth,
turned the nation into a set of students and disputants over
philosophical questions. Sparta taught her boys the arts of war, and
became the chief military nation of her time. Germany introduces
technological studies into her schools, and becomes the leading country
in the world in the arts of manufacture. Let any people emphasize in
their schools the studies that lead to commercial and professional
interests, and neglect those that prepare for industrial vocations, and
the industrial welfare of the nation is sure to suffer.
The curriculum of the rural school must, therefore, contain the basic
subjects that belong to all culture,--the studies that every normal,
intelligent person should have just because he belongs to the
twentieth-century civilization, and in addition must include the
subjects that afford the knowledge and develop the attitude and
technique belonging to the life of the farm. Let us now consider this
curriculum somewhat more in detail.
_The mother tongue._ Mastery of his mother tongue is the birthright of
every child. He should first of all be able to speak it correctly and
with ease. He should next be able to read it with comprehension and
enjoyment, and should become familiar with the best in its literature.
He should be able to write it with facility, both as to its spelling and
its composition. Finally, he should know something of the structure, or
grammar, of the language.
This requirement suggests the content of the curriculum as to English.
The child must be given opportunity to use the language orally; he must
be led to talk. But this implies that he must have something to say, and
be interested in saying it. Formal "language lessons," divorced from all
the child's interests and activities, will not meet the purpose.
Facility in speech grows out of enthusiasm in speaking. Every recitation
is a lesson in English, and should be used for this purpose; nor should
the aim be correctness only, but ease and fluency as well.
The child must also learn to read; not alone to pronounce the printed
words of a page, but to grasp the thought and feeling, and express them
in oral reading. This presupposes a mastery of the mechanics of reading,
the letters, words, and marks employed. The only way to learn to read is
by reading. This is true whether we refer to learning the mechanics of
reading, to learning the apprehension and expression of thought, or to
learning the art of appreciating and enjoying good literature.
Yet, trite and self-evident as this truism is, it is constantly violated
in teaching reading in the rural school. For the course in reading
usually consists of a series of five readers, expected to cover seven or
eight years of study. These readers contain less than one hundred pages
of reading matter to the year, or but little more than half a page a day
for the time the child should be in school. The result is that the same
reader is read over and over, to no purpose. With a rich literature
available for each of the eight years of the elementary school,
comparatively few of the rural schools have supplied either
supplementary readers or other reading books for the use of the
children.
The result is that most rural school children learn to read but
stumblingly, and seldom attain sufficient skill and taste in reading so
that it becomes a pleasure. Such a situation as this indicates the same
lack of wisdom that would be shown in employing willing and skillful
workmen to garner a rich harvest, and then sending them into the fields
with wholly insufficient and inadequate tools. The rural school must not
only teach the child the mechanics of reading, but lead him to read and
love good books. This can be done only _by supplying the books and
giving the child an opportunity to read them_.
Comparatively few people like to write. The pathway of expression finds
its way out more easily through the tongue than through the hand. Yet it
is highly necessary that every one should in this day be able to write.
Nor does this mean merely the ability to form letters into words and put
them down with a pen so that they are legible. This is a fundamental
requisite, but the mastery of penmanship, spelling, and punctuation is,
however, only a beginning. One must be able to formulate his thoughts
easily, to construct his sentences correctly, and to make his writing
effective; he must learn the art of composition.
Here again the principle already stated applies. The way to learn to
write is by writing; not just by the dreary treadmill of practicing
upon formal "compositions," but by having something to write that one
cares to express. The written language lessons should, therefore, always
grow out of the real interests and activities of the child in the home,
the school, or on the farm, and should include the art of
letter-writing, argumentation and exposition, as well as narration and
description.
The subject of formal grammar has little or no place in the grades of
the elementary school. The grammatical relations of the language are
complicated and beyond the power of the child at an early age. Nor does
the study of such relations result in efficiency in the use of language,
as is commonly supposed. Children are compelled in many schools to waste
weary years in the study of logical relations they are too young to
comprehend, when they should be reading, speaking, and writing their
mother tongue under the stimulus and guidance of a teacher who is
himself a worthy and enthusiastic model in the use of speech. Only the
simpler grammatical forms and relations should be taught in the grades,
and these should have immediate application to oral and written speech.
_Arithmetic._ Arithmetic has for more than two hundred years formed an
important part of the elementary school curriculum. It has been taught
with the double object of affording mental discipline for the child, and
of putting him into possession of an important tool of practical
knowledge. It is safe to say that a large proportion of the patrons of
the rural schools of the present look upon arithmetic as the most
important subject taught in the school after the simple mechanics of
reading. Ability to "cipher" has been thought of as constituting a large
and important part of the educational equipment of the practical man.
Without doubt, number is an essential part of the education of the
child. Yet there is nothing in the mere art of numbering things as we
meet them in daily experience that should make arithmetic require so
large a proportion of time as it has been receiving. The child is
usually started in number in the first grade, and continues it the full
eight years of the elementary course, finally devoting three or more
years of the high school course to its continued study. Thus, nearly one
fourth of the entire school time of the pupil is demanded by the various
phases of the number concept.
The only ground upon which the expenditure of this large proportion of
time upon number can be defended is that of _discipline_. And modern
psychology and experimental pedagogy have shown the folly and waste of
setting up empty discipline as an educational aim. Education time is too
short, and the amount of rich and valuable material waiting to be
mastered too great, to devote golden years to a relatively barren grind.
It is probable that at least half the time at present devoted to
arithmetic in the elementary school could be given to other subjects
with no loss to the child's ability in number, and with great gain to
his education as a whole. Not that the child knows number any too well
now. He does not. In fact, few children finishing the elementary school
possess any considerable degree of ability in arithmetic. They can work
rather hard problems, if they have a textbook, and the answers by which
to test their results. But give them a practical problem from the home,
the farm, or the shop, and the chances are two to one that they cannot
secure a correct result. This is not the fault of the child, but the
fault of the kind of arithmetic he has been given, and the way it has
been taught. We have taught him the solution of various difficult,
analytical problems not in the least typical of the concrete problems
to be met daily outside of school; but we have not taught him to add,
subtract, multiply, and divide with rapidity and accuracy. We have
required him to solve problems containing fractions with large and
irreducible denominators such as are never met in the business world,
but he cannot readily and with certainty handle numbers expressed in
halves, thirds, quarters, fifths, and eighths. He has been compelled to
sacrifice practical business efficiency in number to an attempt to train
his powers of logical analysis.
The arithmetic of the district school should be greatly simplified and
reduced in quantity. Its quality should be greatly improved both as to
accuracy and speed in the fundamental operations and in the various
concrete types of problems to be met in the home, on the farm, and in
the shop. There need be no fear that the mental training will be less
efficient with this type of arithmetic. For mental development comes
only where there is mastery, and there is no mastery of the arithmetic
as it is taught in the rural school to-day.
_History and civics._ Every American child should know the history and
mode of government of his country. This is true first of all because
this knowledge is necessary to intelligent participation in the affairs
of a republic; but it is also necessary to the right development of the
individual that he shall realize something of the heroism and sacrifice
required to produce the civilization which he enjoys. Every person needs
to extend his thought and appreciation until it is large enough to
include other peoples and times than his own. For only in this way can
he come to feel kinship with the race at large, and thus save himself
from provincialism and narrowness.
This is equivalent to saying that the curriculum should afford ample
opportunity for the study of history. Nor should the history given the
child deal chiefly with the military and political activities of the
nation. Many text books have been little more than an account of wars
and politics. These are not the aspects of national life that most
interest and concern the child, especially at the age when he is in the
elementary school. He should at this time be told about the _people_ of
his country,--their home life, their industries, their schools and
churches, their bravery, their hardships, adventures, and achievements.
He must come to know something of the great men and women of his Nation
and State, the writers, inventors, explorers, scientists, artists, and
musicians, as well as the soldiers and statesmen.
Not only does this require that the child shall have suitable textbooks
in history, but that he shall also have an adequate library of
interesting histories, biographies, and historical fiction adapted to
his age and interests. For it is not enough that the child shall learn
the elementary facts of history while he is in the elementary school;
more important still is it that he shall develop a real interest in
history, and form the taste for reading historical matter.