will love to read; for only then will it leave the desire to read. It
must so put a premium upon patriotism, loyalty to country, and
high-grade citizenship that the child shall feel the impulse to emulate
the noble men and women who have contributed to our happiness and
welfare. The study of history, even in the elementary school, should
eventuate in loyal, efficient citizenship.
The civics taught in the elementary school should be very practical and
concrete. The age has not yet come for a study of the federal or state
constitution. It is rather the _functional_ aspect of government that
should be presented at this time--the points of contact of school
district, township, county, state and federal government with the
individual. How the school is supported and controlled; how the bridges
are built and roads repaired; the work of township and county affairs;
the powers and duties of boards of health; the right of franchise and
the use of the ballot; the work of the postal system; the making and
enforcing of laws,--these and similar topics suggest what the child
should come to know from the study of civics. The great problem here is
to influence conduct in the direction of upright citizenship, and to
give such a knowledge of the machinery, especially of local government,
as will lead to efficient participation in its activities.
_Geography and nature study._ The rural school has a great advantage
over the city school in the teaching of geography and nature study. For
the country child is closer to the earth and its products than the city
child. The broad expanse of nature is always before him; life in its
multiple forms constantly appeals to his eye and ear. He watches the
seeds planted, and sees the crops cultivated and harvested. He has a
very concrete sense of the earth as the home of man, and possesses a
basis of practical knowledge for understanding the resources and
products of his own and other countries.
Geography should, therefore, be one of the most vital and useful
branches in the rural school. It is to begin wherever the life of the
child touches nature in his immediate environment, and proceed from this
on out to other parts of his home land, and finally to all lands.
But the geography taught must not be of the old catechism type, which
resulted in children committing to memory the definitions of
geographical terms instead of studying the real objects ready at hand.
It must not concern itself with the pupil's learning the names and
locations of dozens of places and geographical forms of no particular
importance, instead of coming into immediate touch with natural
environment and with the earth in the larger sense as it bears upon his
own life. The author has expressed this idea in another place as
follows:--
"The content of geography is, therefore, synonymous with the content of
the experience of the child as related to his own interests and
activities, in so far as they grow out of the earth as his home. Towns
and cities begin with the ones nearest at hand. The concept of rivers
has its rise in the one that flows past the child's home. Valleys,
mountains, capes, and bays are but modifications of those that lie
within the circle of personal experience. Generalizations must come to
be made, but they must rest upon concrete and particular instances if
they are to constitute a reality to the learner.
"What kind of people live in a country, what they work at, what they
eat, and how they live in their homes and their schools, what weather
they have, and what they wear, how they travel and speak and
read,--these are more vital questions to the child than the names and
locations of unimportant streams, towns, capes, and bays. For they are
the things that touch his own experience, and hence appeal to his
interest. Only as geography is given this social background, and
concerns itself with the earth as related to social activities, can it
fulfill its function in the elementary school."[4]
_Hygiene and health._ Since health is at the basis of all success and
happiness, nothing can be more important in the education of the child
than the subject of practical hygiene. It has been the custom in our
schools until recently, however, to give the child a difficult and
uninteresting text book dealing with physiology and anatomy, but
containing almost nothing on hygiene and the laws of health.
Not only should the course in physiology emphasize the laws of hygiene,
but this hygiene should in part have particular bearing on right living
under the conditions imposed by the farm. Food, its variety,
adaptability, and preparation; clothing for the different seasons; work,
recreation, and play; care of the eyes and teeth; bathing; the
ventilation of the home, and especially of sleeping-rooms; the effects
of tobacco and cigarettes in checking growth and reducing efficiency;
the more simple and obvious facts bearing on the relation of bacteria to
the growth, preparation, and spoiling of foods; the means to be taken to
prevent bacterial contagion of diseases,--these are some of the
practical matters that every child should know as a result of his study
of physiology and hygiene.
But we must go one step further still. It is not enough to teach these
things as matters of abstract theory or truth. Plenty of people know
better hygiene than they are practicing. The subject must be presented
so concretely and effectively and be supported by such incentives that
it will actually lead to better habits of living--that it will _result
in higher physical efficiency_.
_Agriculture._ Agriculture is of course preeminently a subject for the
rural school. Not only is it of immediate and direct practical
importance, but it is coming to be looked upon as so useful a cultural
study that it is being introduced into many city schools.
It has been objected that agriculture as a science cannot be taught in
the elementary school because of the lack of age and development of the
pupils. This is true, but neither can any other subject be taught to
children of this age as a complete science. It is possible, however, to
give children in the rural elementary school much useful information
concerning agriculture. Perhaps better still, it is possible to develop
a scientific attitude and interest that will lead to further study of
the subject in the high school or agricultural college, and that will in
the mean-time serve to attach the boys and girls to the farm.
The rural school pupils can be made familiar with the best modes of
planting and cultivating the various crops, and with the diseases and
insect enemies which threaten them; the selection of seed; the rotation
of crops, and many other practical things applying directly to their
home life. School gardens of vegetables and flowers constitute another
center of interest and information, and serve to unite the school and
the home.
Similarly the animal life of the farm can be studied, and a knowledge
gained of the best varieties of farm stock, their breeding and care.
Insects and bird life can be observed, and their part in the growth or
destruction of crops understood. All this is not only practicable, but
necessary as part of the rural school curriculum. Anything less than
this amount of practical agriculture leaves the rural school in some
degree short of fulfilling its function.
_Domestic science and manual training._ In general what is true of
agriculture is true of domestic science and manual training. They can be
presented in the elementary school only in the most concrete and applied
form. But they can be successfully presented in this form, and must be
if the rural school child is to have an equal opportunity with the town
and city child. The girls can be taught the art of sewing, cooking, and
serving, if only the necessary equipment and instruction are available.
They are ready to learn, the subject-matter is adapted to their age and
understanding, and nothing could be more vital to their interests and
welfare.
Likewise the boys can be taught the use of tools, the value and
finishing of different kinds of woods, and can develop no little skill
with their hands, while they are at the same time receiving mental
development and the cultivation of practical interests from this line of
work. It is not in the least a question of the readiness of the boys to
take up and profit by this subject, but is only a matter of equipment
and teaching.
_Music and art._ Nor should the finer aspects of culture be left out of
the education of the country child. He will learn music as readily as
the city child, and love it not less. Indeed, he needs it even more as a
part of his schooling, since the opportunities to hear and enjoy music
are always at hand in the city, and nearly always lacking in the
country. The child should be taught to sing and at least to understand
and appreciate music of worthy type.
The same principle will apply to art. The great masterpieces of painting
and sculpture have as much of beauty and inspiration in them as the
great masterpieces of literature. Yet most rural children complete their
schooling hardly having seen in the schoolroom a worthy copy of a great
picture, and much less have they been taught the significance of great
works of art or been led to appreciate and love them.
_Physical training._ It has been argued by many that the rural child has
enough exercise and hence does not need physical training. But this
position entirely misconceives the purpose of physical training. One may
have plenty of exercise, even too much exercise, without securing a
well-balanced physical development. Indeed, certain forms of farm work
done by children are often so severe a tax on their strength that a
corrective exercise is necessary in order to save stooped forms, curved
spines, and hollow chests. Furthermore, the farm child, lacking the
opportunities of the city child for gaining social ease and control,
needs the development that comes from physical training to give poise,
ease of bearing, and grace of movement.
Nor must the athletic phase of physical training be overlooked. While it
is undoubtedly true that athletics have come to occupy too large a part
of the time and absorb too great a proportion of the interest in many
schools, yet this is no reason for omitting avocational training wholly
from the rural school. Children require the training and development
that come from games and play quite as much as they need that coming
from work. The school owes a duty to the avocational side of life as
well as to the vocational.
The curriculum here proposed is so much broader and richer than that now
offered in the rural district school that it will appear to many to be
visionary and impossible. That it is impossible for the old type of
rural school will be readily admitted. But it is entirely practicable
and possible in the reorganized consolidated school, and is being
successfully presented, in its general aspects, at least, in many of
these schools. It is only such an education as every rural child is
entitled to, and is no more than the urban child is already receiving in
the better class of town and city elementary schools. If the rural
school cannot give the farm child an elementary education approximating
the one out-lined, it has no claim on his loyalty or time; and he should
in justice to himself be taken where he can receive a worthy education,
even if he is thereby lost to the farm.
But the rural boy and girl need not only a good elementary education,
but a high school education as well. Let us next consider the rural high
school curriculum.
_The rural high school curriculum_
This section is presented in the full knowledge that comparatively few
localities have as yet established the rural high school. It now forms,
however, an integral part of the consolidated rural school in not a few
places, and is abundantly justifying the expenditure made upon it. In
other localities the tendency is growing to send the rural child to the
town high school, or even for the family to move to town to secure high
schooling for the children. In still other cases, and we are obliged to
admit that these yet constitute the rule rather than the exception, the
farm boy or girl has no opportunity for a high school education.
If we succeed in working out the so-called rural problem of our country,
in maintaining a high standard of agricultural population and rural
life, the rural high school must be an important factor in our problem.
For the children of our farms need and must have an education reaching
beyond that of the elementary school. And this schooling must prepare
them to find the most satisfactory and successful type of life on the
farm, instead of drawing them away from the farm.
It goes without saying that the rural high school should be an
agricultural high school. This does not mean that it shall devote itself
exclusively to teaching agriculture; but rather that, while it offers a
broad range of culture and information, it shall emphasize those phases
of subject-matter that will best fit into the interests and activities
of farm life, instead of those phases that tend to lead toward the city
or the market-place. Its four years of work must be fully equal to that
of the best town or city high schools, but must in some degree be
different work. It must result in _efficiency_, and efficiency here must
relate itself to agricultural life and pursuits.
A detailed discussion of the rural high school curriculum will not be
required. The principles already suggested as applying to the elementary
school will govern here as well. The studies must cultivate breadth of
view and a wide range of interests, and must at the same time bear upon
the immediate life and experience of the pupils. The lines of study
begun in the elementary school will be continued, with the purpose of
securing deeper insight, more detailed knowledge, and greater
independence of judgment and action.
English should form an important part of the curriculum, with the
double aim of securing facility in the use of the mother tongue and of
developing a love for its literature. The rural high school graduate
should be able to write English correctly as to spelling, punctuation,
and grammar; he should be able to express himself effectively, either in
writing, conversation, or the more formal speech of the rostrum. Above
all, he should be an enthusiastic and discriminating reader, with a
catholicity of taste and interest that will lead him beyond the
agricultural journal and newspaper, important as these are, to the works
of fiction, material and social science, travel and biography, current
magazines and journals, and whatever else belongs to the intellectual
life of an intelligent, educated man of affairs.
This is asking more than is being accomplished at present by the course
in English in the town high school, but not more than is easily within
the range of possibility. The average high school graduate of to-day
cannot always spell and punctuate correctly, and commonly cannot write
well even an ordinary business letter; nor, it must be feared, has his
study of literature had a very great influence in developing him into a
good reader of worthy books.
But all this can be remedied by vitalizing the teaching of the mother
tongue; by lessening the proportion of time and emphasis placed upon
critical analysis and technical literary criticism, and increasing that
given to the drill and practice that alone can make sure of the
fundamentals of spelling, punctuation, and the common forms of
composition emphasized by all; and by the sympathetic, enthusiastic
teaching of good literature adapted to the age and interests of the
pupils from the standpoint of synthetic appreciation and enjoyment,
rather than from the standpoint of mechanical analysis.
The rural high school course in social science should be broad and
thorough. The course in history should not give an undue proportion of
time to ancient and medieval history, nor to war and politics. Emphasis
should be placed on the social, industrial, and economic phases of human
development in modern times and in our own country.
Political economy should form an important branch. Especially should it
deal with the problems of production, distribution, and consumption as
they relate to agriculture. Matters of finance, taxation, and
investment, while resting on general principles, should be applied to
the problems of the farm. Nor should the economic basis of support and
expenditure in the home be overlooked.
The course in civics should not only present the general theory of
government, but should apply concretely to the civic relations and
duties of a rural population. Especially should it appeal to the civic
conscience and sense of responsibility which we need among our rural
people to make the country an antidote to the political corruption of
the city.
Material science should constitute an important section of the rural
high school curriculum. Not only does its study afford one of the best
means of mental development, but the subject-matter of science has a
very direct bearing on the life and industries of the farm. To achieve
the best results, however, the science taught must be presented from the
concrete and applied point of view rather than from the abstract and
general. This does not mean that a hodge-podge of unrelated facts shall
be taught in the place of science; indeed, such a method would defeat
the whole purpose of the course. It means, however, that the general
laws and principles of science shall be carried out to their practical
bearing on the problems of the home and the farm, and not be left just
as general laws or abstract principles unapplied.
The botany and zoölogy of the rural high school will, of course, have a
strong agricultural trend. It will sacrifice the old logical
classifications and study of generic types of animals and plants for the
more interesting and useful study of the fauna and flora of the
locality. The various farm crops, their weed enemies, the helpful and
harmful insects and birds, the animal life of the barnyard, horticulture
and floriculture, and the elements of bacteriology, will constitute
important elements in the course.
The course in physics will develop the general principles of the
subject, and will then apply these principles to the machinery of the
farm, to the heating, lighting, and ventilation of houses, to the
drainage of soil, the plumbing of buildings, and a hundred other
practical problems bearing on the life of the farm. Chemistry will be
taught as related to the home, foods, soils, and crops. A concrete
geology will lead to a better understanding of soils, building
materials, and drainage. Physiology and hygiene will seek as their aim
longer life and higher personal efficiency.
The course in agriculture, whether presented separately or in
conjunction with botany and zoölogy, must be comprehensive and
thorough. Not only should it give a complete and practical knowledge of
the selection of seed; the planting, cultivating, and harvesting of
crops; the improvement and conservation of the soil; the breeding and
care of stock, etc., but it must serve to create and develop a
scientific attitude toward farming. The farmer should come to look upon
his work as offering the largest opportunities for the employment of
technical knowledge, judgment, and skill. That such an attitude will
yield large returns in success is attested by many farmers to-day who
are applying scientific methods to their work.
Manual training and domestic science should receive especial emphasis in
the rural high school. Both subjects have undoubted educational value in
themselves, and their practical value and importance to those looking
forward to farm life can hardly be over-estimated. And in these as in
other subjects, the course offered will need to be modified from that of
the city school in order to meet the requirements of the particular
problems to which the knowledge and training secured are to be applied.
Mathematics should form a part of the rural high school curriculum, but
the traditional courses in algebra and geometry do not meet the need.
The ideal course would probably be a skillful combination of algebra,
geometry, and trigonometry occupying the time of one or two years, and
applied directly to the problems of mechanics, measurements, surveying,
engineering, and building on the farm. Such an idea is not new, and
textbooks are now under way providing material for such a course.
In addition, there should be a thorough course in practical business
arithmetic. By this is not meant the abstract, analytical matter so
often taught as high school arithmetic, but concrete and applied
commercial and industrial arithmetic, with particular reference to farm
problems. In connection with this subject should be given a course in
household accounts, and book-keeping, including commercial forms and
commercial law.
It is doubtful whether foreign language has any place in the rural high
school. If offered at all, it should be only in high schools strong
enough to offer parallel courses for election, and should never displace
the subjects lying closer to the interests and needs of the students.
The study of music and art begun in the elementary school should be
continued in the high school, and a love for the beautiful cultivated
not only by the matter taught, but also by the æsthetic qualities of the
school buildings and grounds and their decoration. On the practical
sides these subjects will reach out to the beautifying of the farm homes
and the life they shelter.
When a well-taught curriculum of some such scope of elementary and high
school work as that suggested is as freely available to the farm child
as his school is available to the city child, will the country boys and
girls have a fair chance for education. And when this comes about, the
greatest single obstacle to keeping our young people on the farm will
have been removed.
FOOTNOTES:
[Footnote 4: _Social Principles of Education_, p. 264.]
IV
THE TEACHING OF THE RURAL SCHOOL
_The importance of teaching_
Teaching is the fundamental purpose for which the school is run. Taxes
are levied and collected, buildings erected and equipped, and curriculum
organized solely that teaching may go on. Children are clothed and fed
and sent to school instead of being put at work in order that they may
be taught. The school is classified into grades, programs are arranged,
and regulations are enforced only to make teaching possible. Normal
schools are established, teachers are trained, and certificates required
in order that teaching may be more efficient.
The teacher confronts a great task. On the one hand are the children,
ignorant, immature, and undeveloped. In them lie ready to be called
forth all the powers and capacities that will characterize their fully
ripened manhood and womanhood. Given the right stimulus and direction,
these powers will grow into splendid strength and capacity; lacking
this stimulus and guidance, the powers are left crippled and incomplete.