1907] The Evolution of the Macdonald College 21 



extent in the training of teachers for the special work of the 

 country schools. These results are not due to the staff, but to 

 the environment of the normal schools. The city is not a suitable 

 place to study rural life, to gain that practical and scientific 

 knowledge of farm life that is so essential to the teacher, or to 

 get practice work in ungraded, one-master, rural schools. "City 

 schools teach city life and the facts that go with city life. " 



There should, therefore, be a rural normal school for the 

 special training of rural teachers; and probably such a school 

 could do the most effective work if it were attached to an agri- 

 cultural college. This opinion coincides wdth that expressed 

 in the recent report of the Committee on Industrial and Tech- 

 nical Education, appointed by the Legislature of Massachusetts, 

 and presided over by Dr. Carrol D. Wright, the noted educa- 

 tionist and economist. This report recommends the establish- 

 ment of a normal school for the training of teachers for the rural 

 schools at the State Agricultural College. 



Many efforts have been made to improve our rural schools. 

 The task is more difficult to-day than it has been for centuries 

 on account of the new conditions that have arisen as a result 

 of the recent scientific investigations in agriculture and the 

 rivalry of the great agricultural countries for the best markets. 



The ideal system of schools for the rural districts would 

 appear to be: (1) One or two agricultural high schools in each 

 county, each equipped with one or more teachers on its staff 

 trained at an agricultural college, acquainted with the practical 

 side of agriculture, and able to use the farm in connection with 

 the high school to demonstrate in a practical way the best 

 scientific principles and methods advocated by the Experiment 

 Stations. These schools would act as feeders for the Agricul- 

 tural College of the province. (2) A good consoHdated school 

 for each township, where the first year of the high school would 

 be connected in course with the elementary grade work. (3) 

 Good rural schools where nature study would form the basis of 

 the school effort, as in the lower grades of the consoHdated 

 school. This secondary course would be adapted to the needs 

 of the larger boys and girls, who spend most of their time on the- 

 farm, but who would be w^illing to spend two or three months 

 each year in a study of the activities of the district for the purpose 

 of bettering their knowledge of farm processes, and thus gaining 

 power for service. 



But such a system of rural schools cannot be estabtished" 

 without the hearty support of the farmers themselves, for it 

 means increased taxes. They must first be shown the value of ' 

 education, as applied to the various branches of agricultural 



