178 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 



in the country is just double what it is in the city, and this despite the 

 fact that nearly all the illiterate immigrants who come to this country 

 reside in the cities. 



The problem of rural life from an economic viewpoint seems broad 

 enough, and the task of the rural school looms large; yet we must add, 

 that while 53.7 per cent, of the people in the United States live in the 

 country, the per cent, of children of school age (6-20) who live in the 

 country is 58.5. That is 53.7 per cent, of the people have to educate 

 58.5 per cent, of the children; while the other 46.3 per cent., who live 

 in the city, have to educate only 41.3 per cent, of the children. 



From the social side there is a problem nearly as great. For even 

 if the telephone, the rural mail delivery, the automobile, and the good 

 roads movements as doing much to make possible a better social life, 

 yet where is the theater, the moving pictures, the library, the high 

 school, the club house, the athletic fields, the parks, the shop windows, 

 the bright lights, the crowd? These are in the city, and they call 

 loudly to the young life in the country. Isolation is the word in the 

 country which corresponds to the word congestion in the city. The 

 play side of life is too narrow, and people die of lonesomeness. 



It is not the purpose of this article to suggest the country school as 

 a panacea for all these social, religious, intellectual, and economic ills, 

 but it would urge that a systematic study of the whole problem should 

 be made in order that the appropriate function of each rural institution 

 may be more scientifically determined. What is said here is true only 

 of the United States as a whole, and not of any one section in particular. 

 But a constructive eSort should be made in every community to under- 

 stand the problem as it exists there. And then for its solution we 

 need, not so much a new institution, as a reinterpretation of the func- 

 tion of the institutions we already have. The rural church ought to 

 exist, but it must teach wholesome religion in the place of medieval 

 creeds, and build community churches instead of Methodist or Presby- 

 terian churches. In like manner, the school must drop some of its 

 traditions, quit luring children away to the city, and begin to reconstruct 

 in terms of country life. It must be a state school in more than name, 

 and be a school for old as well as young. The schoolhouse must be 

 open for all kinds of social and intellectual programs, and become the 

 center of community life. 



But this can not be done by the various rural institutions working 

 singly, at different fragments of the problem. Concerted effort is 

 needed, and we can not propose a safe plan of reconstruction for the 

 school, or for the church, or for social life, until we know more about 

 the present status and more about the facts which must underlie any 

 constructive program. 



The Country Life Commission is a notable example on a large scale 



