The Bulletin 45 



growing result of the strenuous efforts which are being made. However, 

 there is a large per cent of the rural population which can never be reached 

 through these agencies. Many are out of reach because of location; many 

 more are unwilling to change th&ir habits of thinking and living; and some 

 others are incapacitated either through ignorance or through the influences 

 of peculiar environment. 



These facts are especially true of country women who, as a rule, have 

 very little opportunity for contact with the larger movements which set the 

 pace for their town and city -sisters. Their visions of life are dwarfed in 

 the outset, very often, by the uncompromising customs and traditions which 

 have circumscribed their lives from early childhood — that period of life 

 when the notions of home and the standards of living are eternally fixed 

 in the minds of the youth, as a rule. 



In view of these facts it becomes necessary to reach these conditions 

 through the training of the youth for actual living and a conscious appre- 

 ciation of the matchless possibilities of rural life by courses in our rural 

 schools along practical lines. 



No community, no home, can rise above the standard of its womanhood. 

 The average girl is going to spend the most of her years in home making. 

 What finer thing could be done toward home and community building and 

 standardizing country life than to send these girls out from our schools 

 actually prepared to fill their life missions, giving a full measure of service, 

 and at the same time conserving their physical strength? On every hand 

 we see the tragedy of a woman whose health, happiness, hope and ambitions 

 have been ruthlessly sacrificed upon the altar of ignorance. 



What value have Latin, algebra and kindred subjects for a girl in com- 

 parison with a course of training which shall lead her to know and practice 

 the laws of hygiene and sanitation; which shall teach her the needs of the 

 human system, the foods which best supply these needs, the best methods 

 for the preparation of these foods for nature's use, the economy of time and 

 effort, the conservation of her own strength and health while performing 

 her duties, and the countless other lessons which are vital in the shaping 

 up of every woman's home and life policy? 



The argument of "superior cultural value," which is made in behalf of 

 classical lines of training, weakens by comparison with industrial^ training 

 when a choice has to be made between the two. True culture grows out 

 of spiritual development and soul expansion even more than from intellectual 

 development. What could conduce more effectively to the mental, physical 

 and spiritual development of a girl than a course of training which fits her 

 for the natural sphere of home, and aims at stimulating the native, womanly 

 traits in her character, and gives her actual skill in performing gracefully 

 and graciously the duties of home making. 



What duty, then, lies next in the development of an efficient rural school 

 system? What has the rural parent a right to expect from the schools? 

 What is it their duty to demand of the schools? 



These questions are finding a solution in a number of rural communities 

 of North Carolina through certain activities which have been set in motion 

 through the combined efforts of their teachers and the organized womanhood 

 of the community. There are springing into existence in many rural schools 

 domestic science classes which are serving in a modest but practical way 

 the purpose for which they were intended— that of preparing the girls for 

 life; and these schools are building gradually toward the only scheme of 

 education which can be permanently efficient and effective in rural progress. 



Let us see to providing training along industrial lines in our rural schools 

 in order that, through the schools, the otherwise impossible situations may 

 be influenced to higher standards of living, and the girls may go forth to 

 meet the exigencies of life with a fine vision of the possibilities ahead of 

 them and the training which shall enable them to cope with life's problems 

 intelligently and effectively. 



Whenever public sentiment begins to demand this type of rural school the 

 teaching force will prepare to m.eet the demand. Experiments have demon- 

 strated the feasibility of this line of work in rural schools having three or 

 more teachers, and the time is now at hand to require it as an integral 

 part of the school course. 



