272 ANNUAL REPORT OF THE Off. Doc. 



RURAL CHILDREN NEGLECTED 



Tlie most pressing problem of the public school and especially the 

 rural school, is the problem of giving every child in rural communi- 

 ties a good common school education. To do this, it becomes neces- 

 sary to first get them into our schools and then hold them there 

 long enough to secure the necessary training. As the burden of 

 maintaining our public schools rests most heavily upon the farmer, 

 and as his children are the ones most directly benefited, it is time 

 that he took a more active interest in perfecting a practical and 

 intelligent school system. To provide every child of school age in 

 his community with a good school and to keep that school in 

 operation eight or nine months out of the year, requires a vast 

 expenditure of money, as good schools cannot be had without some 

 sacrifice. The rural school of to-day, as compared with that of a 

 generation ago, is much less efficient in the training of our boys 

 and girls. Then these schools were attended by large numbers of 

 boys and girls who remained in them until they were full grown 

 men and women. They were taught by the brightest minds in the 

 community, often, during the winter, hj college students and dur- 

 ing the summer by women from the Normal school or academy. 



THE SCHOOL OF TODAY 



The rural school of today is taught, in most cases, by young, in- 

 experienced, half-trained and often inefficient teachers, who lack in 

 professional ideals and ambitions. They may be divided into three 

 general classes: The raw apprentice class who expect to teach until 

 a better position is offered them in the town or' city; the marriage- 

 able class who teach until they get married, and the old stagers 

 who are too inefficient to get positions elsewhere. Again, many of 

 the teachers are from the town or city and are not in sympathy 

 with farm life and know nothing of the real needs of the children. 

 When Friday night comes they go back to their homes and do not 

 return until Monday morning. Such a teacher can be of but little use 

 in the school room and should never be elected to a position in 

 a rural school. 



SCHOOLS TOO SMALL 



The attendance in many of our rural schools is so small that 

 the teacher cannot do good work. Thus it has come about that many 

 of our schools have too few pupils to stimulate the teacher to do 

 his best work or to give the pupils that very important part of 

 his education which comes from contact with his fellows. This 

 condition is greatly aggravated when there are not pupils enough 

 in the class for mind to come in contact with mind in the daily 

 recitation or on the playground. While it cannot be claimed that 

 consolidation offers a panacea for all the ills of the rural school, 

 because there are many sections of our State where it would be 

 exceedingly difficult, if not impossible, yet the movement thus far 

 has been very satisfactory and is changing our whole school sj'stem. 

 Undoubtedly the work will be extended and will become an im- 

 portant factor in solving the problem of the rural school. It adds 

 another agency for breaking down the barriers of isolation and stag- 

 nation which so often have kept the farmer out of harmony with 

 the world in which he lives, and which have caused the farmers' 

 children to leare the country for the greater attractions and greater 

 uncertainties of the city. 



