55 



The plantations of trees, vegetables, and ornamental plants could be made to serve 

 a most excellent purpose for instruction by demonstration and practi(;e methods. 

 The pupils could be taULrh't how to grow many thiuirs of which they would never 

 learn on the iiomc farui, and they could be trained to do many of the manual oper- 

 ations counnouly done on the farm in a much more effective manner than they 

 would be taught at home. On the laud set apart for lield crops lessons could be 

 taught in farm management, crop rotation, fertilizing the soil, and methods of pre- 

 paring the laud and of planting, cultivating, and harvesting field crops. 



But the most valuable oi)i)ortunitit^s are those where the school and the home and 

 farm can be brought into cooperation iu tiie training of the child. The i>lan of the 

 child's home farm, the methods of haudling each crop, the manner of producing 

 each class of animals, the management of the general housework, the decoration of 

 the home, the cooking and the sewing, all are lines of work iu which ways of bring- 

 ing cooi)erative action between tiie teacher and the parent may be introduced into 

 the training of the child. Howtiiis may be done has not been worked out in detail, 

 and no doubt, even after a large amount of instruction has been puljlished along this 

 line, the local conditions surrounding each teacher will require the constant devising 

 of new ways and means. 



This instruction will connect the school life with the home and farm life. It will 

 give to the education a iiractical realistic turn, which, while avoiding the bookish- 

 ness of education, will lead to placing a higher value on books. Not only will tech- 

 nical books be better appreciated by the pu[)il, because the school will be more prac- 

 tical, but this connection of school work with actual things will give greater stinmlus 

 to all school work. Parents will be more willing to have their children remain for a 

 longer time in the school that will give them training in practical affairs, and this 

 longer j)eriod will provide n)ore time for the general and cultural studies and give 

 the pui)ils a larger experience among people. One of the great advantages of the 

 larger school is that the pupils have more training with folks. They are not sub- 

 jected to the usual isolation of the farm at so youthful an age. 



These schools can better be nmde centers of social and other activities than can 

 the little rural school. Here the grange and farmers' clubs can center, and lectures 

 and meetings for various purposes can be held in the school with two of its rooms 

 opened together forming a hall. Modern stereopticon and moving-picture devices 

 make it practical to give much instruction in agriculture to pupils and adults where 

 such places for meetings are availal)le. The vans used for conveying the pupils to 

 school can be utilized to collect people for meetings. Contests at athletic games 

 between schools will extend the ac(]uaintance of jnipils beyond their own district. 

 One of the advantages of the larger district is that pupils during their school age 

 become acquainted with hundreds instead of with only .scores of their neighbors. 

 There is a wider acquaintance from which to choose friends and lifemates and a 

 wider knowledge of people with whom to do business. 



Schools thus organized with teachers technically trained would rapidly develop 

 methods and would devise ways and means of giving practical instruction, meanwhile 

 the larger and more highly organized school would be better developed in general 

 education. And the county inspectors having fewer schools to visit would be far 

 more effective than now in building up corps of teachers, in securing good methods, 

 and in developing a public sentiment more loyal to a splendid school system. With 

 the development of teachers trained in country-life education there will be available 

 those especially successful, who, as coujity inspectors, can help to create a new curricu- 

 lum and a new spirit in our rural schools. 



Every farm community which has productive land should investigate the practica- 

 bility of consolidating their rural schools on some such plan as outlined above. And 

 every rich State should carefully consider giving large State aid to this class of 

 schools. Possibly the State could undertake to pay for the purely industrial fea- 

 tures as it pays for the special education of those who attend the State institutions of 

 higher learning. It might be a good plan for the State to assume the cost of tech- 

 nical education in city high schools also. The consolidated rural school course can 

 be extended to the end of the second high school year, as has been amply proven by 

 the experience of consolidated schools already existing, thus making it "practical to 

 introduce much technical instruction. 



There are needed numerous experiments on a not too expensive scale to determine 

 lines that are practical in developing -country-life education in rural communities. 

 Those in Canada, Illinois, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Alabama, Tennessee, and else- 

 where are pointing out many difficulties and are developing numerous successful 

 features, more or less applicable in the consolidated rural school, and some of them 

 will be helpful in the isolated rural school. The texts, the laboratory helps, the 

 leaflets, the correspondence course, the children's nature clubs, and other devices of 

 bright teachers and promoters are all l)ringing forward the movement for better and 



