356 Missouri Agricultural Report. 



section of the United States of America, in passing, would point it out 

 ^s — "a typical rural school." That house as you see it is a monument 

 to the ignorance of parents and teachers of the potent influence that 

 physical surroimclings exert on the lives of children therein housed; 

 ignorance of the effects of physical environment on the quality of citizen- 

 ship this school turns out. 



In the interior of this house is a big red stove standing in the mid- 

 dle of the room, makes even heating impossible; four windows on each 

 side of the building, placed opposite each other, cause strong cross 

 lights, ruinous to the eyes, the seats and desks are of the kind in use 

 forty years ago and are placed without regard to the needs of growing 

 children. There is no library, no maps nor globe, no pictures on the 

 wall. Yet in this same section, I have noticed a steady improvement 

 in the farm conditions, in fences and gates, in the variety and grade of 

 stock, in the number of good barns that stand out for miles as an index 

 to the progress and prosperity of the farmers — barns that appear in 

 strange contrast to that lonely building, where those farmers' children 

 are expected to receive their education — an education, think you, that 

 will adequately equip those helpless children for successful competition 

 in the struggle for existence and advancement under twentieth century 

 conditions ? 



Lest you charge me with presenting exceptional conditions to be 

 foimd in North Missouri only, I must tell you that in historical Pike, the 

 county of our own Champ Clark, I listened with increasing surprise to 

 the reports of six county school teachers as they successively detailed 

 the obstacles to proper work in their respective districts. For lack of 

 time, I mention but one, and that of great importance, failure to pro- 

 vide a supply of pure drinking water on the school grounds. Aside from 

 considerations of hygiene, and economy of school time, the methods 

 necessarily resorted to to supply this primitive want of man character- 

 ized the days of Daniel Boone, without bringing the advantages that he 

 enjoyed. A county superintendent in another county within street car 

 distance of St. Louis, confessed in his association not long since there 

 were schools in his county where the district neglected to provide a 

 water supply. In one case a spring more than a half mile away was de- 

 pended upon. To save as much loss of time as possible for the children, 

 .a watch was kept for the good neighbor who would be passing and who 

 ;might find time to take the empty school jug with him and return it 

 ifilled with the limpid fluid. 



In another county I found a good school, well equipped, with a 

 teacher who knew better than she dared to do; her predecessor 

 having lost her position for demanding too many changes. She allowed 



