Rural School Leaflet 



1253 



I wish it were possible that no youth were ever allowed to graduate 

 from a high school until he had performed real and useful manual labor 

 over a considerable period of time. Such experience would ripen him. 

 I wish this might be as true of the training of girls as of boys. If this 

 were a condition of high-school work it would be equally a condition of 

 college work. I know this is not possible; but I think we may well set 

 it before ourselves as an ideal, and endeavor to reach it as nearly as 

 possible by substituting institutional work for the lack of home work. 



Of course, such substitution cannot produce as genuine results in a 

 given length of time as real labor in the home and with the parents, but 

 it would be a vast improvement over the present method of allowing the 

 boy and the girl to go through all the grades of the public school and then 

 through college, and perhaps even on to gradua'.e studies, without ever 

 having had any useful occupational experience in life. Every person 

 in the world should be able to do something with his hands as well as 

 with his head. 



The colleges and schools of agriculture are now confronted with very 

 serious problems touching the qualifications of those who enter the in c ti- 

 tutions. Many of their students are coming from the cities and tov ns 

 without any practical experience of farm life or any personal knowledge 

 of the rural background. One cannot gain this knowledge or experience 

 by reading about it or dreaming of it. He must actually have been a 

 part of a country community in order to understand the situation. It 

 is impossible, however, to impose a general entrance requirement in farm 

 practice, because no way is provided whereby this experience can be 

 gained, if one is not brought up on a farm. 



A certain number of town boys can find employment on farms, but the 

 opportunities in this direction are not sufficient to meet the necessity 

 or the demand. Most farmers do not want city boys. I have many 

 times appealed to farmers that they owe a duty to the community to 

 take pains with the young man who comes to them for instruction, con- 

 sidering him as a pupil and paying him what his labor is worth, or charging 

 him for instruction, if he earns nothing, and for any damage that he may 

 do. The number of farmers who are in position and able to do this is 

 limited. Many city youths are adaptable and make excellent farm help; 

 but all inexperienced youths should be looked on as learners. Herein 

 is a relationship that needs adjustment. In some way society must pro- 

 vide the means whereby some of this needful experience may be gained, 

 if society is to maintain schools and colleges for agricultural education. 



If a college imposes an entrance requirement of mathematics, the candi- 

 date has an opportunity in the public schools to get his preparation in 

 that subject. The same is true in history, language, and sciences. It is 

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