Rural School Leaflet 1255 



A CHAT WITH RURAL TEACHERS 

 Alice G. McCloskey 



N the majority of cases we find that teachers 

 prefer to be in cities, but fortunately there are 

 those who need to be in the open country where 

 green things grow and where sky and wood 

 and song of bird deepen and enrich the day; 

 and where, for part of the year, there is all the 

 magic of winter and its rugged gifts — the spark- 

 ling, snow-covered fields, the silent " snow-choked 

 wood," the new mystery of starlight and moon- 

 light, and the deep, wild winds. 



There are in New York State some excellent rural 

 schools, but many of them have been greatly 

 neglected in the past. A survey of the buildings, 

 the grounds, and the equipment of the educational centers of rural 

 districts would, in a large number of cases, reveal conditions that indicate 

 serious lack of interest. From these schools should come some of the 

 strongest national leaders, since boys and girls in the country have rare 

 opportunities for development, not the least of which are their contact 

 with nature, their habits of industry, their experience in taking respon- 

 sibility. These advantages should be supplemented by good instruction 

 in dignified surroundings. 



A point of view on rural schools that will interest many of our teachers 

 is given in the following quotation from an article by Booker T. Washing- 

 ton, published in The Outlook: 



" There are few sights more pathetic in purely rural districts than the 

 ordinary country schoolhouse. Usually it is a little, lonesome building, 

 stiff and unattractive in architecture, standing out in some old field, 

 having not a single thing, either in its location, its outward appearance, 

 or the work that goes on inside it, that indicates any connection whatever 

 with the daily life of the people by whom it is surrounded. The very 

 style and appearance of such a school building suggests a separation 

 between school life and actual life that ought not to exist. 



" There is no earthly reason why a country schoolhouse, in location, 

 appearance, or any other respect, should be very different, inside or out, 

 from the average farmer's cottage; in fact, there is no reason why a country 

 school should not have both the appearance and the character of a model 

 country home. My notion of a country school is a vine-covered cottage 

 in the middle of a garden, with fruit and flowers and vegetables growing 

 all about it. It should have a stable attached, with horses, cows, chickens; 



