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Rural School Leaflet 



Teachers and parents, with full realization that character is more 



important than intellectual development, can work together to estab- 

 lish higher ideals among the young persons in the community. A child 

 should be taught to respect his body ; to stand on two feet ; to be able to 

 look with honesty into the face of any one to whom he is speaking; to 

 play fair; to finish a piece of work in the best way possible; to be reverent 

 in spirit. 



The teacher may think it wise to have parents understand that she 

 intends to cooperate with them in encouraging the children to form 



habits of neatness. A neat appear- 

 ance is far more essential to success 

 than is often realized. A little en- 

 couragement in the daily life, by 

 means, perhaps, of commendation 

 of children who are neat, will do 

 much in this work. 



It will be well also for the teacher 

 to express her desire to help in 

 teaching good manners. Loud 

 voices, boorish ways, lack of con- 

 sideration of older persons, and 

 rough, boisterous habits of inter- 

 course will often defeat young 

 persons in many opportunities for 

 growth and for pleasure that might 

 otherwise be theirs. Children should 

 be taught the reasons why definite 

 social forms are observed. If this 

 work is done with seriousness and 

 with sufficient frequency, the chil- 

 dren will soon realize its importance. 

 If the plans of the teacher include instruction in nature-study and 

 agriculture, parents should understand the place that these subjects 

 now have in the educational world. Many parents will say that they 

 know more of agriculture than does the school teacher. This is doubtless 

 true, but all lines of endeavor are dignified when made a part of the 

 educational system; and when boys and girls work out with the teacher 

 some problem in farm practice, the lesson may be connected with other 

 school subjects, such as geography, language, arithmetic, and the like. 

 Some parents object to nature-study because they have not fully realized 

 that all boys and girls on the farm need for their best success a natural- 

 history background. Many fanners possess this without knowing how it 



An interest in birds is often awakened by 

 making a bird house 



