144 STATE BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



that can be seen and appreciated by everyone, but that it will teach the 

 spirit of cooperation. And, by the way, there is hardly anything more 

 needed today in rural life than this spirit of cooperation. The schools 

 can perform no better service than in training young people to work 

 together for common ends. In this work such things as ^^pecial day pro- 

 grams, as for Arbor Day, Washington's Birthday, Pioneer Day; the 

 holding of various school exhibitions; the preparation of exhibits for 

 county fairs, and similar endeavors nre useful and are being carried out 

 in most of our rural schools in this State. But the best example of this 

 work that I know of is a plan that is being used in the state of Maine, and 

 is performed through the agency of what is called a School Improvement 

 League. The purposes of the league are 1, to improve school grounds and 

 buildings; 2, to furnish suitable reading matter for pupils and people; 3, 

 to provide works of art for schoolrooms. There are three kinds of 

 leagues, the local leagues organized in each school ; town leagues, whose 

 membership consists of the oiMcers of the local league; and a State 

 league, whose members are delegates from the town leagues and 

 members of the local leagues who hold school diplomas. Any pupil, 

 teacher, school officer, or any other citizen may join the league 

 on payment of the dues. The minimum dues are one cent a month 

 for each pupil, for other members not less than ten cents a term. 

 But these dues may be made larger by vote of the league. Each town 

 league has a delegate to the meeting of the state league. Each league has 

 the usual number of officers, elected for one term. These leagues have 

 been in existence only about four years but they have already accom- 

 plished a great deal of good. They have induced school committees to 

 name various rural schools for distinguished American citizens, as Wash- 

 ington, Lincoln, and so forth. They give exhibitions and entertainments 

 for the purpose of raising funds. Sometimes they use funds to buy books 

 for the schoolroom. These books, are then loaned to the members of the 

 league ; at the end of the term this set of books is exchanged for another 

 set of ijooks from another school in the same township. In this way at 

 a slight expense each school may have the use of a large number of books 

 every year. The same thing is done with pictures and works of art, these 

 being purchased and exchanged in the same way. Through the efforts of 

 the league school houses have been improved, inside and out, and the 

 school grounds improved. You will see that it is not so much the doing 

 of new things that has been attempted by this league. The important 

 thing is that the school has been organized for these definite purposes, 

 and the work is carried on systematically from year to year. I believe it 

 needs no argument to show the value of this sort of cooperation to the 

 pupil, to the teacher, to the school, to the parents, and to the community 

 as a whole. 



3. A third method is through cooperation between the home and the 

 school, between the teacher and pupils on one side, and parents and tax- 

 payers on the other side. Parents sometimes complain that the average 

 school is a sort of mill, or machine, into which their children are placed 

 and turned out just so fast, and in just such condition, but if this is the 

 case, it is partly the fault of the parents who do not keep in close enough 

 touch with the work of the school. It is not that parents are not inter- 

 ested in their children, but it is rather that they look at the school as some- 

 thing separate from the ordinary affairs of life. Now, nothing can be more 

 necessary than that this notion should be done away with. There must 



