FARMERS' INSTITUTES. 147 



tried to show the causes and results of this movement. We studied the 

 social conditions of farmers, whether there was more illiteracy in the 

 country than in the city, whether there was more crime in the country 

 than in the city, whether there was more insanity among farmers 

 than among other people, and so forth. Then we studied the things 

 that are making for rural progress, such as good roads, free rural mail 

 delivery, electric lines, rural telephone, the rural school, agricultural 

 colleges, farmers' institutes, the experiment station, the department of 

 agriculture, the Grange, farmers' clubs, country church, and so on. Now, 

 I believe that these things are things that the country teacher ought to 

 know about, and I believe that every country teacher should be expected to 

 know about them, and that normal schools, teachers' institutes, and teach- 

 ers' reading circles, should in some way provide this sort of thing. To my 

 mind this is one of the most important means of bringing the rural school 

 into closer touch with the farm community. I want at this point to quote 

 something written some six years ago, by Henry Sabin, of Iowa, one of 

 the keenest students of the rural school problem. He was speaking 

 particularly of the supervision of country schools, and he said : "The 

 supervisor of rural schools should be acquainted with the material re- 

 sources of his district. He should know not only what constitutes good 

 farming, but the prevailing industry of the region should be so familiar to 

 him that he can converse intelligently with the inhabitants, and convince 

 them that he knows something besides books. The object is not alone to 

 gain influence over them, but to bring the school into touch with the 

 home life of the community about. It is not to invite the farmer to the 

 school, but to take the school to the farm, and to show the pupils that 

 here before their eyes are the foundations upon which have been built 

 the great natural sciences. Farmers also should study rural sociology, 

 including the school question." 



Let me now recapitulate : In order to make the rural school a center 

 for community life. I would first enrich the course of study; second, 

 encourage the cooperation of pupils, especially for the improvement of 

 the school and its surroundings ; third, bring together for discussion and 

 acquaintance the teachers and the patrons of the school ; fourth, so far 

 as possible make the schoolhouse a meeting place for the community, for 

 young people as well as for older people, where music, art, social culture, 

 literature, study of farming, and in fact, anything that has to do with 

 genuine rural progress may be fostered ; and fifth, through the knowledge 

 by the teacher of the industrial and general social conditions of agri- 

 culture, and especially of the community in which her lot is cast. 



Of course, all this plan is not possible at once. But it shows that 

 something can be done, for something has been done, and it indicates 

 what I believe to be a broad general plan which is practicable and useful. 



And in closing, may I not ask, does not all this appeal to you as 

 eminently sensible and reasonable? Would it not tend to improve the 

 rural school and at the same time to better the farm community? In 

 any event, I believe it is the direction in which we shall see great prog- 

 ress during the next ten or fifteen years, and I trust the teachers and 

 farmers of this State will seek to place themselves in line for this forward 

 movement in rural education. 



