596 IOWA DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 



all problems of national importance. The rural communities must continue 

 to furnish men and women to fill public offices and all offices of trust. What 

 the nation needs is more honest men- to fill its places of trust. These will 

 very largely be filled from rural ranks. Such has been the case in the 

 past and it will continue to be so in the future. The growing generation 

 should tie taught that honor is more valuable than gain; they should be 

 taught the evil of selfishness and greed that dominates so many of the 

 public men at present; they should be taught that by serving God and 

 man faithfully, they also serve themselves best. 



What our boys and girls grow to be and what degree of usefulness 

 they attain depends almost entirely upon the influence they are under 

 at home. Oftentimes we discover traits in our children's characters that 

 surprise and annoy us and we cannot understand how they came there, 

 when perhaps, they are only the results of our own "silent influences." (I 

 sometimes think "unconscious influences" would be a better term.) 



Napoleon said the greatest need of France was good mothers. What 

 was true of France then is and always will be true of this and every 

 other nation. Our children are as plastic clay to be molded by us into 

 the images we desire. Let our ideals be high and true and let us mold 

 lovingly and carefully. 



THE FUTURE RURAL SCHOOL. 



BY C. K. AKEES. 



(Before Madison County Farmers' Institute.) 



At present there is a widespread discussion of two or three very im- 

 portant questions relating to the rural schools, while it also affects the 

 city school to a more or less degree. The course of study in our system 

 of modern education will be seriously affected by it. In the past most 

 educators did not regard the elementary school as a proper place to fit 

 our boys and girls for the duties of life. They held that the function 

 of the elementary school is to give only the "beginnings of a cultural 

 education, and it was not until the past few years that we find them 

 looking kindly to the new order of things. 



John Mason Taylor says: "The object of education is fullness of life, 

 health, vigor, joy, and efficiency." E. S. Martin, in the Success Magazine 

 of July, 1908, says: "The chief end of parents and schools is to train 

 children in wisdom and knowledge, that they may be able to take care of 

 themselves." If these men are right, as we believe they are, education 

 should be as nearly universal as possible. Do you know of a more 

 pitiable picture than that of a man or woman who cannot make their 

 living? 



The fixed course of study, which compels all pupils to pursue the 

 same studies, regardless of likes and dislikes, talent or no talent, life plan 

 or no life plan, has kept large numbers from obtaining an education. 



The modern idea is to fit the educational plan to the individual in- 

 stead of the individual to the educational plan. If this is adhered to 



