FARMERS' INSTITUTES. 41 



those who are in attendance upon our graded schools, but after all if 

 one-sixth of the pupils from the rural schools attend the high school it 

 is in itself a demonstration of the appreciation which the people in the 

 countr}^ have for a high school education. 



Last year |88,0()0 was paid for non-resident tuition. Not a small monu- 

 ment that to the appreciation which the country people have for a high 

 school education. But this is only a small part of the expense to which 

 these people were put for the high school education of their children. Put 

 alongside of the non-resident tuition the estimated expense of transporta- 

 tion, extra clothing and all the necessary extra expenses which a high 

 school pupil needs to pay. I have asked many farmers what was the 

 ordinary expense of sending a hoy to a high school for a year. I have 

 never had a response less than |10(). 1 wish to make it perfectly safe. Let 

 us say that it costs 150 to sustain a boy in a high school for a year. 

 Seventeen thousand of these left their country homes and went to the 

 city. It therefore amounts to the pretty sum of |850,000 and this added to 

 the 188,000, and, forcing the figures up just a little, the fact is reached 

 that the farmers of Michigan, in order to show their appreciation of a 

 high school education, after paying their taxes at home, like good, loyal 

 citizens, put their hands into their pockets for love of their children, 

 and paid a round million of dollars. This sum represents to my mind 

 so large a sentiment, it is so significant of the appreciation which they 

 feel for the high school, that I believe I am justified in exhorting, urging, 

 pleading with them, for the establishment of the rural high school. 



After I had mentioned these facts, or made these suggestions, at a 

 large meeting at the Hillsdale County Fair, a lady came on to the plat- 

 form to discuss the question. One of the things she said was this : *'We 

 can send our boys and girls to the high school. We like to do that. We 

 do not want Mr. Fall to come down here and sympathize with us. We're 

 glad to do it." The audience cheered. When they gave me an opportunity 

 to take my part in the discussion I asked, ''after you have out of your 

 abundance complacently paid your child's expenses in the high school, 

 is it not true that in your own district there are, for every boy and girl, 

 now in the high school possibly half a dozen others who are just as much 

 entitled to high school privileges, bright and ambitious, but who cannot 

 go because their parents cannot att^ord to send them?'' She graciously 

 admitted that besides the boys who Avent to the high school there were 

 a large number of others who would go but could not atford the means. 

 We must think not alone of the one-sixth who are able to go but also of 

 the five-sixths who cannot, under the present system, avail themselves of 

 the privileges of the high school. 



I want to dip into Supt. Harvey's address at another point. I agree 

 with him perfectly on the rural schools. We must change the character of 

 the schools. We have been trying during all the past to make the country 

 school more like the city school. But there are some things that are 

 attempted in the city school which fail because of bad conditions. 



1 am afraid that a great many of the facts that are supposed to be 

 taught clearly in our city high schools go no farther than the printed 

 statement in the book ; that they simply make an impression on the mind 

 which consists of words without a vivid reference of the thought in the 

 mind of the pupil to the real thing; and I'm afraid that this is too char- 

 acteristic of city schools, that in the narrow confines of the school room, 



