EDUCATION IN RURAL DISTRICTS. 239 



the spot about animals in the fields and farmyards, about ploughing and 

 sowing, about fruit trees and forest trees, about birds, insects, and fiowers, 

 and other objects of interest. The lessons thus learnt out of doors can be 

 afterwards carried forward in the school room by reading, composition, 

 pictures, and drawing. 



" In this way, and in various other ways that teachers will discover for 

 themselves, children who are brought up in village schools will learn to 

 understand what they see about them, and to take an intelligent interest in 

 the various processes of Nature. This sort of teaching will, it is hoped, 

 directly tend to foster in the children a genuine love for the country and for 

 country pursuits. 



"It is confidently expected that the child's intelligence will be so 

 quickened by the kind of training that is here suggested that he will be able 

 to master, with far greater ease than before, the ordinary subjects of the 

 .school curriculum. 



" The Board would further urge upon any teachers now in rural schools 

 who happen themselves to be of urban up-bringing or to have been trained in 

 urban centres, to seize every opportunity of gaining a closer insight into the 

 special conditions and problems of rural life, and they trust that those whose 

 previous education has not enabled them to obtain full knowledge of the main 

 principles and phenomena of rural life and activities, will be able to attend 

 such holiday courses and classes as may be placed within their reach for this 

 purpose by County Councils or other Local Committees ; since it is only 

 when the teacher is genuinely interested in, and well informed about, the 

 occupations of country life that any such results can be looked for in children 

 as have been referred to as the proper object of rural schools in the present 

 circular. 



" I have the honour to be. Sir, your obedient servant, 



" G. W. Kekewich." 



The curricula for Schools of Science in rural districts have 

 also been revised and brought into harmony with local needs to 

 an extent that was quite impossible under the old regulations. 

 By the time this note appears the new Directory will no doubt 

 be before the public. 



It is needless to point out to the Members of the Esse.x 

 Field Club that the whole spirit of this new departure in our 

 educational programme is in absolute accord with the aim and 

 objects of all Natural History Societies, and should in the lono- 

 run result in a general increase in the intelligent appreciation of 

 the woik of such societies. 



