Rural Education in our Milage Schools. IGl 



Two suggested that agriculture and rural subjects should 

 be much more widely dealt with than at present in colleges for 

 teachers : while two more suggested courses of studies for 

 teachers dealing with rural life. 



Suggestions which came from a single source in each case 

 were : That teachers should get a special training on the 

 Continent ; that teachers should be chosen from a better class 

 with a wider outlook ; that they should be taught butter-making, 

 gardening, and the elements of agriculture : that they should 

 have more time for practical instruction ; while yet another 

 correspondent more generally recommends simply " instruc- 

 tion." 



One answer recommends a Technical College for rural 

 teachers. 



Yet another recommends more object lessons for the 

 children, " as in Canada." 



One answer is that no improvements are required ; and yet 

 another that it is difficult to suggest any, which we may take as 

 nearly completely satisfactory as the last one. 



Finally comes an answer which, though at first sight not 

 perhaps included in those we may say were expected when the 

 questions were framed, is yet so apposite that we must quote it, 

 and that is, " avoid politics." 



The above /esume, which has to be lu-ief, only partially 

 shows the insistence of the correspondents upon the necessity 

 of rural teachers being in sympathy with rural conditions. 

 Whether this be acquired by inheritance or residence, or 

 preference, the necessity of special training seems obvious. It 

 is a cause for wonder, if any "agriculturists " are employed at 

 the training colleges for teachers, why the authorities hide 

 them so carefully. For though I have a large acquaintance 

 amongst those teaching agriculture, or sciences applied to 

 agriculture, I have never been privileged to meet one whose 

 occupation was that of lecturer at a training college for 

 teachers. If, as I believe is the case, no one academic agri- 

 culturist of repute is so engaged, it is most certainly a matter 

 which might engage the attention of those responsible. But 

 this imperfection is easier to remedy than that recorded in the 

 answer which says that a better class of teachers is wanted. 

 The correspondent who writes this — a well-known north- 

 country farmer, who, I regret, does not give me leave to use 

 his name — cannot, it is feared, be satisfied until the country 

 school-teacher is at least as well paid as his confreres in the 

 towns. 



The second part of the question, that dealing with suggested 

 improvements in subjects suitable for rural schools, was dealt 

 with as follows : — 



VOL. 72. M 



