i 



Rural Education in (nir Village Schools. 165 



In one case a proposal is made that ]>ook8 desci'il)ing 

 country life should be chosen for reading in the schools, and 

 that the Saturday half-holiday should l)e used for classes on 

 different farms. Yet another is to the effect that only general 

 education should l)e given in the schools, and again another 

 states that school education is overrated, and that application 

 is seldom acquired. 



We finish l)y noting two criticisms, one of which condemned 

 tlie number of women teachers in the schools, while the other 

 was to the effect that special training might result in too many 

 farm labourers being turned out. 



In eight cases indefinite answers or none at all were received. 

 In reading this last batch of answers oi* remarks, one may 

 well remind oneself that the most important })erson in the 

 educational system is the pupil, whether a child or older person. 

 They are the raw material on which the country life must 

 depend for its existence, and to which the towns must look for 

 a supply of people of constitution and vitality such as " rural " 

 up-bringing gives. The State in taking over the child's educa- 

 tion has no right to deprive it of its birth-right, and we take it 

 that part of that birth-right is the possibility of following in its 

 pai'ent's footsteps. To penalise a child in order that it may do 

 this is, however, utterly contrary to the dictates of sound 

 education. Reduction of the age for schooling in the case of the 

 village children., as suggested by several correspondents, is a 

 remedy often urged Ijy farmers all over the country without 

 consideration of the disadvantage it may entail upon the 

 country-as against the town-taught child. What is wanted and 

 what is becoming more imperative every day is true education 

 which trains the scholar's intelligence to the best advantage, 

 while permitting him to see the advantages of country life, and 

 not merely instructs concerning surroundings other than those 

 amongst which he has ])een born. Mr. Rose, of Aylesburj-, 

 strikes a much more patriotic note than those who would 

 diminish the education given, when he ui-ges his brother 

 farmers to see that their young farm hands go to continuation 

 classes. 



But the desire to get boys away from school early speaks 

 for itself. Boys who are considered the best at school and who 

 are kept there till they have done the VII. or VIII. standard 

 are, to use the words of a well-informed correspondent, " gener- 

 "ally declared to 1)e the worst on the land. This seems to be 

 ''the final condemnation of any system of education. With a 

 " sound system, the VII. standard boy leaving school at fourteen 

 •' ought to V)e head -dvnX shoulders above the boy who left at 

 "twelve after getting through the IV. standard and a 'labour ' 

 " examination." Many of our correspondents think that this is 



