RURAL SCHOOL AND THE COMMUNITY 125 



tory, writing, reading, the sciences, and even 

 other subjects can be taught so as to connect 

 them vitally and definitely with the life of the 

 farm community. To quote Colonel Parker, 

 who suggests the valuable results of such a 

 method of teaching: 



It would make a strong, binding union of the home 

 and the school, the farm methods and the school methods. 

 It would bring the farm into the school and project the 

 school into the farm. It would give parent and teacher 

 one motive in the carrying out of which both could 

 heartily join. The parent would appreciate and judge 

 fairly the work of the school, the teacher would honor, 

 dignify and elevate the work of the farm. 



The study of the landscape of the near-by 

 country, the study of the streams, the study of 

 the soils, studies that have to do with the loca- 

 tion of homes, of villages, the study of the 

 weather, of the common plants, of domestic ani- 

 mals — all of these things will give the child a 

 better start in education, a better comprehen- 

 sion of the life he is to live, a better idea of the 

 business of farming, a better notion about the 

 importance of agriculture, and will tend to fit 

 him better for future life either on the farm or 

 anywhere else, than could any amount of the 

 old-fashioned book knowledge. Is it not a 



