RURAL SCHOOL AND THE COMMUNITY 133 



teachers, and the farmers themselves, could 

 come a little closer together on these questions 

 the thing could be done ! 



5. Fifth and last, as a method for making the 

 school a social center, is the suggestion that the 

 teacher herself shall become something of a 

 leader in the farm community. The teacher 

 ought to be not only a teacher of the pupils, but 

 in some sense a teacher of the community. Is 

 there not need that someone should take the 

 lead in inspiring everyone in the community to 

 read better books, to buy better pictures, to 

 take more interest in the things that make for 

 culture and progress? There are special diffi- 

 culties in a country community. The rural 

 teacher is usually a transient ; she secures a city 

 school as soon as she can; she is often poorly 

 paid; she is sometimes inexperienced; fre- 

 quently the labor of the school absorbs all her 

 time and energy. Unfortunately these things 

 are so, but they ought not to be so. And we 

 shall never have the ideal rural school until we 

 have conditions favorable to the kind of work 

 just described. The country teacher ought to 

 understand the country community, ought to 

 have some knowledge of the problems that the 

 farmers have to face, ought to have some appre- 



