134 CHAPTERS IN RURAL PROGRESS 



ciation of the peculiar conditions of farm life. 

 Every teacher should have some knowledge of 

 rural sociology. The normal schools should 

 make this subject a required subject in the 

 course, especially for country teachers. Teach- 

 ers' institutes and reading-circles should in 

 some way provide this sort of thing. This is 

 one of the most important means of bringing 

 the rural school into closer touch with the farm 

 community. Ten years ago Henry Sabin, of 

 Iowa, one of the keenest students of the rural- 

 school problem, in speaking of -the supervision 

 of country schools, said : 



The supervisor of rural schools should be acquainted 

 with the material resources of his district. He should 

 know not only what constitutes good farming, but the 

 prevailing industry of the region should be so familiar 

 to him that he can converse intelligently with the inhabit- 

 ants, and convince them that he knows something besides 

 books. The object is not alone to gain influence over 

 them, but to bring the school into touch with the home 

 life of the community about. It is not to invite the 

 farmer to the school, b.ut to take the school to the farm, 

 and to show the pupils that here before their eyes are 

 the foundations upon which have been built the great 

 natural sciences. 



The, programme needed to unite rural school 

 and farm community. is then, first, to enrich the 



