26 RURAL RECONSTRUCTION 



resolutely set before themselves, of thoroughly " ruralising " rural 

 education. 



" Consolidation " of schools may not be held of equal advantage 

 in our country, where conditions are essentially different. But it 

 deserves to be borne in mind that even in America " consolidation " 

 is applied deliberately only as a means to an end, which end is to 

 improve rural education to the utmost and make it apt for its special 

 purpose. In addition it is found that the " consolidated " schools 

 have a very pronounced effect in stimulating competition and 

 emulation, and also (which Americans set great store by) in making 

 a rural school already to some extent (to be, if expectations come to 

 be realised, greatly increased) something of a centre of social com- 

 munity life. The new schools, of which there were already 10,500 

 in the United States in 1918 —the number having been since substan- 

 tially increased — so writes Mr. E. P. Claxton, United States Commis- 

 sioner of Education, " are organised with a view to preparing for the 

 new agricultural era a permanent farming population, trained to 

 farm work, and at the same time having high ideals of citizenship." 



Is that not also one of our aims in this country, one of the goals 

 that we should be making for ? 



Improving action has not stood still at this point. Improved 

 education automatically stirs up to further attempts at improve- 

 ment. ' There is a decided movement," so reports the Bureau 

 already quoted, " throughout the country to establish ' rural high 

 schools ' of an agricultural type." " The number of supervisors," 

 so adds Mr. Claxton, " has been greatly increased. Special attention 

 is being given to the creation of a ' rural atmosphere.' " At the 

 National Rural Conference held at Sioux Falls, in South Carolina, in 

 1917, a resolution was adopted to the effect that all teachers at rural 

 schools should henceforth be made to receive an agricultural training. 

 Quite naturally, it was realised that this point of the educational 

 system must be most forcibly pushed in the training of teachers. 

 Accordingly, great exertions are being made in both countries 

 referred to in this direction. In the United States the Federal 

 vote for rural education has been quadrupled since 1904. Con- 

 currently, State votes have been augmented. Thus North Dakota, 

 taking the lead, has increased its grant from $120,000 to $225,000. 

 The money, so it is felt, will all come back. " There is no country," 

 so Senator Hill has put it, " which has ever spent too much money 

 upon education." 



By all means let us be careful to perfect our rural education rather 

 than deteriorate it, by making it " rustic " rather than " rural " ! 



