120 The Transformation of the Rural School 



have them take in the school. For much of the 

 apparatus suggested above the wide-awake board of 

 education and teacher will see opportunities to use 

 material less expensive than that suggested. And 

 to such persons many pieces of apparatus not speci- 

 fied here will suggest themselves to fit particular needs 

 and opportunities. 



GENERAL INSTRUCTION IN AGRICULTURE 



A great fault with the district schools has been an 

 inclination to think that anything close at hand is 

 too mean and common to be considered as subject 

 matter for instruction. The thought has usually 

 been that the school would prepare the learner for 

 some brilliant calling away off where things are 

 better and life is easier and more beautiful. As a 

 result, the country schools have been educating boys 

 and girls away from the farm. The new method is 

 that of educating them to appreciate what is under 

 their feet and all around them, through an intimate 

 knowledge of the processes of nature and industry 

 as carried on in their midst. 



One of the more direct means of educating the 

 boys and girls for a happy, contented life on the 

 farm is to teach them while young the rudiments of 

 agriculture. This method is now actually being put 

 into practice in thousands of the rural schools. The 

 state of Kansas recently enacted a law requiring all 

 candidates for teachers' certificates to pass a test in 



