New Type of Rural Teacher 125 



rightly-managed high school will bring the student 

 into closer touch with the local rural problems that 

 may not be possible in case of the distant institution. 

 In the location of high schools intended to serve the 

 rural interests there should be an effort to keep away 

 from the towns and cities. In the latter places the 

 allurements of the cheap theater and the snobbery 

 that often invades the city high school are illustra- 

 tions of the evils that serve to entice the young away 

 from the substantial things of life. A good county 

 or township high school located centrally and in 

 the open country is ideal. At such a location it is 

 vastly easier than in the city to center the attention 

 of the students upon the rural problems, not to 

 mention the greater availability of demonstrations 

 on farm and garden plots. 



BETTER RURAL TEACHERS NEEDED 



The ideal preparation for a teacher in the rural 

 school is a complete course in a first-class agricultural 

 college, with the inclusion of a few terms' work in 

 the educational subjects. So long as we send into 

 the district schools young teachers who have been 

 taught merely in the common text-book branches, 

 and whose training has been exclusively pedagogical, 

 the practice of educating the boys and girls away from 

 the farm will go on. The country school is, in its best 

 sense, an industrial school ; and only those teachers 

 can do best work therein who have had the personal 



