132 CHAPTERS IN RURAL PROGRESS 



things are all under the direction of the school, 

 they are free, they are designed to educate. It 

 will not be feasible for the rural school to carry 

 out such a programme as this, but do we realize 

 how large are the possibilities of this idea of 

 making the rural school a community center? 

 No doubt one of the advantages of the central 

 ized rural school will be to give a central meet 

 ing-place for the township, and to encourage 

 work of the character that has been described. 

 Of course, the Grange and farmers' clubs are 

 doing much along these lines, but is it not pos 

 sible for the district school also to do some 

 useful work of this character ? Singing-schools 

 and debating clubs were quite a common thing 

 in the rural schools forty years ago, and there 

 are many rural schools today that are doing 

 work of this very kind. Is there any reason, 

 for example, why the country schoolhouse 

 should not offer an evening school during a 

 portion of the winter, where the older pupils who 

 have left the regular work of the school can 

 carry on studies, especially in agriculture and 

 domestic science? There is need for this sort 

 of thing, and if our agricultural colleges, and 

 the departments of public instruction, and 

 the local school supervisors, and the country 



