CRUSADE FOR THE COUNTRY SCHOOL 



the more fortunate. They are usually large, 

 giving the fullest opportunity to sift. But 

 the matter is not so simple. Numbers 

 afford chance for fine grading, but they also 

 impose the necessity of large roomfuls, 

 which make aught like perfect teaching an 

 impossibility. A great many country 

 schools will remain small, with not over 25 

 pupils in a room, enabling the skilled 

 teacher to apply the personal method, as can 

 rarely be done in cities. What a benedic- 

 tion is freedom to deal with pupils one by 

 one, or in very small classes, that individ- 

 ual peculiarities may be noticed, to be cul- 

 tivated or to be repressed! 



No one will question that in pupil mate- 

 rial country schools are greatly the better 

 off. As a rule country pupils have the 

 firmer constitutions, endurance and health. 

 Generally speaking their intelligence is 

 higher and their thirst for learning greater. 

 Their sensibility is the more open and free. 

 City children have fewer plays involving 

 imagination. The average morality of 

 country children is far and away superior 



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