THE RURAL PROBLEM. 31 



waiting and working to attain that ability to remove to a higher 

 salary and a more varied life. But, given better financial prospects, 

 many teachers could be induced to stay in the villages and develop 

 the work and life of their schools. Indeed, if society and teachers 

 were wise there would be prosperous and satisfj'ing careers open 

 to a number of teachers who would demonstrate the methods by 

 which rural education might be improved. 



The school of the future should be more than an instrument 

 for teaching a few elementary subjects to boys and girls under 

 fourteen years of age. Where no other institution exists it should 

 be the centre of the intellectual development of youths up to the 

 age of eighteen at least, the site of the village library, and possibly 

 the building should be the home of the general social life of the 

 village. 



Some \dllages and their schools are too small to provide for 

 more than a meagre education, even for children, but with a larger 

 village as a nucleus classes in man}^ subjects can be formed where 

 money is forthcoming to induce a competent teacher to undertake 

 the work. However, many of the technical instructors working in 

 village continuation schools themselves need teaching. Their 

 work lacks the element of inspiration and encouragement so badly 

 needed by the youth of the village. And it seems probable that 

 more humane education — for the purpose of developing general 

 intelligence — will be necessary before even technical education 

 can be improved. It is certain that improved general elementary 

 education will be necessary in the improvement of agriculture and 

 the condition of the agricultural classes, for unless a person can 

 read with ease and pleasure he mil not read technical matter ; unless 

 he can write with ease and confidence he will not be able to state 

 a problem to a technical or business adviser ; or be willing to ask 

 advice. And without a good knowledge of arithmetic and allied 

 subjects it is impossible to teach business methods. For instance, 

 without a fair facility in arithmetic it is impossible to follow the 

 methods b}^ which the value of feeding-stuffs and fertilisers are 

 calculated, or to estimate the weight of a stack from its cubic contents, 

 to say nothing of accurate book-keeping or other complicated 

 transactions. 



If the erstwhile labourer is to become a small holder and business 

 manager, or advance to other positions of control, a good general 

 education will be necessary. But the modern demand for change 

 in the curricuhmi of the rural school is for more manual, sometimes 

 for more " vocational " instruction. There are good psychological 

 grounds for demanding more manual instruction, but there are scarcely 

 any valid groimds for demanding vocational instruction under the 

 age of fourteen years, or before a child has chosen a vocation ! A 

 child of a farm-worker is not born an agricultural labourer, nor 

 should society pay for him to be schooled into one. Vocational 

 instruction should be given after the vocation has been entered ; 

 and if much manual instruction is to be given the school age must 



