The away-from-the-farm-influence of rural 

 education which has in the past proved a serious 

 handicap to rural progress and open country pur- 

 suits, would thus be materially counteracted. 



Quoting Cubberley again: 



* ' The uniform text-books which have been 

 introduced by law, were books written primarily 

 for the city child; the graded course of study was 

 a city course of study; the ideals of the school 

 become, in large part, city and professional in 

 type; and the city-educated and city-trained teach- 

 ers have talked of the city, over-emphasized the 

 affairs of the city, and sighed to get back to the 

 city to teach. The subjects of instruction have 

 been formal and traditional, and the course of 

 instruction has been designed more to prepare 

 for entrance to a city or town high school than 

 for life in the open country. So far as the school 

 has been vocational in spirit, it has been the 

 city vocations and professions for which it has 

 tended to prepare its pupils, and not the voca- 

 tions of the farm and the home." 



Then says Roosevelt : 



' ' Our school system is gravely defective in 

 so far as it puts a premium upon mere literary 

 training and tends, therefore, to train the boy 

 away from the farm and workshop. Nothing is 

 more needed than the best type of an industrial 

 school, the school for mechanical industries in the 

 cities and for teaching agriculture in the country. 

 No growth of cities, no growth of wealth can 

 make up for any loss in either the number or 

 the character of the farming population. We of 

 the United States should realize this above most 

 other people. We began our existence as a nation 

 of farmers, and in every crisis of the past a 

 peculiar dependence has had to be placed upon 

 the farming population, and this dependence has 

 hitherto been justified. ' ' 



The Rural Church Problem. No permanent 

 rural civilization, however, can be maintained that 

 will attach the population to the soil with satis- 

 faction and contentment without provision being 

 made for enjoying religious services among 



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