Land Problems and National Welfare 



corollary, that it is likewise their aim to keep 

 the education in the country of a lower standard 

 than in the town. 



I fear that at one time many of the teachers 

 themselves had misgivings on these two points ; 

 whether or not there was originally any ground 

 for such misgivings I am unable to say, but I 

 think that there are few teachers to-day who still 

 harbour such apprehensions. Certainly these 

 accusations can only be brought forward by 

 persons who have studied most superficially 

 the movement that is at present going on. 



Since I have been concerned with rural 

 education, I have come across no one actively 

 engaged in assisting the work who was not 

 anxious to see a higher (and therefore better 

 paid) type of labourer produced by our country 

 schools, and who did not demand that the 

 standard of instruction given in the rural school 

 should be as high as that given in towns. 

 And even such purely agricultural organisa- 

 tions as the Central Chamber of Agriculture and 

 the Farmers' Union have been emphatic in 

 their demand for a sounder and more practical 

 type of education in the rural schools. 



There are, as in every other class, reactionary 

 farmers who are against education of any type, 

 but these are few and far between. Most 

 farmers clearly realise that the type of labourer 

 now being produced by our rural school is not 



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