RURAL EDUCATION 35 



first, the sparseness of the rural population ; next, the 

 want of preliminary training in the elementary schools ; 

 and lastly, the almost total absence in our villages of 

 the class of children found in the French schools. In 

 France the great bulk of the pupils in elementary 

 schools are the children of small farmers, peasant 

 proprietors, or of labourers either owning some land 

 or with prospects of doing so. 



In English schools these classes are rarely found. 

 The children learn what is set before them, with no 

 fixed idea as to their later career, except it be to get 

 away from their villages, as others have done before 

 them. If there is a very sharp lad among them, he is 

 considered by parents and friends as "too good for 

 the land," meaning by that that he is too good to 

 become and remain an agricultural labourer, to which 

 state his prospects are at present confined. 



No doubt there would at first be a difficulty in 

 securing competent teachers, but it is a difficulty con- 

 nected with educational administration, and could be 

 readily overcome if there were a will to do so. At 

 present the best-paid situations are in cities and other 

 populous places. The village schoolmaster, besides 

 being less well paid, leads an isolated life, unrelieved 

 by any special interest (either for himself or his pupils) 

 in the dull routine of instruction he has to sflve. These 

 positions should be reversed, and the best teachers 

 should be secured for country schools by the offer of 

 pecuniary and other Inducements. 



To acquire a practical knowledge of the subjects to 

 be taught in the schools, free scholarships should be 

 offered to teachers, tenable at suitable agricultural 

 institutions. The knowledge of these subjects should 

 be obligatory on teachers in rural schools, and a certi- 



