EDUCATION 121 



fact, capitalized, so that it adds to the property 

 values and contributes to local patriotism and to 

 the thrift of the commonwealth. 



8. NEED OF A REDIRECTED EDUCATION. 



The subject of paramount importance in our 

 correspondence and in the hearings is education. 

 In every part of the United States there seems to 

 be one mind, on the part of those capable of 

 judging, on the necessity of redirecting the rural 

 schools. There is no such unanimity on any other 

 subject. It is remarkable with what similarity 

 of phrase the subject has been discussed in all 

 parts of the country before the Commission. 

 Everywhere there is a demand that education 

 have relation to living, that the schools should 

 express the daily life, and that in the rural dis- 

 tricts they should educate by means of agri- 

 culture and country life subjects. It is recog- 

 nized that all difficulties resolve themselves in 

 the end into a question of education. 



The schools are held to be largely responsible 

 for ineffective farming, lack of ideals, and the 

 drift to town. This is not because the rural 

 schools, as a whole, are declining, but because 



