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largest measure of progress can ensue; but wise legislation and 

 intelligently conceived and properly directed organization in 

 turn depend upon education. 



But what is involved in the process of endeavoring to 

 educate the farm people of China? 



1. The Village School. This is the largest and most im- 

 portant single item in an adequate educational system for the 

 rural people of China. It is basic, not alone because of the 

 elemental need of schooling for boys and girls, and because of 

 the overwhelming preponderance of farmers in the population, 

 but also because in China, as in most countries, rural education 

 may easily be neglected. The cost of small schools in small 

 centers, the procuring of efficient teachers willing to teach in 

 the villages, the securing of effective supervision, the unrespon- 

 siveness of the people, the unique character of the schooling 

 required, the centralizing of wealth and authority in the cities, 

 all conspire against the steady maintenance of a really good 

 system of rural schools. It is all the more necssary therefore, 

 to insist upon a consideration of such questions as these: Is the 

 village school in China to be of the right sort? or an even more 

 elementary question, is it to provide universal compulsory 

 schooling for the village children? Can it be intimately related 

 to the life of the people? Can it be provided with good teach- 

 ers? Are the village boys and girls to be given both a chance 

 to leave and a chance tp stay in their native village? Are the 

 farming four-fifths of China to be given as good schools as the 

 urban one-fifth? Moreover, such considerations as the school 

 as a community center; the teacher as a community leader and 

 guide of the people; the permanent need of men teachers to 

 supplement women teachers, are all matters of significance in 

 the attempt to place and keep village education in China on an 

 effective level. 



These questions are of the utmost importance to China, for 

 they lie at the very root of her possibilities of progress. The 

 village school is the chief means by which not less than 300 

 million people are to be given the elements of an education 

 during the next half century. It is a task big enough for any 

 statesman, vital enough to thrill every lover of his country 

 this little village school, almost the key to the future of 

 democratic China. 



2. Agriculture as material in general education. It is 

 necessary that the village school shall relate itself to the life of 



