EDUCATION OF RURAL PEOPLE in 



It is sometimes said that the high school is the " peo- 

 ple's college " and there is a rapidly growing tendency 

 in our city high schools to offer what is to-day regarded 

 as normally the first two years of college work. In 

 some of our smaller cities and larger villages, a very 

 large proportion of the boys and particularly of the 

 girls go on through the high school. It is here, in the 

 high school advantages, that the discrepancy between 

 our city school opportunities and our country school 

 opportunities shows at its worst. The democratic 

 movement everywhere to-day looks toward keeping the 

 boy and the girl in school to the age of 16 rather than 

 of 14, and there are those who advocate compulsory 

 part time schooling at least up to the age of 18. The 

 people themselves are beginning to be convinced that it 

 is worth while for each boy and girl to get all the 

 formal organized teaching that is possible as prepara- 

 tion for occupation. But that is not all of it. There 

 is a growing belief among the masses of the people that 

 one of the great advantages of keeping the boys and 

 girls in school for a longer period is that they may be 

 better fitted for the responsibilities of democracy. Of 

 course, this calls for vast changes in our high school 

 work. It means that not merely vocational training is 

 to be given boys and girls of the ages of 14 to 18, but 

 also preparation to help meet the common problems of 

 citizenship. Now if the farmers cannot have the ad- 

 vantages that are rapidly coming to the sons and daugh- 

 ters of the so-called working people in the city, agri- 

 culture is destined to drop behind slowly but surely. 

 It is an encouraging fact that in many of the larger agri- 

 cultural sections of our country an unusual proportion 

 of the farm boys and girls go on to high school and 

 even to college. But over against that is the sad fact 



