THE COMMUNITY IDEA 159 



of the rural people (and this is just as true of people 

 in the city) is that they shall be perpetually at school. 

 Our aim should be nothing less than a scheme of educa- 

 tion, centering in the rural school, utilizing all of the 

 organizations and agencies of education whose aid can 

 be secured, even after school days, to keep on studying 

 and reading and thinking about the problems of their 

 community and of the world. This vital application 

 of the community idea to the education of the rural 

 people is of the utmost importance. 



The Home. How can the community idea best be 

 applied to the home? In spite of the fact that the 

 home is so personal an affair and must retain its privacy, 

 no home is a true home until it has developed a proper 

 relation to the community. No family can live unto 

 itself. The ideal community is a group of families 

 that form one big family. In the ideal home we have 

 the divers interests and capacities and tastes of each 

 member of a family of two or a dozen, as the case 

 may be, all merging into a common interest. So in the 

 ideal community, w r e have the tastes and ambitions and 

 interests and capacities of all the members of the com- 

 munity merged into a common interest and ambition. 

 In the home perhaps better than anywhere else can be 

 taught just these ideals. Indeed if they are not taught 

 and practiced in the home, they will make slow head- 

 way in the community. So that the application of the 

 community idea to the home becomes one of the great 

 ideals of our rural life. 



The Church. The country church has had a won- 

 derful history and has done a wonderful work. In 

 the pioneer days it saved our American country life 

 from sordidness and materialism. The preacher and 

 the pioneer farmer went west together and together 



