142 The State and the Farmer 



A consideration of the school question will 

 enable me at once to illustrate what I mean by 

 the redirecting of rural institutions and also 

 allow me to suggest the relation of such redi- 

 rection to local pride and initiative. These 

 rural schools fail because they do not meet the 

 living needs of the people. They do not teach, 

 the objects and affairs of their environment. 

 They are not vital. But in all this they differ 

 from all other schools only in the fact that 

 their progress is somewhat slower. Neither are 

 city schools often really vital. Neither, per- 

 haps, is the greater part of our college instruc- 

 tion. Until very recent years even the agricul- 

 tural colleges have not taught vitally. The 

 public schools do not yet teach the essentials. 

 The first object of any school should be to 

 teach persons how to live. 



But with all their shortcomings, the rural 

 schools are really making progress ; and I am 

 sure that some of the speakers whom I have 

 recently heard do not know how considerable 

 this progress is. Unfortunately, it cannot be 

 recorded in statistics; it is a new atmosphere, 



