RURAL EDUCATION 101 



In addition to these subjects there are hours 

 devoted to reading, writing, spelling, religious 

 instruction, etc. 



What more can one reasonably expect to be 

 crowded into five days a week ? If you largely 

 increase the hours allotted to gardening or 

 Nature Study in the above time-table, the 

 length of lessons in Arithmetic, English, 

 History and Geography none too long at 

 present must be cut down. If the various 

 subjects of Mr. Ceilings' Bill be included in 

 the day's work, the " literary " tuition must 

 sink to vanishing point ! 



Even these beggarly elements of the village 

 school primitice juvenis miserce are to be 

 jeopardised or diminished in order to secure 

 a specialised instruction which will produce a 

 skilled and intelligent workman on 15/- a 

 week ! Fancy the educational ideals of people 

 who advocate such " specialization " as this ! 

 A principle which would be acknowledged as 

 absolutely vicious for the children of the rich, 

 before say, sixteen, is warmly advocated for 

 the children of the poor at five ! To abandon 

 the little we have secured for our people in the 

 way of general education in order merely 

 to render our children more effective labourers 

 would be a retrograde step unworthy of a 

 civilized community. These cries of the " over- 



