342 RURAL SOCIOLOGY 



understand the fundamentals of his business, social, institutional 

 and civic life. The modern farmer, regardless of the size of his 

 acres, must be a business man, whether he wishes it or not. He 

 has at last been caught in the swirl of the industrial revolution 

 with its emphasis upon division of labor and specialization; upon 

 markets and credits; and above all upon science and efficiency. 

 For the sake of greater productivity he has lost his self-suffi- 

 ciency. A half-hearted teaching of agriculture has been added 

 to the rural course of study, but the farmer has not learned to 

 enter the markets to the best advantage nor to protect "himself 

 once the requirements of his occupation have brought him in. 

 His institutions are largely outgrown survivals of pioneer con- 

 ditions and have neither the organization nor the grasp neces- 

 sary for adjusting him to modern life. They are largely inert 

 and parasitic, not virile with the spirit of leadership. The gov- 

 ernmental aspects of rural life are so little in the farmer's con- 

 sciousness that he scarcely realizes that he has any such connec- 

 tions at all. Although the plan of organization of county and 

 rural governments is not beyond the powers of comprehension 

 of the most ordinary normal intellect, very few farmers who have 

 no political ambitions for themselves really understand it. 

 Government means to them national government, and no other 

 group so complacently takes its political opinions ready made 

 or so universally fails to take any opinion on matters of most 

 intimate personal concern to it. Organization for independent 

 political expression, especially on local matters, is extremely ex- 

 ceptional among farmers. 



The explanation of such a wholesale abdication of the priv- 

 ileges of democratic control over his destiny can be explained 

 only in terms of the farmer's lack of information regarding his 

 broader social and economic needs and the techniques of organiz- 

 ing his interests effectively. The most hopeful proposition for 

 meeting this need is to introduce just this subject-matter into 

 the rural school curriculum. The time has arrived when we can 

 no longer forbear to add courses of regular instruction in mat- 

 ters of such intimate concern to the farmer's welfare. 



3. A third change in the rural school curriculum capable of 

 accomplishing much good would be to make the school readers 

 truly supplementary to the general purposes of education. The 



