1921.] 11 RuBA3L Bias " in Secondary Schools. 



that vehicles ply daily between Cheddar and Blackford to take 

 pupils to and from the railway station. 



It does not require any special gift of vision to see in the 

 secondary schools with a k ' rural bias," of which Sexey's is so 

 pleasing an example, a prospect that may go far to change the 

 outlook of those who work on the land. It is admitted on all 

 sides that no class of our population has done better work for the 

 country or has received less return for it in years past than the 

 agricultural labourer. The War brought these truths home to 

 the community at large, and the worst of the farm labourer's 

 disabilities have been removed by the Agricultural Wages Board 

 and the Agriculture Act, while Village Clubs and Women's Insti- 

 tutes have developed the social side of rural life with the very 

 happiest results. But this is not enough. The agricultural 

 labourer's children have a right to be prepared to help the com- 

 munity at large by the development of their natural aptitudes 

 along the most familiar lines. Welshpool, Dauntsey's, Knares- 

 borough and Sexey's may constitute a small beginning, but as tin 

 knowledge of these undertakings grows and the value is recognised 

 by the community it is not too much to hope that we shall see 

 the " rural bias " a feature of secondary schools in all suitable 

 districts, and that year by year they will send out a steadily 

 increasing number of skilled workers on to the land. The 

 expense is trifling: the reward is great; and in giving every 

 encouragement to such a movement as this, the State will be 

 recognising in very practical fashion its debt to those who have 

 raised a considerable part of the nation's food in most dis- 

 heartening conditions for many years. The rising generation 

 should prove capable, in the new circumstances that will follow, 

 of increasing the output to a point at which we shall stand far 

 nearer self-support, and the security that attends it. than we 

 are to-day. 



