What is Wrong, with Our 
S IX CHILDREN TO CONSIDER.—I have been 
much interested in the discussion of rural schools 
and am watching the papers for news concerning 
the findings of those investigating the matter. As 
it happens the whole subject holds added interest 
for me because I have been trying to use one of 
those rural schools in the education of my children. 
M hen I left school I taught a district school for one 
year. That was before the rural schools were 
graded; after that I taught in a department school 
and finally in a graded village school. Now I am 
living in a rural community with the problem of the 
education of six children on my hands. Right here 
let me say it is no easy job. 
STARTING THE CHILDREN.—I have been fol¬ 
lowing this plan. The children start when about 
six years old. at the rural school very near us. 
When they are about eight years old they go to the 
those old-time schools. Of course, we don't hear of 
the poor teaching, and there must have been a good 
deal of that, too. However, the one thing those old- 
time schools had that the modern rural school lacks 
can all be put into that one word— drill, 
OLD-SIYLE TEACHING.—Let us see why this 
is. You remember how it used to be: First, second 
third, fourth, fifth reader, and then history. The 
magic of that word! When a pupil got up into 
history it meant much the same as it ‘does now to 
the youngsters who get into high school. Lessons 
were hammered home (sometimes with the aid.of a 
birch switch, it is true), but what they learned was 
drilled in to stay. Times changed, and the village 
graded schools began forging ahead at a great rate, 
aiid were fast leaving the rural schools behind. The 
Department of Education, seeing that something 
must bo done, decided on grading the district schools 
Rural Schools 
better positions in village schools, where the work 
is easier. In every case where good work is being 
done by a rural teacher you will find that teacher 
combining classes and even whole grades. She has 
to do it in order to have time to hear a lesson. We 
have some excellent district superintendents in this 
section of the North Country, and I know they urge 
their teachers to combine classes. This is often t 
big task in itself. 
( ROW DING AND IH’RRY.—1 asked a little new 
teacher who had never before been inside of a dis¬ 
trict school how she was getting along. “Oh. 1 
don't know what 1 am going to do!” she said. “Why, 
if I hear everything it will be about 30 classes a day. 
and to save me I can’t any more than hear the read¬ 
ing classes in a forenoon.” Needless to say she 
wasn’t going to make a star rural teacher. This 
hurrying of classes has its disastrous results, even 
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A New Jersey Holstein and Her Farm. Partner. Fiy. 125 
graded village school three miles away. Five 
children have been started in this way. The same 
thing has happened in every case. After having 
spent two years in our rural school not one of those 
children has entered the graded school higher than 
the 2nd I> class, and poorly prepared at that. They 
were usually all right in arithmetic, but their writ¬ 
ing, spelling and reading have been very poor indeed. 
H is not because we have had poor teachers in our 
school. On the contrary, w° ’■ ive had some verv 
good ones, one a norm/a 1 gra aate. 
DISAPPOINTING RESULTS. — In almost any 
school meeting where this subject is brought up* 
there are sure to be several “older residents” who 
become very indignant and ask why the schools now 
can't be as good as they used to be. They tell of 
this one or that one who has left his mark on thi.s 
North Country who had no more schooling than the 
district school afforded. “I tell you. we learned 
things in those days.” How many times have we 
heard that expression. What is more, it is true. 
There must have been some excellent teaching in 
just as tin* village schools Were, and making the 
course of study the same also. 
CHANGED CONDITIONS.—Then from time to 
time other things have been added, such as 100 
minutes a week for physical training, a most excel¬ 
lent thing in itself, but let us see how it has all 
worked out. A rural school is supposed to contain 
eight grades. Of course some have less, but usually 
there are from one to four pupils in each of the 
upper three grades. In the graded village schools 
at least eight teachers do this work. In the rural 
school one teacher is confronted by this mass of 
work, and told to do it. There is always the “losing 
of the public money” that acts as a whip over the 
back of the district if the dictates of the department 
are not obeyed. 
1111, TEACHER S DIFFICi LT1ES.—I sometimes 
wonder at any teacher being brave enough to tackle 
any such job. Of course there are a great many 
poor rural teachers. The good ones, unless they 
happen to be living in the community, or have some 
good reason for teaching a rural school, can find 
in the work of the best teachers. There is not 
enough time for drill work. There is not time 
enough to spend on the little ones. English suffers 
because all answers must be quickly given, and often 
consist of but one word. There is not time for 
necessary drill in spelling or writing, and so on 
down the list. 
CONSOLIDA 1 ION.—No wonder those who have 
been watching things advised consolidation. There 
is no doubt at all about the improvement in school 
work under such a system. This, I think, has been 
wonderfully proven by Mr. Miner of Chazy. The 
opposition to this plan seems to come from those who 
have small children to send a long way. Right in 
this connection I wish we might hear from some of 
the mothers who send little children five miles to 
the Miner school. Something along thi.s line might 
be worked to advantage with our rural schools. For 
instance, I have in mind two schoolhouses. just one 
mile apart. As it happens, each has a good teacher, 
one an extra good one. Each teacher is working 
very hard, trying to get results, and fretting because 
