City Schools in the C ountry 
A X UNSYMPATHETIC ATTITUDE.—The real 
meaning of the relative decrease in our farm 
population is beginning to enter even the most indif¬ 
ferent minds, and many are ready to catch at any de¬ 
vice that promises to impede it even temporarily. Yet 
it has sometimes seemed to me that more danger 
threatens from the large number of country-born 
folks who cannot make up their minds to leave us, 
and yet are unwilling to cast in their lot with us, 
for better or worse, and make a determined stand 
for the improvement of country life and the preser¬ 
vation of those rural customs and institutions that 
long use has shown to be worth retaining. They are 
playing Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. Their homes are 
in the country and they spend part of their time 
there, but their hearts are in the city. They cannot 
quite make up their minds to go there, but they 
associate as much as possible with city folks, and 
ape them in every possible way. Their homes, 
their dress, their schools and churches 
they would make conform to city stan¬ 
dards, and since they cannot always 
have their own way in such matters 
they are discontented and help to make 
others so. 
CONTRASTED CONDITIONS. — 
Time has brought Thebes and Nineveh 
back to rural conditions and will un¬ 
doubtedly do the same for New York 
and London. But city conditions can¬ 
not be made to obtain throughout the 
country. There are some depriva¬ 
tions and hardships not necessarily 
the result of poverty, and some busi¬ 
ness and pleasures not depending upon 
wealth, that belong to the country, 
that make country life desirable. It’s 
a sad confession, shocking, doubtless, 
to some of our uplift friends, but some 
of us like to be just “ hayseeds." We 
believe that we were born in the coun¬ 
try for a purpose. 
COUNTRY EDUCATION.—We wish 
that those who without consulting us 
have decided that the country boy shall 
have the same educational advantages 
as the city boy would stop and seriously 
ask themselves whether it is not pos¬ 
sible that the condition at which they 
aim may not, in a larger degree than 
they suspect, exist already. In other 
words, just how much of our "educa¬ 
tion” can we get in schools, anyway? 
Stewart Edward White said that 
among the pioneers of the West there 
were men who could scarcely write 
their names, but who, in addition to 
well-trained bodies and healthy minds, 
possessed such a fund of information 
upon so many subjects, yet so exqui¬ 
sitely adapted to their manner of life 
and to the prosecution of the great 
undertakings in which they were en¬ 
gaged, that he considered them won 
derfully “educated.” 
MEETING CONDITIONS.—I be¬ 
lieve that if the curriculum of the 
country school could be overhauled 
with the thought in view that it is 
not necessarily preparatory to high 
school, as the latter is to college, it 
might, when followed by a course of 
real farm work and assisted by library privilege-; 
and acquaintance with the better class of periodi¬ 
cals and papers, turn out a man or woman as well 
fitted for country life as the product of city schools 
is for city life. The story of the country boy who 
'vent to the city and wrought wondrous things is 
as familiar among us as that of the chap from the 
city who amused the whole neighborhood by his 
ludicrous struggles with the every-day problems 
of farm life. 
1 HE UPLIFTER AT WORK.-—But when the city 
uplifter discovered the “unspeakable” conditions 
that exist in rural homes and schools, it was de¬ 
cided that country children should be able to “look 
city children in the face” or, in other words, that 
the country should have its city schools. This idea 
appealed immensely to the discontented ruralist, 
and so we have the cult of consolidationists, which 
includes many sincere and well-meaning folks as 
well as many more who are ashamed of the fact 
that they are country-bred, and enjoy very much the 
opportunities for “hobnobbing” with the learned 
specialists and other cultured folk who are present 
at uplift assemblages. 
SCHOOL CENTRALIZATION.—We need concern 
ourselves little with the theories and social am¬ 
bitions of these people, but, unfortunately, our State 
Department of Education has made consolidation its 
particular hobby. Not only has it ignored the dif¬ 
ference between conditions here ayd those in other 
States where consolidation has made more or less 
progress, but it lias not followed the conciliatory 
policy of educational authorities in those States. 
It lias endeavored to force centralization upon rural 
communities by methods that would shame the worst 
despots of antiquity, and yet its success has been 
so meager that, though it has earned for itself sus¬ 
picion and hostility throughout the State, the only 
exemplification of its theory to which it cares to 
call the public attention is the Miner school at 
Chazy. This, if tLie propaganda description is cor¬ 
rect, is more magnificently equipped than any city 
schools in this part of the State. The department 
realizes that rural districts cannot afford such insti¬ 
tutions, and does not scruple to beg that other mil¬ 
lionaires would follow Mr. Miner's example. 
REMOVING LOCAL CONTROL.— The educa¬ 
tional ideals of department officials may be inferred 
from the fact that they consider it worth while to 
educate a community after you have, by force, pau¬ 
perized it. Self-reliance and self-respect are not 
included in the regents’ list of “subjects,” but are 
more important to a man or community than any¬ 
thing else, and how they can be properly taught in 
a school like that at Cliazy does not appear. Pri¬ 
vate donations, increased contribution from State 
funds and the Federal assistance for which some are 
clamoring, all mean just one thing—that we shall 
have less control over the training of our children. 
THE DISTRICT SCHOOL SYSTEM.—This, as il 
now exists in New York, has this advantage over 
any other that i( is now in operation, the people 
are accustomed to it and attached to it. It will 
not. therefore, require a revolution to establish it. 
It may be true that there are schoolhouses that 
were “built before the war." There are many build¬ 
ings, public and private, of even greater age that 
are giving good service. There may be school build¬ 
ings in a dilapidated condition and lacking proper 
equipment. 1 have never seen figures showing that 
such conditions prevail to any great extent. If there 
were such figures, surely the Department of Educa¬ 
tion could get them and use them in its consolidation 
propaganda. If there are districts of this sort, the 
superintendents have power to compel improvement, 
and if it be urged that the farmers in some sections 
are too poor, that valuations are low. those districts 
may be helped by the State or by a law providing 
for a larger tax unit. But it is not necessary to 
destroy (he thousands of schoolhouses in which the 
farmers have millions invested, and 
of which they are justly proud. The 
writer drew a load of hay for a neigh¬ 
bor. a renter, who moved March 1 into 
an adjoining town. We passed seven 
schoolhouses. Every one of them was 
nicely painted, stood up squarely on 
its foundation, had a good roof and 
chimneys, and whole, clean windows. 
The surroundings were clean and tidy. 
There are 32 districts in this town of 
Lisbon, and none of them in (he God¬ 
forsaken condition that the consolida- 
tionist loves to describe. Before we 
destroy these buildings let (lit' Depart¬ 
ment of Education show us one com¬ 
munity where the people have consent¬ 
ed to a large consolidation and made a 
success of it. When we have covered 
the State with buildings costing from 
fifty to one hundred thousand dollars, 
the result may be satisfactory, or it 
may not. but the bonds must be paid. 
WAYS AND MEANS.—' The It. NY. 
in one of its recent talks upon econom¬ 
ics said something like this: "The 
theory once was that the lack of mod¬ 
ern conveniences and comforts in the 
country home was due to some fault of 
cultural development in country peo¬ 
ple. and that the deficit could be sup¬ 
plied by social workers and uplift com¬ 
mittees. But modern comforts multiply 
in ti.e country just as fast as the means 
of the people permit.” If the truth 
here stated could be driven into the 
heads of our professional educators, 
the school problem would disappear. 
Farmers are as willing to spend money 
for schools as anyone else, and will 
provide better educational facilities for 
their children when they can afford it. 
Meanwhile our State Department of 
Education, by its brutal contempt of 
country people’s intelligence and opin¬ 
ions. by the arrogance with which it 
pursues its hobby of forcing urban 
schools and educational standards 
upon rural communities, is helping to 
drive American citizens from (lie farms 
of tlie State. French Canadians and 
other foreigners are taking their places, 
as in New England, and these .may 
prove more complacent under such treatment than 
those whose ancestors put the Empire State on the 
map. JAMES D. MOOKE. 
How We Sold Our Apples 
N oting all that has been said about the apple 
situation in New York State and Mr. i’hillips’s 
remarks-on page 473, 1 thought you might he inter¬ 
ested in a little account of our experience in selling 
our apple crop. Apples here were cheap, too. when 
the crop was being harvested, and we put them in a 
cellar as fast as harvested, and made no effort to 
sell them. Later we sold some to automobile parties 
from the city, but still had a good share of the crop 
on hand when my son came home from Ohio State 
University with a companion on holiday vacation at 
Christmas. It was necessary for me to sell the 
apples to make a payment on the orchard, and the 
price we could get for them by selling at wholesale 
was so small that the boys proposed to sell them in 
Two good friends—the dog and the pet lamb. So many dogs have the reputation 
of being sheep-killers that we are glad to show this case of friendly interest. 
