856 
The RURAL NEW-YORKER 
June 25, 1921 
HOPE FARM NOTES 
— - - II 
Our children are just finishing their 
school work, and “examinations” are in 
order. I presume they will all pass, 
though the Japanese hoy will have a tight 
squeeze. He is smart enough, but lias 
never been taught to “attend” or concen¬ 
trate his mind. One of our hoys took 
the examination for a scholarship at Rut¬ 
gers College and made a great record. 
The boy at college will 1 just about get 
through with a small margin. The smaller 
children will “pass.” They might easily 
do better if they would dig harder, but I 
think a smart woodchuck would beat them 
in scraping a hole toward the heart of a 
subject. I do not know of any other way 
of getting near it. As I see most of my 
children dancing about and caring more 
for play than for work, it is hard some¬ 
times to decide whether we have a group 
of little industrial humbugs or just nor¬ 
mal kids, who will in time grow up to be 
normal and sound American citizens. It 
is the easiest thing you know for any man 
past 50 to find fault with this “young 
generation” and the way it is trained and 
taught. As for me, 1 have too vivid a 
memory of a certain little boy who, as 
I remember it, much preferred play to 
work. I am glad now that boy did like 
play, and I am also glad that he was 
forced to work. But all these “examina¬ 
tions” have set me to thinking about edu¬ 
cation. What is it..and how is the aver¬ 
age child to get it? 
* * $ * # 
Job was a man of liberal education— 
at least in trouble, which usually starts 
life and continues with it to the end. 
You remember what he had to say: 
“But where shall wisdom be found? 
And where is the place of understandiug? 
Man knoweth not the price thereof; 
neither is it found in the land of the liv¬ 
ing.” 
This question of what our children 
should be taught is bewildering. Some ol 
us are in the habit of criticizing the teach¬ 
ers and their methods. But has anyone 
the right to offer destructive criticism 
only? Suppose an overworked, conscien- , 
tions teacher were to turn on you at your 
complaint and challenge you to propose 
better methods and a better .course of 
study. Could you do it? You may 
think so, and you might try, hut it is an 
even chance that your suggested improve¬ 
ments might fall down in practice, like 
many other untested- theories. A teacher 
challenged me the other day to name, the 
essential things in a child's education; 
that is. a child who would not be likely to 
go beyond the grammar school, or possi¬ 
bly two years in high school. It was a 
fair question, and I have thought it oyer 
carefully in connection with my own life, 
and live's of other men. I have also tried 
to consider the school lives of my children. 
There are five essential things which I 
think should 1 be thoroughly taught in our 
rural schools. With them I am sure that 
any child may go on and obtain a liberal 
if not. a college education. For a man 
may have a liberal education and never go 
within a mile of a college. 
* * * * * 
1. .1 1 ho rough study of the English lan¬ 
guage. That is the most important part 
of any American education, and the part 
in which most Americans fail. A thor¬ 
ough knowledge of English is the greatest 
working tool any of us can have. I have 
seen hundred's of people fail to come any¬ 
where near their own because they could 
not express themselves clearly and freely. 
Our own children have been drilled and 
drilled in the study .of good English, on 
the theory that the most necessary part 
of life is the power to give full expression 
to what we believe and what we want to 
know. I would, if need, cut out. much 
of geography and some other studies and 
put the time into English, for I have 
found that the most absolutely necessary 
tool in this bunt for wisdom which Job 
mentions. 
2. A musical , well-cultivated voice. ! 
This may not seem so important to you 
as it does to me; but I have lost so much 
of conversation through the mumbling 
and half-baked words which most people 
think is talking that I know the value of 
a good voice. Most people betray their 
character through their month. It is 
sometimes what they say, 'but more often 
the tone of their voice. It seems to me 
almost a sacrilege to see a voice which 
might have been as clear as a flute and mu¬ 
sical as a cornet turned into a sound like 
that which comes from a cracked tin horn. 
Sound English and a good voice will carry 
any man far along the road. I want my 
children well drilled in music and voice 
culture, even if they must take time away 
from other more ornamental studies. You i 
will remember that I am talking about ] 
children in the rural schools, who are not 
very likely to go on through high school. 
I think a fair criticism of our modern 
education is that it never gets to any 
finish. The graded school is supposed to 
fit for high school. Then the high school 
fits for college, and the college gets the 
student ready for some “advanced” course. 
There seems to he no point along the way 
where a student may step out and say: 
“I am prepared to do something well.” 
3. Here J would put arithmetic. But 
not the sort commonly taught in rural 
schools. I should cut away from the text¬ 
books and spend time over the common 
problems of farm life. When 1 taught 
a district school an old farmer came and 
complained because his boys could not 
figure “the pitch of a roof” or tell how 
many shingles he needed. I would like 
to see the arithmetic in rural schools 
based entirely upon rural problems—fig¬ 
uring fat in milk, yields and price, and all 
those things which farmers must figure 
out.. I would like to see it combined with 
elementary political economy. For in¬ 
stance, follow milk, or apples, or potatoes, 
or eggs, or wheat through to the enn- 
sumer, and make careful figures to show 
just what part of the final price comes 
back to the farmer —and who gets the 
rest of it. Combine with that figures to 
show the cost of production. If this plan 
could be followed closely for a few years 
we should have material for some of the 
most valuable text-books ever issued. 
This is the only way to teach the great 
problem of distribution—which is the 
most important domestic problem we now 
have. 
4. The dielionary habit. I would com¬ 
pel every child to form the habit of hunt¬ 
ing up words and their meanings in the 
dictionary. That would lead to journeys 
after information to an encyclopedia. Few 
of us can ever realize the wonderful value 
of such a habit. With a good knowledge 
of English and this dictionary habit well 
fixed a child will learn about all the geog¬ 
raphy, history and science that is good for 
him. unless he is to handle such subjects 
professionally. Most children must be 
driven to the dictionary if they ever go 
to if, at all. They can he taught to make 
such visits a natural part of life—and the 
best part of an education. I doubt the 
wisdom of trying to give a child a mind 
stored with all knowledge. I would 
rather he had a dictionary mind; that is. 
a knowledge of just where to go for refer¬ 
ences when he needs them. To the argu¬ 
ment that the rural child does not have 
access to books and libraries. I would an¬ 
swer that this form of education will force 
him to accumulate them He will leant 
to know and he will sp'-nd some of the 
money which would otherwise go for less 
valued things on books. 
* * * * * 
5. •Toy in the job. That is what I 
would have taught in the rural school. I 
mean pride in farming, joy in country life, 
hope for the business, contentment with 
home. I have made it my business to 
talk with many men and women who left 
the farm. The great majority of them 
say they started as children with a great 
natural love for the country. As they 
got old enough to understand it became 
evident that many of the farmers around 
them were crying down their own busi¬ 
ness. It. was almost all complaint—no 
one stood up straight for farming as a 
business. Most of the old folks growled 
about school taxes, and this growling was 
reflected in the school. Some of these 
tax-bewailers seemed to think the teacher 
was little short of a grafter for taking 
their money. Both she and the pupils 
were merely tolerated as a sort of neces¬ 
sary evil. There was no such thing as 
“joy in the job” ever taught in that school, 
and from the time they came to under¬ 
stand something of life these men and 
women say they were influenced to con¬ 
sider farming as an inferior business. 
Many of them got away. Some lacked 
the energy and courage to go. Others. I 
am thankful to say, remained on the farm 
because they loved the life, and' now it 
may be said' of them ; 
“Thou shalt come to thy grave in a 
full age, like the shock of grain cometh in 
its season.” 
It is because we need more of such 
farmers that I would have what I call 
“joy in the job” taught in every rural 
school. 
***** 
And here it is Saturday afternoon. It 
is a beautiful day, bright and clear, the 
sky blue and a gentle wind blowing. A 
great time for weed-killing. Here come 
Cherry-top and the Japanese boy: 
“We think we worked pretty well 
through the forenoon ; can’t we go fish¬ 
ing?” 
Well, why not? Tell me that! In all 
the cities and towns Saturday is a leg;.] 
half-holiday. If these boys worked for 
me in town 1 could not hold them, any¬ 
way. Is farming to he a business which 
compels hoys to work while boys in other 
lines of enterprise may play? If so. 
could anyone ever teach “joy in the job” 
to farm boys when they come to under¬ 
stand things? I'll ask you that. 
n. w. c. 
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