The RURAL NEW-YORKER 
Local Improvement for the Rural Schools 
NTEREST IN IMPROVEMENT. — 
It would be a fine thing if your plan 
with regard to making school meet¬ 
ing day a social event in each com¬ 
munity, as well as a business meet¬ 
ing, could be generally adopted. It 
would foster a more united neighborhood spirit; 
cause a better representation at the business meet¬ 
ing, thereby eliminating the criticism on the part 
of absentees; also help to raise the general morale 
of the community. We would be interested to hear 
from any rural district as to how they have im¬ 
proved their schools; in what ways they were made 
better in equipment, surroundings, requirements of 
teachers, interest manifested by parents, or any way 
in which the people wanted the school improved 
and have really caused the improvement. 
COMMENDABLE WORK.—In our county, Dis¬ 
trict No. 3, town of Schroeppel, the people have done 
a commendable piece of work in improving their 
school equipment and surroundings. Prior to the 
beginning of the work, the school ground was so 
low that for several weeks during the school year 
the older pupils were obliged to carry the small 
ones from the school door to the street, because of 
water standing on the school ground. Of course 
in a situation like that the pupils were deprived of 
the use of a playground, being obliged to remain in¬ 
doors all day. 
COMMUNITY EFFORTS.—Through the efforts 
of interested ones, the interest of the community 
was aroused so that they came together with teams 
and drew earth to raise the level of the submerged 
school ground. It was afterward graded and seeded 
to grass. Shrubbery and trees were set to enhance 
the attractiveness of the place. Now the children 
have a fine ground for their games and athletic 
sports. The schoolroom was supplied with win¬ 
dows on opposite sides, which produced cross¬ 
lighting of the room. Some children complained 
very much of having headaches. The position of 
the windows was changed so the light comes prop¬ 
erly from one side and the rear. Since that change, 
the children who had previously suffered from 
headaches are not so afflicted. 
BETTER EQUIPMENT.—The old desks were re¬ 
moved, and adjustable seats and desks set in their 
places. These seats, and desks, also, can be adjusted 
to the size of the occupant, so the small child need 
not sit with feet dangling in the air, nor the tall 
one be obliged to sit in a cramped position all day 
at his work. The school- 
house was painted on 
the outside, and the 
woodwork inside was 
also given a new coat 
of paint. New curtains 
were hung at the win¬ 
dows. A piano has 
been put in the school 
with statuary standing 
thereon. A few good 
pictures have been 
hung on the walls. The 
toilets have been put in 
good sanitary condition, 
and wire screens pro¬ 
vided for the doors and 
windows of the school 
room, so that flies will 
be excluded, the same 
as they are from the 
homes. Some new books 
have been added to the 
library along with the 
other improvements. 
GENERAL CO-OP¬ 
ERATION. — All these 
things have been ac¬ 
complished by commun¬ 
ity effort, or in other words, community interest. By 
the people of the district and the teacher working 
together, entertainments and socials have been held 
from time to time to help defray the expense. The 
people got together to get the work done. Now they 
have a school property and a community house in 
one, of which they may justly be proud. Com¬ 
munity life like this will keep alive the American 
spirit and develop the strength of character that 
has been the foundation and the bulwarks of Ameri¬ 
can government and institutions from early colo¬ 
nial times to the present. It is bound to have a 
similar effect on the character of the people that 
the pure democracy of the New England town meet¬ 
ings have on the strong spirited New Englander. 
A CENTER OF SOCIAL LIFE.—Entertainments 
need not be time thrown away. For instance, 
.1 Sled for Hauliny Asparagus to the Packi 
Fig. 264 
ng filled. 
tableaux and plays illustrating life in other conn- 
tries would be very instructive in geography and 
current history, to the actors especially, and to the 
spectators as well. Or they could illustrate early 
life in our own country, or present-day life in other 
parts of our country. 
THERE IS PROGRESS.—Some people are of the 
opinion that the rural schools of New York State 
have “stood still since 1812.” When I first read 
that statement T thought there must have been a 
mistake, that perhaps the author had been mis¬ 
quoted. But that statement was made from the 
platform at our last conference. It seems incredible 
that any person who has any real acquaintance 
with school life and methods past and present could 
entertain that opinion. My mother was born in the 
latter part of the nineteenth century, a great many 
years after 1812. She attended a rural school in 
her childhood and later taught in rural schools, and 
also in village schools. When she went to school 
the primer class stood around the teacher, while 
she sat in her chair, and took turns telling the let¬ 
ters. and the syllables a-b, ab; e-b, eb, etc., as she 
the ability of the class would permit. Instances 
were known where pupils were started in the same 
place in the arithmetic and covered about the same 
amount of work, doing the same identical problems 
four and five terms in succession. A new teacher 
was usually hired for each successive term, it often 
occurring that three different teachers taught the 
school in one year. In those days physiology, United 
States history and civics, drawing, nature study and 
agriculture, health education, and patriotism, all of 
which are required to be taught now, were not in 
the curriculum of the district schools of 1870, what¬ 
ever may have been in 1812. 
REQUIREMENTS OF TEACHERS.—In those 
days, all a teacher had to do in order to secure a 
license to teach, was to call on the school commis¬ 
sioner and answer a few oral questions (some com¬ 
missioners gave a written test at their own op¬ 
tion ). Then the commissioner would say, “I guess 
you can teach all right,” and then he would write 
up a license if he were not too busy. If he were 
busy, he would say, “I will bring your license the 
first time I visit your school.” We might let the 
teachers who have spent years of time and hard 
study to secure their certificates and licenses to 
teach, judge as to how that method compares with 
the present time. Before we can teach now, we 
have to pass a rigid written examination in a large 
number of subjects, among them being method of 
teaching, both general and special. Our schools are 
graded, and both teacher and pupils may know just 
how much, or what sections of a subject, belong in 
each grade. Consequently at the present time, a 
pupil can progress along logical stages from the 
time he enters school to the end of his course. 
SCHOOL ADVANCEMENT.—Taking all these 
things into consideration, it appears that the only 
points in which the rural schools have “stood still 
since 1812” are in name and local government. The 
United States inaugurated its first President in 
17S9 and we still have a President, but we would 
not, for a second, presume to say that the United 
States has stood still since 1789. The rural schools 
of today are far superior to what they were 30 or 
40 years ago; yes, 15 years ago. We have better 
textbooks, and better trained teachers; also a bet¬ 
ter interest in the schools in most communities. 
Trusting tiiat advancement will keep abreast with 
the times let us have faith in well-doing. We hope 
to hear from the most progressive schools of other 
counties, w h a t they 
have done, and how they 
did it. E. I,, g. 
Oswego Co., N. Y. 
Handling Rye For 
Green Manure 
E 
Cutting Asparagus on a South .Jersey Farm. Fig. 265 
pointed to them with her pencil. The spelling 
classes stood in line and spelled orally, taking 
turns from the “head” of the class to the “foot,” 
the whole class standing idle except the one who 
was spelling. As we know now, we have no need 
for spelling orally, its use being as a medium for 
written language. There was nothing like grading 
at the time—grades were unheard-of in one-room 
schools. The classes were started at a place in 
their books entirely at the option of the teacher, 
unless there was a protest on the part of an older 
pupil, and worked as far as the lengths of term and 
VERY year at this 
time the question 
about plowing under 
green rye comes up. 
Rye is a favorite crop 
with many farmers for 
green manuring. It is 
a tough crop, can be 
seeded under very 
rough conditions, and 
makes a very rank 
heavy growth in the 
Spring. While it adds 
no nitrogen to the soil 
it does add a good deal 
of o r g a n i c matter. 
When properly handled 
it is very useful. Many 
people have condemned 
rye as a green manure 
crop. They say it has 
ruined corn or potatoes following it. The symp¬ 
toms are that the corn turns yellow and feeble and 
will not grow. Therefore, these farmers claim tha' 
the rye has poisoned the ground. The trouble is not 
so much in the rye itself, as in the way it is han¬ 
dled. Most people leave rye too long before plow¬ 
ing it under in the hope of getting a larger crop. 
Then, they plow the heavy growth under and leave 
it alone in the soil, loose and open. The air works 
in, ferments start, and the land is made sour, and 
the hollow stems of the rye admit so much air that 
the ground is thoroughly dried out. This is the 
