The progressive farmer. [volume] (Winston, N.C.) 1886-1904, 1892-05-24
THE NEED OF EDUCATION IN
THE COUNTRY INTELLI-
GENTLY DISCUSSED.

Practical eiucatiOn is needed in the
country as we'll as in the city, writes
Grace Dodge There has been too much
brain culture in the past, with too lit
tie sense development and mind train
ing. With all opportunities for obiec-
tive teaching and manual training, but
little of it has come to the country,
and yet the boys and girls there need
this training as much as children in
crowded city tenements. Successful
experiments In these directions are be-
ing made in many country neighbor-
hoods. Groups of ladies are Inaugural
ting cooking, carpentry and ciay-mod-
cling classes and sending to the cities
for teachers. In these neighborhoods
boys who expect to become clerks and
in consequence to leave their homes for
city boarding houses are becoming i'm
pressed with the interest as we'll as the
value of tools. The girls are enjoying
lessons in hygenie and the chemistry
Of food, as we'll as practical demon
strations of cooking. Sewing is also
growing more and more interes ing,
and the young girls appreciate doing
with the learning.
Take. for example, two neighbor-
hoods on the Hudson, near New York.
n one a library association was started
a few years ago by some ladies. There
seemed but few people around who
could or would utilize a library or
reading room, but 0 many men and
BOYS gathered nightly. A sewing
school was started for Saturdays upon
strict business prin ;lples, and within a
month was ~Overcrowded. 1t was hard
to tell where the hundred or more girls
came from but there they were, eager
to learn. A boys class for modelling
and carpentry started, then a cooking
class for girls, and all we're successful.
Monthly entertainments were held,
when an admission fee of ten cents was
charged, and the rOOm were crowed
In the other nejghbOrhOOd practi;a al
classes have alsO started and are all
crowded. Ia this small settlement are
now being held three weekly cooking
classes for different groups of girls, two
large sewing classes, a dressmaking
course, and boys carpentry classes.
Village bands and ChOruses are valu
able. In one place a large group of
boys are kept interested by their
weekly band practice. A right feeling
of pride is aroused when they are called
upon to lead local prOce ssions, to play
| at entertainments, etc. Here, also, the
teacher of the village school has started
a gymnasium and Is training bows and
girls alike in the Swedish movements.
Country children need to be physically
developed by training, and taught
graceful movements as we'll as city
children. Village volunteer companies
of bows can be organized and made
a power by furnishing practical outlets
90 energies physical al well az mental.
Interest in surroundings should be
| reused. The country, with it's mounds
rocks, trees and plants, should be stud
led, intimacy with the beautiful vari
ETY. of animal and insect life should b<
encouraged. Through such channels
homes will be made brighter. Happi
ness means cOntentment, and content
ment comes from health, occupation
and interest. Country contentmen'
will be the result when young people
become stronger, keep brain as well al
hand busy, and T interested in others
If, therefore, those who live in farm
houses or villages could learn from ex
perience like these to adopt as a basis
of action the principle of agitation, ed
ucGtion and co operation, thus rOus
ing from inactivity of mind and spiri
to educate themselves by finding out
what can be done, and combining tx
do it, they will find that 20 operative
methods r adapted to country aDt
village, and through such methods vii
realize a practical solution Of the dull
ness of rural life, from which SO many
want to escape. -Lippincott's Magd
zine.