The Globe-republican., 1899-05-18
How to Get Better Schools


vigor of the country boy enables him
to endure greater and more protracted
physical and mental strain.
Yet the farmer lad is always tugging
at the rope that binds him to the farm.
He is not content. He longs to leave
until he does leave it. It is useless
to point out to him the advantages of
rural life; he Graves the social and in
tellectual life of the city. He has had
nature and nothing but nature, and
he needs the art, music, theaters, SER
mons and Libraries of the metropolis
to teach him how to interpret nature.
What is to be done about this con-
dition of things that is driving one
half Of the population to the city and
driving the other half to desperation
with its monotony? asks a contributor
to the Record.
Some say give the country better
schools; some say give it libraries. But
how do either of these things without
a radical change in the present sys-
tenn of rural schools and rural life?
In the first place, everything that
works to purpose in these days Is Or
ganized, radiates from some center;
and there is no organization, no rad
iation, either in the schools or the so
cial life of the country. Every far
mer plods along in his own way, with
out reference to the twenty-five other
farmers In his neighborhood. Every
school joys along at it's own gait, in
schools of the township. Not one OF
these schools is graded, or can be
graded, as they have from forty to
fifty pupils, ranging in age from 6 to
10 years, all under the care OF one
teacher.
AS soon as the pupils have learned
the rudiments Of reading, arithmetic
and geography they must 60 into the
graded schools of the towns if they
would continue their education. More
over, what they have already acquired
is not even the fundamentals OF an
education. They have been taught, for
instance, how to pronounce the COM
mon words, but they know neither
how to read nor what to read. II they
want facts they have as yet no knowl-
edge of where to go to find them.
Neither do they know how or what to
read for mere enjoyment of the ideas
expressed and of the felicitous phrases
in which they are expressed.
To learn what the word education"
really means, to make even a begin
ming at an education, as well as for
the enjoyment of social life, the youth
must go from the farm into town. And
too often in his search for companion
ship he goes into that most demoraliz-
ing of all places for restless, un-
trained boy, the small country village,
where he is at once made welcome by
that part of society which holds down
the empty dry-goods boxes along the
street and finds its diversion in saloons
and cigar stores.
1t is idle to preach to him about the
independent life the farmer lives; Of
his assurance of a comfortable living.
The boy is by nature gregarious, as all
people are. He would rather live from
hand to mouth with the herd than
dwell in sumptuous solitude. The only
way you can keep him on the farm
is by making graded schools, social life
and intellectual growth possible to
rural communities.
Orville T. Bright never said more
truthful thing than: Country school,
houses with reading room, gymnasium
and sheds for the horses would cure
the dry rot of the brain that is break
ing down the farming population" But
such school houses are not possible to
each of the eight or ten isolated dis
tricts of every township. They can be
had only by combining and organic
ing the one thing under the heavens
which is not now combined and srgan-
lzed-the rural population.
II, instead of the eight or ten dis
trict schools, there was in the center
Of each township one school with
eight or ten rooms and as many
teachers, then this school could be
graded and the children need not leave |
home at the age when they most need
the watchful care of parents. The
school could have pleasant grounds,
gymnasium and all the requisites for |
making it the club house, concert and |
lecture hall, banquet room and read |
ing room for both adults and children
of the township. And the total ex- |
pense of such a building would not ex- |
coed one twenty-fifth that of the barns |
in which the live stock of those same |
farmers is housed.
It would be too far for some Of the |
children to go to school? Not more |
than three or four miles for those most |
remote And there are now bitter |
quarrels in some neighborhoods Of IL |
linois because no sheds are provided |
for the horses Of children who have |
to go one and a half to two miles. |
What is to hinder paying a half-doz- |
en- farmers living at the greatest dis |