Oxford eagle. (Oxford, Lafayette Co., Miss.) 1876-current, 1904-09-08


dearest by reason of affection. have
had to depend for the foundations of
their education. Furthermore, | have
long recognized the importance of the
great work accomplished by these re-
mote schools, most of which are ito
fortune and to fame unknown" until
some man or woman climbing the
heights of success, pauses long enough
to tell the listening world about the
little rural school,, with its spell
ing bees" debating societies. etc,
which was the happy scene of his
first steps along the long road which
eventually led to such heights.
In glancing through recent num-
Der of the School Journal, l was much
attracted by an article from the pen
of that distinguished educator, l.. H.
Bailey, dean of the Cornell University
of Agriculture. on the subject of
Country Life and Country Schools. !"
1t was my intention, after reading 1t,
to give my readers some of the most
valuable ideas, but feel that it would
be unjust to you as well as to the
great educator to add to, or take from,
his work:
'The kernel of modern educational
development is to relate the school
training to the daily life. Much OF our
education Is not connected with the
conditions in which the pupils live
and is extraneous to the lives that
they must lead. The free common
schools are more recent in develop
ment than universities, colleges, and
academies, and they are even yet es-
sentially academic and in many ways
undemocratic. They teach largely out
of books and Of subjects that have
litt.a vital relation with things that
are real to the child The school work
Is likely to be exotic to the pupil. The
child lives in one world, and goes to
school in another world.
Every subject has teaching-power
when put into pedagogic form. The
nearer this subject Is to the child the
greater Is It's teaching power, other
condition aing comparable; and the
more completely does it put him into
touch with his environment and make
him efficient and happy therein. In
time. all subjects in which men en-
gage will be put in form for teach
fng and be made the means OF train
ing the mind. The old subjects will
not be banished, but rather extended;
but the range of subjects will be i'm
mensely increased because We must
reach all the people in terms of their
daily experience. How all these sub
iects are to be handled as school
agencies we cannot yet foresee, but 1t
is certain that the common things
must be taught. And the common
subjects are as capable of being made
the means of developing the imagina-
ton and the higher ideals as are many
of the traditional subjects.
Great numbers of our people are
In industrial and agricultural environ
ments. BY means of the industrial
and agricultural trades they must live.
These trades must be made more eff
cient: and the youth must be edu-
Gated to see in them more than a mere
livelihood. These industrial and agrl-
cultural subjects must be put more
and more into schools. The so-called
"industriar' and commercial subjects
have already been put Into schools
with good effect; the agricultural sub
jects now must come within the school
horizon.
''Not only must the school teach in
terms of its own environment, but
more and more it must become the in
tellectual and social center OF the
neighborhood or district. Every mod
ern rural school building should be
attractive enough to induce clubs or
many kinds to hold meetings In It..
In the old '1yceum" days the school
house was an important gathering
place. These days are mostly past,
but better days should be coming,
the school should connect at every
point with the life of the community;
any event, however small, that centers
the attention Of the people at the
school-house, is a beginning and is
worth the while. A year ago the chill
dren and teacher in district school
began the work Of Cleaning up the
premises. Later, when the grounds
we're renovated and ready for the
planting, boxes were placed for the
reception Of the mail for those who
do not live on the carriers route; this
is the beginning of centering OF at
tention at the schoolhouse. The boxes
might have been more attractive and.
perhaps, better placed, but this will
come in time, beginning having been
made. When once the people of any
community come to think OF the
schoolhouse as meeting place for
old folks as well as children, wh It
may we not expect Of the rural school
We need adult as well as Juvenile
education.
ITO be effective, study OF agricul-
ture and country life should be di-
rect1y with the ings-handling
studying and learning them. This is
nature study. To commit things to
memory is of no consequence. We
We are often slaves to books. Books
are only secondary, or incidental
means of educating, particularly in
nature-study subjects. We have known
the book for so long that many OF us
have come to accept it as the only
way"
DIR. Bailey believes, as | hope, that
in time every school will have its gar
den, just as now it has charts and
blackboards He, too, thinks that a
garden is laboratory added to the
schoolbouse. The children, in prepar-
ing the land, get lessons in soils and
in physics; in planting and in trans
planting many valuable lessons which
bear on life's many phases.
Just now, in all progressive schools
the Improvement of the grounds Is q
pressing subject DR.. Baily makes
some admirable suggestions along this
line. He advises as practical way OF
studying arithmetic that the children