The Plymouth tribune. (Plymouth, Ind.) 1901-1911, 1910-10-27

dllSHcu against the little ScnOOl-
house in the lane" Prof. Willet M.
Hays. assistant secretary of agricul-
ture and a leader in the new educa-
ton movement says:
The deSolate rural school. stand.
ing on the bleak plain. is too un-Amer-
lean to endure the changes of the
times. 1t must be transformed into a
part Of our beautiful outdoors. and
1t must be made more efficient In
general studies. in culture. and In
vocational training for country life"
Sol! Analysis and Stock Judging.
So education seems to have taken
on a new meaning for the parents of
the country children. The new sys-
ten teaches all that the old one did.
all the important studies that the
city school offered; all the phases of
literature. art. history and science
needed to round out the American
citizen.
But it does much more. II adds to
these sudies. the vocational training
for the farm" The new schoolhouse.
instead of standing on a barren lot
at a wind-swept four corners is sur
rounded by a carefully plated farm
Of ten acres or so. In the more adj
vanced of the schools experimental
buildings have been erected, small
fruit and forest tracts laid out, NINA
ture dairy and poultry plants con
strlcted. and experimental work OF
I'll kinds launched.
The boys are taught stock Judging.
breeding. crop rotation. scientific
analysis of the soil. the keeping Of
farm accounts. and kindred subjects.
Contests are organized between rival
groups of students to see what results
can be obtained in the experimental
nlats. and ais in practical work on
the farm at home. The boy carries
away from the school not a confused
mass OF information that he cannot
apply to his daily affairs. but a spe-
cifc idea that certain things can be
evolved from the piece OF land he
has been working on for years. He
becomes intensely interested In his
work and studies. and his eyes are
opened not only to the knowledge"
of the world in the ordinary sense but
to the great possibilities of the land
with which he is most familiar and in
daily contact.
The new school has 200 pupils, in
stead Of 20. 1t has a lecture hall
where spelling bees. class programs
and amateur plays are carried out
and where the neighboring farmers
families gather for Community
meetings. lectures. and entertain
ments.
There are lunchrooms for the chill
dren who come in the vans each
morning. In some Of the schools
there are gymnasiums as well
equipped as those of city schools OF
like size. There is real baseball in
the country now, not the "one old
cat" of former days; for the new
schools have enough pupils to en-
courage American ideas of class
sports and athletic contests.
The girls are educated in the new
scheme. not simply to be educated
but to make them capable farmers
wives and mothers of sturdy farm chill
dren. The district school could not
teach home economies. home manage.
ment, sewing. cooking, and practical
home training. The big combined
school, with its staff of three or -four
trained teachers. can and does teach
all that a small domestic science
cnh0n1 vyOnf1 Il -
of life into the farm house. 1t edu.
Gates the girls to improve the home
rather than to get away from 1t be
cause of its shortcomings.
The whole neigLborhood. often en-
bracing 200 farms, becomes an i'm
mense laboratory for the school. In
the experimental farm
the building plats are laid out to re.
semble the leading farm of the neigh.
borhood.
Great cooperative enterprises. such
as creameries. bakeries. ~laundries. as
well as the churches and the ownshi
buildings. it is predicted, will in the
near future be located about the
school grounds.
The giant successor to the district
school brings into the country tive
full years OF high-school life. and ir
the ninth and tenth grades the elder
pupils put In six months of each yea,
upon their W farms in practical
farm work.
In many sections the farmers an6
their children furnish the CONVEYANCE
to carry the %neighbors' children tc
school; but in the majority of dis
, tricts it has been possible to estab
lish regular carryall service. main
, tanned at public expense.
, Indiana leads the way at nresen,
: in the progress of the new school
movement. In almost every county
? in the state the school wagons are
: bringing crowds of children daily N
' the central buildings. and the "Hoos.
? Ter schoolmaster" is of n d;fforen,
3 type than a generation ago
I Massachusetts is second Ohio third
and Florida and North Dakota con.
: test for fourth place. In almos, very
: state. with the exception of Some q,
T. the sparsely settled western mes tbo
farming districts are either exneri
menting with the new system mr. bova
nrpVen 1t a complete success
me policeman who was sent Tn arrest