Vilas County news. [volume] (Eagle River, Vilas County, Wis.) 1896-1927, 1910-11-02

the interesting and important things
of farm life, and he will generally
choose the farm as his home"
In nearly 800 communities, chiefly
in Indiana. Massachusetts, Ohio, Flor
ida and North Dakota, the new
schools are besieged daily by the
scores of children tumbling from the
incoming carryalls. Several thousand
or the little district schools, unable
to offer a reasonable excuse for ex-
istence in the face of the new COM
petition, have yielded their preroga.
tives to the united institution, and
have been gathered under it's spa
cious roofs.
1t 'is a powerful force that is
aligned against the little school.
house in the lane" Prof Willet NJ
Hays, assistant secretary of agricul-
ture and 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. It 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"
Soil Analysis and Stock Judging.
So education seems to have taken
on new meaning for the parents of
the country children. The new sys.
tenn 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 1t does much more 1t adds to
these sudies, the vocational training
for the farm" The new schoolhouse,
instead of standing on a barren lot
at a wfnd-swept four corners, is sur.
rounded by carefully plated farm
Of ten acres or so. In the more ad
vanced of the schools experimental
buildings have been erected, small
fruit and forest tracts laid out, rainia-
ture dairy and poultry plants con-
structed. and experimental work OF
all 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
plats, and also 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 q spe-
cific 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 hut
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 90 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 entertaiu
merits.
The whole neighborhood, often EN-.
bracing 200 farms. becomes an i'm.
mense laboratory for the school, In
the experimental farm surrounding
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 township
buildings. it is predicted. will in the
near future be located about the
school grounds.
In many sections the farmers and
their children furnish the conyeyances
to carry the neighbors' children to
school: but in the majority OF dis.
tricts 1t has been possible to estab
lish regular carryall service. main.
tanned at public expense.
Indiana leads the way at present
in the progress OF the new school
rAyement In almost every county
in the state the school wagons are
bringing crowds of children daily to
the central buildings, and the "Hoos-
Ter schoolmaster" is OF a different
type than a generation ago.
Massachusetts is second. Ohio third,
and Florida and North Dakota con
test for fourth place. In almost every
state. with the exception of some OF
the sparsely settled western ones. the
farming districts are either expert
menting with the new system. or have
L. nornnIr,Ac, cr1rnara