The silver state. [volume] (Winnemucca, Nev.) 1909-1925, 1910-06-18
NEW COUNTRY
SCHOOL in VIEW



ly by Governor Marion E. Hay, meets
in Spokane the week Of November IA,
plans will be presented for a model
community center and consolidated
country school, to be established in
one of the rural districts adjoining
Spokane, early in 1911.
David Brown, of Spokane, chairman
of the commission, announces that Gov
ernor Hay and possibly Colonel Theo-
dore Roosevelt will attend the con-
ference and assist in formulating a
practical plans for the betterment of
life on the farm, along the lines sug-
gested in the report of the Roosevelt
Commission on Country Life, which,
headed by Professor Liberty Hyde
Bailey, of Ithaca, N. Y, made a tour
of the larger farming districts Of the
United States the latter part Of 1908
and early in 1909.
This is to be the preliminary step OF
a nationwide movement, cooperative
with the various states and territories,
in an endeavor to teach the youth of
the land the fundamental principles of
agricultural and domestic economy and
manual and industrial training, also
giving the farmers in the communities
the benefit of the most approved meth
ords of agriculture and allied subjects.
The community center is designed to
furnish a plpace where men and women
can meet for the interchange of ideas.
Primarily, the school is for the
average boy and girl, whose instintu-
tional education ends even before they
finish the secondary school, the purpose
being to train them to become useful
men and women and capable of sup
porting themselves, and adding to the
wealth production of the country at
large and the districts in which they
live and 10 better their condition of
life.
The Washington commission has pre-
pared tentative plans for a community
center, including a consolidated rural
school. 1t is designed to cover 10
acres and will serve a school area of
SO square miles, the most distant point
being three miles. In addition to the
school building the plans show a large
community hall, residence for the prin-
cipal and supervisor, athletic and play
grounds. tennis court, pressure water
tanks for domestic, lawn, horticulture,
| Horticulture and forestry. Surround
l lily dlu DiSCttluk thC hAatto Wa W
, omdels of good road building.
The school and other buildings will
! be under the direction of a principal
, trained in the various branches of ag-
l lriculture and familiar with conditions
! in the northwest. This official will be
! assisted by a supervisor and a corps
of teachers. In connection with the
} community hall will be a bureau of in.
!, e--.-- xz~x-~ III Sha n-a.loh1e
, data of federal and state department:
! of agriculture and experimental sta
! tions in the country, also books ant
( journals dealing with all the branches
{ of the industry.
3 The community center is to be made
: beautiful with trees, shrubs, flower
I and lawns without being ornate, ant
4 no saloon, store or other commercial In
1 stitution can be located within half
s mile of its boundaries. The teacher
: will be men and women with red bloo'
lin their veins and able to adapt them
selves to the ideals of the cente
! and school of the type outlined. AmonI
other qualifications they must b
broadminded and optimistic and abb
to see the human side of life, also b
helpful to those under their charge.
The keynote is that the best defens
against misfortune is to give ever,
child in the country such education
that will enable it to make its ow
living on a piece of land, if necessary
when it becomes of age. 1t is ais
lpurposed to launch a campaign, urgin
the people of the open country to wor
together, not merely with the view t
forwarding their own economic inter
ests or in competing with those VIII
are organized, but to develop then
selves and establish an effective con
munity spirit. ).
The consolidated rural school vii
be similar to the graded city institr
ton, the b%etterment of the curriculum
being by emphasizing industrial an
manual training and domestic scienc
and adding such other studies as W
give the students a knowledge Q
things with which they come into col
tact in actual life and presentin
means of working put the chief studio
in practice. 1t is also purposed to teac
the students the principles of bushes
However, the value of agriculture 8
the greatest of all industries will b
constantly kept to the fore.
"This may be termed a back to tn
farm movement, the necessity Q
which is becoming more apparent e'
cry day" said Mr.. Brown. eve nee
more men and women on the farms; ]
: fact, it would be better for the nj
toms prosperity if IS per cent, instea
S of 33 per cent of the population, as {
3 present, were tilling the soil, milkin
3 cows and setting hens. The ope
q country, however, is not the solutio
q of the out-of-work problem, for, unle'
e instructed in some branch of agricultul
g and keenly interested in the work, I'll
g average man is worse of in the coul
& try than in the thronged city.
& "This takes the Spokane plan
& the first principle, tina tthe child shoul
8 be educated along practical lines, an
3 to bring this about the country scho
3 must be made a new kind of institl
3 tion. The rural scools are held !
3 some to be largely responsible for ]
3 effective farming, the general lack
. ideas and the rapid drifting from Il
country to city. The rural schools a
= not declining: thew are simply in