The Fargo forum and daily republican. [volume] (Fargo, N.D.) 1894-1957, 1911-11-02

Before the general session OF tn
North Dakota Educational association
this afternoon, Jean McNaughtol
Stevens delivered the following spleen
did address on The One Room School
MY friends: It is rural school tt
the front this year. Country life witt
It's lure holds the attention Of every
body. Back to the land is the cry, 81
rural life holds rural schools vital.
When / came into a certain room
on certain Thursday of March o.
this year and saw my name writer
there beside the phrase, One Room
Rural School. 1 said to myself can
say anything worth while, worth lis.
tening to, helpful about our rural
schools?
/ have been thinking about II ever
since. 1t Is condition not a theory
We face rural schools and the great
majority still in North Dakota one
room rural schools, and. in spite OF
our enthusiasm for consolidation and
its rapid growth in our villages, we are
going to have one room rural schools
in many corners for awhile yet.
rejoice, and so do you, over the big
step In advance taken by North Da-
kota last winter when the state urg-
ed the rural schools to step forward
all together into line and the state
grant-in-aid win be the step OF the
drum beat beat. Hear the children's
feet on they come. When they hear
the drum their hearts are tingling,
their eyes are singing, the goal in
view their school looks new. Vines
all around blossoms abound, trees
shade the seat where parents greet
the happy faces. Just running races.
Now, step aside, no germs abide in that
glittering row of cups. They show on
the cloakroom wall where our glances
fall, as pretty a sight as birds in
flight See the pictures hung, and
the banner flung to the breeze today,
for the wind to play. 1t tells the
people like the bell on the steeple,
that school is going and time is fly
ing like pleasant song.
Our friend, the president for this
year, Neil Macdonald by name, is
going to visit, and without notice.
the rural schools that offer to fall
into line and grade up the main fac
tor in the upward growth of the rur-
al schools, has always been and al
II has been somewhat of a fashion
for us to apologize for being a rural
teacher-and for young men to use
the rural school as a stepping stone, |
only to something else, often the law, |
yet / often thanked God for the in
spiration these growing young men |
gave to the boys of the farm, to make !
something of their lives more than a /
bare living.
The girls who smile and blush so
prettily and step SO soon into homes
Of their own. They have made life /
pleasant for their pupils while with
them. and many Of our little immi-
grants have imbtbed much of our
American tone of, living from our gay
young school ma'ams. who trip light
ly into the grades In the little cities,
after they tire OF trudging along
country roads. and Of breakfast so
early and supper so late In the busy
farmers home.
What! Make it a life work?
Teaching in the rural school? Well,
the short term and the small pay of
the earlier years were prohibitory ex-
cept for few brave souls. who NOV
ed from school to school in a radius
from a homestx@l There are some
fine teachers, mostly women, who
will be eligible for that pension list
now looming in the distance and they
VIII have earned it.
They do. now. own much love and
gratitude In the hearts Of men and
women now doing yeoman service for
the state. There are some men.
think of one. who counts with pride
several county superintendent among
his old pupils, and our lieutenant
governor who is steadily rising.
Let us take a look into what his
tory records Of one room schools. and
the good that came out of them. See
Old Martin Trebonus doffing his can
IN return TO the boys, who stood up
when he entered Somebody renon-
ntrated and Martin said. II bow to
their future" Among them sat Mar
tin Luther. Teachers, who think II
waste TO spend their time on one pu-
Pill. look at the old Roger Aschann.
who rejoiced over his one pupil. good
Queen Bess, and finely she did him
credit-in scholarship and grit any
how.
0 Yes, literature laughs at us. I ,
know the most depressing books ,
have read in our reading circle
work were The Schoolmaster In Lit
erature and The Schoolmaster in
Comedy and Satire. There was only
one schoolmaster in the whole gal {
lery painted for us. who was worthy I
of respect; and that was a school !
Mrs. Dupont in Indiana. q
whom George Eggleston remembers ,
gratefully and tells of nobly. Hear /
Eoldsmith--he treats the poor cler- 4
gyman well and says lads who came 4
.