Milford chronicle., 1912-09-20
SCHOOL EXPERIMENT
IN NEW HAMPSHIRE
People of CoIebroOk Believe They Have
Solved An Important Problem.

solved An Important Problem.
How can the High School best meet
the needs of the community? The
people of Colebrook, New Hampshire,
think they have solved the problem.
Their experiment is interestingly de-
scribed in a bulletin just issued for free
distribution by the United States Bureau
Of Education.
COlebrook Academy is located in a
town of about 1000 population in north
ern New Hampshire Starting in the
hTst third of the century as a private
school, it latter became part of the
public system of education. For years
it has successfully done the work ex-
pected of ahigh school in the traditional
branches of the New England school.
Now it is trying to do something more.
Without lowering its standards, with
out ceasing to furnish the training
necessary for those going into the pro-
fessiOns, it is endeavoring to provide
an adequate education for the great
mass of boys and girls who ought to
remain and grow up with the country.
1t is seeking. in other words, to read
Just itself to the needs of the particular
community in which it is. Just what
this readjustment means may be seen
from the following four significant ad-
ditiOns to the school plant the green
house, the dairy laboratory, the domestic,
arts department, and the workshop, in
cluding a carpenter and blacksmith shop.
Complete courses are given in agricul-
turs and domestic science. COlebrOOk
is the center of a rural district, and
these are the vital interests of a large
pare of the population.
COlebrook Academy does not pro-
nHaa a.rnN
1t remains a general school. The courses
in agriculture and domestic science exist
side by side with thorough courses in .
the traditional high school subjects. as
we'll as the commercial branches. Its
purpose is not primarily to make good
farmers, or skilled mechanics, or pro-
fessional housekeepers, says Hon. H.
G. Morrison, State superintendent of
New Hampshire. ''The primary object
is the education of the boy and girl to
become a sincere and efficient and
happy man and woman, capable of be-
coming an educated worker with ma
terial things. capable of getting life's
happiness out of work than out of the
leisure which comes after work if in
deed it comes at ALL A further pur-
pose is to educate the strongest youth
toward the farm and the industries in
stead of toward the professions and
business exclusively. In the work of
the school it is repeatedly emphasized
tnat the new courses are established in
the belief that there is just truly a
development of the individual
to be had from competent instruction
in agriculture or domestic science as
from competent instruction in Latin.
The significance of the ColebroOk
in, haf 9
onstrates the basic principle upon which
the American high school must stand
or fall that it shall be a direct source
of strength to the community that pays
for il. The feeling exists that secondary
rural schools have in many instances
awakened the communities which sup !
ported them ; that by the very efficiency i
Of their work, they have trained young
men and women for other fields of
usefulness and have thus frequently
deprived the community of the ser
vices of its best citizens. It is said
that New Hampshire has been a not
able sufferer from this process, and !
that readjustment is necessary if the G
process is to be checked and the up '
building of the country districts is to 90 r
IN again. All over the country there s
s the same problem. 1t seems obvious +
hat # the public high school is to
Justify itself it must constantly put
pack into the community the best of
zach generation as permanent resi-
lents.
Particularly important is the part to s
,e played by the reconstructed rural il
Ugh school in the country Fife movement. S
The Colebrook Academy dignifies the u
fundamental arts of agriculture and
Given schools of this
ype, with a program of studies match
lg the real interests of the community a
nd rural civilization may in truth be =
lade as efficient and satisfying as other y
iyilization. G.