Newark post., 1912-10-23

il the nutrition of these friends of the
bardyard and pasture.
Thus the rural school shall become
school of animal husbandry. Geography
must so far include the study of soils that
the child may know of the plant food
in his father s farm, whether he knows
the capital of his state or not. Reading
and spelling must be related to the life
of the farm. History must tell of the
movements of agriculture, rather than of
battles or political contests. Pupils will
rlo their language work in reporting the
results of experiments i'll farming, rather
than in the diagramming of sentences
or the parsing TO words. And where such
work in systematic grammar is done, the
sentences chosen will be such as to pos
sess background in the real life of the
pupils, rather than in mythology or the
classics The school will be completely
ruralized
PuTTING IDEAS INTO USE.
And in the process the cultural eli
cheney of the schools will be increased
! tenfold. because the children will not only
imbibe ideas, but will use them. The
dreadful uselessness of most of our pure
ly cultural studies lies in the feeling
on the part of the child that the whole
matter is in an unreal world of school
and quite aside from the world of life.
| When the rural schools become real lab
oratories of farm life, when the boys and
girls study in the schools the very things
| their parents are laboring with on the
farm, the habit of thinking about things
rather than about words will give vigor
| to every phase of thought. If / desired
to produce a generation of poets, artists,
begin by giving to the minds Of the
young the real grain of scientific truth
to grind, trusting to the Unsuitable hun
ger of the mind which grows by every
morsel of trust consumed by it. / once
saw in one of these new rural schools a
boy sitting with a rack of agricultural
bulletins at his elbow, writing on rasp-
berry culture. | asked him why he chose
that topic for his essay. 81 m growing
raspberres for the Market said he.
Language for this boy was medium
for expressing thought, rather than for
getting marks. He was interested in the
essay, but more in next year s crates of
berries. Out of such conditions will come
pupils who will make the language glow
mentaries and Grant S Memoirs-and for
the identical reason that gives immortal
ity to these works as literature. In each
case the writer will have something to say
WHAT ABOUT THE RURAL SCHOOLS? ;.
Out of this kind of country school, ]
believe. will grow the new kind of rural
social center. Already the Babcock milk
tester, the weed cabinet, the trap nest
the experimental plat of grain, vegetable
or flower are to be seen in and about the
rural school. Wherever these schools
are correlated with rural life, the socia
center springs up in the school spontan
eously. | am convinced that if it is Il
live and serve it must spring up.
A farmer in Page County, Iowa, wa:
rather opposed to the rewfanged notion
of teaching agriculture in the school. Bu
after the milk of his cows had beer
tested in the school, as part of its reg
ular exercise, he changed his mind Fo
by this test he discovered that cows whicl
he thought as good as any, were actual.
being kept at loss. The simple class
room experiment in natural philosoph,
had made it possible for this family t.
live fHller and happier life. The schoo
reacted on the home, and the home tel
il. To this man the school became a
mach a part of his life as it had been o
the life of his children.
The correlated rural school thus be
comes a continuation school for ever,
man in the district.
And for every woman too. The girl
who compete in the cooking and SEWN!
! contests bring their mothers into tn
, NUIh VI tht StbbOl IOolil
A link is established connecting ever
farm with every other farm, and bind
ing them all together. A social cente
comes into being with or without meet
! ings. But the meetings are inevitable
and with the fact of meeting come socis
relations, debates, lectures, moying-pict
ure shows and perhaps dances and games
e The people meet because they have some
n thing to consult about and do not bt
e cause some well-mcaning person has sal,
: $50 to now---let us be social.
i TIE School is THE NUCLEUS.
1 / am convinced that the school mus
h furnish the nucleus of the rural socis
/. center of the future. 1t must do so b
: making its work part Of the farl