Evening bulletin. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu, Hawaii]) 1895-1912, 1912-02-23

country boys and girls toward the
/ city, and by idealzing city life they
induce q movement toward the centers
/ of population that often deprives the
country village of it's best citizens.
This declaration is made by DR.. Fred
Mutchlor and w. ]. Craig, two mem
bers of the faculty of the Western
Kentucky state Normal School, in a
monograph which the United States
Bureau of Education has just pub
lished for free distribution.
| The tendency of the rural school to
encourage emigration to the city,
says the Government publication. is in
consequence of the fact that the
course of study in most rural schools
IL merely a copy of that given to city
school children, without reference to
the different environment and local
needs of the country child. As a re-
suit of giving the country child an cd
ucation modelled on city lines, the
authors declare that Teachers every
where, with rare exceptions, have
ideai2pd city life. and unwittingly
have been potent factors In inducing
young men and women to leave the
farm and move into the city. This
movement often carries some of the
best blood and brain of the commun-
! ity into the city, often to be lost,
wasted, or destroyed: certainly to be
lost from the rural community. II is
possible and right indeed duty, to
dignity rural life and to save to 1t
and its interests the best blood of the
country.
The rural school has not the in
fluencc that ii should have. One of
the chief reasons lies in the fact that
the course of study is ill-adaptcd to
rural life in all its relations.
I'VE are united in believing that
school should train its pupils for
| life and its work while these pupils
are living and working. The course
of study taught in the rural school
today is entirely too much like the
course that Is taught in the city
school; in fact, il has been modelled
to fit the needs Of the latter without
consulting enough the ends that are
to he attained in the former"
| AS an indication of the cash value
of a course of study, specialized to
the needs of the rural community and
taught by trained normal graduates,
the monograph says:
"Canada's rural schools increased
the average wheat yield there 3 bush
els to the acre in a few years time.
Suppose that our rural school-teach-
crs should set for themselves the
problem of increasing the corn crop
3 bushels per acre, what would be
the result? Let us see. In 1910 the
farmers of Kentucky planted and cul-
tivated $4,000 acres of corn, which
yielded lO5, 27O,OOO bushels. An in
crease of > bushels per acre would
have made the yield lS,5OO,0O0 bushels
corn would have brought, at the av-
erage farm price December |. 1910,
approximately $lO.OOO,OOO.
This money would have gone di-
reCtly to the rural communities, where
1t is much needed, and would have
been of vast Importance in solving the
problems that confront our rural peo-
pie. II could have been used to build
1000 miles of frst-class pike roads, or
it would have paid the expenses of
our public schools for two and a half
years. It would have gone far to-
ward paying the farmers taxes, or 1t
would have built and furnished many
a rural home Can anyone figure the
comfort and happiness that five bush
els more of corn per acre would buy
for the rural people of any State?
What the rural schools can do for
improving corn culture, they can do
| for ,ny nthor fn RIM crnn 10 tbay alnnt