The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1912-09-13
REIMBURSEMENT
 OF HIGH SCHOOLS
The Relation of Such Institu- tions to Their Respective
 Communities

How can the high school best meet
 the needs of the community? The l people of Colebrook. New Hampshire, l 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.
 .COIebrook Academy is located in a town of about 2,0OO population in northern New Hampshire. Starting in the first third of the century
 the public system of education For years it has successfully done the work expected of a high school in the traditional branches of the New Eng land school. Now it is trying to do something more. Without lowering it's standards, without ceasing to fur nish the training necessary for those going into the professions, it is en- deavoring to provide adequate ed- ucation for the great mass of boys and girls who ought to remain and grow up with the country. It is seeking, in other words, to readjust itself to the needs of the particular community in which it is. Just what this readjust- nent means may be seen from the following four significant additions to the school plant: the greenhouse. the dairy laboratory the domestic arts de- partment. and the workshop, including carpenter and blacksmith shop. Complete courses are given in agri- culture and domestic science Cole brook is the center of a rural district, and these are the vital interests of large part of the population.
 Colebrook Academy does not propose to become a vocational school It remains a general high school. The courses in agriculture and domestic science % exist side by side. ., with thor thor school subjects, well as the com mercial branches. Its purpose is not primarily to make good farmers, or housekeepers, says Hon. H. c. Nor rison, 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 educated worker with happiness out of work rather than out of the leisure which comes after work, if indeed it comes at all. A further purpose is to educate the strongest youth toward the farm and the indus tries instead of toward the professions and business exclusively In the work of the school it Is repeatedly empha- sized that the new courses are estab- Hshed in the belief that there is just as truly cultural 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 movement lies in the fact that 1t dem onstratesN the basic principle upon which the American high school must stand fall; that it shall be a direct
  that pays for it. The feeling exists that secondary rural schools have in many instances weakened the com munities which supported them; that by the very. efficiency Of their work, they have trained young men and wo- men for other fields of usefulness and have thus frequently deprived the community of the services of it's best citizens. It is said that New Hamp- shire has been a, notable sufferer from this process, and that readjustment is | necessary if the process is to be cheek 1 ed and the upbuilding of the country l districts is to go on again. All over the country there is the same problem. It seems obvious that if the public i high school is to justify itself it must | constantly put back into the conmun- ity the best of each genera ton as per- m anent residents.
 Particularly important is the part l to be played by the reconstructed ru- | ra1 high school in the country life l The Colebroo4z Academy 1 dignifIes the fundamental arts of ag- and home-making. Given 1 schools of this type, with a program of studies matching the real interests l of the community, and rural civiliza- 1 ton may in truth be made as efficient | a nd satisfying as other civilization.