The Birmingham age-herald., 1912-02-11
RURAL SCHOOLS
 ON WRONG TRACK Teachers Unwittingly Send
 Pupils to Cities IDEALIZE CITY LIFE Bureau of Education Sends Out ke- port Calling Attention to Failure
 to Recognize Environment
 in Their Teaching

| Running directly counter 10 tne sfoWihS 1 "back-to-the-soil" movement, rural school teachers are an actual force in the de- | nonulation of the country districts. They set the faces of country boys and girls l toward the city, and by idealizins city life they induce a movement toward the centers of population that often deprives 1 the country village of it's best citizens.
 This declaration is made by pr. Fred Mutchler and w. J. Craig. two members
 of the faculty of the Western kentucky State Normal school, in a monograph
 which the United States bureau of edu-
 cation has just published for free distri-
 button.
 The tendency of the rural school 10 l encourage emigration to the city, says the government publication, is in consequence | of the fact that the course of study m most rural schools is merely a copy of that given to city school children, with
 out reference to the different environment
 and local needs of the country child. As
 a result of giving the country child an education modelled on city lines, the au- thors declare that teachers everywhere, with rare exceptions, have idealized city life, and unwittngiy have been potent 1 factors in inducing young men and women | to leave the farm and move into the city. l This movement often carries some of the | best blood and brain or the community
 into the city, often to be lost, wasted,
 or destroyed; certainly to be lost from 1 the rural community. It Is possible and
 right. indeed duty, to dignify rural life
 and to save to it and its interests the
 best blood of the country.
 ''rhe rural school has not the influerce | that it should have. One of the chief reasons lies in the fact that the course
 of study is i'll adapted to rural life in
 all it's relations.
 l We are united in believing that q
 school should train it's pupils for life and
 its work while these pupils are living ana
 working. The course of study taught in
 the rural school today is entirely too much
 like the course that is taught in tne|
 city school; in fact it has ben modelled
 to fit the needs of the latter without con-
 sulting enough the ends that are to be
 attained in the former"
 As an indication of the cash value of
 course of study specialized to the neeGs
 of the rural community and taught hy
 trained normal graduates, the monograph 1 says:
 ,'Canada's rural schools increased the average wheat yield there five bushels to
 the acre in a, Few ears time. Suppose
 that, our rural school teachers should set
 for themselves the problem of Increasing l the corn crop five bushels per acre. l what would be the result? Let us sec In 1 1910 the farmers of Kentucky planted and cultivated 3,6sO,000 acres of corn,
 which yielded 105,21oooO bushels. An in
 crease of five bushels per acre would | have made the yield 1s,500,000 bushels l more These 1s,50O.o0o bushels of corn would have brought al the average farm
 price December 1, 1910, approximately Slo-
 GOO, GOO.
 This money would have gone directly | to the rural communities. where it is much needed, and would have been Of vast importance in solving the problems | that confront our rural people. It could | have ben used to build 2000 miles of first | class pike roads, for 1t would have paid | the expenses of our public schools for | two and a half years. It would have 1 gone far toward paying the farmers | taxes or it would have built and fur | nished many & rural home. Can any one l figure the comfort and happiness that | five bushels more of corn per acre would buy for the rural people of any state? What the rural schols can do for i'm proving corn culture they can do for any other farm crop, If they adopt rational course of study and demand teachers who can teach them effectively and ef- | ficiently. Fortunately practical principles | of agriculture are neither difficult to | learn nor irksome to teach. The subject
 appeals to rural pupils because it comes
 within the scope of their immediate in- | terests.
 | Rural life can be wonderfully im- | proved by the united efforts of teachers | to promote real, genuine, uplifting thrift 1 through instruction in the principles and | practices of agriculture. To teach these | principles the teacher must have had thorough preparation In this special field. Rural interests and rural problems are | not like the city's interests and it's prob | lems, and educators everywhere, espe- l cially in the south, are coming more anu more to believe that the course of study | adapted to securing the most efficient ru- ra life is radically different from any | other course of study. The elementary l school Hnust, if it fulfills its high purpose,
 minister to the needs of the community
 in which 1t resides. To do this a course | of study co-ordinated with rural life is i needed, together with a corps of teach CTS. trained to put into operation the | work that the country districts need. Since there are common interests be- | tween rural and city peoples, the courses | of study in their schools and the instruc- | tion should have certain elements in | common, but there are important differ
 ences in industries and in environment. 1 Corresponding to these differences, there ] should be a difference in instruction, and | in this difference the adjustment should | be so devised as to make the school con- | tribute most to the needs of rural life. Ut is now quite generally conceded thu, the following subjects are necessary for
 the proper training of rural school teach- CTS: Nature study, elementary principles
 of practical agriculture, sanitary science
 and hygiene, domestic economy. and prac- tical principles and problems in element ary chemistry and physics as applied in the study of these subjects. The teachers
 should be required to have a working
 knowledge of these subjects. The formal training of most country boys and girls ends with the rural school course. A fundamental knowledge of the foregoing subjects is certainly minimum to re- auire of the teacher who trains them for the lives that they must lead.' The bureaus monograph then outlines in considerable detail the ground to be covered in a normal course on these sub
 iects. and describes how the topics are to be treated. The monograph adds, '1t is believed that teachers trained in this work will be much better prepared to do such work in rural schools, and that these schools will show a measure of ef-