The Press., 1912-07-10

| rom careless FuG or the Three R's'' education to the real things about them daily. The town school board has unlimited powers, and there are men on that board of capable judgment and superior intellect, and in business life the word 'sCan't'' does not appear in their thoughts. Will they apply the same methods to our schools?
 Yours respectfully,
 H. R. Howard.
 "The country boy and girl need an education which until their eighteenth year will occupy them in the study of farming and of country life while living at home and sleeping every night in their own beds. The-coun- try school now divorces the influence of the teacher from that of the mother. It is called higher educa- tion' because it looks above the needs of the farm and of the household in which the boy and girl are born.. It ought to recognize that the highest thing in education is to fit a boy and girl to be a permanent resident in the community where they are born.
 "The churches in the country will be most helped if this is done What the church most needs is permanent population. It is important that the schoolmaster be a helper in the actual services of the church, but more inn portant that they who support and di- rect the. common schools use these schools for the building up of a per manent, continuing population in the country community. If this is done the churches which are in the country will remain there, because the people who build them will stay in the com munity. The natural life of country people under normal circumstances is reverent and religious in it's spirit.
 But the trouble now is that the country school is ladder to get out of the country community. The teacher gives her time to other things than agriculture. If she teaches arithmetic, she talks about money lending, partial payments, interest on bonds and securities and the problems of industry alien to the farm. This kind of teaching is bad thing for rural religion because it breeds feel ing of impatience with rural life.
 "The country boy ought to study botany, because the farmer is of all men in the world the most practical and skilled botanist His business is with plants But botany is usually taught as fancy science, a part of higher education, thing of books and glossaries. AS a matter of fact, corn and potatoes are the most import ant flowers that bloom on the conti nent. If the country boy were taught scientific farming he would stay in school instead of leaving it as soon as he can, in order to leave the cOmmu nifty as soon as he can get a job' else where. ..' ,-,..
 ''The great task for the country school is to instruct the country boy and girl ill the life that is abouti them, to open the book of thei fields 1 and to teach the processes of life that go on in the grasses, among the hsrds and among the winged creatures which are the farmers friends of the air. | The teacher who does this will do. the l greatest religious work open to him, l because the interests of religion are to-day imperilled by the disintegra- tion of the farming population. When men become dissatisfied with the sober and honest life of the farmer in such numbers that rural population dimin- ishes and rural institutions disinte- grate there is cause for religious people to be afraid, and to-day they are afraid The interests of the city are. imperilled by the weakness of the country. The country school teacher and the trustee or director of the rural school should teach the country boy to get an income. in the country adequate to satisfactory life there. They should idealize the life of the country and show it's lasting rewards. Il When this is done the churches in the country will do the rest. With-a out this service neither priest nor preacher can maintain institutions among population dissatisfied, unre- warded and untrained. ''
 Rock Meadow.
 Fred Pinard of South Amherst, Mass. was in town last Saturday.
 Mrs. Oscar Willis entertained her sister from Windsor Locks last Sun day.. .-s .,. .. a4.
 Ralph and Grace Bradway attended, the family picnic at Fred Bowden's the 4th.
 Herbert Heck has been spending a few days with his parents, MT. and Mrs. Matt Heck. 's.
 Samuel Heck has returned to his work at Springfield after three vacation. v ,>..: .s..: .. |,
 Mrs. George Heck's friends that have been spending three weeks va E cation with her have returned to New York. "s~
 Misses Ida and Ada Heck have re- turned home after three-weeks' visit , with their sister, Mrs. Edwin Oliver, at Enfield.
 MT. and Mrs. Henry Grundy and laughter, Elsie, from Stafford and MT. Oberg and Miss Ethel Lathrop of New York were at Mrs F. H. Balleu s tI Sunday. . Ia
 Mr. and Mrs. H. A. Bosworth and title daughter, Ruth, and son, derbie, and Mr. and Mrs. Everett { Mathews and Mrs. Mary Mathews pent the 4th at, Mrs. F. H. Ballou's.