Tazewell Republican. [volume] (Tazewell, Va.) 1892-1919, 1912-11-07
Our Rural Schools.

The following paper was read at the
last meeting of the Tazewell Teachers
Association by Mrs. Lottie Nj. Evans
principal of the Cedar Bluff High School,.
On account of its great interest to our
readers we published it herewith. Or
account of its length onlypart is publish.
ed THE week and will he continued next
week.
No question confronting educators to-
day is of more import than how to make
country life attractive and interesting
as well as comfortable for people who
live in rural sections. In all educational
meetings in large cities, in conferences
of educational executive boards, in
classes Of graduate students throughout
our broad land this topic has pre-emi-
nence. 1t is generally conceded that
the educational efforts have not touched
effectively the home life of country peo-
ple-the people who are the backbone
and sinew of the nation. The fact that
there has been little Improvement in
the methods Notwithstanding the chan
ged conditions, has produced feeling
of dissatisfaction, not only with those
who have the education of the future
citizens in charge, but with those who
are the recipients of it.
The articles (somewhat vituperative
70 be sure) attacking the inefficiency of
the public schools in many recent issues
of the widely read periodicals show in
what direction the wind is blowing.
There is greater and more popular de-
mand for courses of study that will
train pupils industrially inclined IN more
practical methods, correlatink these
courses with literary work. Recalling
that education is preparation for cum
plete living it must strike us impress
sively that we are not doing all that we
could do for the preparation of the child
for life of usefulness and activity in
his own community.
We hear the cry, "high cost of liv-
ing;" "lack of labor" What is the
cause of it? The migration of people
from rural communities to the over
crowded cities-the abandonment of
good farms and the necessary shortage
of crops-the demand being greater
than the supply. Labor is plentiful in
cities, but often undesired because it is
unskilled. 1t is not the lack of it in
cities, it is the poor quality. Every year
there is great influx of people into
cities, many of them wholly unprepared
to earn a hvelihood-good people and
excellent citizens it is true. Why this
desire to change? 1t is due primarily to
the discomfort of people who. unframed
to meet the conditions of their environ
ment, become dissatisfied with the sor-
didness and drudgery of their daily lives
and long for something better apd more
comfortable, and who can blame them?
The public school has not catered to
the needs of the country child. They
have adopted and tried to adopt to their
needs the methods of city system-suit-
ed only to TIE needs of the city child
with the large commercial and industrial
interests. We have attempted to train
the rural child by the pattern cut for
the city pupil, forgetting or overlooking
the fact that the school is for the pupil
and the training of his individual tai
ents.
This condition produces the dissatis-
fed feeling that leads to a desire to
change the habitat for one of less de-
nial.
The children of the family long for
greater advantages and opportunities,
they begin to talk about what they
could have; soon the mother begins to
sympathize and to talk of what some
one who has made the change had &C.
quired; then begins the ceaseless argu-
ment for removal, and finally the father
yields. They sell out and go to some
town or city. The younger members of
the family readily adopt themselves to
their surroundings, but how about faith
er and mother? Oh, the story is an old
one and familiar to US all. More fire.
quently the children go off one by one,
leave the old people who, helpless and
unable to secure competent help, are f.
nally persuaded to leave their homes
and go to live with some married daugh-
ter or son. The abandoned farms in
once prosperous communities are mute
witnesses to the unfortunate condition
of affairs. Now, there must be some
remedy for this condition, and it lies at
the door Of the public school-the hope
of the nation. More practical courses
relating directly to the home life of our
people must he introduced into our cur
ricula. A greater respect for labor, in
culcating the idea that all work is hon.
orable, and that there is no such thing