Warren sheaf. [volume] (Warren, Marshall County, Minn.) 1880-current, 1912-01-11
COUNTRY SCHOOL ASSOCIATION.

1t is gratifying to know that the
! Red River Valley as represented by
the communities contiguous to Warren
is to be classed, by virtue of their
progressiveness amongst the most
! wide-awake districts Of our state along
educational lines.
| For some time our people have had
before them the matter of association
OF the country schools with the War.
ren High School for the purposes of
maintaining Industrial departments in
the high school and associated coun-
! try schools as sanctioned and fostered
by the state laws.
| The proposition is brought to an
election by means of petition circu.
lated within school district and sign
ed by at least twenty-five per cent of
the resident freeholders.
The county superintendent decides
upon receiving the petition duly filled
out upon a time and place for holding
the election in that district for the
purposes of having the legally quail
fed voters decide by ballot for or
against association.
It will be of interest to all who
have been thinking about the matter,
to know that every resident freehold
er who has seen petition and under
stood the proposition has signed and
shown his willingness to give it fair
trial. This statement carries weight
when one considers that nearly all the
resident freeholders in six districts
around Warren have seen and signed
petitions.
More encouragement is added by
virtue Of the fact that school district
No. AZ held an election over the pro-
position of association on Saturday.
January s, 1912 and the ballots cast
We're overwhelmingly in favor of asso-
citation. Most of the land in district
No. AZ is owned by resident freehold
ers, and it is one of the districts con-
tanning a high number Of freeholders.
Yet, In view Of the fact that these
men We're adding small tax to their
property they voted tfavorably.
This is very gratifying, because it
shows that there are, amongst us,
men with no small amount of intelli-
gence and with broad views of educa.
tional affairs.
l think we are all realizing that the
time is at hand for rational and de-
cided change in the material We teach
our children and in the way we teach
it.
Most of our country schools, graded
schools and high schools have been
we'll devised systems or sets of ma.
chimes for pumping and driving our
boys and girls away from the farm.
Take your own case and ask yourself
frankly what you were taught about
raising corn, about bettering your
dairy herd, about building up and
maintaining your soil fertility or max
ing handy useful things about the
place in any of the above mentioned
schools you have attended. What
was your wife taught concerning can
ming fruit, making dresses or cooking
meals in the most economical way in
the same schools?
Both of you were taught ANYTHING
and everything that generally lead to-
distaste for the old farm and dis.
satisfaction with school work and
country life. You went thru your
spelling book time over time; studied
your biographies with diligence.
learning al labout the Figii islanders
or the Beers in South Africa or the
"NOSSAASSS0
ten place. You spent much valuable
time in trying to master cube root.
compound interest and technical
grammar. Not one word was said
about the contour of your particular
state or locality, it's prospects and
possibilities as commonwealth of
agricultural Importance and outlook;
the formation and values Of it's soils.
their deficiencies and methods of con-
serving their fertility. Nothing was
said as to which breed of live stock
was most profitable under your condi-
tions; which cows in your herd were
not paying their board: about crop ro-
tations and plant diseases.
& Which kind Of instruction is more
beneficial to the most Of us in average
communities? It is plain, self-evi-
dent answer and I do not need to