The Idaho Republican. [volume] (Blackfoot, Idaho) 1904-1932, 1913-08-29

SOH6 COuClusiOh tAdl LID AhuA'ANu"A
contact with the pupils in their own
home surroundings will be limited.
To large extent the work of the
: Countrywide leader must be that of In
spring the teachers to realization
| of the power to arouse and hold their
pupils that is concealed in this new
: line of teaching. He is the mission
airy bishop of his diocese, whose larg-
est task is to inspire, intruct and di-
rect the teacher missionaries under
him. The major part of the pastoral
| calls and the hand-to hand work must
be left to them. However it is nc part
of the plan of County Superintendent
Tobin or of Assistant Superintendent
/ Galley to permit the countryside lead
ers to do too much work d the top
and too little att the bottom For
its effect upon himself, quite as much
. as for it's effect upon the pupils, each
leader will be required ia have a gen
erous amount of contact with the pu-
pills, their parents and the home fields.
When Superintendent Tobin found
that Miss Agnes Ryan, of the Morton
Grove district. had revolutionized the
spirit of her school by introducing a
seed-corn test, he began to look about
for other teachers who showed the
same symptoms. of the initiative, the
same sympathy with the everyday
life of their pupils and the same ca
pacity to understand country condi-
tons. Six teachers who seemed to
possess these qualifications were Sc
lected and told to go to Professor Hol-
den for talk on how to "get next to
the boys and girls on the farm"
These teachers returned from their
conference equipped with a fresh en-
thusiasm, with a wider view of the
possibilitie of this kind of teaching,
with firmer faith in it's results and
with an outfit Of tools needed for the
work.
The results accomplished by these
teachers have been so notable as to
make the Countrywide movement a
part of Cook county's educational sys-
TEN, and to put upon the payroll the
five Countrywide leaders who are
charged with the responsibility of pio-
neering the movement.
In one district alone the pupils
have tested more than two thousand
ears of seed-corn in school and per-
haps an equal number in their homes.
This is district 146, about two miles
out of the suburban village of La
1range. Miss Mae Foran, the teacher
of this school, says that fifty per cent
OF the corn planted in her district has
been tested by her pupils. This work
was begun April eighth and continued
until the last week of May.
In the opinion of Miss Foran these
afternoons were the most valuable of
the entire school year, and have done
more to connect the school with the
realities of the everyday life of her
pupils and their parents than have all
their studies. While the fact that the
corn in that district will be greatly in
creased-probably by twenty-five per
CENTS interesting and significant
Miss Foran regards this as merely an
incidental benefit.
Scientific Contrasting
The effect of the corn test and the
whole Countrywide movement upon
the school is illustrated by an expert
ence told by farmer living Just out
side the Cook county line. In driving
to market he was obliged to pass one
of the schools in which this work was
in progress. The schoolroom was
buzzing like a beehive. The sound
was so unlike the familiar droning
that he stopped his horse and looked
inside. The pupils were crowded
about the teacher and the whole
scene resembled the distribution of
ice cream at a Sunday-school picnic.
Il saw" says this farmer. that
there was something doing out of the
ordinary, something that really inter
ested every pupil in the school. 1t
was the liveliest schoolroom I had
ever seen and I wanted to find out
the reason why So I knocked and
explained to the teacher the cause of
my call. Well, I stayed until school
was dismissed and forgot all about
my errand at the store didn't blame
the pupils for being interested, and
when l returned home that night I
told my boy all about it. He begged
to be taken to the school, and I took
him there the next afternoon. It al
most broke his heart when the teacher
told him that as he lived outside The