Western Carolina Democrat and French Broad hustler. [volume] (Hendersonville, N.C.) 1913-1915, 1913-11-13
COUNTRY EDUCATION.

1hSJ OuSuI 70 make. 1QeJ
are moving forward, but slowly. The
landlord may be better off than he
Was twenty ear ago. but. how about
the tenants? Are they on a stand
still. or improying2 The land and
we'll regulated industry are the great
a~ssests of the farmer. The best land
in the country, without wise man
agement, will pay nothing.
In order that labor may be remun-
e~rative, there should be educated
farmers, We do not mean that they
should understand Greek and the
higher mathematics, but, they should
know enough to read and understand
best books and papers bearing on
their special work. They should be
wise enough to apply the knowledge
thus gained. We do not mean by
that in the primary schools, the small
children should be taught the prin-
ciples of agriculture, the analysis of
soils and value OF fertilizers. What
your small children should learn 10
to the age of fifteen, is how to read
and spell. well, and to express them
selves clearly in writing. They
should learn how to use the die
tionary and maps. Let vocational
training alone. There will be time
enough for that later. Give them
fairy tales, story books, books of tray-
e, and even good novels. That is
the sort of education needed by your
children. That will lay the founda-
tion for professional life or business
of any sort. Some of our teachers
get the idea of vocational training
in their heads and there is nc room
for any thing else.
Your children in the rural homes
need the same instructions given 70
town children, and they are generally
ready to receive it. 1t is better to
magazines and story books, than :
wise book on domestic science. Let
the boys read the Arabian Nights,
books of travel and adventure &C
counts of the great battles of the
world. They will be much more in
~terested and the mind will be better
developed than if they were to put
in their time studying books on field
crops and stock raising. On this
subject we quote the following from
w. S. Brazeale, of Rutgers college:
an this connections we can do no
better than study the question af
rural schools as it has shaped itself
in a country that is admittedly 4
marvel of agricultural and education
al efficiency.
There is a striking similarity be-
tween conditions in Denmark and
those in the south. Both the coun-
tries had to rehabilitate themselves
a defeat by a greater power. In
1854, victorious Prussia took from
her little opponent the two duchies
of Schleswig and Holstein. 1t seem
e6 then, and for some time after,
that the loss of their national identi-
tv was to be the fate of the beaten
But a Moses came, in the
person of G~rundtvig, whose prophetic
told him that universal educa-
ton was the salvation. Indeed the
peasents. poor and ill~iterate, excited
his pity and best efforts. He preach
ed i nseason and out of season that
he country youth has an inherent
to all that is best in life. That
vas advanced ground, but why, we
ask ourselves when we think about It,
ioes he not have a trained mind, with
be horizon of his mental and spirit
Ial vision enlarged; as well as the
ION of the lawyer, merchant, or any
me else? Should not his intelligence
oe made as keen. his sympathies as
llert, his general equipment as COM
as those of the city youth?
LET us follow a little the idea OF
sundtvig's as it began to be r~ealiz-
d in Denmark. Rural high schools
leve been established to the number
# eighty. In these not a thing is
of agriculture. There are,
indeed, agricultural schools, number
pg nineteen in the whole kingdom.
where a boy may go after he has
at a proper age and has de-
ided to be fsrmery but they are
"Of the population who are of the
age to be in a high school, 81
or nnnt are in attendance This