The Hattiesburg news. (Hattiesburg, Miss.) 1908-1917, 1913-05-12

explained thathis father was using the
team and that he had walked fifteen
miles in order to be at the meeting.
This boy did not go as one of the three
to Washington; but he was the fourth
boy of his county in the production of
corn. This kind of leadership is neces-
sary to the social, economic and in
tellectual welfare of Mississippi. No
teacher regardless of classical educa-
tion, not possessing the rural spirit
and the real need of rural people, can
meet the requirements of the public
schools of Mississippi in the Twenti-
eth Century.
"a county superintendent, realizing
! that community life was not making
the progress that should be reason
ably expected under the direction Of
high school and college graduates who
did not have the sympathy and inter
est that. teachers should have in deal
ing with an agricultural people, sent
the following questions to thirty-two
schools of his county to be answered
by the boys and girls above the fourth
grade; the questions to the boys were.
/ First-Do you expect to be farmers
or have to do with farming when you
reach manhood?
second-Do you like to live on the
farm? Why?
( Third-What do you expect to do
when of age?
The questions to the girls were:
First-Do you expect to live in a
farm home when grown to woman
! hood?
Second-Do you like country life
and the farm home? Why?
Third-What do you expect to do
when grown to womanhood?
Of the one hundred and sixty four
boys to whom these questions were
asked one hundred and fifty-seven
answered that they did not expect to
live on a farm or have to do with farm
| ing. Only seven of them answered
that it was their intention to farm.
It was learned that four out of the
seven of this number had been in
fuenced by agricultural college ex-
tension work and that two of them had
been influenced by fathers who were
progressive farmers. OF the one hun
dred seventy-four girls enrolled, one
hundred sixty-three of them answer
ed that they would have absolutely
nothing to do with farming and farm
! life. Only eleven of them exposed
desire to live on the farm and devote
! themselves to farm interests. These
pupils had been directed by the ex-
ample and training of their teacher to
look from the farm for a vocation that
would mean more to them than coun-
try life.
The county superintendent demand
ed that the courses in these schools
be redirected in a way to relate to
the environment of rural life with the
following result: After four years
one hundred and sixty two boys out of
one hundred and seventy four an
swered that they intended to live on
the farm, and many of them expressed
their intention to become scientific
up-to-date farmers. Out of the one
hundred and seventy-eight girls en-
rolled at this time one hundred and
sixty-one answered that they would
be home-keepers, farmers, etc, in rural
life. 1t has been tested and proven
beyond doubt that pupils persuing
courses vitalized by the correlation of
agricultural rural economics, and do
nestle science, acquire more textbook
principals than do the students who
= persue the regular routine of text
: book work. Some one has well said
} "The problem of rural leadership in
! wolves all the interest of the farm
home. church and school and the lead
er must be trained in head, heart
) hands and hustle A leader with heat
5 trained to think, plan and reason bott
= with the child and his environments
, and not a slave to the mere textbook
2 a leader with heart trained to be true
D kind and sympathetic, hands traine(
! to be useful, helpful and skillful ant
] the hustle trained to render read!