The Birmingham age-herald., 1913-03-16
NEW TYPE OF RURAL SCHOOL
By BOOKER r. WASHINGTON.

Exclusive Service The Survey Press
TN large sections of the south the pa
rents of most of our rural negro chill
L dren are ignorant ex-slave folk whose
lives have been spent wholly on the farm.
They know nothing of cooking or proper
housekeeping, nothing about rules OF
health. They have no idea as to now a
home should be kept. Broken chairs
floors with holes in them, broken VIM
dows, lealxy roofs, ragged and unwashed
bed quilts, soiled dishes and table linen
all these are about the child from In
fancy. Seeing this, it early became clear
to us at Tuskegee that IL We really
wished To dovetal school work into the
real life and for the uplift of the people,
something more than the abstract teach
ing of cube root and the conjugation OF
verbs must be impaired in the class
room. N
TO solve the problem we hit upon this
plan In Macon county, Alabama We
determined that to be of the greatest serv-
ice to the child to combat his environ
ment. we must not simply provide spe-
cal class room, Dul iuusi iiidht S'S' v
thing surrounding the child serve as
school As an experiment We constructed
a building on the order of our southern
cottages, containing rooms for family
and in addition large assembly room.
we then secured a family. in which both
parents were teachers to live in the build
ing. Following this we made the under
standing that every room in that house,
and everything about the house should
be a school room: that the front yard,
the back yard, the stable, the horse. the
COW. the garden and the little farm adj
Joining should have their place in the
dav's schedule of teaching. The dining
room the kitchen, the bedroom are all
omen daily to these children, who are
shown how to clean and keep them, actu-
ally doing the work. The girls OF cef-
.tain grade take turns in doing the COOK
ing They leave home in time to prepare
the morning meal for the teachers and
family, This is served properly IN the
dining room which has been set in order
By another group OF little girls-the aim
Icing that all shall learn the best meth
ods Of service. The pupils set the bed
rooms in order and look after the small
children of the teachers.
All this Is done under the vigilant eye
of the mother teacher. who is thoroughly
competent. having been trained at Tuske-
gee institute, mastering trade as well as
academic work The girls in the higher
classes are taugh cooking, but all the
girls do gardening, housecleaning ana
sewing The boys come more directly un-
der the eye of the man of the, house ana
care for the small farm, the stock yards
and garden, and do in addition a certain
amount of farm carpentry. These are all
made renl lessons Just as much as the
blackboard exercises in the classroom
We call 1t the model school not mean
ing that Il is a model to any other school.
but that everything in 1t and about 1t is
a model 10 the girls and boys who are in
attendance.
All this serves double purpose. 1t fits
the child for life in the community where
he lives. and ii affords material to give
life to. the exercises in his text books
The boy not only constructs fence. but
he figures out the cost--cost of nails, ham
mer, tne-which makes live exercise
in arithmetic. For his granmer lesson
he uses nouns and verbs from his fence
and writes short compositions on his
work.
The same Is true of the girl in her
cooking. bed making and table setting.
The work is done and then used a
basis for the lessons in books. This gives
life to the ella ssroom work. Both teachers
ana chlitifen ieet that they are WrH1ng
talking and figuring ON actual things
which always lends enthusiasm to the
work.
To make the school more real we fire.
1uently invite the parents to be present
They are made to feel that the school is
the center for their activities. Moreover.
they become interested in themselves.
because the children in learning useful
things are doing work that their parents
& understand Tbav no xt.itl,
formation about cotton, corn, winter
greens: about the care OF live stock and
of soils They gain some idea about