The comet. (Johnson City, Tenn.) 1884-1916, 1914-12-24
TO THE FARMERS
OF TENNESSEE
BY CAPT. T. +. PECK,
Commissioner of Agriculture.
BETTER SCHOOLS.

There isn't as much dissatisfaction
with rural schools as some folk
would have us believe. There ism
enough dissatisfaction with them. Th'
average rural school is, as one well
known modern writer puts it, "a bal
copy of the city school" 1t needs
fixing
A rural school should be rural il
the best meaning of the word. 1
should develop love of farm life
and fit them to meet and master thu
problems which farm life presents
| don't mean that we should try t
make farmers of all the boys who &c
to rural schools, nor wives of all the
girls. But no matter what place oul
children fill in the world they will fill
it better if they have an appreciation
of the soil and good working know
ledge of farm life.
How many of the children now going
to your district school will ever go
to high school, or college? A very
small percentage, unless it is anex-
ceptional district. Most of the child
rem must get all the education they
will ever get in the little white school
house. That means that most of them
must help to do the worlds everyday
work. 1t will be better for them and
for society in general if they do that
work on the farm. The cities are
Overcrowded. Rural life needs young
blood. Yet the tide of youth that has
been flowing from the farm to the city
will continue until we show the young
folks that farm life is best There is
no better instrument for that purpose
than a good school. The school fails
in it's highest purpose if it fails in
this.
What is the remedy? We might be-
gin right now by taking more interest
in the schools as they are. We must
study them to find out how to make
them better. Visit the school once in
a while. The children will take more
interest in their work if father and
mother comes in occasionally. And
you ought to get acquainted with the
teacher, because you should know
what kind of human influence your
children are under five days in the
week. Get the teacher interested in
your community lif. Ruralize him all
you can and he will pass enthusiasm
and interest on to the children--to
the end of ruralizing the school.
Too often district regards their
work as completed when the teacher
is hired, He is left as something apart
from the community life-alone with
the books and the children. 1t is a
big mistake. The more closely we
relate the school to the farm the bet
ter will be the results. The teacher
is the medium through which this
must be accomplished. Get acelaint-
ed with him. Get him interested in
local farm problems. Be sure he is
the right kind-then keep him as long
as he can be pursuaded to stay. Next
to the mother the teacher has the big
gest influence over your children.
The real solution of the rural school
problem is the rural high school. By
consolidation we canget it at hardly
greater cost than we bear now. In
the consolidated school all of the
things may be taught and all of the
attention given the individual child,
for which there is not time in the lit
tie, one-room school with teacher
who is often overworked.
Many parents who are financially
able to do SO, hesitate to send their
boys and girls away to the city high
school. They are afraid of the city
influence. And it is so seldom that
the children come back to the farm.
Why should they, when all their train
Ing has given them other ambitions.
The consolidated school will solve
this problem. 1t may not keep all
Of the boys and girls on the farm. That
Is neither necessary nor best. But
they will be kept at home during the
years in which they need home train
ing and influence. Those who have
The blessed instinct that loves the soil
and growing things will become farm
ers and farmers wives of the best
kind. And every child will be better
prepared for useful life work, no
matter where he gaes or what he un-
iertakes.