The Oskaloosa herald. (Oskaloosa, Mahaska County, Iowa) 1885-1919, 1914-06-04

EDUCATION IN IOWA,

The Carnegie Foundation in its an
nual report just issued, reviews at
great length THE educational contro-
versy and situation in Iowa The
chapter is entitled Politics and Edu-
cation in Iowa" and after giving, in
detail the proceedings of the board of
education and legislature as to con-
solidating departments of the Iowa
State college and the university, the
report says:
There are in Iowa some 1880 pub
lie schools aiming to teach approx
mately half a million pupils. These
are conducted by some $4,000 teach
ers, of whom nine-tenths are women.
The great majority OF these schools
are in rural communities. The aver
age pay of the rural school teacher is
about So a week. 1t is in these schools
and by these teachers that the future
of Iowa is to be determined.
And what is the problem with which
these schools must struggle? Briefly
IL is this: Although Iowa is pre-emi-
nently an agricultural state, the rural
population is diminishing and there
is a steady migration to the towns
and TO the cities. This is particular
ly true of the native born. More and
more the farms are being run by alb
sentee landlords; the average size of
"a farm has increased in the last de-
cade instead of diminishing; social
conditions in the country are becom
ing steadily more difficult The coun.
tryside church is finding it harder to
keep its footing.
There are many reasons for this,
htTf fC q tnf 4
ence of the state Bystem of education
has hitherto accumulated this move
ment Even the rural schools have
been strongly under the domination
of the college. The form of education
which they have given has had little
connection with the life and the sur.
rOundings OF a farm population. 1t
tended to make engineers, clerks,
typewriters, scientific agriculturalists
and motormen, but seldom to make
farmers. 1t touched the social life
only remotely. The whole trend Of
the education provided by the state,
even i'll the remote rural school, has
been to take boys and girls away
from the farm to the city.
Consider for moment the problem
of agricultural life, to which allusiOn
has just been made. If this problem
of better farming, better business
and better living is to be worked out
for a state like Iowa, the education of
few hundred men on college basis
as scientific agriculturalistS cuts but
a small figure. Even the additional
empirical training. in better farming
which may be given to some hundreds
of farmers is but step toward the
solution OF the problem. There must
be trained not hundreds, but tens OF
thousands of young people in the
fundamental principles of farming, in
the business which has to do with
farming, and in the cooperation
which must be brought about in order
to make life on the farm profitable
and livable. An agricultural college
with high entrance, requirements is
an Insignificant factor in the solution
of this problem. For any great com
monwealth to undertake to solve its
problem of agricultural development
by this agency alone is like trying to
sweep back the waters of the ocean
with a broom. To make the case even
more hopeless, the agricultural col
leges have generally devoted the
greater part OF their effort to engin-
eering, not to agriculture. II the
nigh class agricultural college is the
only agency that the state can find to
deal with the problem of rural life,
we may confidently expect that the
farms of our agricultural states will
become less and less productive and
that rural life in those states will be
come more and more barren. Grant
ing all that may be said in favor OF
the admirable work that these insti-
tutions have done, 1t still remains true
that, as an agency for the training OF
farmers and solution OF farm problems
and the preparation OF a farm popu'
lation for It's life, the agricultural col
lege can be but single factor. Tol
put 1t forward as the essential and
vital agency is like founding a uni
yersity without any elementary or sec
ondary schools to make II effective.