Montgomery County sentinel. [volume] (Rockville, Md.) 1855-1974, 1914-05-15

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or equipment, or vehicle on your farm tina
you can use the larger part of the year
That's simply good business. But when il
comes to building something which yor
you should be careful. But the schoo
house, that building that belongs to the
whole community, is occupied for only q
few hours in the day, and only a few
months in the year.
No wonder it is the kind of building that
isn't worth very much when it is open
You have been wise men in not putting
much money into the kind of rural schools
you have. The great wonder is that you
have put in so much; because the whole
machinery of education in the rural school
has been great big grinding-machine to
break up your families, lure your children to
town and waste the neighborhood ener-
gies on little things that relate to things
outside of the life of the children that 90
to school.
Up in Wisconsin, am told is town.
ship, which about two years ago hired a
young man to take charge of their CONSOLE
dated rural school. He was live one. He
got 81, 800 year, which think you will
agree isn't very big salary. That's a
great cheese and butter country up there.
He found that the farmers were marketing
their milk to cheese factories which were
not paying them what they could get if
they made the cheese themselves, so he
organized a cooperative cheese factory. 1t
was built near the school house. He was
secretary and general manager of it, He
at the end of the year was able to show
that he had made for that community in
hard cash. in the returns from their cheese,
$500. AS his salary as a school teacher
was only 1900. they had had their teach
ing in that district for whole year for
$500 less than nothing.
The pupils in the public schools had
helped in this work. They had studied
cheese making. milk handling. and dairy
ing, and part of the work in that school
was this very work. He was enabled to
show the pupils by practice, and not by
books. how to handle milk and how to
make cheese. and how to market it.
Now as result of that this young man
is establishing himself and the school in
that community as profitable things. He
is an economically productive person, aside
from the education he gives. The practice
these children get is just as rich in intel
lectual culture as If they were studying
Greek and Latin. Isn't it more soH Isn't
It perfectly foolish for anybody in these
days, except phil0lOgists, TO study Greek
and Latin2 Two hundred years ago there
wasn't much in any language except Greek
and Latin that amounted to anything
There was no science in those days. no
literature in French, nor Italian, nor Ger
man. nor English that amounted to very
much, and all there was could be mastered
in very short time. 1t was necessary for
man of the world a scholar and gen.
tleman. TO study Greek and Latin.
But since that time, Science has opened
up fields that the greatest mind cannot
master in a life time. Why. then. is it
necessary for any man. in order TO be q
learned man. to have to study Greek and
LatinP
Over in Page county, walked up the
aisle in a country school. saw there a
great big. hulking boy, eighteen or nine
teen years old. He was writing an essay.
was writing an essay as part of his Ian
euage class exercise. and getting credit for
it as such. but in this new kind of rural
school he was writing-on what? What
did you write on when you went to SCHOOL,
On the beauties of the Truth, or the voyage
Of the Pilgrim Fathers. or something else
abstract or remote. that neither you nor
the teacher knew anything about?
This boy was writing on Raspberry Cul-
ture. II raise raspberries for the market"
he said, land am writing on something
know about.
He had been reading everything he could
find about berry culture. and he was bas-
ing his essay on both experience and read
ing. The Language in his essay was as
fine as an exercise in English. and as good
as you will ordinarily find in any school
you visit. my friends. and why? II was
| good English, for the same reason that
Caesars Commentaries are good Latin, or
Grants Memoirs good English; because
the fellow that wrote il had something to
say, that's all.
| Now the new kind of rural school is
going to be that kindof rural school. In
the main, 1t will have bigger plant than
the present ones. The little one-room school
house Of today is a place where fine teach
ing can be done; and some of the best
rural schools in the United States. have
ever seen. were housed in One-room school
houses. but they are not the best. The
best thing to do is to get all the pupils we
can to central point.
The rural school will be place where the
cows of the neghborhood will be tested.
and their records be kept. The boys and
girls taught tine management OF such tests
as the sediment test Of cream and milk,
the BabcOck test Of milk. Feeding rations
will be figured out. The problems in mathe-
mates in those schools will be based very
largely upon such things as What are the
feeding values Of the foods we have on
such and such farms2' Seeds will be tested
for both terminating ability and for adul-
teration. The more advanced pupils will
be found very useful in figuring out for
the community how much it costs to trans
port its wheat to market under the pre-
vailing railroad rates, and how much they
could gain per acre on their lands II 1t
were in Illinois, say. instead of Kan
sas. And after you have had that kind Of
work in Kanaaa for n few vaara vou ,yiIl