Evening star., 1915-12-05

/ have a greater op-
! Rural Teachers port unity before
! ,c them to play big
| oAo 0uItuIe. part in the destiny
of the nation than almost any other
group OF our citizens. In their hands
the bureau feels, lies the educational
and cultural future of the 5o.oo0,0oO
Americans of the open country. the
rural villages and the small towns,
much more truly and more intimately
than the future of the equal number
of city dwellers depends on the urban
educators.
| The ideal which the bureau holds is
of a country with practical knowledge
and sane, strong and wholesome cul-
| ture diffused throughout the whole OF
it's population. Since the rural dwellers
are further removed from what may
be termed the vibration of the worlds s
| nervous system and are closer to the
| beat of the heart of nature, their edu-
cational and cultural needs call for
careful cultivation. the federal experts
believe, but at the same time the ef-
forts expended may be expected. be-
| cause of advantageous environment, TO
bring forth a rich harvest.
| Holding these views, the bureau is
beginning, what it considers one of its
most important projects, nationai
rural teachers reading circle. when is
MANNED to give the educators scat
tered throughout the country dlStrlcts
many of the advantages of a graduate
| course in educational methods ana cul-
| turaI and technical literature, anu 10
eouip them with the best posslple
| training for attacking and sowing the
l ~,
communities The product of the train
| ing course, it is believed, will be men
and women, who, because they have
read broadly and thought deeply on
| tific agriculture and fundamentals OF
educational methods, especially as
these may be applied to country me-
will be capable of rising anoVe tnG
rather humdrum routine OF rural
school duties. and of proving inhuen-
t;a1 leaders in the march toward better,
e,,1Ier and more remunerative country
In organizing it's rural teachers
reading circle the bureau OF educatloh
has sought and secured the co.opsia ps;n-
| ton of the state educational machin-
! ery. The plan was taken to meet
ing of the National Education Asso-
| citation and was approved an auNia-
| ory committee of state superlntendehts
being appointed. Teachers will be en-
tiles express desire to cooperate;
but at the present time practically all
states have taken this action
The books for the first two-year
course of the reading circle, selectea
after the compilation of lists by sew
eral hundred educators. would I'll! less
| space than a "fve-foot book shelf =
Ten books are listed under the head
of professional books of culture
value, and five each under the heads:
1 pJocc
pies -and methods of education. rural
education and rural life problems.
Those enrolled will not be expected
to read all of the books, however, put
any five from the first and any three
from the other groups. The enrolled
teachers who give satisfactory evi-
dence Of having read intelligently the
seventeen books within two years Will
be awarded National Rural Teachers,
Reading Circle certificate, signed by
the United States commissioner or ed
ucation and the ranking school OFFICIAL
of the state in which the reader lives
The needed volumes will be purchased
by the readers.
The books upon which the bureau
pins much of its faith for a radical bet
terment of rural educational condi-
tions tthose of non English authors
being in translation) are as follows:
Emerson's Essays" Goethe's Faust.
Hugo's Les Miserables," Hawthorne's
Ruskin's Sesame and Lilies" Two
Paths" and King of the Golden River
FIVE of Shakespeare's dramas. Thack-
eray's VANITY Fair" VirgiPs 4A4Aeneid,"
Van Dykes "Blue Flower" F'roebel's
Education of Man. Pestalozzia's 8
Leonard and Gertrude" P1ato's Re
public" Rousseau's Emile" spencer's s
Essays on Education" Dewey's Moral
Principles in Education" Curtis "Edu-
| cation Through Play" Kings "Edu-
cation for Social Efficiency" Thorn
dike's "Principles of Teaching" Whites
school Management" Carney's "Coun-
try Life and the Country School Cub
berly's Rural Life and Rural Educa-
ton" Eggleston and Bruere's The
Work of the Rural School, Foght's
"The American Rural School" Hart's
Educational Resources of Village and
Rural Communities" Bailey's The
Country Life Movement Carver's
principles in Rural Economics" !"
Foghts Rural Denmark and It's
Schools" Gillette's Con structive Rural
Sociology" and Wilson's Evolution of
a Country Community"