The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1915-12-16
RURAL SCHOOLS NEED GREAT
IMPROVEMENT AYERS SECRETARY
LANE IN HIS ANNUAL REPORT
Twenty Two Million School Boys and Girls Nations
Greatest Natural Resource Frequently Get
Less Than Farm Laborers- Leadership and Co
Operation Are Imperative.


coming annual report Secretary Lane
. suggests the need for a national cam
pafgn for a better rural school. He
100000 school boys and girls, as the
chief resource of the Nation, and asks
Are we doing all possible to develop
this resource ?'' His report continues:
If there is any one of our institu-
lions in which the American people
they feel Justified in Boosting, it is
the public school system, for this is
s.the greatest of American Inventions
and the most successful social enter
prise yet undertaken by any people.
The United States maintains q Bureau
Of Education in this department,
which upon a small ropria on, COL
lates as best it can the figures and
facts which most 1nadequately tell the
story of the growth and use of this
most brilliantly conceived piece of
governm entail machinery.
The American people are not indif-
ferent to their schools. Quite other
wise. They pay for their support all.
most as much as they do for the sup.
port of the entire Federal Govern
ment; in round numbers, three-quar-
tiers of billion dollars "a year, which
keeps an army of 100000 teachers at
work Education is indeed our fore
most industry. from whatever point Of
view it may be regarded Yet am
assured that it has made less progress
than any of our other industries dur
ing the past 80 years. With all the
marvellous record of what the mind of
a quick people may produce to make
life happier and nature more service
able how little Gamble shown as our
contrib ution to the methods of Inn
proving the mind and skill of the
youngI We have gone to Europe-to
Italy, Switzerland, Germany and DenA
mark lchief1y-for the new methods.
with which we have experimental,
and Japan has found a way to IN
struct through the eyes and hands.
that Will make these. very practical
people still more distinguished.
Yet here and there under rare
leadership may be found in this coun-|
try the most striking proofs of what
can be done to tie our schools to our
life. The hope is eventually to make
the school what it should be, and
easily may be made to be, the very
heart OF the community-so club
and cooperative center as well as
school.
visionary in such a. hope. To effect
this evolution there is needed pri-|
marfIy leadership. and this the Cow
eminent must give If it is to realize
its desire for q. people who are both
skilled anad happy. The spirit of our
y z
ment We do not take with kindness
.te-<an--a authority that is mandatory
There is a sound belief that. a people
who make their own way are In the
end ripper and of stronger fiber than
those who accept what Is not the
result of common determination. But
this spirit of intense individuadsm
does not make us independent OF or
Indifferent to useful methods and
helpful standards And it is these
that we can reveal It is these that
we should find and place In service,
rather than force the disconnected
schools OF the land to feel their way
out or t'rnudd1e through" We may
not com mand, but we may show
how This is democracy's substitute
for absoIutisrn In the effort to secure
efficiency For such policy of help
fulness there is abundant precedent
not only In the action of Congress in
making minor appropriations Tor the
work of the Bureau of Education on
precisely these lines, but IN the &C
tivities of other departm ents The
country is dotted with experimen
farms which prove soil, values and
The farmer of today is learning from
the governm ent how great and all en-
bracing must be the knowledge neces-
sary to the carrying on of his work,
for he must know of chemistry, me-
ebanfcs markets and finance, trans
portation, and a world of things which
his father or grandfather would have
laughed at as the frifls of a doctrin-
asre education, outstanding the
early example Of the wise and many
sided farmer who was the third Pres
ident of this country.
Z Il have said in a previous report tnal |
the Bureau of Education should either |
be abolished or put to serious high |
purpose. I believe the latter to be |
the wise, in fact the necessary, course.
There is a real use for it. As in the
Bureau of Mines. we seek to save the |
lives of miners by educating them IN
the use of explosives and Ife-saViI1g
apparatus and by instructing opera |
tors in safe methods Of building their
vast underground workshops, SO / |
would erect the Bureau of Education
into a bureau of educational methods
and standards, in which would be
gathered the ripe fruit of all educa-
tional experiments. upon which the
schools Of the country could draw
This is a wide country and there is
need for a national clearing house
where can be conferred and exchanged |
the results Of the most remote exert
ments.
There is no Disgusting the fact that
we have a most difficult problem in |
the United StatesHand can not be-
lieves it is ours alone-in the rural |
community. A majority of our school |
children are in rural schools. The
query arises, Are our rural schools do /
II, q, +1,ei1- mart IN making life in the ]