The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1916-10-27
RURAL PUPILS DO
 1. NOT 0BTA AIN FAIR 2 DEAL IN SCHOOLS
Uncle Sam Comes to These VI Conclusions / After An sK Investigation.

Uncle Sam has come to the conclu- tSion that the farmer boy and girl of the country are not getting a square deal in the matter of obtaining an ed ucetion. Determinations, which he describes as among the "rankest" kind are permitted against rural school pu- pills, as compared with city school chil- dren by the public school policy of
 the United States, according to J. IL. OBrien school extension agent of the
 bureau of education of the department l of the interior in a series of discus sions of the rural school term just is-
 sued.
 F l"One thing to be remembered in slconnection with the IT al school term, las concerns the country at large" says
 MT. CBrien, "ds that farm boys and. igirls have a. school term 46.6 days fshorter than their city cousins. In every section of the United States there is a discrimination in our public
 school policy against farm boys and farm girls. For example, this dis
 cr1mination costs the country pupils of 4the South Atlantic states 592 days; tsoutli Central states, 56.4; North Gen. ftral states. 31.4; Western states, 357,
 and North Atlantic division, 2S.S days. In the language of o. W. Neal, pro- f lessor of rural education, State -ror-
 rhal school, Stevens Point, Wis., tho further we go, into the study of the
 rural school term the more evident it I Becomes that the country pupils are not given a square deal in free school i privileges
 Term May Be Increased. The rural school term throughout I the country may be increased without 1 voting another day of school or levy ing another mill of school tax, accord I ing to Mr. O'Brien. He explains that this can be done by improving the < average daily attendance of the pupils actually enrolled in school through
 more strict enforcement of the com
 pulsory attendance laws. Where such
 laws have been enacted he points out
 that the legislature has the power
 of creating compulsory attendance
 statutes that will increase the attend
 ance in rural schools. He further
 says:
 '.rhe enrolment of pupils in the ru-
 ral schools, according to the latest
 available data. was 11,100,553 in 1910.
 with an average daily attendance l. therein of 7,609,55S, making the aver { age daily absences in the rural schools
 alone 3,500,995. These figures are ap- palling. The average daily attend
 ance in rural schools for the country . at large is only 67.6 per cent-an av-
 craze daily attendance of 11.7 per I cent. lower than that in urban schools. It is evident that rural school pupils
 are penalized in this matter of free
 school privileges not only by the gen. I eral policy of the various states. but also by indifferent, ignorant or selfish parents, who fail to do their duty to
 their own children in allowing them i to remain out of school while school
 is in session.
 DfscriminatiOns Are~Injustice.
 '"The lack of equal school privileges for he farm boy and the farm girl as compared with the school privileges provided for the city boy and the city girl. in length of school term. in equip ,rnent, in professional supervision, and In the qualification of teachers, are in5ustices that might have been toler- Ated fin a despotism, but are discrimin- ations that should have no place in>the government of the people. by the peo- pie. and for tho people.
 "If the rural school attendance were raised from 67.6 per cent-the\ ave- rage daily attendance in the rural pub 11c schools of the United States-to leo.e per cent, the average daily atten- l ;dancs in the rural public schools of ] Oregon, 1t would mean an increase of | the rural school term in effect and in ths aggregate fer the country at large