The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1916-07-15
FOR BETTER RURAL SCHOOLS.


A NOV nent of vital concern to the
welfare and progress of these United
States is the nationwide campaign
that is being conducted by the de-
partment of the interior through its
bureau of education for better rural
schools. Almost from tho day that
DIR. p. P. CIaxton assumed his duties
as United States commissioner of ed
ucation in charge of this bureau he
has been active in the promotion ana
development of this campaign. He is
now in the fifth yeS his service
and every year during his adn1inistra-
ton he has insisted en- advanced steps
being taken by the bureau itself for
rural school progress, well as to
urge upon administrative school off,
GERS. teachers and patrons throughout
the nation the imperative necessity
for improving the rural schools. An
these efforts of DR.. Claxton have not
been without substantial results, as
they have helped to awaken the edu-
Gators of the country. the teachers
and the lcymen in charge IF the ad-
ministration of the schools. to real
ization of the needs for the improve
ment of the rural educational system
But this campaign for better rural
schools is only in its infancy as yet
and it is particularly encouraging to
note that 1t is taking on new vigor
all the time. Secretary Lane of the
department of the interior and one of
the ablest and most far-seeing of the
0f
net, has enlisted for the cause, and
in his annual report to the president
for 1915 he sounds a clarion call for
it. He urges upon congress the ap-
preparation of 100000 a year for two
or three years with which to wage this
campaign. And that a cabinet officer
should take such a material stand for
the long-neglected rural school should
give new hope to the friends of rural
education throughout the country
In educational opportunity, as is
pointed out by ]. L. McBrien, school
extension agent of the United States
Bureau of Education, in a circular on
the rural school campaign, the city
boy and girl have privileges far SUI
perior to those of the farm boy and
farm girl. In funds, in length of
term, in equipment, in buildings, in
administration and supervision, in
courses of study, in efficiency of the
| teaching force, and in salaries paid,
| the superiority of the city schools IS
so far above the rural schools as to
make the situation in many sections
of the country dep1orable. 1t has been
SO desperate in many instances during
the past twenty-five years, when con-
trasted with the splendid opportuni-
ties of the city school, that it is given
more times than any other reason by
fathers and mothers for moving from
the farm to the city. And Mr. Nc
Brien quotes Secretary Lane as de-
claring on this score: "An ambitious
people will go where education can be
had for their children. There is no
sense in talking of the charms of
country life and the independence and
dignity of producing from the soil,
if the school at command is no more
modern than a wooden plow.''
However, the federal government,
and no matter how jealous it may be
or how much money it sees fit to
spend, cannot begin to do it all, or
even small part of it, in pressing
this campaign for better rural schools.
Perhaps the most it can be expected
to do is to investigate the rural
school problems and advise and sug-
gest concerning them. This is a most
essential and important work. But in
the last analysis the improvement of
the rural schools will rest in the hands
of the several states and their COM
munities. and these should lose no
time in taking all the steps necessary
to cooperate in this campaign and
make it the success 1t must be if the
pressing problem of better rural
schools is to be solved. Kansas has
been doing something in this line, but
not enough.