Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1916-02-08

Roadmaking instructions for country
children and the actual building of good
roads by their labor to relieve the distress
and frequent insanity of their mothers,
caused by bad roads, was advocated to-
day in the second session of the Four
state Country Life Conference in the
rooms of the Chamber of Commerce, in
the Wdcner Building.
Several hundred delegates from rural
districts of Pennsylvania, Maryland, Del
aware and New Jersey. who are attend
ing the three-day conference, heard that
many farmers wives and daughters,
doomed to solitary existence by bad
roads, often become insane, and that
rural schools are nothing more than
prisons"
The Government of the United States
is dependent on the farmer, declared
Daniel Gimbel. trustee of the National
Farm School, who lauded the Americans.
zation movement Ito wash away the
hyphen from the immigrant and to make
him true American"
DR.. Edwin Earle Sparks, president of
the Pennsylvania State College, told of
the extension work in rural and indus-
trial districts done by the college through
travelling representatives.
DR.. Harold W. Foght. of the United
States Bureau of Education, spoke on the
Training of Rural Teachera."
lie asserted that the successful rural
teacher must be n community leader and
must be ION the job" seven days week
"ln order to bring any such favorable
condition about" said Doctor Foght. "the
country must he made more attractive for
the teacher, and the teacher must he paid
better salary. The average yearly salary
of the country teacher today is $500; a
garbage collector gets more than that"
Doctor Foght said that more men teach
erS we're needed in the rural districts.
Only 10 per cent of the instructors now
engaged in the country are men. he said.
Mrs. Edith Ellicott Smith. president of
the Pennsylvania Rurar Progress Asso-
citation. who presided, explained the pur-
pose of the conference as an effort to
strike down the barrier of misunderstood.
ing between the city and the country.
What Has the County the Right to
Expect from the County Superintendent"
was the subject discussed by County
Superintendents E. NJ. Rapp, Fl. c. Krabs,
w. j. Holloway and Il. l.. Cross,
Mr., Rapp declared that the little red
schoolhouse" had outlived its usefulness
and must be supplantcd by buildings
equipped to meet the needs of modern
times.
The teaching OF good road making in
the rural schools was the theme of Mrs,
Augustus Henry Reeve, vice chairman of
lue country me department OF tne Ma
tional Mothers and Parent-Teachers' As
soCiation, who said that Wisconsin is the
only State in which rural school children
are taught road making in a concrete
manner
I'm Pennsylvania good road instruction
is looked upon as an extra she said,
whereas II ought to be an element OF
education. Roads are the moct important
factor in country life. They connect the
homes with the schools, churches and
markets. The subject of roads, for that
reason, should be taught to country boys
and girls, and especially to the girls, for
1t is the women of the rural districts who
suffer most from bad roads"
The number of country women in insane
asylums was cited as an example of the
distress caused by bad roads.
Mrs. Reeve advocated putting the coun-
try school children, after the age of 13
years, to work on roads, so that they may
learn from practical experience what a
good road means and how it is secured
Proper supervision of what he termed
the rural school prisons" was advocated
by Dr. Ambrose l.. Suhrie. of the Uni
versity OF Pennsylvania.
Sad as It is, the rural and city schools
are getting farther and farther away
from one another" he declared. THE
city schools are progressing rapidly, while
the rural schools fail to improve. This
the teachers. For the most part the
rural schools are conducted by provincial
men, who pay more attention TO the sub
ject matter than to child growth. The
harder a task the better education il is
considered. They have made Of the
schools prisons instead OF happy play
grounds"