The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1916-10-02
THE RURAL SCHOOL TERM.

ment as to their needs, as j. L. McBrien
school extension agent of the United
States bureau of education, writes in
has contributed to the discussion of
this important subject.
Previous articles by Mr.. McBrien,
which have been presented in part
in these columns, have served to show
how to increase the rural school term
by better average daily attendance
on the part of rural pupils.
1t has been pointed out that the
average daily attendance of all pupils
enrolled in the rural schools of the
United States is only 67.6 per cent OF
the enrolment.
If it were possible to take into con
sideration the large number of rural
children who are not enrolled but who
should be enrolled by a proper en-
forcement of a reasonable compulsory
attendance law. the average daily at
tendance in the rural schools for the
country at large would be less than SO
per cent.
In support of this declaration. the
following is quoted from the annual
report of the state superint endent of
schools of Georgia for the school year
ended December 81, 1915. Pleading
for a reasonable enforcement: of a
reasonable compulsory attendance law,
this superintendent declares:
There are some men who are so
mean by nature that they must be
forced before they will give their
children educational opportunities for
school training. The figures show that
1896 children of school age in this
state did not attend school a day last
year. Many of these have never been
enrolled during any previous year.
Without the strong arm of the law
they will grow up in ignorance just as
thousands before them have done.'
If one step further is gone along the
! same line of reasoning, and there are
taken into consideration the millions
of rural children in short-term schools
of three to four months in length, it is
evident that the average daily attend
ance of millions of pupils in the rural
schools for the nation at large is not
SO per cent of what it should be when
measured by the attendance of pupils
in city schools with a nine months
term.
In other words, the short term and
the poor attendance in the rural
schools are depriving millions of coun-
try boys and girls of over half their
birthright in matters of free school
privileges as compared with city boys
and girls.
1t is gratifying, of course, that the
city children have the good school
privileges that are theirs. And, in
deed, it is pardonable to wish that the
city schools were even better, as there
is much room for improvement in most
of them.
But it is objectionable that there
should be this unjust, unreasonable
| and decidedly un-American discrimi-
nation against country boys and girls.
Equality before the law and equal
educational opportunity have not yet
been provided for the farm boy and
farm girl
Strange as it may seem, too, sparsely
settled rural communities often fight
against the things which are for their
own good.
A striking statement of this phase
of the rural school problem is to be
found in Circular No. 2, issued by the
extension bureau of the University of
North Carolina, under date of July,
1915. In this circular. Professor E.
| c. Branson asserts:
! "EVervvhere sa++Jol
try regions we find people here and
there who are suspicious, secretive.
apathetfc and unapproachable; who
live in the eighteenth century and pre-
serve the language, manners and Gus
toms of a past long dead elsewhere.
who prefer their primitive ancient
ways. who are. ghettoed in the midst
of present day. civilization, to borrow
a phrase from President Frost. They
are the crab-like souls described nv
Victor Hugo in Les Miserables. who
before advancing light steadily retreat
into the fringe of darkness. Peonle
like these abound in Clinton and
/ Franklin counties CNew York; where
an eighth of the native white voters
are illiterate, in Aroostock county
tMaine) where nearly a fifth of the
native white voters can not read their
ballots or write their names; in Wind
ham county (Connecticut) where a
seventh of the voters are ilIiterate
Windham, by the way. lies midway
between the academic effulgence OF
Yale on the one hand and of Harvard
on the other. You can find within
the sound of college bells anywhere
what we found the other day in 4
field survey that took us into every
home in mid-state county in North
Carolina family of whites, all il.
literates, half the children dead in in
fancy, and never doctor in the