The Mena weekly star., 1917-05-31

 uates looked down on the producer, and whose scholars prided them selves-as the pharisees of old that they did not have to work.
 Al the present time ninety-iive out of every hundred take to the ranks of the producer, and the other five to professions. Our schools have been aiding the five instead of the ninety-fiye-
 Perhaps over ninety-Aye per cent of all rural schools will take to az ricultural pursuits upon completion of their schooling, be it the sixth, seventh, or eighth or any of the higher grades.
 I mean by agricultural pursuits, anything relative to agriculture, the growing of crops, the raising of live stock. the making and repairing of the tools and implements of the farm, and last, but just as import ant as any of the former, the home.
 Our boys and girls should be trained along the line which leads to producers and home builders, whether on the farm or in the cities.
 Think of the advantages, if our boys on the farms were trained to| sharpen blows, to put new ring on the neckyoke, a new hook on the singletree, or a new bolster on the wagon, to build new crib or barn, put up kithchen or bedroom, to make mother or wifey a new cupboard OF table, or put pair of half-soles on brothers or sisters shoes no, brother and sister, with the proper training, could sole their own shoes.
 And. would it be amiss if sister could make her own dresses, repair brothers clothes, hang wallpaper on the bedroom, build and put up nice mantel shelf, bake a batch of light bread and get up meal which pleases the taste, as well as satls- fies natures laws in supplying the proper amount of protelds, calorlcs, etc, to the body calls.
 This is education. Educating our boys and girls to live, be independ- ent producers ready when complet- | ing school to enter any vocation for which. during their training ln| school, they have shown a natural | inclination.
 Now the question. Can thls Del taught in our schools"
 A certain amount of handicraft can in all schools. A greater amount can in some of our schools.
 You know there is such a thing as farmer overcropping. Well, the same thing is possible with school teacher. Some districts will hire a teacher. open up a school with any where from thirty to fifty or sixty scholars, perhaps teach seven or eight grades in six hours. The very least time it takes to teach eight grades and give the classes any ap- piled work at all is seventeen hours, Would take about three teachers to| do justice in six hours, would itI not?
 An overcrowded teacher does not have time to have analysis Tn theI arithmetic classes, no time to re- auire definitions and pronunciation | in the reading and spelling, no time to give brief for the language les sons. no time to introduce new work or apply the grammar, hygiene anu nhysiology lessons; no time to carry | inc classes to different countries oi inc world on the map in the geo. oranhv class. and thru lack of prop CT desks. penmanship mustAb neg | lected.
 Brother. did you ever think about this? These facts may be the req son that you do not get the results from your school which you expect ed. It may not be any fault of the | teacher at all
 The trouble lies in the fact that most of our rural schools are throw inc too much work on one teacher. And the best way to avoid this where possible-to consolidate the adjoining districts-the more dls- tricts entering, the better. Then huild a house with a room for each thirfv-fiye scholars and hire teach CTS accordingly. The government has made an ap- nropriafion and will give an amount equal to that which any state VIII give to aid the teaching Of manual training and domestic science. The state of Arkansas has also passed a l bill to aid schools in teaching the same. Thus you see it will he pos sible for many of the rural schools fo teach at least little carpentry, Torn, shon work and domestic sci ence along with the common grades.
 Fellows, get together, swallow vour crouch and boost for consoll- dation. which means school elll- ciency. school regeneration and a system of education which can take advantage of all opportunities ana benefits which our county and state officials are ready and anxious to. offer you.
 Polk county has a wide-awake and efficient superintendent. Arkansas may we'll be proud of it's teacher