New Ideals in Rural Schools

by George Herbert Betts

[5] See Coffman, The Social Composition of the Teaching Force.

[6] The Social Composition of the Teaching Population.

---

OUTLINE

I. THE RURAL SCHOOL AND ITS PROBLEM

• The General Problem of the Rural School
  • The general problem of the rural school identical with that of all schools[1]
  • The newer concept measures education by efficiency[2]
  • This efficiency involves (1) knowledge,(2) attitude, (3) technique, or skill[3]
  • The purpose of the school is to make sure of these factors of efficiency[4]
    • Its industrial homogeneity[6]
    • Its social homogeneity[7]
    • Fundamental intelligence of the rural population[8]
    • Economic status and standards of living[10]
    • Rural isolation and its social effects[10]
    • Rural life and physical efficiency[11]
    • Lack of recreations and amusement[12]
  • Each type of school has its special problem[5]
  • The rural school problem originates in the nature of the rural community[5]
  • Characteristics of the rural community[6]
  • Recent tendencies toward progress in agricultural pursuits[12]
  • The loss of rural population to the cities[13]
• 
  
  • Failure in adjustment of the rural school to its problem[17]
  • The rudimentary education received by rural children[17]
  • Failure of the rural school to participate in recent educational progress[18]
  • The rural school inadequate in its scope[19]
  • Need of better organization in the rural school[20]
  • Inadequacy of rural school buildings and equipment[21]
  • The financial support of the rural school[22]
  • Summary and suggestions[23]
• The Special Problem of the Rural School
• 
  
• The Adjustment of the Rural School to its Problem
  

• 
  
  • The fundamental relations of school and community[25]
  • Low community standards of education[25]
  • The rural community's need of a social center[26]
  • • Its social isolation a serious drawback[27]
    • Grave moral dangers arising from social isolation[28]
    • Rural environment more dangerous to youth than city environment[29]
    • Effects of monotony on adults[30]
  • The rural school as a social center[30]
  • The ideal rural school building and equipment[32]
    • On attendance[41]
    • On expense[41]
    • On efficiency[42]
  • Social activities centering in the school[33]
  • Reorganization needed to make the rural school effective as a social and
    intellectual center[34]
  • Consolidation the first step toward rural school efficiency[35]
  • Irrationality of present district system[36]
  • Obstacles in the way of consolidation[37]
  • The present movement toward consolidation[38]
  • Effects of consolidation[40]
  • The one-room school yet needed as a part of the rural system[42]
  • Lack of adequate financial support of rural schools[43]
  • Difference in city and rural basis for taxation[44]
  • Low school tax characteristic of rural communities[45]
  • State aid for rural schools[46]
  • Safeguards required where the principle of state aid is supplied[47]
  • Summary and conclusion[48]
  • The spirit of the pupils as a test of the school[50]
  • The negative attitude of rural pupils toward their school[51]
  • Causes of this defection to be sought in the school[51]
  • The problem of poor rural school attendance[52]
  • The consolidated school as a cure for indifferent attitude and poor attendance[53]
• II. THE SOCIAL ORGANIZATION OF THE RURAL SCHOOL
• The Rural School and the Community
• 
  
• The Consolidation of Rural Schools
• 
  
• Financial Support of the Rural School
• 
  
• The Rural School and its Pupils

• 
  
  • The modern demand for a broader education[57]
  • The meagerness of the rural school curriculum[58]
  • The rural child requires full elementary and high school course[60]
    • Necessity for its mastery[65]
    • Learning the mechanics of the language[66]
    • Developing the art of expression, oral and written[67]
    • Creation of love for reading[67]
    • Formal grammar out of place in the elementary school [68]
  • Disadvantages of sending rural child to town school[60]
    • Its aim[85]
    • Points of difference from present high school course[86]
  • Necessary reorganization in rural school offering broadened curriculum[62]
    • The prominent place occupied by arithmetic[69]
    • Importance of development of the number concept[69]
    • An undue proportion of time devoted to arithmetic[70]
    • Desirable changes in the teaching of arithmetic[71]
  • General nature of the new curriculum[62]
  • Relation of the curriculum to social standards and ideals[64]
    • The right and duty of every person to know the history and government
      of his country[72]
    • History not to deal chiefly with war and politics, but to emphasize the
      social and industrial side[72]
    • The library of historical books[73]
    • Functional versus analytical civics[73]
  • The mother tongue[65]
  • Number[69]
    • Advantage of the rural school in this field[74]
    • The social basis of geography[75]
    • Application of geography and nature study to the farm[75]
  • History and civics[71]
  • Geography and nature study[74]
    • Criticism of older concept of physiology for the elementary school[76]
    • Content of practical course in hygiene[77]
    • Application of hygiene to the child's health and growth[77]
  • Hygiene and health[76]
  • Agriculture[78]
    • Adaptability to the rural elementary school[78]
    • Content of the elementary course in agriculture[79]
    • Relation to farm life[79]
  • Domestic science and manual training[79]
  • • Place in elementary rural school[80]
    • What can be taught[80]
    • Its practical application[80]
  • Music and art[81]
  • • Necessity in a well-balanced curriculum[81]
    • Appreciation rather than criticism the aim[81]
  • Physical training[81]
  • • Need of physical training of rural children[82]
    • Rural school athletics[82]
  • Rural high schools not yet common[83]
  • The functions of the rural high school[84]
  • English in the rural high school[84]
  • Social science to have an applied trend[86]
  • The material sciences as related to the problems of the farm[87]
  • Manual training and domestic science[89]
  • A modified course in high school mathematics[89]
  • Foreign language not to occupy an important place[90]
  • The high school course to include music and art[90]
  • Teaching the fundamental purpose of the school[92]
  • The child and the subject-matter[92]
  • The teacher as an intermediary between child and subject-matter[93]
  • Hence the teacher must know the nature of the child[94]
  • The teacher must know the subject-matter of education[95]
  • Failure to measure up to this requirement[97]
• III. THE CURRICULUM OF THE RURAL SCHOOL
  • The degree of training of rural teachers in the subject-matter[98]
  • Present lack of professional training[100]
  • The effects of inexperience[101]
  • Short tenure of service in rural schools[102]
  • Level of teaching efficiency low[103]
  • Improvement through consolidated schools[104]
  • Inexperienced and untrained teachers begin in the rural schools[105]
  • Normal schools supply few teachers to rural schools[106]
  • A reasonable demand for training of rural teachers[107]
  • Rural teacher training in normal high schools[107]
  • The rural teacher's training must be adapted to spirit of rural school[108]
  • Salary as a measure of efficiency[109]
  • Salaries of rural teachers compared with town and city teachers[110]
  • Necessity of increased salaries[111]
  • Increase in salary and in efficiency must go together[111]
  • Salaries in consolidated schools[112]
  • Impossibility of giving district schools efficient supervision[112]
  • Obstacle in number of schools and frequent change of teachers[113]
  • Comparison of work of county superintendent with city superintendent[114]
  • Political handicaps on county superintendent[115]
  • The necessity of better educational standards and better salary for the county superintendent[116]
  • Women as county superintendents[116]
  • Efficient supervision possible only under a consolidated system[117]
• The Scope of the Rural School Curriculum
• 
  
• The Rural Elementary School Curriculum
• 
  
• The Rural High School Curriculum
• 
  
• IV. THE TEACHING OF THE RURAL SCHOOL
• The Importance of Teaching
• 
  
• Teaching in the Rural School
  
• 
  
• The Training of Rural Teachers
• 
  
• Salaries of Rural Teachers
• 
  
• Supervision of Rural Teaching