It is thus, from the humblest “box-car school” to the great university, that the people of the open country are being educated to appreciate their privileges and to live a more effective country life. It is a great educational movement, weak and halting here and there, but moving on with a better sense of unity and a clearer vision of the goal, with every passing decade. It all gives us courage to believe that the providence of God has in store for our rural America not the stolid domination of a rural peasantry, mere renters and pirates of the soil, but ultimately an enlightened, progressive citizenship, alert for progress and unswerving in their loyalty to “the holy land.”
Test Questions on Chapter VI
1.—Why do many rural communities take so little interest in their schools?
2.—Show how most rural schools train country children away from the farms to the city instead of fitting them for country life.
3.—How does the expense of American rural schools compare, per capita, with the expense of the city schools?
4.—How can the country boys and girls be given a fair chance in our public school system?
5.—In what ways does the district school plan work badly as a unit of management and of taxation?
6.—What is wrong with the construction of most country school buildings?
7.—Why is the consolidated school in the town or village a bad thing for children from the farms?
8.—State the efficiency argument for consolidation of rural schools.