Farm Boys and Girls

by William A. McKeever

CHAPTER VIII
THE TRANSFORMATION OF THE RURAL SCHOOL

The country districts are slowly waking up to an appreciation of the fact that within their bounds lie, not only all the elements fundamental to the material wealth of the world, but that they also contain in a more or less dormant form all the essential factors of intellectual and spiritual wealth. The rural school is theoretically the best place on earth for the education of the child, not only because of its close proximity to the sources of material wealth, but because of the openness and comparative freedom of its surroundings. Then, the country school is especially effective as a place of instruction on account of its happy relation to work and industry. Too often the boys and girls of the town school go unwillingly to their class rooms with the feeling that the lessons are heavily imposed tasks.

But in the typical country school the pupils are young persons who have already experienced much of the strain of work and who go somewhat eagerly to the schoolroom, because it is in a sense recreative to them, and because of their being in a position to see more clearly what substantial training is to mean to them in the future. That is to say, a distinctive difference between the typical country child and the typical city child is this: the former believes that he is pursuing the course of instruction in a more voluntary spirit and for the sake of his own personal interests and up-building, while the latter is inclined to feel that he is performing the school tasks for the sake of some one else and because of the strict requirements of outside force or law.

Radical changes in the view-point and method

But if the theoretic worth of the rural school is to be made at all actual, some very radical changes in view-point and method must come to pass. First of all, we must keep asking the question, What is education for? And perhaps we must accept the answer that in its best form education serves the higher needs and requirements of the life we are trying to live to-day. In case of rural teachers and parents it has been too common a practice to urge the child on in his lesson-getting with the statement, or at least the suggestion, that lessons well mastered in time furnish a guarantee of a life of comparative ease and freedom from heavy toil. The sermonette preached to the boy in this situation is too often substantially as follows: “Go on, my boy, master your lessons, pass up through the grades, and be graduated. Behold So and So, a great captain of wealth, and such and such a one, a great statesman. Now, these persons are in a position to take life easy. They have wealth to spend for the employment of labor and need to do little of such thing themselves.”

In other words, the view-point of the school has been radically wrong. We have been advancing the idea that education enables one to get out of work, whereas we should have been urging that education of the right sort enables one to get into work. That is, it means enlarged capacity for work and service and proportionately enlarged joy and contentment in the performance of worthy work of any nature whatsoever. Let rural parents once inculcate the last-named point of view upon their growing boys and girls and the attitude of the latter toward the school and its tasks will be likewise radically changed.

All have a right to culture

And then, a second question we need to ask ourselves is, Whom is education for? or, What classes should have the benefits of it? A close comparison of the school ideals of twenty-five years ago with the most progressive ones of to-day reveals a surprising situation. Without seemingly realizing the fact, we continued for generations in this country to tax ourselves heavily for the purpose of supporting schools almost exclusively in behalf of the so-called professional classes. We said, especially to the growing boy: “Now, if you wish to become a lawyer, a physician, a minister, or a teacher, here is your opportunity. Pursue this well-arranged course, finish it up, and that all at our expense. But if you wish to become a farmer, a merchant, a craftsman of any sort, then this institution is not at your service. We will teach you to read and write and cipher, after which you may look out for yourself.” Thus we were taxing the masses for the exclusive education of a few classes. To-day the best ideal is a radically different one, as it attempts to serve all worthy classes and vocations through the school administration. It assumes that artisans as well as artists and the professional classes have the same inherent right to both the practical aid and the direct culture which an educational course may furnish.

As a practical result of this new ideal, now rapidly advancing throughout the country, we are about to have an age of cultured farmers, high-minded stock raisers, refined architects and builders, and so on. That is, our newest and best educational courses are beginning to provide the means and opportunities for the education of all worthy classes. So it behooves all interested rural parents to turn their best efforts toward the transformation and the betterment of the country school. Certain specific achievements in relation thereto are now being planned for and in many instances accomplished. Let every one concerned take notice of this situation and join with all possible earnestness in the forward movement.

In his instructive monograph entitled “Changing Conceptions of Education,” Professor E. P. Cubberley states the new ideal as follows:—