Farm Boys and Girls

by William A. McKeever

“The school is essentially a time- and labor-saving device, created—with us—by democracy to serve democracy’s needs. To convey to the next generation the knowledge and the accumulated experience of the past is not its only function. It must equally prepare the future citizen for the to-morrow of our complex life. The school must grasp the significance of its social connections and relations, and must come to realize that its real worth and its hope of adequate reward lie in its social efficiency. There are many reasons for believing that this change is taking place rapidly at present, and that an educational sociology, needed as much by teachers to-day as an educational psychology, is now in the process of being formulated for our use.”

Work for a longer term

One of the first steps toward a more helpful schooling for the country youth is that of lengthening the yearly school term. In many thousands of instances, the country school is conducted for only three to five months during the year, and even this short term is indifferently attended. But the actual length of the year should be seven months or more. Many of the country districts can easily provide for eight months. The farmer should not concern himself about a small additional tax, but should have in mind rather the larger additional gain to the well-being of the young in the community. If the local tax be not sufficient for supporting a longer term and a better school, then seek to have laws authorizing the distribution of state aid to the weaker districts. This law has been actually passed in a number of the commonwealths. The act in the usual case provides a general school fund out of which the deficit for the smaller rural districts may be made up.

Compulsory attendance laws needed

The far-seeing country dweller will be glad to join in a movement in behalf of compulsory attendance at the public schools. Already a number of states have enacted fairly good laws on this subject, but some of them allow “loopholes” providing for the too easy avoidance of their requirements. Perhaps the best and most effective type of law of this class is that which requires the child under fourteen years of age to attend the entire term of the public schools, allowing for his absence only in case of sickness or in cases where it is shown upon investigation and beyond question that he is the main support and breadwinner of a family.

In connection with the legal requirements for compulsory attendance, there must, of course, be provision for the truant. Truant officers, who may be required to serve only part time and who may receive pay for actual services, are set over specified districts and required to bring in all truant school children. Although this compulsory attendance law has been in force only a few years, reports show an almost unanimous belief in its effectiveness. The reader will understand the justification of such a law to be this; namely, the inherent right of the child to be educated whether he may appreciate such right or advantage or not, and the implied right of the community to have his best service as a well-educated member of society. The effects upon crime and criminality of the neglect of the education of the young have been so thoroughly discussed of late as to require no restatement here.

Better schoolhouses and equipment

A survey of the entire country from one side to another reveals a deplorable state of affairs in respect to the conditions of the typical rural schoolhouse. In thousands of cases, there is nothing more than a dingy, little, old one-room building, scarcely suitable as a place wherein to shelter chickens or pigs, and with nothing in the surroundings to suggest or even hint at a place where young minds are taught how to aim at the high things of life. Now, these crude structures were once a necessity. In pioneer days the little, old box schoolhouse, or even the sod structure, served a mighty purpose in the transformation of the plains and the wilderness. But times are now radically changed. The wealth of the country is abundant. Improvements of nearly every other sort have gone on as the times advanced. But too often the little, old cheap schoolhouse on the bleak country slope became a fixed habit. In setting forth plans for a newer and better country school building, the author cannot improve upon those prepared by E. T. Fairchild, State Superintendent of Public Instruction in Kansas, and published in his Seventeenth Biennial Report. We therefore quote as follows:—

1. Location.—“In selecting a site for a school building, the questions of drainage, convenience, beauty of surroundings, and accessibility should have prime consideration. Select, if possible, some plat of ground slightly elevated, and of which the surface may be properly drained and kept free from mud. It should be especially seen to that water may not stand under the building. If the elevation is not sufficient, this trouble should be overcome by proper filling in beneath the building. The location should be as nearly as possible central with reference to the pupils of the district. But other things should also be considered. It is better that some pupils should be put to a slight disadvantage than that attractiveness of surroundings, remoteness from environment likely to interfere with the work of the school, or other essentials, should be sacrificed.”

Plate XI.