Farm Boys and Girls Part 10

On the Monday following, the program was continued with a farmers'

inst.i.tute representative of the several interests of the adults and the young people. At this Monday meeting a number of the faculty of the state university were in attendance and gave helpful addresses appropriate to the occasion. At night the County Superintendent gave an ill.u.s.trated lecture, using the stereopticon to show the audience just what was being done in the various parts of the county and country by way of improvement of the social and economic conditions.

In many places in the New England and other eastern states the rural communities are attacking the social-religious problems in practically the same manner as is being done at Plainfield, Illinois. At Danbury, New Hampshire, there is a Country Settlement a.s.sociation, which is accomplishing some epoch-making things. At the official building there is provided a trained nurse to a.s.sist the entire community. The organization conducts social-betterment work for the local neighborhood and leads in a campaign for social reform throughout the state.

Likewise, at Lincoln, Vermont, there is an interesting example of cooperation between the religious and social interests. Three churches have formed a federated society. In a building maintained in common by them, the meetings of the Ladies' Aid Society, the Good Templars, the Grange, the Grand Army Post, and many others of a social nature are held. Such cooperative work is certain to have a helpful and far-reaching effect on any community.

[Ill.u.s.tration: PLATE X.

FIG. 11.--An ill.u.s.tration of "Corn Sunday," as inst.i.tuted by Superintendent Jessie Field, Clarinda, Iowa, in the rural churches thereabout.]

SPIRITUALIZE CHILD LIFE

Above all things else, let the country church be reorganized with reference to the interests of the young. Let the minister and the other leaders take a firm stand for a square deal for the farm boys and girls in respect to work and play and sociability. Let them place before country parents clear, concrete models and methods as to how to accord fair treatment to the children in every particular thing. Let them organize the young people of the community into groups for play and sociability and direct them in both of these matters.

It is high time we were considering all of our legitimate interests as a part of our religion. Indeed, there is no good reason why the young people could not meet together at the rural church and on the same evening have an oyster supper and a prayer meeting. They could very consistently discuss and partic.i.p.ate in both a temporal and a spiritual affair on the same occasion and in such a way that each part of the program would be vitalized by the others. And likewise the smaller children. It should not be considered at all irreverent for one to go directly with them to the playground after the Sunday school lesson is ended and there lead and direct them in their health-giving enjoyments.

Try this in your rural-church society centers and see if the boys and girls do not run with great enthusiasm to the whole affair.

One great error committed by many of us in the past is that of regarding work and things as arbitrarily high or low. But the author does not see why plowing corn may not be made just as sacred and just as divine a calling as preaching the gospel, provided the former be regarded in the light of service of some high spiritual purpose; as indeed it may be.

So, here is a distinctive part of the function of the rural church; namely, to spiritualize work as well as workers--to urge upon the attention of the rural inhabitants the thought that their work must all be regarded as a means to the transformation of the community life and of each individual life into a thing of transcendent worth and beauty.

A SUMMARY

Now, here is the proposed plan in a nutsh.e.l.l. The country community is the best place in the world for bringing up a st.u.r.dy race of men and women and the country church is or can be made one of the greatest agencies in the achievement of this work. But such achievement can best be brought about only when the country church goes to work to save the whole boy and the whole girl. And that means that the church must understand better how human life grows up--that it must meet these growing boys and girls on their own level of everyday interest and socialize and spiritualize these interests through close contact with them. Then, make the rural church a social center for the young, including exercises in work and play and recreation, as well as a place for religious instruction. The child is a creature of activity and not of pa.s.sivity. You cannot preach him into the kingdom in a lifetime; but you can get down with him and work with him and play with him and guide and direct him through his self-chosen, everyday interests, to the end that he may afterwards enter the ranks of the Lord's anointed.

Again, it is urged, make your country church a center for the entire life of the community. Not only have the adults bring their practical affairs to this center for consideration, but have the boys and girls come with their implements of work and play, with their specimens of farm and home produce and handiwork, with their miniature menageries and workshops--all this with joy and reverence before and after the religious services.

REFERENCES

Efficient Democracy. W. H. Allen. Chapter X. "Efficiency in Religious Work." Dodd, Mead & Co.

Rural Christendom. Charles Roads. Prize Essay. American Sunday-School Union, Philadelphia.

Report of the Commission on Country Life, pp. 137-144, Sturgis-Walton Co.

The Country Church and the Library. John Cotton Dana.

_Outlook_, May 6, 1911.

The Country Church and the Rural Problem. Kenyon L.

b.u.t.terfield. University of Chicago Press. A strong presentation of the entire situation.

The Rural Church and Community Development. President Kenyon L. b.u.t.terfield. The a.s.sociation Press, New York. A collection of practical papers and discussions on several important topics.

The Day of the Country Church. J. O. Ashenhurst. Funk & Wagnalls Co., New York. Read especially the excellent chapter on "Leadership."

The Church and the Rural Community. Symposium. _American Journal of Sociology._ March, 1911.

Philanthropy, A Trained Profession. Lewis. Forum, March, 1910.

_Rural Manhood._ The a.s.sociation Press, New York Monthly.

This magazine publishes many excellent articles on the Rural Church.

The Inefficient Minister. _Literary Digest_, April 10, 1909.

A report of the criticisms of Dr. Henry S. Pritchett, of the Carnegie Foundation, and Dr. Henry Aked, of San Francisco.

_World's Work_, December, 1910. An interesting account of Reverend Matthew Mc.n.u.tt's work in building up a country church.

The Country Church. George F. Wells, in Cyclopedia of American Agriculture, by L. H. Bailey, volume IV, page 297.

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 cla.s.s 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 pa.s.s. 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, pa.s.s 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 att.i.tude 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 cla.s.ses 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 cla.s.ses. 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 inst.i.tution 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 ma.s.ses for the exclusive education of a few cla.s.ses. To-day the best ideal is a radically different one, as it attempts to serve all worthy cla.s.ses and vocations through the school administration. It a.s.sumes that artisans as well as artists and the professional cla.s.ses 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 cla.s.ses. 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 ent.i.tled "Changing Conceptions of Education," Professor E. P. Cubberley states the new ideal as follows:--

"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 acc.u.mulated 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 pa.s.sed 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.