Farm Boys and Girls Part 12

"The workroom has a bay-window facing south and filled with shelves for plants. Slate blackboards of standard school heights fill the s.p.a.ces about the rooms between doors and windows. The building is heated by hot air; vent flues of adequate sizes are also provided so that the rooms are ventilated.

"On the front of the building, and adding materially to its picturesque appearance, is a roomy veranda with simple square posts, from which entrance is made directly into the combined vestibule and coatroom and from this again by two doors into the schoolroom."

HELP MAKE A SCHOOL PLAY GROUND

Throughout the entire country there is at last rising a wave of enthusiasm in behalf of affording the child a better means of play.

First the cities took the matter up, then the towns, and now the country districts are beginning to do their part. The farmer and his wife should feel an interest in such a matter, for they can render no better service to their community than that of joining the district teacher in an effort to equip the school grounds with play apparatus. As a suggestive outline of what materials to procure, the dimensions and cost of the same, there is given below the equipment worked out by certain officials in Colorado and described briefly in Superintendent Fairchild's report, as follows:--

A turning pole for boys may be made by setting two posts in the ground, six or eight feet apart, and running a 1 or 1 inch gas pipe through holes bored in the tops of the posts. The cost of such a piece of apparatus should be as follows, a.s.suming that the necessary work will be done by the teachers and boys: Two posts, 4" x 4", 8 ft. long, 50 cents; one piece gas pipe, 8 ft. long, 15 cents.

Teeter boards may be made by planting posts ten or twelve feet apart, and placing a pole or a rounded 6 x 6 on top of them, and then placing boards, upon which the children may teeter. Individual teeter boards may be made by placing a 2 x 8 board in the ground, and fastening the teeter board to it by means of iron braces placed on each side of the upright piece. The cost of the above apparatus would be, for several teeters: Two upright posts, 6" x 6", 5 ft. long, 93 cents; one piece, 6" x 6", 12 ft. long, $1.22; four teeter boards, 2" x 8", 14 ft. long, $2.50. For individual teeter: One piece 2" x 8", 16 ft. long, 56 cents--to make upright piece 4 ft. long and teeter board 12 ft. long; two iron braces and four large screws, 25 cents.

A very attractive and desirable piece of apparatus may be made as follows: Secure a pole about ten or fifteen feet long. To the small end attach by the use of bolts one end of a wagon axle, spindle up. Upon the spindle place a wagon wheel, and to the wheel attach ropes, about as long as the pole. Place the big end of the pole in the ground three or four feet, and brace it from the four points of the compa.s.s. The ropes will hang down from the wheel in such a way that the children may take hold of them, swing, jump, and run around the pole. The one described was rather inexpensive. A telephone company donated a discarded pole, a farmer a discarded wagon wheel and axle. The only expense was that of paying a blacksmith for attaching the wheel to the pole and the cost of the ropes--about $2. It furnished one of the most attractive pieces of apparatus on the playground.

An inexpensive swing may be constructed by placing four 4 x 4's in the ground in a slanting position, two being opposite each other and meeting at the top in such a way as to form a fork. The pairs may be ten or twelve feet apart, and a pole or heavy galvanized pipe, to which swings may be attached, wired, nailed, or bolted to the crotches formed by the pieces placed in the ground. The cost of this apparatus will be: Four pieces, 4" x 4", 14 ft. long, $1.25, one piece galvanized pipe, 3", 12 ft. long, $2.50.

Boards of education could well afford to purchase one or more basketb.a.l.l.s, and a few baseb.a.l.l.s and bats for the boys. These things more than pay for themselves in the added interest which boys and girls who have them take in the school. For much of the apparatus suggested above the wide-awake board of education and teacher will see opportunities to use material less expensive than that suggested. And to such persons many pieces of apparatus not specified here will suggest themselves to fit particular needs and opportunities.

GENERAL INSTRUCTION IN AGRICULTURE

A great fault with the district schools has been an inclination to think that anything close at hand is too mean and common to be considered as subject matter for instruction. The thought has usually been that the school would prepare the learner for some brilliant calling away off where things are better and life is easier and more beautiful. As a result, the country schools have been educating boys and girls away from the farm. The new method is that of educating them to appreciate what is under their feet and all around them, through an intimate knowledge of the processes of nature and industry as carried on in their midst.

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

FIG. 16.--Using the Babc.o.c.k milk-tester in a New York school.]

One of the more direct means of educating the boys and girls for a happy, contented life on the farm is to teach them while young the rudiments of agriculture. This method is now actually being put into practice in thousands of the rural schools. The state of Kansas recently enacted a law requiring all candidates for teachers' certificates to pa.s.s a test in the elements of agriculture and also requiring that the rudiments of this subject be taught in every district school. Other states have similar laws. As a result of this and like provisions, there is now a tremendous awakening in the direction named. The boys and girls in the country schools are finding new meaning and a new interest in the fields and farms upon which they are growing up.

It is a comparatively simple matter, that of teaching the young how the plant germinates and grows, how the seed is produced, and how farm crops are cared for and harvested. Likewise, it is easy to describe the elements of the various types of soil and to show how these elements contribute to the life and growth of the plant. The questions of moisture in its relation to plant life, of insects harmful and helpful to growing crops and animals, of the bird life as related in its economic aspects to farming--all such matters can be easily taught to children by the young-woman school teacher. It is only necessary for the latter to take an elementary course of instruction herself, to read a number of collateral texts, and to get into the spirit of the undertaking. In a similar manner, instruction in regard to farm animals may be given, the emphasis being placed upon the consideration of the types of live stock actually raised and marketed in the home neighborhood.

It must be emphasized that these matters relating to elementary agriculture and animal husbandry can be made just as interesting and quite as cultural as any of the subjects in the general curriculum of the schools. Wherefore, the rural dweller who catches the spirit of such instruction should lead out in the securing of public measures and public improvements looking toward an early embodiment of these new subjects within the prescribed course of study.

DOMESTIC ECONOMY AND HOME SANITATION

The time is now at hand when the district school failing to give any attention to practical household affairs is to be cla.s.sed as out of date and unprogressive. Well-written texts and pamphlets covering the home-keeping subjects are now both available and cheap, so that the excuse for deferring their use is approaching the zero point.

Of course it is impracticable as yet to have apparatus for cooking and sewing installed in the one-teacher district school, but the bare rudiments of these subjects may nevertheless be taught with the expectation that home practice may be thereby improved and better understood. Perhaps the most practical method of present procedure is that of organizing an independent cla.s.s of the girls of suitable age and meeting them informally. The texts and pamphlets furnished by the college extension departments may be followed. In case of graded and high school courses this work should by all means be carried on as a regular cla.s.s exercise.

Home sanitation may easily and profitably be taught in the district school, even though only one or two periods per week be set apart for the purpose. Perhaps the best method of instruction is that of presenting carefully one specific lesson at a time. For example, pure drinking water, clean milk, food contamination by house flies may be treated each in its turn. Adequate charts and ill.u.s.trations should be brought into service.

CONSOLIDATION OF RURAL SCHOOLS

There is much agitation nowadays in regard to consolidating the rural schools. Although present progress is slow, it seems comparatively certain that the one-teacher rural school is destined in time to become a thing of the past. However, there is no particular haste in the matter, provided some such plans as the foregoing be put into effect in case of the single school. Perhaps the spa.r.s.ely settled district has the greatest justification for looking toward consolidation. It happens that there are thousands of small schools having an attendance of from five to ten pupils. In such an instance, it is practically impossible to do the best work, the children lacking the spur of rivalry and enthusiasm and the helpful lessons in social ethics offered only by the larger ma.s.sing of the young at play.

In many places, three or four rural districts are uniting in this movement, the general plan being that of constructing a central building with ample working s.p.a.ce for all, and then transporting the children to and from the school. The scheme is working well as a rule.

Among the great advantages is that of a possible grading of the school so that the teacher may have time for each subject and more opportunity for specialization. Perhaps the most serious and difficult part of the plan is that of providing a safe and suitable means of conveyance to and from the school. Some excellent patterns of school wagons are already on the market, while manufacturers are constantly at work improving them.

So we may expect better results as time goes on. It has already been shown very satisfactorily that the conveyance, when in charge of a well-trained driver, furnishes improved moral and physical safeguards for the child.

MORE HIGH SCHOOLS NEEDED

Not only every county, but also every rural township, should have its well-equipped high school. It is a serious matter to send boys and girls in their middle teens away to college. Many lives are thus more or less ruined simply from too early loss of the personal restraints and influence of the parents. But with a first-cla.s.s high school in easy reach the young people may at least return home for the Sat.u.r.day-Sunday recess and thereby continue in the close councils of their parents. And then, the rightly-managed high school will bring the student into closer touch with the local rural problems that may not be possible in case of the distant inst.i.tution.

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

FIGS. 17-21.--This magnificent consolidated school in Winnebago County, Illinois, was inspired by the excellent work of the well-known Superintendent O. J. Kern. The four little one-room buildings ill.u.s.trated above gave way to it.]

In the location of high schools intended to serve the rural interests there should be an effort to keep away from the towns and cities. In the latter places the allurements of the cheap theater and the sn.o.bbery that often invades the city high school are ill.u.s.trations of the evils that serve to entice the young away from the substantial things of life. A good county or township high school located centrally and in the open country is ideal. At such a location it is vastly easier than in the city to center the attention of the students upon the rural problems, not to mention the greater availability of demonstrations on farm and garden plots.

BETTER RURAL TEACHERS NEEDED

The ideal preparation for a teacher in the rural school is a complete course in a first-cla.s.s agricultural college, with the inclusion of a few terms' work in the educational subjects. So long as we send into the district schools young teachers who have been taught merely in the common text-book branches, and whose training has been exclusively pedagogical, the practice of educating the boys and girls away from the farm will go on. The country school is, in its best sense, an industrial school; and only those teachers can do best work therein who have had the personal experience in industrial training and the changed point of view which only the agricultural college can give. So if the board of trustees in any rural district really wishes to unite in supporting an effective back-to-the-farm movement, let them offer to some country-reared graduate of the agricultural college a salary of about twice or three times the amount usually paid. After a few terms of school taught by such a person, the good effects on the rural uplift will most certainly reveal themselves. But so long as school trustees continue to try to drive a sharp bargain in the employment of teachers--securing the one with the pa.s.sable county certificate who will teach for the least wages--the boys will continue to run off to town for "jobs" and the parents will continue to "move to town to educate their children."

There is some hope of a new ideal in relation to the country school teacher; namely, that he shall be a man in every sense, worthy of a salary large enough to support himself and his family the year round as residents of the community. Then we shall have a profession of teaching in the rural school work.

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

FIG. 22.--The Cornell schoolhouse. A one-teacher building, with a workroom or laboratory at one side that the teacher can control through the folding doors and gla.s.s part.i.tions. Every effort is made to render the building and place attractive and homelike.]

REFERENCES

Annual Report Page County (Iowa) Schools. Miss Jessie Field, Superintendent (Clarinda).

The reader who is especially interested in this chapter is urged to become acquainted with the splendid work accomplished for the district schools of Page County, Ia., by Superintendent Jessie Field. As indicated by her published annuals, and otherwise, she has led all the other young women superintendents in the work of organizing the boys and girls into clubs and cla.s.ses for the study of school gardening, bread making, grain propagation, and the like.

Report of the Committee on Industrial Education in Schools for Rural Communities, of the National Educational a.s.sociation.

Among Country Schools. O. J. Kern. Ginn & Co. A clear helpful, and inspiring text.

The American Rural School. H. W. Foght. Macmillan. Covers the entire subject carefully.

The School and Society. John Dewey. McClure, Phillips & Co., New York.

The School and its Life. Charles D. Gilbert. Chapter XXII, "Home and School." McClurg.

Efficient Democracy, Wm. H. Allen. Chapter VII, "School Efficiency." Dodd, Mead & Co. A most helpful and stimulating volume.

The School as a Social Inst.i.tution. Henry Suzzallo.

Monograph. Houghton Mifflin Company.

Wider Use of the School Plant, Clarence Arthur Perry. Chapter VI, "School Playgrounds." Charities Publication Committee, New York.