nothing for him to do, and trained to a life of work, he does not know how to employ his new-found leisure. Hence, leisure soon degenerates into idleness and discontent. The zest is gone from life, and health and longevity are threatened. The farm mother, moving to the town, misses the old environment hardly less. True, she still has her household to look after, but the old duties connected with the farm home are gone, and new pathways have to be blocked out. The old neighbors, friends of a score of years, are no longer at hand, and the clubs and social organizations of the town are strange and unfamiliar. Arduous and trying as was her work in the old home, something of happiness and tranquillity was lost in the change to the new. A second great disadvantage coming from the urbanization of our people is the irreparable loss to the farm itself. When the farmer moves to town with his family, not only does the farm lose the services of the heads of the family-the father and mother who are usually still in the working prime of life-but in too many cases it also permanently loses the boys and girls who are taken to town for their education. For the education of the town school does not lead to the farm, but away from it. That this is true even of the smaller towns and villages is abundantly proved by the relatively small proportion of its farm-born pupils who return to an agricultural career. The drain from the farm is so great that for the present generation it has amounted to about one per cent. a year. Need of more and And this has been going on at a time when the country has been urgently in need of more and better farmers, that through their increased numbers and efficiency the cost of living might better farmers be reduced; it has been going on at a time when the professions have been greatly overcrowded, and do not need an accession of numbers; it has been going on at a time when we already have too large a proportion of our people in the towns and cities seeking to make a living through selling commodities instead of producing them; it has been going on at a time when the vocation of farming has been offering greater opportunities and larger rewards than ever before in our history. And when it is remembered that those who leave for the purpose of education are, on the average, the more enterprising and intelligent of our rural people, it also becomes evident that there must be some lowering of our farming population in quality, as well as numbers, through the move ment. It is true that there are many other factors than a desire for education responsible for the agricultural exodus Other factors lead- to the towns. Many of the very ining from the farm fluences that have made the life of the farm broader and more interesting have had a tendency to foster a spirit of discontent with farm life and a desire for a more varied experience. The daily papers make the farm youth familiar with the life of the city. Magazines and journals familiarize him with the daring and rewards of great commercial enterprises. Books broaden the mind and extend the interests beyond the routine of the daily farm life. The automobile and the train give him a glimpse of the world of recreation and pleasure. Natural social impulses cause him to shrink from isolation and seek association with the people daily brought to his mind through reading or imagination. Yet most of these tendencies are very closely related to a broader education, and to the functions rightly belonging to the rural school. The rural school can, at its best, do The opportunity much to remove the false glamour of the rural school from the city by making the country more attractive. It can open up the way to and prepare for a career in agriculture in every way comparable with the commercial careers open in the cities. It can unlock to the farm youth the treasures of literature, history, science and art. It can afford opportunities for recreation, amusement, and social mingling with others so necessary to the development and happiness of the young. In short, the rural school occupies a strategic position in the life and welfare of our rural communities. It will be the greatest factor in advancing the agricultural movement now gathering headway in the nation, or else, failing to grasp its opportunity, will prove a stumbling-block, and be supplanted by town and village schools. It is left for the rural school to join hands with the farmer and offer the farm boy and girl a better education Encouraging than the town can give them-better signs in that it is adapted to their needs and prepares them for their duties. And the rural school will rise to its opportunities. It is already rising; indeed, it has risen in many places. Some of the most marvelous educational advances made in our generation have taken place in the rural schools. It will be our purpose in the following chapters to describe some of these lines of progress, and show how they can be extended to still other rural schools. FOR TEACHERS' DISCUSSION AND STUDY 1. Why is the rural school used so much less as a social center now than formerly? Will it be possible for the school again to take up this function? If so, how can it be brought about? 2. Why has the rural school fallen so far behind urban schools in recent educational progress? 3. Is there any validity in the seeming assumption that rural children can not be expected to have so good an education as town children? (Economic and social factors.) 4. To what extent do you think that the failure of the rural school to measure up to its responsibilities is accountable for the present drift from the farms to the towns and cities? How can the rural school be used as a force to hold young people to the country instead of driving them from it? 5. Do you know the percentage of illiteracy among those over ten years of age in your school district? Township? County? State? 6. Make a comparison of the school improvements effected in the town and country schools of your county during the last fifteen or twenty years: (a) in buildings and equipment; (b) in curriculum; (c) in requirement for teachers, and salaries paid. Has not rural prosperity increased at least as fast as town prosperity? 7. How many farmers of your township have moved from their farms to town during the last five years? What are they now doing in town? In how many instances did they go to town for better school facilities? Is it in general true that those who have been leaving their farms average a higher and more progressive type than those who remain? 8. Do you think that country schools can be made as efficient as town schools? That country life can be made as attractive as town life? If so, what factors are required in each case to accomplish such a result? Efficiency is the demand of the age. This demand has been slow in reaching the rural schools, but it is now making itself felt. The pressure for better facilities for the education of farm boys and girls is becoming insistent in nearly every section of the country. Marvelous advance has already been made in many communities, and large plans are now under way in others. Owing to the problems arising from this reconstruction, it is worth while to ask ourselves what constitutes efficiency in the rural schools, how it is to be measured, and how obtained. How are we to tell whether a particular rural school, or type of schools, is yielding the highest possible returns? How shall we go to work to increase the efficiency of all our rural schools? Difficulty in measuring school efficiency If it were as easy to measure the efficiency of a school as that of an engine or a factory, the problem would be simple. But such is not the case. For the final outcome of the education of a child can not be told until years have passed. And even then, many factors besides his schooling have entered into his success or failure. It is therefore impossible to fix the exact proportion of responsibility which the school must bear in determining the results of a life. But there are, nevertheless, some |