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but should be left Manual training a part of the curriculum

subject for the earlier grades of the elementary school, for the last two years, or even for the high school, where the latter is available. Much valuable knowledge can, however, be given as early even as the fifth grade. Boys can be taught the care and use of tools, the making of simpler articles for the farm or the home, the nature of the different woods, their availability for various uses, their finish and protection, and many other useful lines of information. The handling of tools in the school should result in every boy being supplied with a bench and a full complement of tools in the home shop, together with the different varieties of lumber needed for miscellaneous work about the house and barns. Music should constitute a part of the rural-school program. The country child has a full right to the finer Music and art to

aspects of culture. He will learn

be included music as readily as the city child and enjoy it not less. Every schoolhouse should have a piano or an organ as a part of its equipment, and singing should be as carefully taught as any other subject. A practical method for the cultivation of appreciation for music is through the use of the "talking-machine," which can now be had at a very reasonable price, and which reproduces good music with artistic excellence.

Nor should the study of art be neglected,-not a study of the technical rules of painting, but training in the appreciation of good pictures. The great masterpieces are now available in excellent copies at very small prices, and should form a part of the course of study for every pupil. The result will be not only a love of art, but the introduction of worthy pictures into the home. In one west

ern district where such study was taken up in the school, more than one hundred good pictures were framed in the school manual-training shop and hung in the homes of the pupils within one year.

The reorganized curriculum must give ample opportunity for the study of history. The man or woman of History to deal to-day is a part of the great civilizawith life of people tion that had its beginnings in the faraway past and leads on to a limitless future. It is a part of education to come into close and vital relation with this civilization, to feel a kinship with great personages, to enter into great movements and events and feel one's self a part of the whole. This is to be done through a study of history. Nor should the history be of wars and politics alone, but should reveal the life and spirit of peoples, the growth of institutions, the rise of inventions, the development of wealth and industries. It should bring before us the lives of the great men and women of all times, the deeds they have done, the books they have written, the machines they have made, or the laws they have enacted. In short, history should unroll before the child a panorama of life, at its noblest and best, to serve as a stimulus to his ambition and a guide to his acts.

Practical civics should constitute an important part of the school course. This does not mean that the elemenImportance of tary pupil shall be required to study concrete civics the state and federal constitutions, or master the intricacies of the governmental machinery. Too much of this kind of matter has already been imposed on our children. The study of civics should begin at the points where the township, county, state or federal government touches the interests of the pupil. How the school is supported and controlled; how the bridges and

roads are built and repaired; the responsibility and duties of township and county officers; the work of health officers; quarantine regulations and their need; postal rules and regulations; the school law as related to pupils and patrons, these and similar topics suggest what may well be taught the child in civics.

Such, then, is the basis of the reorganized curriculum, the core around which other work will center. Reading, language and arithmetic will not be neglected. Indeed, they will be more efficiently taught and better learned. than in the old type of school, for the spirit and the motives will be changed. And what has been largely a mechanical task will become pregnant with interest and value.

FOR TEACHERS' DISCUSSION AND STUDY

1. Is there any danger that we shall become so interested in the newer subjects of agriculture, manual training and home economics that we shall neglect other subjects? How may we guard against such a result?

2. Make a list of all the occupations represented by the pupils of a rural school, and compare with a list of the occupations represented by the pupils of a town school. What bearing has the result on the possibility of vocational training in each type of school?

3. Have you known children who seemed bright and capable when they first entered school to become dull and listless after a year or two of attendance? How far is the school responsible for all such laggards?

4. Make a study of the reorganized curriculum as shown in the drawing of the tree. Then make another similar drawing representing the curriculum as is exists

in the old type of school. Compare the efficiency of the two methods of education,

5. Suppose a teacher agrees that nature study is the best point of departure in teaching the child but does not know enough about nature himself to make this method effective; what are the dangers to be guarded against? What is the remedy?

6. What use can be made of music to render the rural school and the life of the rural home more attractive? What percentage of children can with proper instruction be made fair singers? Would a piano be a good investment for a rural school? How many of your pupils have one in their homes?

7. Do you believe that good pictures can be made as educative as good literature? If you were asked to recommend pictures suitable for schoolroom decoration and study, what ones would you select? How would your list differ if you were recommending for the home?

8. Is it possible to lead children to like history? Do you count any teaching of history or literature a success that does not result in an interest in the subject? How much bearing has the teacher's own interest in any branch *o do with the pupil's attitude toward it?

CHAPTER V

CORRELATION

The curriculum has in recent years grown not only vastly richer and more interesting, but much fuller, as well. The broadening of education and the demand for studies of a more practical type have thus placed an increasing burden on both pupil and teacher. So much material has been added that the elementary course of study now includes a greater variety and amount of subject-matter than was required for admission to college several generations ago. And the high-school graduate of to-day has certainly been forced to cover more ground than was demanded to graduate from Harvard at the time when Longfellow was a member of the faculty.

school curriculum

The rural school has also felt the effect of this change. To the reading, arithmetic and writing of the earlier Growth of rural schools, geography was added, and then grammar. History soon found its way in, and was followed by physiology and that by language lessons. Then came nature study. Music and drawing next added their claims. And now come the formidable trio, agriculture, manual training and domestic science, each of which offers almost limitless opportunities for extension and subdivision. It is evident therefore that we have greatly enriched the curriculum and made it vastly more helpful; but we have also doubled and trebled the amount to be learned and taught.

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