THE 
 RURAL 
 FROM WITHIN 
 
 BY M.G.KIRKPATRICK.B.S.,EhJ). 
 
ALBERT R. MANN 
 LIBRARY 
 
 New York State Colleges 
 
 OF 
 
 Agriculture and Home Economics 
 
 Cornell University 
 
Cornell University Library 
 LB 1567.K59 
 
 The rural school from within, 
 
 3 1924 013 401 256 
 
Cornell University 
 Library 
 
 The original of tliis book is in 
 tine Cornell University Library. 
 
 There are no known copyright restrictions in 
 the United States on the use of the text. 
 
 http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924013401256 
 
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THE RURAL SCHOOL 
 FROM WITHIN 
 
 ^ BY 
 
 MARION a KIRKPATRICK, B.S., Ph.D. 
 
 SPECIALIST IN EDUCATION, DIVISION OF COLLEGE EXTENSION, KANSAS 
 STATE AGRICULTURAL COLLEGE 
 
 PHILADELPHIA AND LONDON 
 J. B. LIPPINCOTT COMPANY 
 
COPTKIGBT. I917. BY J. B. LIPPINCOIT COMPANY 
 
 PKOITED BY J. B. LIPPINCOTI COMPAMT 
 
 AT THE WASHINGTON SQUARE PRESS 
 
 PBILADELPHIA, U. S. A. 
 
DEDICATED TO 
 THEODORE F. RHODES 
 
 WHO LOVES HIS FELLOWMEN AND WOULD RATHER HEAR HIS 
 neighbors' CHILDREN " SPEAK " AND SING THAN TO HEAR 
 A PATRICK HENRY OR A LILLIAN NORDICA; WHO WOULD 
 RATHER SEE A BALL GAME BETWEEN HOME BOYS THAN 
 ONE BETWEEN ALL-STAR TEAMS; WHO KNOWS THE JOY 
 OF BEING A NEIGHBOR; WHO BELIEVES THAT CREDULITY 
 IS NOT ALWAYS A VIRTUE; WHO THINKS THAT CASH REGIS- 
 TERS AND COMBINATION LOCKS ARE NOT REFLECTIONS 
 UPON INTEGRITY, AND THAT CAREFUL AUDITING AND AC- 
 COUNTING MAKE FOR HONEST SERVICE; WHO BELIEVES 
 THAT MEN OFTEN BECOME CRIMINAL BY FORCE OF CIRCUM- 
 STANCES, AND THAT THE PUBLIC SCHOOLS WHEN PROPERLY 
 CONDUCTED ARE TB£ SAFEGUARDS TO GOOD CITIZENSHIP 
 
PREFACE 
 
 In no line of work has there been so much aim- 
 less effort for improvement as in the rural schools. 
 It would be unkind and untrue to say that this 
 effort has not always been made by intelligent men 
 and women, but it would not be at variance with 
 truth to say that many who have written in behalf 
 of the rural schools have been those who had little 
 first hand experience with the subject which they 
 set out to improve. 
 
 With the belief that a rural school education and 
 nearly a quarter of a century spent in teaching in 
 and adjacent to the rural schools may be a partial 
 preparation for so great an undertaking as rural 
 school improvement, the author offers this work, 
 " The Rural School from Within." 
 
 Several of the chapters are devoted to actual 
 experiences which are believed to be typical. If the 
 recital of these experiences indicates a love for boys 
 and girls, a knowledge of rural home life — of the deep 
 love of parents for their children, and of the great 
 sacrifices that parents in rural communities are mak- 
 ing for their children ; this love and knowledge were 
 acquired by many years of dose acquaintance with 
 
 1 
 
2 PREFACE 
 
 a people among whom, and for whom, the writer 
 has chosen to spend his life. 
 
 This contribution is made with a hope that it 
 may become a factor in determining the aim of rural 
 schools, in obtaining a recognition from colleges and 
 other higher institutions of learning that education 
 must be universal with respect to interests repre- 
 sented in the course of study as well as universal 
 so far as individuals are concerned. 
 
 Before entering upon the construction of a policy 
 for the rural school, the writer gives as faithfully as 
 possible his experiences as a teacher of a Kansas 
 rural school. These experiences were interesting, and 
 dealt with live problems, and throughout their dis- 
 cussion it is hoped that the student of pedagogy will 
 recognize the employment of sound and progressive 
 educative principles and the revealing and elucidating 
 of deep-lying fundamentals of discipline and manage- 
 ment, which are knotty problems for thinkers and 
 experts in education, by such concrete illustrations 
 as to be of vital worth to the teacher just entering 
 the profession, and helpful to those who have been 
 long in the work. 
 
 This book is a story — a story that repeats the 
 experiences of thousands of teachers, tens of thou- 
 sands of American parents, and of innumerable 
 children. It is a story plainly but not bluntly told ; 
 it is uncolored by things that might have happened. 
 
PREFACE 3 
 
 The mistakes of the teacher himself are given 
 for the purpose of encouragement to the discouraged 
 teacher, and as a danger signal to teachers, parents 
 and school boards. They are given to give pub- 
 licity to the inefficiency of the untrained teacher and 
 to bring plainly to the public mind the importance of 
 suitable schools for all the people. 
 
 For kindly criticism offered and interest mani- 
 fested in this effort to render a service to the rural 
 schools, the author in appreciation thereof acknowl- 
 edges the following: 
 
 President Henry Jackson Waters, Dean Edward 
 C Johnson, Professors M. G. Burton, Edwin L. 
 Holton, J. W. Searson, Geo. E. Bray, Wm. H. An- 
 drews, H. L. Kent, Otis E. Hall, H. W. Davis, N. A. 
 Crawford, and W. T. Stratton, of the Kansas State 
 Agricultural College, and Mrs. W. T. Stratton and 
 Miss Elsie Pauley, Manhattan, Kansias. 
 
 , ., M. G. KlRKPATRICK. 
 
 Apnl, 1917. 
 
INTRODUCTION 
 
 The improvement and betterment of American 
 rural life is one of the large national problems which 
 has grown out of the abandonment of hand farming 
 for machine farming, and the change from home 
 industry to highly specialized commercial processes. 
 
 In the solution of the rural problem, new ideas 
 and new ideals will be reqmred. This solution will 
 not consist in copying city methods. It must be a 
 growth, a development, and fruition of the best that 
 is in the coimtry. The principal forces to be utilized 
 must be cotmtry forces. Rural betterment is not 
 something which may be handed down from above. 
 It must come up out of the ranks of the country 
 people. The one agency which touches the life of 
 all the country people is the rural school. But this 
 school has not kept pace with modern progress. It 
 has not adjusted itself to changed coditions. It is 
 not rendering its fullest service. The course of study 
 must be changed to help solve the farmers' economic 
 problems, to point the way to a new era of health 
 and sanitation in country communities, to place be- 
 fore boys and girls new ideals of citizenship. The 
 runal school must have a more definitely recognized 
 
 5 
 
6 INTRODUCTION 
 
 and recognizable purpose, a more direct connective 
 with life problems and activities. 
 
 The social problems of the country are large, and 
 here, too, the rural school must do its part. We 
 shall always h&,ve a country-minded people living in 
 the country. Any agency which does not recognize 
 this fact must fail to get results in the country. In 
 the country school must be sympathetic understand- 
 ing and foresight; a knowledge of boys and girls, 
 and of men and women and the forces which move 
 them !and lead to success or failure. Inside this 
 school there is the reflection of the spirit and life of 
 the community. The shortcomings of parents, the 
 petty jealousies and sympathetic friendships of the 
 small community, the impulsiveness of adolescence, 
 the foolishness of youth, the rowdyism so difficult of 
 control, the extremes of rural independence, the 
 capacity for doing things, the willingness to respond 
 to wise leadership — all these are a part of the school 
 and must be reckoned with for good or for evil. 
 
 The teacher must make all these over, right the 
 wrong, improve the bad, stimulate and use the good. 
 The course of study, the schoolhouse and equip- 
 ment, the machinery of administration, the teacher's 
 training and personality are but the means by which 
 this development is to be directed. But above all 
 the spiritual and moral forces, the men and women, 
 the boys and girls of the community must be under- 
 
INTRODUCTION •? 
 
 stood and used. These constitute the problem. They 
 alone offer promise for the future. We would not 
 replace them if we could. We must help them to 
 grow and to use their talents. 
 
 Few persons who write about rural schools 
 understand and love rural life. Few teachers know 
 men and women, boys and girls. Few have the good 
 sense and the aibility to lead and to direct quietly. 
 Few are attuned to the countryman's point of view. 
 Few are patient with his conservatism. Rowdyism 
 in the country is much talked about, but is too often 
 condemned and not often enough redirected. Mean- 
 ness in the people of the country is given much pub- 
 licity, but the lives of far too many Father and 
 Mother Roses remain unhonored and unsung. The 
 penuriousness of country school boiards is proverbial, 
 but the stout-hearted, sensible, capable and progres- 
 sive William Constads find their wiay into too little 
 of the literature for teachers. 
 
 Those who really wish to love and serve and 
 direct country people, who have a vision of manag- 
 ing and forming, not of controUing and bossing, who 
 have faith in the service the country school can ren- 
 der to rur'al life will get a sane and helpful phil- 
 osophy in this look at The Rural School from 
 Within. 
 
 Henry Jackson Waters, 
 
 President, Kansas State Agricultural College. 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 CHAPTER PAGE 
 
 I. Living up to Repxttation ii 
 
 II. Onward Christian Soldiers 19 
 
 III. In Loco Parentis 26 
 
 IV. Bossing One's Employer 38 
 
 V. Having a Part in the Gaue 4S<- 
 
 VI. Managing Girls 58 
 
 VII. Managing the School Board 68 
 
 VIII. The Community Meeting 80 
 
 IX. Repairing the School Building 85 
 
 X. A Rural Social Problem 94 
 
 XI. Managing Boys 104 
 
 XII. A Teacher's Responsibility as Seen by a Board 
 
 Member 125 
 
 XIII. Christmas Vacation 136 
 
 XIV. Rural Community Interest 148 
 
 XV. The Closing of School 174 
 
 XVI. A School Responsibility 185 
 
 XVII. Mistakes 189 
 
 XVIII. Music, Stories and Play 216 
 
 XIX. Training for Leisure 233 
 
 XX. Suggested Improvements 256 
 
 XXI. Our Teacher 282 
 
THE RURAL SCHOOL 
 FROM WITHIN 
 
 CHAPTER I 
 
 Living Up to Reputation 
 
 I FIND it impossible to read the " Legend of 
 Sleepy Hollow" without my mind's going back 
 twenty-five years to a sheltered nook known as Con- 
 stad's Crossing on one of the important tributaries 
 of the Kaw. In this neighborhood, fifteen miles 
 from a town, I taught my first school. The school- 
 house was located on the banks of the heavily wooded 
 stream, and established the center of a circular valley 
 which was bounded on the north, west, and south by 
 high hills, opening at the north and south for the 
 inflowing and outflowing of Big Indian Creek. 
 
 My qualifications were none too good, and as the 
 school enrolled from sixty to seventy-five pupils, and 
 as I was barely twenty years old, it was a matter of 
 some surprise at first that I had been given the posi- 
 tion. It dawned on me after it was too late to with- 
 draw that I had landed a job that no one else wanted ; 
 that I had been the only applicant, notwithstanding 
 the fact that teachers were plentiful. I later dis- 
 
 11 
 
12 THE RURAL SCHOOL FROM WITHIN 
 
 covered, or heard, that our good county superin- 
 tendent (over whose bones the mossy marble has 
 been standing for many years) -had intentionally 
 steered me that way with the fond hope that he 
 might give me " mine." This he did in payment for 
 the dog's life he had endured a few years previous 
 when he was trying to save for the good of America 
 an aggregation of Brom Boneses and Bud Meanses, 
 whom as he often said, he would have gathered under 
 his wings as a hen would her chickens — but they 
 would not. Yes, when too late, I found all this out. 
 A half mile from the school was my boarding 
 place. How vividly do I remember the Saturday 
 afternoon before the " First Monday in Septem- 
 ber " when I went to the home of Father and Mother 
 Rose to board ! The hills were then throwing their 
 shadows over and far beyond the house, the holly- 
 hocks were all abloom, and ever3^hing was quiet. 
 Neither of the old people rose to greet me, but from 
 their rockers in the vine-clad porch they smiled and 
 bade me a welcome that meant more than have all 
 the attentions of the uniformed attendants who in- 
 fest the modem hostelries and rush for my baggage. 
 I inquired for a drink, and was informed that unless 
 the spring had quit, I would have no diflficulty in 
 quenching my thirst. It was no journey down a 
 hill to the spring. Just beyond the kitchen door 
 stood the springhouse. And such a spring! The 
 
LIVING UP TO REPUTATION 13 
 
 volume of water was such that enough power might 
 have been generated from it to do all the grinding, 
 churning and washing on any farm in Kansas and 
 also furnish drink for thousands of cattle. For 
 weeks this great spring was sweetly singing to me as 
 I dropped off to sleep. 
 
 About five o'clock I went to the schoolhouse to 
 see that all was in readiness, and found there two 
 of the neighborhood women "sweeping out." The 
 house did not meet my expectations, but it was satis- 
 fying to feel that there were at least two people in 
 that community who were interested in education 
 and who had a community interest. I thought it 
 but proper that I should lend a hand, and was soon 
 busily engaged in scraping and digging at question- 
 able accretions to the floor. Between our working 
 and talking I was informed that the house had not 
 been really cleaned since last quarterly meeting, and 
 as to-morrow was quarterly meeting day, it was 
 thought best to give it a scrubbing. Then I knew 
 the ablutions were not in honor of the new teacher 
 nor of the cause which he was exped;ing to promote. 
 I learned later, and to my surprise, that all religious 
 denominations had free use of the schoolhouse, and, 
 excepting during vacation, the teacher was janitor 
 ex-oMcio. 
 
 I had read in books on teaching of how the new 
 teacher should make a careful survey of the premises, 
 
14 THE RURAL SCHOOL FROM WITHIN 
 
 noting deficiencies, etc., and I was not long in observ- 
 ing that there were neither crayon nor erasers, maps 
 nor globes, shutters nor curtains, and that one of 
 the two dilapidated outhouses had turned turtle. 
 The only provision for winter was a rick of four- 
 foot wood, eight feet high and about a hundred 
 feet long. As I turned my face to the hollyhocks, 
 I started up a little monologfue in which I paid my 
 respects to my county superintendent, who, I felt 
 quite sure, had done something to me. Father Rose 
 was yet rocking on the porch. He arose when I 
 entered, saying, " Supper is ready." 
 
 You who have had the good fortune to sit at 
 such a table, I congratulate. Everything was spot- 
 lessly clean. The colors, if not associated with so 
 many fond recollections, might not appeal to me ; but 
 even at this late day a feeling of love and goodness 
 sweeps over me whenever I behold blue plates, cups 
 and saucers, green milk pitchers and green salt-cellars. 
 Never in all those nine months was there food on the 
 table that did not meet my most hearty approval, and 
 I fancy myself somewhat of an epicurean. Never do 
 I see blue dishes but I have a vision of an experience 
 that marks my entrance into a life of responsibilities. 
 I sat at this table with these dear, kind people whose 
 every look was one of love and sympathy. The table 
 was loaded with everything I liked, and I at once for- 
 got quarterly meetings and foreboding woodpiles, 
 
LIVING UP TO REPUTATION 15 
 
 and mentally resolved that after a respectful silence 
 I'd do the right thing to that cooking. 
 
 In reverential attitude, I bowed my head, waiting 
 for a blessing which I felt was sure to fall from the 
 lips of my venerable host. I have never forgotten 
 that mistake. He pronounced no blessing, but when 
 he spoke, it was simply to say, " Brother, return 
 thanks." Once I was riding on the pilot of a large 
 locomotive and we ran into a dray wagon, and my 
 life was barely saved — once I broke through the ice 
 on the Missouri River and clung to the edge with 
 freezing hands till rescued — ^upon several occasions 
 I have met death head on; but never yet have I 
 experienced such a shock as the one I received at that 
 evening meal, when the words, " Brother, return 
 thanks," were pronounced. After the shock, I 
 gathered my few scattered wits together, and I 
 recalled fragments of my father's grace. These 
 fragments were ill put together. I knew it. It was 
 entirely superfluous for Mother Rose to cast a pity- 
 ing glance at her husband or to have that pitying 
 glance returned. 
 
 I discovered for the first time that I had assumed 
 certain responsibilities not mentioned in the contract. 
 I discovered that I had at once become a man; that 
 passive membership in a church was no longer to be 
 my religious status; that the written recommenda- 
 tions that I had got from friends, who felt I ought 
 
16 THE RURAL SCHOOL FROM WITHIN 
 
 to have a chance, had given me a reputation that 
 would stretch me to the breaking point to measure 
 up to. I almost wished that that meal might never 
 end, for, if it did, it would mean a repetition of the 
 experience the next time. 
 
 After supper I sought the sitting room and the 
 daily paper. Since they received mail but once a 
 week I soon realized that it was unreasonable to 
 expect a daily paper. The only reading matter in 
 sight, however, was a King James' Translation and 
 a Dr. Jayne's Prognostication of weather and pro- 
 mulgation of "eternal-life" remedies. I made in- 
 quiry for the weekly papers, and, imagine my sur- 
 prise, when I was told, " We take no papers. We 
 discovered years ago thatpapers tend tO' interfere with 
 one's religious enjoyment." Picture my dilemmia. 
 Twenty miles from home, no longer one of the boys, 
 no sweetheart within twenty miles, nor likely to be, 
 nothing to read but the Bible and Dr. Jayne's Alma- 
 nac, and visions of that county superintendent laugh- 
 ing and telling his wife of my predicament. How 
 the mills of the gods do grind ! 
 
 Picture me on the following beautiful Sunday 
 morning — I, who had been the problem of problems 
 for teachers and professors — running the gauntlet 
 when I made my way into the schoolhouse for Sun- 
 day School, which came before Quarterly Meeting. 
 If your grief is not too great, behold me secretly 
 
LIVING UP TO REPUTATION 17 
 
 praying, fervently too, that I should not be called 
 upon to lead in prayer. That morning for the first 
 time in my life I lost faith in the efficacy of prayer. 
 It was a poor prayer, it was my first in public — ^but 
 I was living up to a reputation that my friends had 
 given me. 
 
 Talk aboiot rural leadership! Those people led 
 me into more grief in twenty-four hours than I ever 
 supposed was in the whole world, and I was twenty 
 years old, and had been to college. I am not of a sus- 
 picious nature, nor did I need to be to guess who was 
 the most talked of young man in the Sunday School. 
 I was not sensitive, nor was it necessary that I should 
 be, to feel considerably cut up, to have half the 
 young men whose class I was given to teach, get up 
 and saunter out before I had half finished distorting 
 the Gospel that Paul preached to the Ephesians. 
 Before that quarterly service was over I had so com- 
 mitted myself to a policy of religious activity that 
 retreat would have been ruinous. 
 
 Having been brought up according to the strictest 
 of Presbyterian parents, and believing with all my 
 heart that " A Sabbath well spent brings a week of 
 content," I put in the afternoon attending church 
 service, and also the evening. The evening service 
 began at early candle light and lasted a long time. 
 
 You read in books of the encounters and experi- 
 ences of the young teacher. Read this please, believ- 
 2 
 
18 THE RURAL SCHOOL FROM WITHIN 
 
 ing. Some hardened old teacher may say what he 
 would have done; but, young teacher, what would 
 you do to-day, if you had tO' meet such conditions ? 
 I had been a very popular young man. I had lots and 
 lots of friends and no enemies, except a few old teach- 
 ers, and who was caring about them ? But out here I 
 was a stranger, entirely unknown to the young people. 
 Can you imagine my utter surprise when that 
 night on my way home, I heard my name ringing out 
 clealrly in a song improvised by a bunch of the boys ? 
 They sang it long and loud — and I still think, 
 abominably — and the minister who walked home 
 with me laughed at my discomfiture and shame. 
 Can you imagine the feelings that passed through 
 my mind after I had laid me down to sleep, and 
 prayed the Lord my soul to keep? Do you believe 
 me when I say that I hoped I might die before I 
 waked? Do you believe that one can have such 
 experiences without ever thereafter sympathizing 
 with young teachers and wishing that he might make 
 their burdens less heavy and their pathways more 
 smooth ? 
 
CHAPTER II 
 
 Onward Christian Soldiers 
 
 None but the initiated can appreciate what the 
 first day of school in the country means. 
 
 The teacher in a city school knows nothing about 
 it The city teacher goes before her pupils with a 
 course of study outlining in detail the work of the 
 day. She has a list of all the pupils and the char- 
 acteristics of each. Floors have been thoroughly 
 cleaned; blackboards, erasers, maps and charts have 
 the appearance of never having been used ; and the 
 teacher herself, after a vacation in the Rockies, 
 Ozarks, or Catskills, bears a most markedly rejuve- 
 nated appearance. She has a ready-made program 
 and when the hour for beginning arrives, she has a 
 janitor to press the button. Thus does her school 
 open, and she experiences a day so uneventful that 
 she congratulates herself with accomplishing so much 
 so soon, failing to recognize the fact that during 
 those summer months when vacation days were on, 
 superintendents and principals were carefully work- 
 ing out the problems which she never sees and prob- 
 ably never knows exist. 
 
 To a limited degree, there is no greater oppor- 
 tunity for development than that which knocks the 
 
 19 
 
20 THE RUEAL SCHOOL PROM WITHIN 
 
 first day upon the country schoolhouse door where 
 the teacher is teaching her first school. To her is 
 granted unlimited sway. It is a survive or perish 
 proposition — a survival of the fittest, and consider- 
 ing the voyage through eddies and whirlpools, down 
 rapids and over cataracts, yesterday amid baffling 
 calms, to-day in areas of high barometric pressures, 
 and to-morrow in hurricanes and cloudbursts, it is 
 a marvel that so many live till the day when it may 
 be said to them, " Well done, thou good and faithful, 
 accept a position in the village school. You have 
 been faithful over many things, you are now made 
 ruler over few." The invitation is accepted, and she 
 who has dared to glean in the fields of Boaz and he 
 who has toiled in the vineyard are made members 
 of that royal throng who sing, " My Country, 'Tis 
 of Thee," accompanied by a Steinway Grand, or a 
 Victor, in a hall where " licking and learning " part 
 ways, never more to meet till the real life problems 
 are met. 
 
 I have never made pretensions to singing ability, 
 but I opened my first school, after reading selections 
 from Proverbs, by singing " Onward Christian 
 Soldiers," while I held by the hand one Miss Kansas 
 Denman, who had persisted in talking while her 
 teacher was reading, " The tongue of the wise useth 
 knowledge aright, but the mouth of fools poureth 
 out foolishness." Kansas was a diminutive mortal 
 
ONWARD CHRISTIAN SOLDIERS 21 
 
 from a physical standpoint, but a giantess in dis- 
 obedience. 
 
 Miss Kansas was little, but she was old. One 
 reason for mentioning her age second is, that, as a 
 writer, I believe in mentioning facts in their chrono- 
 logical order. I knew she was little before I knew 
 she was old. I did not know she was seventeen till 
 I had taken the census. I did not know till after 
 school that day that she was the sweetheart of the 
 biggest young man on Indian Creek. Of course, her 
 father was a member of my board. 
 
 When I was a very small boy I determined to 
 teach school. It was always my intention to teach 
 but one term, and during that one term, I intended 
 to see that the girls enjoyed no special privileges. 
 They would get a square deal but they need not ex- 
 pect any better treatment than was given the boys. 
 I grew up with that resolve, and it was my first 
 experience in discipline to lead Miss Kansas to the 
 front. I had not told her to desist from talking, but 
 I had stopped reading and looked at her. She only 
 looked and went on with her pouring out, so I im- 
 mediately proceeded to do a little retrieving. And 
 this is how Kansas came to be in hand while her 
 teacher sang " Onward Christian Soldiers, marching 
 as to war." I have read many, miany books on dis- 
 cipline. I have read much on moral suasion, and 
 know all about the Law of Natural Consequences, 
 
22 THE RURAL SCHOOL FROM WITHIN 
 
 and that hasty action is unwise; but I have never 
 failed to visit summary punishment if pupils per- 
 sisted in evil after knowing I was conscious of their 
 misconduct and disapproved of it. 
 
 My first day's enrollment was fifty-four. This 
 was in the days prior to text-book uniformity. We 
 had the greatest variety of books that I had seen up 
 to that time. It was greater the next day, and con- 
 tinued to increase until the enrollment was complete, 
 about the middle of December. I am not at all cer- 
 tain that the text-book condition was a really bad 
 one. It did give variety. Some of the readers were 
 new to me, and almost interesting. The airithmetics 
 were good. The grammars were good. The his- 
 tories were poor, so were the geographies. The first 
 two subjects were my favorite studies. The last two 
 were my poorest ones. I have always noticed that 
 teachers are most likely to condemn texts in subjects 
 about which they know nothing, or which they dis- 
 like. I was no exception. We had only two good 
 books in the school, arithmetic and grammar. 
 
 As I look back upon my work in that school, I 
 see many, many vital mistakes that I made, my 
 first one being an attempt to teach school. I had 
 made no particular preparation for the work. I had 
 gone into it with the thought of teaching one term, 
 and Methods of Study or the Art of Teaching had 
 not been any definite part of my school work. In 
 
ONWARD CHRISTIAN SOLDIERS 23 
 
 my schoolboy days, how to avoid difficult tasks and 
 harass our natural enemy, the teacher, were our 
 majors. In a way such a problem may be a prepara- 
 tion for teaching. It has this in its favor : the teacher 
 with such an experience always knows about what to 
 expect on the other side of the fence, and he does 
 not need a periscope to see it. To no other person 
 do the straws so accurately denote " From whence 
 comes the wind." 
 
 As I looked over that bunch of boys with their 
 pennants flying, my heart went out to them. It was 
 only duty that restrained and kept me from enlist- 
 ing with the enemy, against any power that existed 
 for the purpose of government. They were my 
 friends, although, in their ignorance, they thought 
 they were enemies. Those girls, I see them to this 
 day ! They were not very bad. They never were, 
 but I would that they had been bad ! There was that 
 lukewarmness, that disposition to look with approval 
 upon boys' wrongdoings, that is so damaging to 
 discipline and yet leaves nothing sufficiently tangible 
 to implicate the real instigators of most wrongdoing. 
 
 I have already stated that I made many mis- 
 takes, but I did some things quite well. I had made 
 some preparation for my first day's work. I had a 
 tentative program. I got the names and ages and 
 classified the school without assuming any obligation 
 from the board or predecessor. I even went so far 
 
24 THE RURAL SCHOOL FROM WITHIN 
 
 as to carry a broorri from home in order that I might 
 present as good an appearance to the children as the 
 Mothers in Israel had presented, by my assistance, 
 on the preceding day. 
 
 Modem educators are agreed that a real teacher 
 must have an aptitude for vicariousness. Without 
 comment, I submit for your consideration: The 
 teacher who has an aptitude for the vicariousness re- 
 quired in case cited is abundantly supplied with 
 aptitude. 
 
 I have said twice that I made mistakes. What 
 some of those mistakes were I'll tell in a later 
 chapter. One mistake that I believe I made the first 
 day was in attempting too much. I realized that I 
 had a big job. I knew that there were an even 
 hundred of my old associates who were wondering 
 every minute of that day "how I was making it," 
 and I was determined that I would be aboard ship 
 in case she went to the bottom and that I would 
 never go back home if I failed to handle the job. 
 Maybe that determination was a mistake. In years 
 since, when I have seen teachers, not in rural schools 
 but in town schools, working and giving their very 
 lives for an apparently unsympathetic, unappreciative 
 public, I have wondered if it would not be better 
 viking-like to head the death bark for the open sea, 
 with none aboard to effect her return, or Samson 
 
ONWARD CHRISTIAN SOLDIERS 25 
 
 like, die with the Philistines, rather than to pursue 
 a forlorn hope. 
 
 I well remember as a child how impatiently I 
 often waited for four o'clock. It nearly always 
 seemed a long, long time. This four o'clock was 
 longer in coming than any previous one, but it came, 
 and so did five o'clock before the room was in readi- 
 ness for another day. I have done every kind of 
 work about a farm. I have bound wheat, and 
 stacked it; I have cut corn and husked com, and 
 scooped it ten feet high into a crib; I have worked 
 in every position around a threshing machine, and 
 have followed a team ten hours a day in grading on 
 public works, but I never was quite so tired as at 
 the close of my first day's school. For $1.87^^ 
 and board myself! 
 
 Along with my other tastes I am particularly 
 fond of good pictures. Among popular favorites 
 there is one picture that is classed as a masterpiece : 
 End of Day, by Adan, but this picture I absolutely 
 refuse to like. For my readers who do not know this 
 picture, I give this brief description: Man going 
 home from work, carrying hoe and rake on his 
 shoulders. A good companion picture for that one 
 could have been made from me and my broom. I've 
 always been thankful Adan did not see me first. 
 
CHAPTER III 
 
 In Loco Parentis 
 
 How many times have we heard persons say, 
 " Had I my life to live over again!" 
 
 If I had my life to live over again, and expected 
 to be a teacher, I would make a thorough prepara- 
 tion for my work. I am certain I would not know- 
 ingly hunt up a rural school and occupy the place 
 intended for a teacher, and draw money from its 
 treasury to educate myself sufficiently to help me 
 land a position in a city school or mayhap, a college. 
 I have been a high school principal and city super- 
 intendent, and without hope of favor or fear of con- 
 demnation, I make the assertion that the teachers 
 who are doing the most for this country, who work 
 the hardest and get the least remuneration from a 
 money consideration aire the rural teachers. No 
 other position in the school system of America re- 
 quires more skill and efficiency. 
 
 There is no teacher that should receive higher 
 pay than a teacher who can take a rural school and 
 ably meet its requirements. Yet the rural teacher 
 is not meeting with the success that her efforts merit. 
 Her efforts are short on securing results for many 
 reasons. Lack of preparation is one of the greatest. 
 26 
 
IN LOCO PARENTIS 27 
 
 No enterprise suffers for lack of labor, provided 
 the labor requirements are low. There is always 
 a large class of people who must market their wheat 
 without waiting for it to go through the sweat. 
 There is always a class of teachers who would rather 
 sell their services for $40 or $50 per month than to 
 go through the sweat and sell for $200 per month. 
 The rural school always has been the market for this 
 cheap labor. Why men who willingly spend large 
 sums on crop improvement and animal improve- 
 ment, often paying a fabulous price for a choice 
 brood animal, are so short-sighted as not to see that 
 their children, for whom they are doing so much, 
 need better intellectual advantages, is one of the 
 wonders of our age. 
 
 My boyhood home was nine miles from the 
 cotmty seat, and two miles from a town of 400 in- 
 habitants. It would have been better for our com- 
 munity in a moral and social sense if the town had 
 been one hundred and ninety-eight miles farther 
 away. A town of that size is sufficiently large to get 
 enough of the cheap and tinseled to keep out all 
 worthy enterprises. In our boasted age of oratory 
 and music, and art, our village offered nothing ex- 
 cept a market and a loafing place fbr boys. As a 
 social centre, it was destructive to the best interests 
 of its surrounding communities. 
 
 A town of that size can be without the 
 
28 THE RURAL SCHOOL FROM WITHIN 
 
 good qualities of a city or of the rural community. 
 It often leads a precarious existence, living entirely 
 upon its wits and the shortcomings of its rural 
 neighbors. Its churches were a little too good to 
 warrant our having our own country church or of 
 going nine miles to the larger and better town. The 
 schools were the same ; they were neither rural nor 
 city ; they had neither an urban nor a rural interest, 
 and a boy who got his education there was unfitted 
 for the farm and misfitted for the city. This was a 
 wrong condition and one which the small town of 
 to-day is fast solving. The small towns of to-day are 
 recognizing that their interests, social, educational, 
 and economic are rural, and are rapidly adjusting 
 their institutions to meet changing ideals. But it is 
 entirely possible for them to have very different 
 schools from those they now have, and not have 
 better schools. Their social advantages can easily 
 be different without being better. Small towns and 
 rural communities constitute a type that has special 
 interests and for the perpetuation of those interests, 
 their schools, clubs, and churches should exist. 
 
 Constad's Crossing, as stated, was fifteen miles 
 from town and was distinctively rural. Its school 
 was a social centre. However, the social activity was 
 limlited to religious worship, singing schools, liter- 
 ary society, spelling schools and an occasional party. 
 The first, religious worship, took precedence over 
 
m LOCO PARENTIS 29 
 
 all the others. Every denomination that had the fol- 
 lowing of one or more families took its turn. Some- 
 times when each had had its turn, some of the 
 younger enthusiasts, for social reason rather than 
 through religioiis zeal, would put on a two or three 
 weeks' prayer and song service. Taking it the year 
 through they had a very good time. In the winter 
 when the crops were all garnered, society was sure 
 to be somewhat busy. 
 
 These, however, were conditions as yet unfa- 
 miliar to me. How fortunate is the teacher who, 
 during the hard trials of the day, can look forward 
 to a home-like boarding place where she may go 
 when the day is ended, and find all pleasant and 
 happy, a home with a family which has the respect 
 of the community, a home where all the gossip, 
 silly and malicious, is not carried and promulgated, 
 a home with parents who have led noble lives, and 
 have sent into the world noble sons and daughters. 
 Such a boarding place was mine. True, Father and 
 Mother Rose had begun by laying on me almost 
 insupportable burdens, but so soon, I was beginning 
 to see in their lives the peace and comfort that 
 comes from the forgetting of self and living for 
 others. It was in this home where books were scarce 
 and where efficiency methods in teaching, educative 
 processes, psychology and other fundamentals were 
 unheard of, that I found that the fiirst characteristic 
 
30 THE RURAL SCHOOL FROM WITHIN 
 
 of a teacher is love for his fellowmen. It was 
 here that I was soon to learn the blessedness of giv- 
 ing; it was here I acquired a passionate desire to 
 teach — ^to do more for the boys and girls committed 
 to my care, but I shall not say more at this time of 
 what this home did for me. 
 
 As I approached that home with my dinner basket 
 filled with books and the broom over a shoulder, I 
 began to think of the welcome that would be ex- 
 tended me, of the sympathy and encouragement that 
 would be offered. 
 
 Father Rose is sleeping in his big chair, Mother 
 Rose must be in the kitchen. I go on through, put 
 down my basket, thank her for the broom, take up 
 the water pail and bring it ' full from the spring. 
 Mother Rose looks so sweet when she says, " It 
 makes me feel like Dick was home to have you 
 around." 
 
 I was looking forward to an evening at home 
 with my books. 
 
 The first day, notwithstanding the fact that I had 
 made some preparation, was far from satisfying to 
 me, and I felt it must have been somewhat disap- 
 pointing to my pupils. I discovered soon after reach- 
 ing home, that the evening service was to be attended 
 a,s a mjatter of course, and while I felt the need of 
 staying at home, I had not the temerity to make the 
 suggestion. 
 
IN LOCO PARENTIS 31 
 
 At the supper table our conversation took a 
 peculiar turn. First, I was asked concerning certain 
 children. Were they at school ? Did they have books ? 
 How were they dressed? This last question was 
 one upon which I could not give very decided in- 
 formation. In fact, I was not absolutely certain in 
 all cases about the first two. There were those 
 among my pupils about whom I cotdd have told all 
 these things, but I was being asked about the no- 
 bodies — ^the Jones girls and the Longley boys and the 
 Burns children and I did not know whether they 
 were in or not. I thought so. It seemed that I had 
 written their names, but that was as far as I could 
 go. I knew the Marshalls and the Gordons and the 
 Mathews were there, but I did not know for sure 
 about any regarding whom they inquired. I did not 
 mierely imagine that Mother Rose was disappointed ; 
 it was too evident. 
 
 Upon inquiry as to whether any of these families 
 were related to her, she said they were not. She 
 told me that the Jones children, — there were five of 
 them, the oldest, fourteen, and the youngest, five, — 
 had lost their mother a few weeks before, and that 
 their father was very poor and hardly able to work. 
 He had expected to start them all to school. Mother 
 Rose was afraid Rachel, the oldest one, would have 
 a hard time keeping her house work done and keep- 
 ing her two young brothers and sisters in school. 
 
32 THE RURAL SCHOOL FROM WITHIN 
 
 The Longley boys were from a new family that 
 had just moved into the neighborhood. They, too, 
 were poor people, and Father Rose had let the father 
 have money to buy books for the boys. 
 
 The Burns children were worst of all. They 
 made their hom,e with a good-for-nothing uncle who 
 lived back in the woods in a log cabin. His main 
 asset consisted of hounds, and his principal business 
 was coon hunting, trapping and boozing. They 
 spoke very guardedly about this last fault, saying 
 that it was like the first two, a weakness, and they 
 doubted if he could help it. They hoped he would 
 attend the meetings that were to be started in a few 
 weeks by a noted evangelist and said he would be a 
 good citizen if he could be made over and would 
 kill his hounds and quit drinking. 
 
 This meeting to-night was not a regular service? 
 
 No, it was hardly a regular service. It was a 
 preparatory service, preparing for the revival which 
 they would soon start. 
 
 Our supper was over, and I had not been asked 
 how I liked my school, nor how many pupils I had 
 enrolled, nor how I had succeeded without a previous 
 report in organizing the school. I had just been 
 asked about the Joneses, Longleys and Bumses. 
 
 In a former chapter was mentioned an aptitude 
 for vicariousness as being one of the characteristics 
 which every teacher should possess. This same 
 
IN LOCO PARENTIS 33 
 
 authority, George Herbert Palmer, gives as a 
 second characteristic, " A wilHngness to be for- 
 gotten/' With becoming modesty I add as a third 
 " A willingness to be unnoticed," for truly, he that 
 shall find his life, first must lose it. 
 
 As I walked to church that evening my thoughts 
 had taken a peculiar turn. Three hours before, as 
 I came home from school they were centred wholly 
 and absolutely upon one thing, and I believe I am 
 using the word in moderation, " Myself." The 
 thoughts were not most worthy ones. They were 
 not upon how well or how poorly I had done my 
 work, not what an abundance of room I had 
 for improvement, but were thoughts of commis- 
 eration, and whfether or not I had made a favorable 
 impression. 
 
 Now, I was thinking of those poor children — 
 the Joneses, Longleys and Bumses, and wondering if 
 I might be able to help them. I had shied away 
 from one white-haired, hatchet- faced, dirty little 
 boy, who tried to stand too close to me. He 
 had put his little hand on my arm, and I remem- 
 bered now that I had laid it off. As I thought about 
 it, it seemed to me his name was Jones. Then the 
 words of Mother Rose came hovering about me, 
 " lost their mother a few weeks before, father poor 
 and hardly able to work, five of them and the 
 youngest only five years old." This little white- 
 3 
 
34 THE RURAL SCHOOL FROM WITHIN 
 
 haired boy was but little more than five years old. 
 He was not a Marshall, nor a Gordon nor a 
 Mathews. The Marshalls and Gordons were all 
 bright looking, clean and well dressed. 
 
 In the brief course in pedagogy, I had mastered 
 the words " in loco parentis." My knowledge of 
 that phrase had led me to believe that the teacher 
 has exactly the same authority over the child as the 
 parent ; that in applying the law to a case of corporal 
 punishment, the status of the teacher is the same as 
 that of the parent; and that he is amenable to the 
 law for cruel and unusual punishment just as much, 
 but no more, than the parent. Now the words " in 
 loco parentis " came to me, but they came in a new 
 dress and with an entirely different significance. 
 Here were as many as ten children from poor homes, 
 who had probably been in my school that day. They 
 had come long distances ; they had made their prepa- 
 ration at much" sacrifice. In one case the father had 
 borrowed money to buy books and had gone fifteen 
 miles for them. They had come, some of them, to a 
 school for the first time, and others were strangers 
 in this particular school. What attention had they 
 received from me? Had I given them a kind word, a 
 pleasant look, or a friendly pat ? Had I given that 
 whole school individually or collectively anything 
 that meant anything to them or ever would ? 
 
 As I reached the schoolhouse I saw that the 
 
IN LOCO PARENTIS 35 
 
 people were gathering. In fact, the hitch racks that 
 ran the full length of the two sides of the school 
 yard were crowded with teams, hitched to all sorts 
 of conveyances; buggies with tops, carryalls and 
 wagons with spring seats, and wagons with seat 
 boards. This, remember, was twenty-five years ago. 
 There were no automobiles in that aggregation. 
 Could you find such an array of vehicles at any 
 gathering in the Middle West to-day? I leave that 
 question to you, my reader. Attention ! so fast does 
 time fly, that we must once in awhile pause and 
 think, and then we must stand aghast. In 1901, in 
 a thriving town in the Middle West, I was superin- 
 tendent of the schools. My wife, who was always 
 interested in children, sent me a message asking if I 
 would please dismiss the schools and let the children 
 go down town, that there was an automobile down 
 there. It is needless to say that her wishes were 
 granted, and not only did the children go down to 
 see the automobile, but the teachers all went, and 
 the superintendent went along, and it may not be 
 aside the point to say that he met his wife there 
 and she had her little boy there, and her neighbors 
 were there and they had their little boys and little 
 girls there, also, to see the automobile. 
 
 Did you notice that I said my wife sent me a 
 message. I did not say that she " called me up." 
 No, there was not a 'phone in the town. She sent 
 
36 THE RURAL SCHOOL FROM WITHIN 
 
 the message. Let me tell you something about that 
 tQiwn. The school census is little, if any, more to- 
 day than in 1901, but it has a new high school 
 building costing over $30,000. It has finely equipped 
 laboratories. It has as good a heating, ventilating 
 equipment as there is in America. It has doubled, 
 aye, trebled its high school teaching force. 
 
 What about Constad's Crossing? Well, there 
 are no wagons with the high backed spring seats, 
 nor with seat boards either. There are a few back 
 numbers who ride in carryalls and top buggies, but 
 mostly the conveyances are automobiles. Indian 
 Creek is still flowing south. The schoolhouse is 
 still there. The wood pile is just as natural as 
 though it had never been burned. The school is not 
 much better graded. They have but one teacher, 
 but sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof. 
 
 Before I went into this byway, running off after 
 carnal things, I was on my way to church. I was 
 having misgivings as to my shortcomings, and in- 
 stead of turning in, I walked on past, and as I fol- 
 lowed the road that led off into the woods, I could 
 hear them singing " Down at the Cross where I first 
 saw the light. Glory to His Name." This, at this 
 particular time, had no message to me. I had a 
 job which bid fair to become my cross, and the more 
 I saw of that job, the more t felt my inability, my 
 unworthiness. Here was a neighborhood of good 
 
m LOCO PARENTIS 37 
 
 people. There were three distinct lines of activity 
 — agriculture, church and school. It was a rich 
 farming community. People were generally pros- 
 perous. It was from a moral point of view equal to 
 the place where I had lived. Religiously, it was dif- 
 ferent from that to which I was accustomed. I did 
 not approve of all that they did, and they far from 
 approved of my method of religious attack. 
 
 I finally came to a bridge crossing our already 
 familiar stream, and there I seriously planned my 
 work for the mprrow. My planning involved no 
 improvements on discipline. Order in methods of 
 work is mine by inheritance. I want pupils to do 
 right, and when they do not, we just stop and tighten 
 up and start again. I learned early in my farm life 
 that a stitch in time is always advisable. I planned 
 my work so that every pupil would be sure to get 
 some attention every day. Even though it were but 
 a question, a word, some forrri of recognition would 
 be accorded the poorest as well as the richest, the 
 slowest as well as the quickest. I would, at the very 
 earliest moment, find out the children who most 
 needed my care and I would be "in loco parentis " 
 in so far as I was able. I walked home that night 
 believing I was equal to the emergency. I resolved 
 that the school should no longer hold third place in 
 that community, if I could prevent it, and that if it 
 did hold but third place it would be worthy of it. 
 
CHAPTER IV 
 
 Bossing One's Employer 
 
 Much has been written by educators on the im- 
 portance of a good beginning, doing well the work 
 of the first day. It is well to do the first day's work 
 well. It is proper and good business to come before 
 your school the first morning with a full knowledge 
 of your work, but the second day is the day of days. 
 The first day the teacher is new' and the pupils are 
 slow to make advances toward unruly behavior till 
 they know their ground. Besides, on the first day, 
 the pupils themselves are an unorganized group. By 
 the second day there is a tendency, if ever there is 
 one, or try out the new teacher. This is particularly 
 true in case the teacher is a beginner without 
 reputation. 
 
 Oh, the enthusiasm of youth! Could I go 
 through that experience again ! To youth all things 
 are possible. Youth is fearless, vigorous, precipi- 
 tate. It is in youth that we would control not only 
 those who would direct us but the laws of the uni- 
 verse as well. 
 
 On the second morning I was at school at eight 
 o'clock, and from that day to my last work in the 
 public schools, I have missed that time for arriving 
 at my post of duty but by a very few minutes. 
 38 
 
BOSSING ONE'S EMPLOYER 39 
 
 The house that I had left thoroughly swept the 
 evening before was in a worse condition than it was 
 before I had swept it. The floor was strewn with 
 bits of paper, whittlings and tobacco. The song I 
 had heard the night before had come rushing into 
 my mind — " Down at the Cross, where I first found 
 the light. Glory to His name ! " To what was this 
 condition due? Why would a people who were ap- 
 parently good, earnest. Christian people, permit the 
 building to which their children were to go for the 
 greater part of the year, to be treated in such a way 
 as to make it so insanitary? Why this condition? 
 Was it the fault of my predecessors? Had they 
 suffered these conditions to exist? If so, why? 
 Had they borne it all patiently, hoping to curry 
 favor, or had they tried to improve conditions and 
 failed? Three teachers last year! Well, if they 
 had hoped to curry favor by enduring such indig- 
 nities, they had hoped in vain, for the popular ver- 
 dict was, " They failed." 
 
 I had heard what teachers had done with school 
 boards, and I knew it could be done again, and be- 
 sides, the law was all on my side. I would go to 
 that board and demand that the schoolroom be put 
 in a sanitary condition, and state that school would 
 not be called till my demands were complied with. 
 I knew my rights and I would stand for them. 
 
 To the yotmg teacher I will say the following: 
 
40 THE RURAL SCHOOL FROM WITHIN 
 
 Look with suspicion upon the teacher who tells you 
 how he bosses the school board. He is either a liar 
 or a one-termer, and the probabilities are that he is 
 both. This is no more true of the teacher than of 
 the preacher, the dry goods clerk or the bank clerk. 
 Underlings are found boasting in the street corners 
 and other public places of how they have laid it down 
 to the boss, and of how the boss came beautifully to 
 earth, most graciously begged forgiveness, thanked 
 them for their suggestions, and was pleasant and 
 deferential ever afterwards. 
 
 One finds these independent, dictatorial fellows 
 in every walk of life pretending to lead railroad 
 superintendents, college presidents and chancellors 
 dogs' lives, and we are made to wonder why these 
 gentlemen do not indicate their subjection by more 
 distressed and cringing spirits. I repeat it, these 
 men who claim they boss their superiors are liars or 
 one-termers and probably both. I would not use 
 such strong terms in my condemnation of the people 
 if I thought the ends I seek were not justified by the 
 means. The end I seek in this particular case is to 
 convince the young people (all others know from 
 experience or otherwise) of the foolishness of such 
 a course, and its thorough lack of the desired re- 
 sults. The teacher who attempts to run a school 
 without cooperation of the board is too foolish to 
 deserve success. The minister who attempts to 
 
BOSSING ONE'S EMPLOYER 41 
 
 " drive " his church board meets with but one result 
 and that is failure. And the employee who will not 
 work with his superior, be he bank president, college 
 president, or railroad president, will be hunting a 
 job, while the others stay and " live to fight another 
 day." Even Uncle Sam, the dearest of men, expects 
 subordination and faithful service from the lowest 
 paid postmaster to the president, and he is seldom 
 mistaken in his men. Many a young man has lost 
 his position while " contending for his rights." The 
 fact must never be lost sight of that every question 
 may have two sides, and the employee is seldom in 
 a position to see the other side. 
 
 Closing the schoolhouse door, I made straight for 
 the home of my nearest board member. As I walked, 
 I thought once more of home, and for the first time, 
 wished that I might have my father to advise me. 
 I then began to assemble some of his advice that I 
 never had made use of, and that was, therefore, as 
 good as new. First, he was always an advocate 
 of moderation, and his favorite proverb was, " He 
 that is slow to anger is better than the mighty ; and 
 he that ruleth his spirit, than he that taketh a city." 
 He had homelier sayings and two of them came into 
 my mind as I went to boss my board. " Never try 
 to lift till you can get your feet firmly on the ground." 
 " In one respect, and possibly two or three, men 
 are like hogs; when you drive them, do it without 
 
42 THE RURAL SCHOOL FROM WITHIN 
 
 their knowledge or you won't get far; just drift 
 them." 
 
 I arrived at the home of William Constad in a 
 few minutes. He was the member of the board. He 
 was the one who had had most to do in employing me. 
 He was a pleasant, quiet man of few words, but was 
 a power in his community. He had three children in 
 school, two daughters and one son. The daughters 
 were eighteen and twenty years of age and the son 
 was fifteen. He laughed and said, " You are sure 
 starting in early." 
 
 At first I thought he was speaking of the time of 
 day, but he went on to say, " I was mighty glad to 
 hear how you took care of little Kansas yesterday. 
 You sure did get the right one, and you did it early, 
 too. You know my son Bill goes with Kansas, but 
 it don't make any difference, and it wouldn't make 
 any difference if it did. That girl's cost this district 
 enough to educate a dozen boys and girls clear 
 through college. She's mighty popular with the 
 boys, and a boy never makes a bad move but what 
 that girl's got a smile by way of reward. She en- 
 courages everything that's ornery, and she sympa- 
 thizes with the culprit when he is caught." 
 
 After thanking him for his encouraging remarks, 
 and assuring him that it was not my intention to 
 attempt lifting a very big load till I got my feet 
 firmly on the ground, I bade him good morning. He 
 
BOSSING ONE'S EMPLOYER 43 
 
 extended his hand to me and I shook it, but he held 
 my hand instead of shaking it, and he said, " I do 
 hope we can have a good school this year. I'm 
 mighty glad you came over. There's one criticism I 
 feel like making on nearly all the teachers we've ever 
 had. They never come around except when they 
 want their pay or a holiday. I wish you could call 
 on the other members soon, and let's get started in 
 right. These are mlighty fine people in this com- 
 munity. They are somewhat longer on church than 
 I am, but that's no failing. We never lock no doors 
 out here, and the poor never suffer if their wants are 
 found out." 
 
 Before I got loose my hand his eldest daughter 
 came out on her way to school. She came up and 
 was soon bossing the board in my most approved 
 fashion : She said, " Pa, do you know there is no 
 chalk at the school ? " Pa said he hadn't thought 
 chalk in months. " Do you know. Pa, there is no 
 broom?" " No," (Pa had not thought brooms for 
 a long, long time). " How did you get along yes- 
 terday without these things ? " I explained that I 
 had borrowed for the emergency. 
 
 " Well," he explained, "the board lives so far 
 apart that it seldom ever gets together. Do you 
 know we have not had a board meeting since the 
 annual meeting last April? We talked that day 
 about several things that ought to be done. We 
 
44 THE RURAL SCHOOL FROM WITHIN 
 
 hired Graham to put in the wood, but that's as far 
 as we really got." 
 
 This was my opportunity to do some drifting. 
 I inquired if it would meet his wishes to have me see 
 the other members and suggest a " get-together," 
 and if he would object to my meeting with them. 
 He drifted fine. He said any date the other two 
 wanted would suit him, and he thought my presence 
 would be acceptable to all. 
 
 I taught school the second day in a room not to 
 my liking, but I had grown in my own esteem. I 
 had accepted a bad situation, and had mastered my- 
 self sufficiently to make a somewhat favorable im- 
 pression upon the man whose influence I must have 
 if I wished to do any good for that community. I 
 was in a fair way to have a meeting of the board 
 and for that meeting I had determined to make suit- 
 able preparations. 
 
CHAPTER V 
 
 Having a Part in the Game 
 
 When a boy, I was very fond of Dickens. As 
 a man, I am fond of Dickens. Among educators, 
 Dickens, in my estimation, easily holds first place. 
 He was England's greatest educational reformer. 
 His views were not given to the world under high 
 sounding titles, which are often used to enhance the 
 selling of a book rather than to enlighten the pur- 
 chasers upon its contents. He never wrote a book 
 entitled "Child Study"; but he taught indirectly, 
 through his novels, millions of people ; and'he taught 
 more effectively of the rights of children and of the 
 training of children than has any other educator of 
 modern times. 
 
 In his several novels, he deals with over twenty 
 schools, each with a definite purpose. He discovered 
 or invented a greater number of probable characters 
 than all other English writers combined. He has a 
 character for every man and one must be an expert 
 to avoid seeing himself in the great looking-glasses of 
 literature made and patented by Charles Dickens. 
 
 In his Martin Chuzzlewit there is a character, 
 Mark Tapley. It has long been my opinion that the 
 young man who can read Martin Chuzzlewit and can 
 
 45 
 
46 THE RURAL SCHOOL FROM WITHIN 
 
 then emulate Mark Tapley has a reasonable success 
 assured. 
 
 Mark Tapley is looking for trouble — trouble so 
 great that he cannot overcome it. He wants the ex- 
 perience. He wants his manhood tested. When he 
 is cheated and defrauded out of a large part of his 
 fortune he is encouraged. That is some trouble, but 
 not great enough to lay him low. That might dis- 
 courage a weak man, or even an average man, but 
 he claims to be more than an average man. The 
 ordinary man gives up to just ordinary troubles, 
 but he is more than an ordinary man, and it 
 requires more than a financial reverse to put him 
 down. He suffers other reverses, becomes sick and 
 almost penniless thousands of miles from home, 
 but Dickens makes him stand a man in this world of 
 discouraging troubles. He makes him say after all 
 has been laid on him and it would seem that he 
 would break and be crushed under it all, " I'm a man. 
 I could stand more than this. An ordinary man 
 might get discouraged and give up, but not I. I am 
 more than an ordinary man." 
 
 What an encouragement such an example must 
 be to the young man starting in life and meeting 
 with reverses! What a blessing to the world it 
 would be if all men were possessed of such optimism, 
 of such appreciation of their true worth ! 
 
 The sordid, the melancholy and the morose, who 
 
HAVING A PART IN THE GAME 47 
 
 nurse their troubles and their griefs, and finally, 
 rather than suffer " the slings and arrows of out- 
 rageous fortune, would take arms against a sea of 
 troubles and end them," are not the Mark Tapleys 
 who feel it a privilege and a pleasure to bear " the 
 heartaches and the thousand natural shocks that 
 flesh is heir to," and reply with head thrown back, 
 " I am more than an ordinary man." They are the 
 criminal, the suicide, the maniac, and the world's 
 failures. 
 
 In my second day of school, seated in some 
 indefinite place in my schoolroom, was MARK 
 TAPLEY, and he had a habit of speaking right out 
 and saying, " You had better give up. That's ordi- 
 nary trouble and you are but an ordinary man. Give 
 up. The ordinary teacher can't handle this job. It's 
 too big for him, so you had better quit." Every- 
 thing I did seemed wrong. The entire pupil atti- 
 tude was bad. It was antagonistic. By and by 
 Mark Tapley got on my nerves and I threw him off, 
 and I stood among those children with the Dickens 
 inspiration, " I am a man, and I am more than an 
 ordinary man. This job is not too big for me. It 
 is not big enough." When I assumed this attitude 
 I became a man. I succumbed to the mental sugges- 
 tion, and at once the school fell into the attitude that 
 all groups of individuals fall into when they recog- 
 nize that the leader has confidence in himself. 
 
48 THE RURAL SCHOOL FROM WITHIN 
 
 I went about my work, earnestly trying to do 
 all that was possible for me to do. I had not learned 
 the art of occasioning mental activity, but in an in- 
 definite, hazy manner, I attempted to get everyone 
 to work. My desk was in the front of the room, 
 but I, myself, was seldom there, I had to be there 
 while hearing the smaller children recite, but I ar- 
 ranged " busy " work for the older pupils for those 
 times. I saw to it that there were studies to be 
 worked on while the primary classes were reciting. 
 
 I have read extensively on the making of a pro- 
 gram. Authorities seem to be agreed that the 
 hardest subject should be given at a time when the 
 pupil's efficiency is greatest. I did not believe that 
 then, and I am not convinced yet that that is the 
 proper way to arrange a program for a large rural 
 school. My plan was to put the studies that I liked 
 best just before noon, and following recess, in the 
 afternoon. 
 
 A study of discipline has shown me that troubles 
 are more likely to arise at those times, and it is then 
 that I wish to be at my best. If those are times when 
 pupils' mental efficiency is low, it is then that their 
 disposition to play is strong and their interest in 
 school work is low. If I had the subjects that I 
 liked best at those times, I could keep up a better 
 interest than I would be able to with studies that I 
 did not like. 
 
HAVING A PART IN THE GAME 49 
 
 Another reason for putting these studies at this 
 time was that it involved having the older pupils in 
 recitation at that time to insure their keeping busy 
 up to the time of dismissal. A reason, and I have 
 always considered it a defendable one, was that hav- 
 ing the studies I liked best at those times insured an 
 interesting closing for my school. Noon and be- 
 tween four P.M. and nine a.m. are the periods for the 
 forming of public sentiment or opinion. Going on 
 the idea that all's well that ends well, I arranged to 
 have the forenoon and afternoon sessions close well. 
 
 In mentioning the importance of good endings, I 
 had another peculiar practice which I adopted and 
 followed for a nimiber of years. I always tried to 
 dress a little better on Friday than other days. I 
 would like to have worn my best clothes every day, 
 but since I could not afford that, I compromised by 
 wearing them on Fridays and made a strong effort 
 to have Friday the best day of the week. Sun- 
 day being tlie day when the neighborhood did its 
 visiting, I reasoned that on that day the school would 
 come in for its share of consideration, therefore, it 
 behooved me to have a good ending for the week. I 
 yet believe these reasons are sound. Public opinion 
 is one thing that must be carefully considered if one 
 would succeed. It must not be thought that I per- 
 mitted things at certain times of the day or week that 
 I prohibited at other times. If I strove for one 
 4 
 
50 THE RURAL SCHOOL FROM WITHIN 
 
 thing more than another it was to keep my discipline 
 even, or level. Unevenness is one of the sure signs 
 of a poor disciplinarian. 
 
 The attitude of my school on the second day, as 
 already stated, was one of antagonism. Like the 
 wild birds of Crusoe's Island, " their tameness 
 frightened me." In the first place they were abso- 
 lutely fearless. They had neither regard nor respect 
 for school authority. Even the small children of the 
 third and fourth grades seemed to feel that it was 
 the proper thing to show me disrespect. 
 
 All progressed passably yvell, although under a 
 strain, till the last recess, when I observed the pupils 
 in little groups talking and casting occasional glances 
 in my direction. I scented trouble. I had been 
 through too much of that kind of work as a pupil 
 not to know that a storm was brewing. When I 
 called school, the pupils passed me at the door, each 
 one stamping as hard as he could. 
 
 I said each one passed me stamping as hard as he 
 could. As I remember, only three got past. The 
 third one, Dick Holmes, a young rowdy, who 
 boasted that he had helped to break up every school 
 for three years, was not only arrested in his progress, 
 but was thrown with such force out of the door that 
 he was entirely out of the way of the rest who 
 suddenly assumed an orderly and respectful manner 
 and passed to their seats. 
 
HAVING A PART IN THE GAME 51 
 
 Dick stood at the door in a rage, awaiting my 
 next move. I bade him: enter, and when he attempted 
 to go to his own seat, I told him he would occupy a 
 seat further in front. I am not certain how ashamed 
 I am of my feelings, but I never felt better in my life. 
 I secretly hoped he would refuse to obey me so that 
 we might mieasure forces at once. So intent was I 
 upon taking care of him that I asked him rather 
 mildly and with affected timidness to occupy the seat 
 further to the front. The man who is in earnest is 
 usually tmderstood, and Dick seemed to understand 
 all I was saying. He took the seat. 
 
 I called the first class, but before doing so noti- 
 fied them they were about to be called, and that they 
 would be asked to stand. With the word " stand " 
 each one stood. I complimented them upon their 
 ability to obey, and then I quietly asked them to be 
 seated. I went through this procedure with every 
 grade in the school, and then with all the grades to- 
 gether. Then I had all but one pass from the room 
 in an orderly manner and gave them ten minutes 
 recess, after which I called school. They formed in 
 line and each marched quietly to his seat. It was 
 then half-past three, and the seven classes that came 
 after recess had not recited, but each had been 
 taught a lesson. I then began with class one, had 
 it come orderly to place, assigned some advance 
 work, and so on with all seven classes. These had all 
 
52 THE RURAL SCHOOL FROM WITHIN 
 
 run the gauntlet by 3 :S5, and I took the remaining 
 time for arranging the books in the desks and getting 
 ready for an orderly dismissal. 
 
 Through all of this drill Dick had not been 
 allowed to participate. Nor was he among the boys 
 who passed through the door at four o'clock. I 
 am not an advocate of keeping pupils in at recess nor 
 after school, but, if there is an excuse for such a 
 measure, " to prevent collusion " is the most impor- 
 tant one. 
 
 To my surprise, a broom had been provided 
 from somewhere, and I took up my janitor duties 
 before giving attention to Dick. I had not been 
 sweeping long till he began to remonstrate against 
 staying in the room while I was sweeping. For a 
 moment my pride almost got the better of my spirit, 
 which I was trying hard to rule, but I thought twice 
 and then I spoke several times and most earnestly. 
 I told Dick that it had not been many years since I 
 had been trying, like himself, to run the school ; that 
 I had as good a reputation for doing bright things 
 as he had ; that my teachers had generally allowed us 
 boys to ruin the school, and I had resolved to do all 
 in my power to atone for my past conduct by making 
 school a place where well-^neaning boys and girls 
 might have a chance to study ; that I did not like the 
 janitor work so very well, and I surely did not like 
 the dust. I told him that, on the other hand, I rather 
 
HAVING A PART IN THE GAME 53 
 
 enjoyed having him there to talce his share of the 
 punishment. 
 
 After I had put the room in as good order as 
 was possible I gave my attention to Dick. At my 
 first words he started to treat me just as a disorderly, 
 bad pupil will attempt to treat a teacher, but would 
 not attempt to treat anyone else. His first sentence 
 caused him to be raised from his seat, and he was 
 given what any teacher must give such a boy who is 
 openly rebellious, when the board is not firm and will 
 not take vigorous action. In this school I knew I 
 would have the board with me in case I did not need 
 them. That is to say, if I succeeded I would have 
 their moral support, but if I needed them they would 
 simply charge me with incompetency and leave me 
 to drown. 
 
 The school boards after all have a serious under- 
 taking when they take sides in such matters against 
 their neighbors. Hard feelings are engendered and 
 these feelings have been known to outlive a genera- 
 tion and seriously affect the social welfare of a com- 
 munity. A board is usually very friendly toward a 
 teacher who can manage a school without bringing 
 it into disagreeable controversies. Corporal punish- 
 ment has its bad features, and it has its good ones. 
 The nagging teacher is never a good disciplinarian. 
 The teacher who is deliberate and whips per previous 
 announcement is usually a very poor disciplinarian. 
 
54 THE RURAL SCHOOL FROM WITHIN 
 
 Dick thoroughly understood me when I told him 
 that on the morrow he might feel at liberty to break 
 down my authority, but that he must remember that 
 I paid cash in full, and that he would need expect no 
 extension of time should he become indebted to me. 
 He understood that punishment would be certain and 
 swift and commensurate with the offense. 
 
 Thomas Hood's lines in " I Remember," which 
 nm, " I remember how the sun came peeping in at 
 mom, and how he never came a wink too soon," 
 exactly described my frame of mind in those days. 
 Nine o'clock never came too soon, especially if I had 
 any " unfinished business." As stated in the first 
 part of this chapter, I tried to close school with 
 good feeling between teacher and pupils, but to have 
 closed school feeling that some pupil had gained an 
 advantage over me, would have, and sometimes did, 
 mean a restless night. My plan was to balance up 
 every day. 
 
 This second day had not closed with as great a 
 pleasure as some teachers might desire, but to me it 
 was a joy. For two days I had been suffering from 
 an awful weight. I had been given a Sunday School 
 class of yotmg men; some of them were now my 
 pupils. They, without cause, except that I was to 
 be the teacher, had offered me an insult that is never 
 offered to any class of people but teachers. The very 
 atmosphere of the school was depressing. The 
 
HAVING A PART IN THE GAME 55 
 
 people were good, but their respect for teachers was 
 negative. To have brought matters to an issue, to 
 have had a part in the game, was indeed a satis- 
 faction. 
 
 As I went to my boarding place that evening, I 
 went with a consciousness that I had been making 
 rapid developments under the responsibilities that 
 had come to me by virtue of the position to which I 
 had been elected through the influence of my friends 
 and the machinations of a county superintendent. 
 
 A resolution was formed that evening, and it has 
 been my policy ever since, and I have given it to 
 hiuidreds of teachers who have used it with success — 
 that I would begin to-morrow just where I left off 
 to-day and pursue the same policy with diligence. At 
 the close of the first week my policy was accepted 
 by every boy in the school. There was not the 
 slightest evidence of rebellion among the boys and 
 they were settling down to reasonably good work, 
 and I was getting into their games on a give and 
 take basis. I had no feeling of restraint, nor did I 
 have a desire to censure the pupils while at play. 
 When school was called I felt, and this feeling was in 
 no way assumed, that we were opened up for busi- 
 ness, and play was to be temporarily suspended. It 
 was a great temptation at times for me not to call 
 for a few minutes after time in case the game was 
 very exciting, but I never yielded to that temptation. 
 
56 THE RURAL SCHOOL FROM WITHIN 
 
 In books there is danger of giving wrong impres- 
 sions. In the foregoing recital of my second day in 
 school some may get the idea that I was harsh and 
 cruel. 
 
 Once I was jokingly advising three young women 
 who were about to receive their degrees and enter the 
 teaching profession, that they must not forget to 
 punish and punish freely. One asked me if I would 
 advise whipping. I said, " Under the right circum- 
 stances, I certainly advise it." " Why," she said, 
 " We went to school to you twelve years and we 
 never knew you to whip a pupil." 
 
 " Well," I replied, " I guess you are right about 
 that, but if the proper occasion had arisen there 
 would have been corporal punishment administered 
 without consideration of consequences, and it would 
 have been administered at once. I was only joking 
 about your punishing pupils. I want you to be kind 
 to them, especially ithe little children, but I must ask 
 you to be at all times absolutely in control of the 
 situation." 
 
 Some years ago a lady told me of the hard time 
 she was having with the discipline of her room. 
 After telling me of the very bad boys and girls, she 
 said, " I never allovy myself to smile. I put on a 
 scowl in the morning and keep it on till the children 
 have passed out at four o'clock." Can one picture 
 a more desolate place than such a schoolroom? 
 
HAVING A PART IN THE GAME 57 
 
 Would not a child be better off out of school than 
 surrounded by such an influence? The teacher who 
 dares not smile, aye, laugh aloud at times during the 
 day, is certain to have an unfortunate schoolroom 
 condition, and the children under her rule are objects 
 of my sympathy. Quick, decisive action is effective. 
 Careless, easy-going, threatening and never-doing 
 teachers will make an orderly school an unfit place 
 for children. 
 
 A teacher who cannot discipline and retain the 
 admiration and love of his pupils is a failure. If a 
 teacher be worthy he should be imitated, but he must 
 have likable qualities, — those which appeal to the 
 young and attract them, — or his influence for their 
 good will be negligible. On the other hand, if he 
 be unworthy but possessed of some admirable quali- 
 ties, he will be imitated. There are many capable 
 teachers, and in some respects, lovable and estimable, 
 whose characters wholly disqualify them as models 
 for the youth. The fact that a teacher is loved and 
 admired is far from proof that he is all right. As 
 certainly as the weight unsupported falls to ground, 
 the child becomes like what he loves and admires. 
 
CHAPTER VI 
 Managing Girls 
 
 There was one feature of my school work that 
 was far from satisfactory, and worse yet, I did not 
 see how it could be improved. I had ten or twelve 
 grown young women in school, and about as many 
 between the ages of thirteen and sixteen. I knew 
 boys, and I knew how to control them and have them 
 for my friends. I have always believed that good 
 square treatment is the only kind that appeals to the 
 normal boy; that he will go just as far as you allow, 
 but that he soon learns his limitations. 
 
 At the present time I feel that I know something 
 about girls, but at the end of my first week of teach- 
 ing I would have jumped at the opportunity of 
 trading off all the girls for an equal number of boys 
 without asking any questions. They appealed to 
 me as not being satisfied with fair treatment. They 
 wanted special privileges and seemed to think that 
 they were entitled, by virtue of their sex, to these 
 special privileges. It was my theory that if a certain 
 act was wrong in a boy it was equally wrong in a 
 girl, that if a girl did wrong she should be just as 
 amenable to discipline as a boy; but on all of these 
 points we seemed to differ. If one girl recited and 
 58 
 
MANAGING GIRLS 59 
 
 was wrong, and it fell to me to make it plain and 
 right, nothing unpleasant resulted, but if girl number 
 two made the correction, number one was likely 
 to be out of commission for from one to three 
 days. Pouting seemed to be their natural response 
 to every effort that was put forth for their improve- 
 ment, if this effort was not in accordance with their 
 liking. With the boys it was "go and come" as 
 directed, but with the girls it was " go and come " 
 as directed when they felt that way, but when they 
 did not, closed went the lips and down went the 
 eyes, and closed and down they stayed till the of- 
 fended one forgot her grievance, or some other girl 
 took her place. That was one account that never 
 balanced during the first week. In desperation, the 
 first Saturday, I wrote to a lady some years my 
 senior, who was principal of a good high school, to 
 please write me, and write immediately, how to get 
 along with girls. In one week I got her reply. It 
 was satisfactory. I put it into operation, and with 
 the exception of some very extreme cases her recipe 
 worked. In brief her answer was as follows : 
 
 " I never have had much trouble with girls. 
 They are usually all right, and never give much 
 trouble. It's the boys, they are the problems. I'll tell 
 you how I get along with the boys and it's barely pos- 
 sible that my plan for boys will work with your girls. 
 I make it a point to have them get along with me." 
 
60 THE RURAL SCHOOL FROM WITHIN 
 
 I used her formula and it worked, eventually. 
 
 The error that I had committed was in showing 
 that I was annoyed by their unfriendly attitude. I 
 had gone on the assumption that they should be dis- 
 ciplined, but owing to my regard for the sex I had 
 expected their reaction to be somewhat different 
 from what it was. 
 
 They were quick to observe that I was annoyed 
 and were quick to take advantage of my discomfiture. 
 
 My trouble with girls for a time grew worse in- 
 stead of better. I adopted the plan of requiring them 
 to get along with me. It may have been an eye for 
 an eye proposition, but I adopted it. Boys and girls 
 who showed the right attitude received splendid 
 treatment and to those who did not, I showed no 
 quarter. 
 
 With this plan in operation, troubles began to 
 accumulate and before the end of the first month 
 Kansas had quite a following, but strange to say she 
 kept herself in the clear. On the last Friday after- 
 noon of the first month Mollie McGuire, the prettiest 
 and poutiest girl in the school, very abruptly cor- 
 rected me on the pronunciation of a word. I had pro- 
 nounced it correctly, but as there was no dictionary, 
 I had no way of proving it. However, the pronun- 
 ciation of the word was a minor consideration just 
 then. 
 
 There is at such times a consideration which 
 
MANAGING GIRLS 61 
 
 every teacher must some time face — " Shall the 
 teacher assume a personal or an objective attitude? " 
 
 It may occur to the reader that up to this time 
 I had assumed the personal attitude, but such was not 
 the case. On the playground I had been but an 
 individual. Outside of school I had not assumed the 
 teacher attitude, but in school, I had assumed the 
 teacher attitude and had made it plain that as teacher 
 there were certain responsibilities that I must bear 
 and that their attitude toward the teacher must be 
 one of respect for those responsibilities upon which 
 the good of the whole school depended. 
 
 MoUie was promptly excused from recitation. 
 Later, when another class to which she belonged was 
 called, she came forward. After the class was seated 
 she was again sent to her seat. 
 
 As school for the day, the week and the month 
 was about to be closed, I saw enacted an old trick. 
 Mollie had all her books piled out on top of her desk. 
 Mollie was quitting school. Indeed, it was not a 
 new trick, for once I had done that very thing myself. 
 How well I remembered it just then. My teacher 
 came to me and pleaded with me not to take my 
 books, and I left them, but I left them with an 
 understanding that I must be treated just right or 
 next time she couldn't coax me back. It was a great 
 bluff. Once when we had what we thought to be an 
 unusually stubborn teacher, six of us stacked our 
 
62 THE RURAL SCHOOL FROM WITHIN 
 
 books and ■won out. Now', in Mollie I had a for- 
 midable foe. Her father was a board member, and 
 board members' children in rural schools are prob- 
 lems to be solved. Mollie was, also, quite a church 
 worker. She played the organ and sang while she 
 played; she was pretty and popular with all her 
 schoolmates, and was therefore a most redoubtable 
 enemy. 
 
 Well, Mollie had struck, and everyone in the 
 scAool was aware of the fact. Mollie had her books 
 all covered with red calico. This is not important, 
 but is mentioned to show how plainly I remember 
 details of events that happened about twenty-five 
 years ago. 
 
 In a subsequent chapter I speak of closing 
 school with a song. I think I should have sung alone 
 on this memorable evening, because feeling was 
 running high. 
 
 Punishment must be certain, swift, and unerring. 
 The teachei must leave no doubt in the minds of the 
 pupils as to who is the real victor, and I began early 
 to show the school. It was time for closing, but I 
 was timekeeper and the only timepiece there was in 
 my pocket. 
 
 I had yet some tmfinished work, but I stopped 
 to ask Mollie if it was her intention to quit school. 
 She assured me that such was her intention, and at 
 once she was granted permission to go. She went. 
 
MANAGING GIRLS 63 
 
 That was many years ago, but to-day I consider 
 it was good management. I never allowed a pupil 
 to pass out with the school either at intermission or 
 after school wlho was giving the impression that 
 he was getting ahead of the school. Those are the 
 times when public opinion is formed. Those are 
 the times when a pupil is encouraged to do things 
 that he otherwise would not do. 
 
 Mollie left school unaided and alone. As soon as 
 she had gone I began to reconstruct my school by 
 arbitrarily changing the seats of all the larger girls. 
 In the changing, Mollie's seat, which of course was 
 a back one (a back seat is a seat of honor and is the 
 one I always had), was taken by Kansas. 
 
 If there is ever a time when a boy or group of 
 boys feel dean and wholesome and want to walk 
 on tiptoe just to please you it is when they feel the 
 girls are getting their deserts. To the average boy 
 it's the thrill of a lifetime. 
 
 It is perfectly safe policy to pursue a route that 
 leads to a certain place if you are going to that 
 certain place. I had set out to effect the control of 
 several very nice but badly spoiled young ladies. My 
 next move was to dismiss the boys and all the small 
 girls, and to the credit of all of them they went 
 orderly and respectfully. 
 
 When the girls were alone I gave them a kind 
 talk without any suggestion of relenting. They 
 
64 THE RURAL SCHOOL FROM WITHIN 
 
 were told in plain terms how very good they were 
 as young women, and how very bad they were as 
 pupils. They were told that on Monday we should 
 begin all over again to pursue the same policy of de- 
 manding absolute obedience, and that all girls who 
 conformed to my regulations would receive the best 
 of treatment and every privilege that I could con- 
 sistently grant. But I held out no hope for the girl 
 who pouted or who offered any but the most cour- 
 teous treatment to the teacher. 
 
 Those days were dark and troublesome. To win 
 in such an ordeal makes one respected throughout the 
 community. To lose means just the opposite. 
 Public opinion is a great asset when you have it in 
 your favor, but after all it is an unsafe index as to 
 the right or wrong of a certain cause. Public opinion 
 is usually the opinion of two or three in which the 
 unthinking masses concur. The wise teacher will 
 try hard to control public opinion, but he should 
 never allow himself to feel thai public opinion is 
 based upon a public conscience, for the public may 
 be against you to-day and for you to-morrow. 
 
 It is so with nations. It is so with the grand- 
 stand, whether it be a national political convention 
 in Chicago, a prize fight in Cuba or a bullfight in 
 Juarez — the victor becomes the hero of thousands 
 while the vanquished lies bleeding and alone. It was 
 always that way. Cicero was driven from Rome, 
 
MANAGING GIRLS 65 
 
 returned in triumph, and again with hisses and 
 scourges and curses driven out, and all for naught 
 but on account of public opinion. The beaten must 
 not look for sympathy. Hannibal and Bonaparte, 
 Calvin and Luther, politicians, financiers, prize- 
 fighters, gladiators have learned or will learn of the 
 fickleness of public opinion. 
 
 Men with real convictions and courage are rare 
 combinations. Sometimes such combinations make 
 up parts of school boards and boards of education, 
 and sometimes they do not. The smaller the school 
 unit the smaller is the probability of finding the com- 
 bination, and when it is wholly lacking the position 
 of the teacher is far from being an enviable one. 
 
 Every person of school experience has a teacher 
 who is his ideal, and one whose advice he would rely 
 upon. In my trouble I thought of ray ideal teacher, 
 and although it was a half-day's ride, I went to 
 see him. 
 
 My ideal teacher was the one to whom I went 
 immediately after completing my rural school educa- 
 tion. It was he who gave me to understand that 
 nothing short of absolute obedience to the rules and 
 regulations would keep me within his good graces. 
 It was he who taught me that nothing was too good 
 for the pupil who tried to do right. 
 
 With this teacher as an ideal I began my first 
 school. 
 5 
 
66 THE RURAL SCHOOL FROM WITHIN 
 
 With him for an ideal I taught my first school 
 and many succeeding ones. To him I went to give 
 my experiences of my first month and receive his 
 approval or disapproval. He gave me neither. 
 After hearing my story, he asked, " Do you feel that 
 you have done right? " I answered in the affirma- 
 tive. He then said, as he pressed my hand in a good- 
 bye, " Begin Monday where you left off yesterday." 
 
 I returned to my school fully believing that I 
 would succeed. 
 
 Monday morning school opened with MoUie in 
 her seat. She had returned! Kansas was in the 
 same seat, and again did it seem that an unpleasant- 
 ness was to be met. When I went to the seat to 
 make my decision, both girls stood awaiting my ver- 
 dict. I said " Kansas, the seat is yours." Kansas 
 replied, " MoUie may have it." MoUie, kind-hearted 
 girl that she was, said, " No, it is your seat, Kansas." 
 
 In those days seats were selected very much as 
 are lands in a new country. Squatters' sovereignty ! 
 Every girl who had been changed on Friday had 
 been taken from a seat that was hers by preemption. 
 Possibly there were " sooners " among them. 
 
 I addressed all the girls whose seats had been 
 changed. " Girls, I feel you would all like to have 
 your seats again, and because of the good spirit 
 shown by these two girls, I am going to ask each of 
 you to take back the seat you had. In doing so I want 
 
MANAGING GIRLS 67 
 
 it to be with a resolve that your whole attitude 
 toward the school is to change." 
 
 Sometimes in months to come we had trouble- 
 some days but the fashion of tmruliness among girls 
 went out that morning not to return, and the teacher 
 learned for the first time that girls like to be managed 
 and are quite as amenable to discipline as boys, and 
 like the boys they are most apt in detecting the weak- 
 nesses of the opposite sex. The teacher who would 
 succeed in managing either boys or girls must make it 
 possible for them to get along with him. A certain 
 reasonableness is necessary. 
 
CHAPTER VII 
 Managing the School Board 
 
 School Boards can be managed, but they cannot 
 be bossed, and there is a wide difference between 
 managing and bossing. No board will be bossed, 
 but any self-respecting board will be managed. The 
 teacher who desires to manage a board must first 
 of all have well-defined plans. He must know that 
 his plans have merit. The measures that he seeks to 
 carry out must be for a public benefit. The teacher, 
 then, who has certain well-defined, meritorious plans 
 which when carried out will be a benefit to the public 
 for whom he is employed is ready to interview his 
 board. 
 
 In addition to this preparation it is necessary that 
 there be nothing but the best of feeling between the 
 teacher and the board. School boards are, after all, 
 human ; and the average human being is swayed more 
 by his feelings than by his judgment. It must not be 
 supposed that a school board who feels right towards 
 its teacher will not be controlled by its judgment. 
 In other words, the average individual will permit 
 his feelings of animosity to control his actions and 
 defeat good measures, but will not permit feelings 
 68 
 
MANAGING THE SCHOOL BOARD 69 
 
 of friendliness to influence his vote for a proposition 
 which he does not believe is sound. 
 
 The above enunciated human frailty is in evi- 
 dence in all walks of life. The opposition is always 
 the more active. A man's enemies will make bigger 
 sacrifices to attend the election and help secure his 
 defeat than will his friends to secure his election. 
 The successful candidate is more likely to owe his 
 election to the activity of his opponent's enemies than 
 to his own popularity. 
 
 Accepting the foregoing statements as true, it 
 is proper to state that a teacher who has a good 
 proposition can get favorable action on it by a board 
 who are in harmony with each other and with the 
 teacher provided they can be convinced that it is a 
 good proposition. 
 
 In convincing a board of the soundness of a 
 proposition, there is often a lifetime prejudice to 
 be broken down. Certain conditions have always 
 existed so far as they know, and so far as they know 
 they should continue to exist. 
 
 A friend of the writer moved to town. He cast 
 his first vote against the waterworks! and sewer 
 propositions. He had always gotten along with a 
 well, and it was good enough. He never had had 
 running water in his house and did not believe he 
 wanted it. He had always been accustomed to the 
 outhouse that stood some distance from his resi- 
 
70 THE RURAL SCHOOL FROM WITHIN 
 
 dence, and he did not believe two dozen such build- 
 ings on the alley of the block in which he lived 
 would be very bad. 
 
 Later he voted against street paving and electric 
 lights. On each projKJsition he was defeated, and 
 each time he could see his bank account dwindling. 
 
 In a few years the alley outhouses had been re- 
 moved. The residences had running water, and the 
 back yards were beautiful lawns and gardens. The 
 streets, that had been beds of dust when not beds of 
 mud, were macadam, and his oil lamps, relics of the 
 past, were in the room with his grandmother's 
 spinning wheel, the " hand " sewing machine and 
 the candle moulds. 
 
 When he had all these things, none was more 
 enthusiastic over them than he. He said, " I am glad 
 that I have lived to enjoy all these blessings. There 
 is nothing that I have enjoyed more than my modern 
 home." He took a visitor over his little city. 
 He showed him the parks, the boulevards, the 
 court-house, whose bonds he had tried to defeat, and 
 the new $300,000 high school building. He went 
 about the exhibition of this school building in a way 
 that showed perfect familiarity. 
 
 First they inspected the heating plant and the 
 ventilation system, then the boys' gymnasium with 
 its swimming pool 40 x 100 feet, then the girls' 
 gjminasium; and swimming pool, toilets with run- 
 
MANAGING THE SCHOOL BOARD 71 
 
 ning water, lavatories, mirrors and towels, the large 
 manual training room, rooms for domestic science 
 fitted up with every modem cooking convenience, 
 domestic art, physics, chemistry and botany labora- 
 tories, large well-furnished class rooms, a magnifi- 
 cent library with comfortable chairs and tables, and 
 last the assembly room, which had all the appear- 
 ance of an up-to-date theatre. 
 
 The old man, for he was old then, with a look 
 of pride said, " It's all very nice, but it cost us tax- 
 payers a lot of money; but," he added, quickly, 
 " it's worth it. I never had any of these things, 
 and I'm glad to be able to give them to others." 
 
 " Do you know," said he, " that this building is 
 a small concern compared with the state educational 
 institutions ? We support those institutions and they 
 have gymnasiums that cost as much as this entire 
 building. I understand that only five out of every 
 hundred who go to high schools ever attend one of 
 those higher institutions. I always was in favor of 
 state schools. I always believed in higher education, 
 but I am afraid that I was slow in awakening to the 
 needs of those w!ho do not get the higher education." 
 
 He grew reminiscent ; " Yes sir, I'm glad to live 
 to see all this, but I'm sorry to think of many lost 
 opportunities. Before I came here I was on the 
 school board. I thought our school was good 
 enough, but I know now it wasn't. Why, we con- 
 
72 THE RURAL SCHOOL FROM WITHIN 
 
 sidered but one thing in managing our school, and 
 that was keeping down the tax. 
 
 " In hiring a teacher, the question was ' Who 
 will do it the cheapest ? ' We used the cheapest mate- 
 rial for blackboard that we could buy, and we bought 
 the cheapest crayon on the market. If we painted the 
 building it was done to preserve it, not to make it 
 more beautiful. One fall we needed more desks and 
 we bought some second-hand ones that had been 
 taken out of a tovra school to make place for adjust- 
 able ones. We had no library and did not want one. 
 Our teacher wanted a large dictionary one year, but 
 since our school was not far advanced we got her a 
 small one. 1 
 
 " When I go about the schools in this town and 
 see their smooth playgrounds with their base-ball 
 parks and tennis courts I am reminded of our school 
 yard for whose upkeep I was responsible. We let it 
 grow up in weeds during the siunmer and cut them 
 about September first, just when they would leave 
 a stubble that would ruin a good shoe, saying noth- 
 ing of what it would do to bare feet. I find myself 
 comparing what our home boys had, who worked 
 hard and went to school but a few months every year, 
 with that of the boys who attended the state schools. 
 We sent but two in ten years from our district to 
 college, and during all that time we were helping to 
 support those schools, but we did not support our 
 
MANAGING THE SCHOOL BOARD 73 
 
 own little school. Mind, I am not sorry we sup- 
 ported the state schools, but I am ashamed now to 
 think how we treated our home boys and girls. They 
 had no gymnasium, no library, no swimming pool, 
 no playground apparatus, no athletic director, and 
 the schoolhouse itself was about the poorest building 
 in the district. Of course, I do not put air this 
 blame on myself. If I had wanted things much 
 different it would have done but little good; the 
 others would have outvoted me, and besides our 
 district was small and the valuation low." 
 
 The old man's confession was indicative of the 
 facts that he could have been managed ; that he had 
 acted according to his light; that earlier in his life 
 he could have been convinced of the benefits of a 
 good library, a good playground, a good school 
 building; that he could have been taught ere he had 
 committed irreparable wrongs that low tax levies 
 for education generally mean misappropriation of 
 the people's money and the misguidance of their 
 children. But these changes could not have been 
 effected without some effort. I learned quite early 
 that the teacher, if he would manage a board, must 
 be something more than tactful. He must be persist- 
 ent. On the second day of school I had made partial 
 arrangements for a meeting of the board, but at the 
 end of one month the meeting had not been held. 
 
 This failure to have a meeting was no one's fault 
 
74 THE RURAL SCHOOL FROM WITHIN 
 
 in particular. The board members lived quite a dis- 
 tance apart, and they were all anxious for a meet- 
 ing, but we could not meet. There was the cutting 
 of prairie hay, millet and com; the sowing of the 
 fall wheat and the rye ; cattle were soon to be taken 
 from the range, and corrals had to be repaired. 
 
 There was so much that I needed that I was 
 afraid to begin my enumeration. I wanted new 
 desks. The ones we had were of the old double seat 
 kind, whittled and scarred till the most respected 
 property owner would involuntarily reach for his 
 knife to further enhance their ugliness. In my later 
 teaching of psychology I never fail to use those old 
 desks in making concrete illustration of the " Idea 
 Motor." The suggestiveness that comes from our 
 environment is perhaps the greatest of educational 
 factors. Environment and association determine 
 our disposition, whether it be gloomy or cheerful; 
 our tastes, whether they be vulgar or refined; our 
 talents, whether for languages or miathematics, bad 
 literature or good. 
 
 Desks broken, ink-stained and carved! Walls, 
 plaster broken, pencilled and smoked! Windows 
 curtainless ; maps, globes, charts and dictionary lack- 
 ing ! The old stove was badly cracked, the long pipe 
 sagged and was about to fall. 
 
 The outbuildings were so bad as to make their 
 description out of place. 
 
MANAGING THE SCHOOL BOARD 75 
 
 The school building faced the east. The girls all 
 sat on the south side of the room. The four win- 
 dows on the south had neither shutter, blind nor 
 shade, and when the sun was shining the girls were 
 most uncomfortable, and from what I was able to 
 learn, it had always been just that way. 
 
 How could I expect young people to be good and 
 clean minded, or ambitious to be other than what 
 they were, with such an environment ? A noted lec- 
 turer speaks of a gossiping, slanderous old woman, 
 who was fairly decent and respectable when she had 
 on good clothes. She would not disgrace her clothes. 
 Good environment makes for good behavior. 
 
 It is possible for us to modify our environment. 
 It is possible for us to assimie a hostile attitude 
 toward a fixed environment, thereby modifying our 
 lives, but it is unreasonable to expect such attitudes 
 in the average normal child. 
 
 Shakespeare aptly and forcefully expresses the 
 belief that one may so direct his life as to change his 
 real nature, in the thought where Hamlet pleads 
 with his mother to refrain from certain unseemly 
 and sinful acts : 
 
 " Assume a virtue if you have it not. 
 That monster custom who all sense doth eat 
 Of habits, devil, is angel yet in this; 
 Refrain tonight and that shall lend an easiness 
 To the next abstinence ; the next more easy. 
 For use almost can change the stamp of nature." 
 
76 THE RURAL SCHOOL FROM WITHIN 
 
 Thus, use may change the bad to good, and this is 
 a comforting thought. On the other hand, we must, 
 as guardians of child welfare, remember it works 
 both ways. Goodness begets goodness, and evil 
 begets evil; and if we would have children become 
 good men and women with beautiful characters and 
 with lofty ideals, we must surround them with the 
 good and the beautiful. 
 
 In writing of this school I offer it as a type. 
 Our parents of two and three generations back have 
 been pleased to point to the improvements in educa- 
 tion. They have mentioned with much pride the phys- 
 ical changes; the old fireplace has been supplanted 
 by furnace and steam heat ; the puncheon bench, by 
 the modem seat and desk. These improved condi- 
 tions do exist in some favored sections, but yet the 
 school of which I write is far from being an isolated 
 case, even in this twentieth century, which marks the 
 highest point attained in educational advancement. 
 The schools that are managed or mismanaged by 
 young, inexperienced, and poorly prepared teachers 
 may be numbered by the thousands in almost any 
 state in the union, and America's educational status 
 is not second to that of any nation on earth. The 
 schoolhouses that are provided in the same careless, 
 thoughtless way by good men but by men too en- 
 grossed with their personal affairs, and who are thor- 
 
MANAGING THE SCHOOL BOARD 77 
 
 oughly incompetent to administer to the cause of edu- 
 cation, are among the abundant remains of a past 
 glory that has failed to keep up with the progress! 
 indicated in other great world activities. 
 
 I had started out to boss the schoolboard but con- 
 cluded to manage it, and for the accomplishing of 
 this I determined to make for myself invincible 
 allies, and these were the daughters of the com- 
 munity. A month following the reconstruction of 
 my girls I called a meeting of the older girls for 
 
 4 P.M. 
 
 At this meeting I made a proposition to the girls 
 that I would buy the material if they would make the 
 curtains for the windows on their side of the school- 
 room. 
 
 The first one to respond was Mollie. She gave it 
 out plainly enough that she would help make no 
 curtains, and if it had come to pass that the school 
 board could not fix up the old schoolhouse, and that 
 strangers had to come in and pay for things, she 
 surely would quit school and stay quit. 
 
 The daughter, who had helped me out with her 
 father on the morning of the second day, and who 
 was always a good girl, backed by Mollie, con- 
 demned the board and their methods of not doing 
 their duty, before I could interpose an objection. 
 There was real rebellion threatened. This time it 
 
78 THE RURAL SCHOOL FROM WITHIN 
 
 was the board who was about to be attacked, and I 
 found the objective attitude easy to assume. 
 
 I talked to those girls in a way that increased 
 their activities without giving offense. It was all 
 right for those girls to censure their parents, but it 
 would have been ruinous to the cause had I said one 
 derogatory word. 
 
 I tried to show the girls that while the building 
 was horribly out of repair, they must not censure 
 their fathers. Their fathers were very busy men, 
 and besides they might feel that the people in the 
 district would not like for them to incur such ex- 
 pense as would be necessary. This divided the 
 responsibility, and each girl seemed to feel that her 
 father ought to help fix up the schoolhouse. 
 
 On the Sunday following, at the close of the 
 sermon, William Constad, who was, as he said, not 
 as long on church as some of his neighbors, arose 
 and asked permission to make a few remarks. 
 
 Mr. Constad had been the object of prayers for 
 years. He was the annual " stumbling block," " the 
 clog in the wheels of religious progress," and his 
 rising to speak caused quite a little flutter, but he 
 did not keep them long in suspense. He simply an- 
 nounced : " The school board will meet in this house 
 to-morrow night and it wants all the men in the 
 district to turn out." 
 
MANAGING THE SCHOOL BOARD 79 
 
 Mr. Constad possessed a fair amount of humor 
 and enjoyed, as I afterwards learned, "a little satire." 
 He was fond of saying that women should not be 
 allowed to vote at school meetings, that they did not 
 pay taxes, and that they knew nothing about running 
 schools, and therefore should stay away from such 
 places as school meetings. Consequently his invita- 
 tion to the men to turn out was understood by every- 
 one to include the women. 
 
CHAPTER VIII 
 The Community Meeting 
 
 On Monday evening, "pursuant to call," the 
 men of the district met with the school board, and 
 with these men and school board met twenty women, 
 and it was evident from the first that there was a 
 unanimity of purpose among the women. But with 
 the men it was different. Every man had an opinion 
 and it was entirely different from anyone else's. 
 One man thought the plastering should be patched, 
 and another thought it should all come ©ff and that 
 a new coat should be put on. One was in favor of 
 painting and another was against painting, but every- 
 one believed something ought to be done. 
 
 The meeting was called to order. The deplorable 
 condition of the entire premises was thoroughly dis- 
 cussed, but it was finally suggested that nothing 
 could be done without money, and that the expense 
 of improvement would mean an increased tax levy. 
 
 Mr. Constad, who had expressed no opinion, 
 arose and made, as he said, " a few remarks." His 
 remarks ran about as follows : 
 
 " I am getting mighty tired of this school busi- 
 ness. Every year we have to pay a tax and then we 
 do not get much. You men are just like me; you'll 
 80 
 
THE COMMUNITY MEETING 81 
 
 pay a thousand dollars for a good brood animal and 
 think you are using good business sense. You come 
 here and vote the lowest tax possible for running this 
 school and you think that's good business sense. 
 
 " We use this building for church, for elections 
 and all other kinds of public meetings, and yet as my 
 girls said to-night it's the poorest building in this 
 part of the country. Half the time people call this 
 school the Constad School, just because I live nearest 
 to it, and I am getting tired of having my name 
 stuck onto a shack that I'd tear down if it were my 
 own. Now, what you have said about not having 
 any money is true, and we all know why we have no 
 money. We come here every year and instead of 
 voting all the money we need, we vote the lowest 
 amount possible. I spend more money every year 
 on improvement of cattle than we all spend on edu- 
 cation. We are just the same way about our church. 
 We pay the lowest possible price for a preacher and 
 then kick because he isn't all right. 
 
 " This schoolhouse is going to be fixed up to look 
 as well as the average house in this neighborhood, 
 and the outhouses are going to be set farther apart, 
 straightened up, painted outside and inside; this 
 school yard is going to be fixed up to look as well 
 as my feed lots, or Bill Constad is going to get off 
 this board." 
 
 This was a great speech for William Constad. 
 6 
 
82 THE RURAL SCHOOL FROM WITHIN 
 
 The oldest settler had never heard him say so much 
 in public before. 
 
 After his speech came that of Mr. McGuire. It 
 did not require great discernment to see that MoUie 
 had been bossing him. He believed all that Mr. Con- 
 stad had said, but where the money was coming from 
 he could not tell. 
 
 Mrs. House, who had been working among the 
 women while the speeches were being made, had an 
 idea and she begged permission to state it. Her 
 idea was as follows : " I have $500, and I'll loan it 
 to the school board till the next annual meeting, 
 and trust to the honor of these people to make the 
 levy large enough to pay me back." 
 
 Mr. Constad arose and said : " This school board 
 is borrowing no money. All who want this property 
 put in shape and are willing to come out to the next 
 annual meeting and make a levy to pay for it, stand." 
 Everyone but the teacher, who was simply an out- 
 sider, stood. " Now," said Mr. Constad, " this board 
 is going right to work to fix up this property. We 
 held a meeting this afternoon and decided upon the 
 following : 
 
 New floor. 
 
 New desks. 
 
 Slate blackboard. 
 
 Teacher's desk and chair. 
 
 Outhouses relocated, repaired and painted. 
 
THE COMMUNITY MEETING 83 
 
 All plastering removed and the building re- 
 plastered. 
 
 Buildings given two coats of paint. 
 
 New porch and steps. 
 
 Yard graded. 
 
 New hitch racks." 
 
 Old man Benson showed signs of great nervous- 
 ness when he arose to inquire, " What's it all going 
 to cost?" 
 
 Mr. Constad replied, " We do not know, and 
 what's more, we do not care. We expect to use good 
 business judgment and get a good job for the money, 
 and we are going to spend enough money to get a 
 good job." 
 
 A motion to adjourn was said to be in order, but 
 Mrs. McGuire, a meek little woman, interrupted that 
 procedure by addressing her husband, " Andy, you 
 forgot something you promised." 
 
 " Oh, yes," said Mr. McGuire, " I forgot to men- 
 tion to the board that we ought to get a big dic- 
 tionary." 
 
 " Yes," said Mr. Constad, " I was to have men- 
 tioned that too, and it seems to me it's about time we 
 were getting another broom." A lady in the audi- 
 ence added her mite by, " Yes, and a new stove." 
 
 The meeting adjourned and the teacher had not 
 said a word, nor had he been asked to say a word, 
 but he was happy because he was getting results. 
 
84 THE RURAL SCHOOL FROM WITHIN 
 
 The teacher is an outsider, and there is at times the 
 line which he dares not cross. He is looked upon 
 as everyone's friend, no one's opponent. A teacher 
 need not feel that in public matters he is discrimi- 
 nated against. As a matter of fact the attitude that 
 he may assume because of his position enables him 
 to work the more effectively. In this case the teacher 
 was accomplishing great results, and to have the 
 community feel that these results were matters of 
 their own doing was the greatest result of all. Polit- 
 ical leaders would, but cannot, assume the impersonal 
 attitude. It is the teacher's Gibraltar, and its occu- 
 pancy by anyone else is an impossibility. From it he 
 can, unmolested, direct the activities of the world. 
 
CHAPTER IX 
 Repairing the School Building 
 
 Such radical changes as had been agreed upon 
 by the board, and assented to by the leading citi- 
 zens, put new life into the community. While the 
 contemplated changes would interfere with the 
 school work, this in itself was a good thing, for it 
 directed attention to the school. School over- 
 shadowed all other local affairs. The improvements 
 would mean for all taxpayers an additional expendi- 
 ture. This gave an added importance to the indi- 
 vidual, and many who had never given a passing 
 thought to school matters began to feel the responsi- 
 bility. All realized that an unusual thing was about 
 to be done, and that it was all indicative of unparal- 
 leled generosity and public spiritedness. 
 
 In consequence of the certainty of the improve- 
 ment and its accompanying expense, everyone became 
 an enthusiastic supporter of education. Mr. Benson, 
 who hated taxes of all kinds and would have gladly 
 forfeited all their benefits if by so doing he could 
 have avoided their payment, professed a deep interest 
 in education and said that a tax for the support of 
 the school was one that he always gladly paid. 
 
 Tuesday morning was one of great excitement 
 
 S5 
 
86 THE RURAL SCHOOL FROM WITHIN 
 
 in the school. Every pupil seemed to share in the 
 responsibility. Everyone w'as talking of the new 
 work that was about to be undertaken, and the im- 
 portance of it all was nothing short of pathetic. 
 Pupils who never had shown any pride in the school 
 or in the community, began to discuss the relative 
 greatness of their school and the surrounding 
 schools. Maple Hill, Burr Oak, and Windy Ridge, 
 each in its turn, suffered by comparison, and well it 
 might. None of them was its equal in taxable prop- 
 erty nor in school enrollment. Ours was the politi- 
 cal, social and religious centre. The announcement 
 of any attraction at the Constad Crossing school 
 house aroused the people for miles in all directions. 
 Constad Crossing was the logical and actual com- 
 munity centre and all others were but as isolated 
 parts. This was the real condition, but up to that 
 time it had been unrecognized and imappreciated. 
 
 In its anticipated newness all eyes were opened 
 to its greatness. The beautiful valley of over twenty 
 thousand acres of the richest land in the state, and 
 uplands surpassed by none in the state, the beautiful 
 and heavily wooded stream which divided it but gave 
 it charm and beauty, were held in favorable com- 
 parison with the neighbors' possessions on the north, 
 east, south and west. 
 
 There are two commtmities that are less in- 
 fluenced by the onward march of human progress 
 
REPAIRING THE SCHOOL BUILDING 87 
 
 than any others. In this age of scientific farming, 
 science is slow in touching the activities of these two 
 communities. These communities are the one pos- 
 sessed of the richest lands and the one possessed of 
 the poorest lands. 
 
 The former has never felt the need of the friendly 
 help of the U. S. Department of Agriculture and 
 of agricultural colleges, because their lands yield 
 bountifully and it never has occurred to them that 
 it will not always be so. The latter, who live on 
 the stony barren uplands, the traders, feel no in- 
 terest in those things which if they possessed would 
 not affect their well being. In neither of these com- 
 munities is one likely to find the highest types of 
 development, owing to the fact that each is lacking 
 in incentives. The Constad Crossing neighborhood 
 was of the former type. In an early day these people 
 settled there, and without effort on their part be- 
 came wealthy. Their incomes were large and their 
 expenditures were small. In matters pertaining to 
 the intellectual, social and spiritual they lacked per- 
 sistency. They were easily aroused to action, but 
 hard to keep in action. 
 
 Indeed there is a close parallelism between rural 
 schools, rural churches, and rural social life, and the 
 prevailing type of agriculture. If the type is that 
 which consists of garnering in the sheaves, taking 
 
88 THE RURAL SCHOOL FROM WITHm 
 
 away but never giving back, the type of religious 
 practice will be the same. 
 
 The Constad Crossing religious harvest came 
 regularly, at rest periods, just before the corn husk- 
 ing season and again after the corn was husked. In 
 other words, their revival seasons came when there 
 was nothing to interfere. I have intimated that there 
 was a parallelism between their farming and their 
 religious practice. They gave little attention to con- 
 servation in either, but much to conversion in both. 
 They relied more on converting the adult than in 
 training and saving the young boys and girls, and 
 this is bad practice. The farm that is robbed of its 
 fertility and allowed to run to cockle burrs and other 
 noxious weeds will be difficult of reclamation. With 
 the boy or girl who is allowed to drift till the mind 
 becomes dwarfed and evil habits are formed, recla- 
 mation will be difficult and uncertain and the boy or 
 girl, like the infertile, foul land, may never properly 
 react to normal stimuli. 
 
 Plans for a radical improvement of the school- 
 house and premises had been agreed upon, and such 
 men as composed the board, when once agreed, were 
 not slow to act. Two objections to immediate action 
 were offered. The regular revival season was just 
 to open, and school was in session. To neither of 
 these would Mr. Constad pay any attention. His 
 stand on the school interference caused no particular 
 
REPAIRING THE SCHOOL BUILDING 89 
 
 comment, but his interference with the meetings 
 made him the object of many enthusiastic prayers 
 offered in his behalf at the cottage prayer meetings, 
 which were held at the homes because of being 
 denied, temporarily, the use of the schoolhouse. 
 
 However, the changes were all effected within 
 one month's time and school was in session all but the 
 last two weeks. 
 
 Four weeks from the day of William: Constad's 
 " announcement " the building was open for " ser- 
 vices." New hitch racks had been constructed along 
 the north and the east. The hedge fence on the 
 south and west had been taken out by the roofs and 
 burned and replaced with a good board fence. This 
 improvement is dwelt upon because of its importance. 
 The hedge in many 'ways was a nuisance, and the 
 grounds, being open on the north, easily invited 
 public travel across the school grounds. The hitch 
 racks stopped all driving of vehicles across the 
 school grounds, which had been leveled. The long 
 porch extending the full length of the front had been 
 replaced by a new one, and every improvement de~ 
 cided upon by the board had been made, including 
 the broom, stove, and big dictionary. 
 
 The morning service held under the new and 
 more favorable conditions was no great success. No 
 one felt at ease. The malefactors who had arbitrar- 
 ily closed the doors against the revivalists were all 
 
90 THE EURAL SCHOOL FROM WITHIN 
 
 there. To their credit they always sat well to the 
 front and while they never took an active part they 
 always gave respectful attention and financial 
 support. 
 
 The evening services were nearly as much of a 
 drag as those of the morning, and were dragging to 
 an uneventful close when Father Rose started up the 
 hymn, " Ho, the old Time Religion, it was good 
 enough for father and it's good enough for me." 
 He had but fairly launched the audience into the 
 third verse, " It is good enough for brother," when 
 the real spirit began to work, and within an hour the 
 new surrotmdings had lost their halo "in the light 
 that never fades." 
 
 To the teacher the use of the school building for 
 other than educational purposes has been more or 
 less of a problem. The average teacher is in sym- 
 pathy with all movements that are for the betterment 
 of the community, but he is quite likely to feel that 
 his first duty is to his job, and that the discourage- 
 ment of anything that interferes with the success 
 of his job lies directly in his path of duty. 
 
 In my effecting the improvement of the school's 
 physical condition I had achieved a great victory, 
 but this victory was due to accident rather than to 
 my good judgment. Had conditions been favorable 
 to the acting upon the impulses that sent me out to 
 boss the school board, failure and not success would 
 
REPAIRING THE SCHOOL BUILDING 91 
 
 have attended my effort. Had I failed to gain the 
 good will of the right man, nothing worth while 
 would have been accomplished. 
 
 After the improvement had been made it was my 
 desire to put the school itself on a better footing than 
 it had been, but the school was not the community 
 interest, and on the reopening of school I discovered 
 that it was far from being a matter of interest to the 
 pupils themselves. 
 
 Understanding the conditions, the reader need 
 not be surprised that I should say that " four weeks 
 from the day of William Constad's ' announcement ' 
 the building was open for ' services.' " 
 
 With the closing of the song everyone knew that 
 the revival season was on, and everyone soon thought 
 he knew that the teacher in the Constad school was 
 opposed to everything religious and moral. This 
 opinion was based upon the fact that I gave my pupils 
 to understand that they could not sleep in school even 
 though they had been out at church the night before, 
 and that I should hold them responsible for their 
 school work whether they attended church or not. 
 Had I deliberately set about to alienate all of my 
 friends I could have chosen no better course. The 
 church people at once gave me a classification no 
 teacher can afford to accept. To be considered 
 against the church is certain to work disaster. In my 
 dilemma I was at a loss to find an ally. Constad 
 
92 THE RURAL SCHOOL FROM WITHm 
 
 was not my man. He, himself, was not considered 
 in matters affecting the community's spirituality. It 
 was plainly to be seen that I could look for no support 
 from Father and Mother Rose. They believed in 
 me, but this belief was not to be permanent if I 
 failed to give the religious movement my undivided 
 support. After a very unpleasant interview with 
 these two good friends, I sought advice from Mr. 
 Constad, who to my surprise was as far from ap- 
 proving my course as any of the others. He did not 
 deny that my position was a correct one, but he 
 thought it was not the only correct position. He be- 
 lieved in school, but he recognized an importance in 
 connection with the church which he felt I should not 
 ignore, and would not ignore if I would succeed 
 with my school. He favored my pursuing a con- 
 servative rather than an extreme policy, and showed 
 me quite plainly that the church, regardless of de- 
 nomination, wlas as much an agency of civilization 
 as the school, and was therefore as much entitled to 
 consideration and support. 
 
 To my discomfort he showed me that my objec- 
 tion to the meetings was as much due to my estimate 
 of the denomination holding the meetings as to their 
 interference with the work of the school. 
 
 Through his temperate presentation of the subject 
 I was led to see that my position was not only an 
 untenable one, but that it was one that might work 
 
REPAIRING THE SCHOOL BUILDING 93 
 
 an injury to others than myself. The teacher above 
 all others is one person who must not be considered 
 as allied with those forces that are destructive to the 
 best interests of society. 
 
 Upon leaving him, I determined upon a course 
 which I believed, and do believe to this day, was con- 
 sistent with what was to the best interests of the 
 young people under my care. 
 
 Instead of opposing the meetings I would gave 
 them my support. Instead of being counted against 
 the church, which I was not, I would be counted for 
 it, which I was. The results were good. The minis- 
 ter was quite willing to give me support. He preached 
 early in the series on the importance of education. 
 He showed very forcibly that good church members 
 must be supporters of education. 
 
 The meetings had been in progress but a few 
 evenings before I discovered this community, like 
 all communities, had problems too great for the 
 school. As a teacher I was seeing educational 
 problems without seeing that their solution is de- 
 pendent upon the solution of certain social problems. 
 I had yet to learn that the school, unaided by other 
 agencies, i.e., the home and the church, can not build 
 up a wholesome social life, and that these three, 
 the home, school and church, are organically bound 
 together and constitute the only safe basis for 
 society. 
 
CHAPTER X 
 A Rural Social Problem 
 
 There is a rural social problem just as there is 
 a city social problem. There are those who contend 
 that there is a greater social problem affecting cities 
 than affecting rural communities. This is not a 
 question that can be definitely settled nor is it a 
 question that needs to be settled. There is a rural 
 social problem and it is great enough to enlist the 
 attention of the sociologist. 
 
 It is said that there ig little or no pauperism, in 
 the rural districts ; that there are no slums and that 
 social vice is unknown. 
 
 It is true that these bad social conditions are 
 not found in rural communities, but it is no less true 
 that bad social conditions of the cities are worse 
 because of this fact. The rural degenerate and the 
 rural unfortunate for obvious reasons drift to the 
 cities. The divorce evil is said to be greater in 
 cities than in rural communities. The city affords 
 less publicity to delinquency than does the open 
 country. The city makes possible greater indepen- 
 dence of one's associates, and in consequence thereof 
 the city gets the refuse and the drift from its tribu- 
 tary territory as surely as the main river of a system 
 94 
 
A RURAL SOCIAL PROBLEM 95 
 
 gets the wreckage caused by the flood devastations of 
 all the rivers of the entire basin. 
 
 There is one point that is all-important, and im- 
 portant as it is, is commonly overlooked. That point 
 is the absolute dependence of rural people in social 
 matters. As stated above, the criminal, the pauper, 
 and the unfortunate drift to the city. It is absolutely 
 necessary that they shall. The human being cannot 
 live tmto himself. However, the rural community 
 has the undesirable element, and keeps it till it reaches 
 the intolerable stage. The dependence of the baser 
 element is no greater than that of the better element, 
 and herein is the problem. A boy and a girl may 
 grow up in a city with all its evils and vices and never 
 know of their existence. They may pass through 
 the public schools without any personal contact with 
 the vicious. The opportunity for selection is un- 
 limited. The good may find their kind just as the 
 bad may find theirs — each is independent of the other 
 and each is happy to be left out of the other's con- 
 sideration. In the rural community an exactly oppo- 
 site condition presents itself. The small number 
 makes all dependent on each other and the smaller 
 the unit the greater this dependency, and the greater 
 is the difficulty of escaping the contaminating in- 
 fluence of the evil. 
 
 The rowdy element, of which no community, 
 rural or urban, is entirely free, is less restrained in 
 
96 THE RURAL SCHOOL FROM WITHIN 
 
 the outlying rural communities. There are several 
 reasons for this, but the greatest is that of depend- 
 ency. The sober, steady-going, self-respecting ele- 
 ment, while disapproving, dare not ignore the fact 
 that those who live in their midst and who. are capable 
 of doing them serious injury must not be offended. 
 This point is well illustrated in a case occurring dur- 
 ing this same year but in another neighborhood. 
 
 The teacher was at the head of what would be^ 
 called to-day a community welfare league. He ar- 
 ranged literary programs and upon certain occasions 
 read popular lectures to his audiences. These were 
 especially enjoyed by a great majority of his audi- 
 ences, but there was that rowdy, lawless element 
 whose ideals and thoughts were low. This element, 
 though small, began to disturb the meetings with the 
 avowed purpose of breaking them up. In a city these 
 toughs would have been summarily fined or jailed, 
 probably both, but here they operated unopposed ex- 
 cept by the teacher, who after a most serious affront 
 had several parties arrested, and as he expressed it 
 later, he himself was almost convicted. 
 
 This must not be interpreted to mean that moral 
 courage is more lacking in rural than in urban com- 
 munities. It is a condition surrounded with respon- 
 sibilities that are most grave, but there is an organi- 
 zation which as a moralizing influence cannot be 
 overesitimated. It, like its sister organization of the 
 
A RURAL SOCIAL PROBLEM 97 
 
 city, may be short in its proper activities, but it is 
 absolutely the most essential organization for the 
 protection of society. By city writers it is criticised 
 as being inefficient, but without it life would be in- 
 tolerable. It is superfluous to tell the reader that 
 this organization is the rural church. Wherever it 
 is in evidence, in the lowlands of Arkansas, or in the 
 mountains of Montana, the foothills of the Blue 
 Ridge Mountains or the prairies of Western Kansas 
 and Eastern Colorado, man is reasonably secure in 
 person and property. 
 
 Occasionally the rural church, like the rural 
 school, gets jobs of too great an undertaking; some- 
 times the rowdy element is too strong and the min- 
 ister is too weak, and then results are very bad 
 indeed. 
 
 Soon after the revival started, trouble from the 
 rough element began. (I must warn my reader not 
 to associate too closely this crowd with the Constad 
 Crossing neighborhood.) They came from miles 
 around. Drinking and carousing were not uncom- 
 mon in those early days of attempted prohibition, 
 and they were much in evidence at many public 
 gatherings, and very much in evidence at those meet- 
 ings where good men and women were gathered to 
 rescue and to save. Young men of great strength 
 of body but weak in morals visited those meetings. 
 7 
 
98 THE RURAL SCHOOL FROM WITHIN 
 
 They came drinking and cursing, defying both God 
 and man. 
 
 The average individual likes attention, and these 
 fellows prided themselves on their toughness, glory- 
 ing in it because it brought them up for prayerful 
 consideration. The louder the prayers, the louder 
 the profanity, because it meant louder-yet prayers. 
 After an unusually rough evening the minister an- 
 nounced that on the following evening he was going 
 to fight the devil with fire. " To-morrow evening 
 I propose to begin ' backfiring,' " he announced. 
 After church he called to one side a young man of 
 powerful build and engaged him in conversation. 
 The young man was Jack Graham. Jack was a 
 decent young man. He was steady-going but he was 
 not religious. Just decent, and honest, and hard- 
 working, and good-natured. The minister said, 
 " Jack, I need you. I feel that I must have your 
 help or these meetings will fail." 
 
 Jack said, " I have told you I won't pray, and I 
 can't sing. If you ever ask me again to come to 
 that mourners' bench, I'll never come again to hear 
 you preach." " No, Jack," said the minister, " I 
 do not want you to pray, I do not want you to sing, 
 I do not want you to come to the mourners' bench, 
 but Jack, when we are singing to-morrow evening, 
 and when we are praying, and when we are at the 
 mourners' bench, I want you to be as far from the 
 
A RURAL SOCIAL PROBLEM 99 
 
 mourners' bench as you can get and still be in the 
 house. I want you to be my fire with which to fight 
 the devil. Get right among those poor drunken 
 sinners and get them to keep quiet — so they can hear 
 the singing and the praying, and the confessions of 
 the penitent. You keep order, Jack, and the rest of 
 us will do the praying and the singing. Do this. 
 Jade. I wish you could pray. Jack. You would be 
 a ,power if you could." 
 
 Jack quietly answered, " I would just as soon be 
 fire one night or so, but I won't pray." 
 
 The following evening bid fair to furnish con- 
 siderable entertainment. The devil had been work- 
 ing pretty hard, and to just a casual observer it 
 would appear that he was considerably in the lead. 
 
 Old Sim Nayson, the vilest of men, had pro- 
 fessed conversion the previous winter. He was 
 without decent clothes, and Father Rose fitted him 
 out in good clothes, even to overshoes and overcoat, 
 and after he had fed him he gave him a Bible. 
 Within twenty- four hours after being outfitted he 
 was staggering drunk and bragging of what religion 
 had done for him. It had clothed him and fed him, 
 and he recommended it to his friends. He had the 
 eflfrontery to publicly boast that the present meet- 
 ings would bring him another suit of clothes. As 
 to the Bible, the one he got last year was as good as 
 new. To his idle listeners he was great amusement. 
 
100 THE RURAL SCHOOL FROM WITHIN 
 
 The meetings had not been well started before old 
 Sim began to lay his plans for new clothes. He 
 went regularly to the mourners' bench, but as he 
 expressed it, he always got on the end where there 
 was no business, and consequently received no 
 special mention in prayers. 
 
 The meeting as usual opened with singing, and 
 the house was crowded to the door. Curiosity 
 seemed to have had a quieting effect — the toughs 
 were all there but in the earlier part of the meeting 
 were more quiet than usual. 
 
 The song service was followed by a sermon 
 which was a strong appeal. The minister was so 
 much in earnest that it seemed that none would be 
 so hardened as not to be touched. The sermon was 
 followed by the usual invitation to the mourners' 
 bench, and on first call Mr. Sim Nayson went 
 forward. 
 
 This was a signal for the rowdies, and during a 
 song Manly Wixon, a large, rawboned, red-whis- 
 kered, red-faced tough of about twenty-five years, 
 began to swear and create a disturbance. Then the 
 back-firing started. 
 
 Jack went quietly to him, laid his hands on his 
 shoulder and said, " The minister wants to have your 
 soul saved. Manly Wixon, but I don't. I think you 
 ought to go to hell soul and body; if you make the 
 least disturbance I am going to knock you through 
 
A RURAL SOCIAL PROBLEM 101 
 
 that window. Now, Manly, do not take this to mean 
 that I want you to keep quiet. I want you to make a 
 noise ; I want you to swear so they can all hear you, 
 and when they look around, they all will get to see 
 you smashing through the window." 
 
 It was very quiet now in the rowdy comer. 
 Everybody knew Jack, and they knew he never 
 promised anything which he did not do. 
 
 Such methods of gaining the attention of one's 
 audience will hardly meet with the approval of some 
 modern disciplinarians. To resort to such tactics 
 was an acknowledgment of that minister's weakness. 
 It was a direct resort to brute force. Men are not 
 won in that way. To compel obedience is not to 
 touch the heart, and the individual is the same after- 
 wards as before. Maybe so. Maybe so. Manly 
 Wixon was a bad man. His influence was for the 
 very worst. He had a good mind but he used it 
 for purposes most vile. Manly Wixon, relieved of 
 the necessity and of even an opportunity of putting 
 on a show, began to look around, and later to give 
 his attention to the meeting which was progressing 
 under the newly favorable conditions. 
 
 The last call for sinners was sent out, and to the 
 surprise and joy of everyone, ugly, rawboned, red- 
 faced Manly Wixon started to the mourners' bench. 
 Down beside the whisky-soaked young man, who 
 but a brief hour before was cursing in his anger 
 
102 THE RURAL SCHOOL FROM WITHIN 
 
 " the sniffling hypocrites," kneh his gr'ay-haired, 
 praying mother. At his other side knelt his saintly 
 old father, and at the end of those prayers, Manly 
 Wixon arose — a man. Manly Wixon has stood the 
 test of time. Since that night he has not only led 
 an upright life, and borne a good reputation among 
 his fellowmen, but he has worked his way through 
 college and has preached the gospel and has been a 
 power for good in the church. 
 
 " Old Jack," as he was lovingly called, couldn't 
 sing and wouldn't pray, but he stood for decency, 
 and had his reward, for he himself became the object 
 of Manly Wixon's affections, and later walked in 
 his footsteps. But how about Simeon Nayson ! On 
 this night he knelt unattended and unprayed. Not 
 unprayed entirely, either. Just at the close of this 
 eventful night, — ^the night when they back-fired on 
 the devil, — when all was still, and the benediction was 
 about to be pronounced, the minister passed to the 
 kneeling Sim — Sim, who had boasted of the great 
 benefits of an every-.day religion — whole suit, and 
 cap, overcoat and shoes, plus a Holy Bible. 
 
 The minister laid his hand on Simeon's head and 
 in clear tones pronounced the following, which 
 sounded like a malediction : 
 
 " Oh, Lord, Thou knowest if this man be in earnest. 
 If he be. Oh, Lord, bless him. 
 If not, smite him. Amen. 
 
A RURAL SOCIAL PROBLEM 103 
 
 The work of the rural church is peculiar in the 
 sense that every efficient organization must be pecu- 
 liar — it must meet conditions as they are found. The 
 rural church to be efficient must, in its own way, do 
 its particular work. It would be as great a mistake 
 to try to " citify " a rural church as it would be to try 
 to " ruralize " a city school. Each must render ser- 
 vice to its own constituency and by its own peculiar 
 methods. 
 
CHAPTER XI 
 
 Managing Boys 
 
 Generally considered, boys make the real 
 problems of discipline. In the Crossing School the 
 boy problem was an ever-present one, due to several 
 causes. 
 
 Probably the first which presented itself was 
 that caused by irregular entrance to school. The 
 new boy always seemed to feel the obligation of 
 affording a certain amount of entertainment to the 
 school, and the boys who were already in school, 
 in turn felt impelled to show the newcomer their 
 accomplishments, which usually involved " a put- 
 ting " of a few things " over " on the teacher. In 
 one or two instances, notably one, the late arrival 
 had been somewhat notorious for his misdoings in 
 the school of former years. Since reformation is 
 not looked upon by a boy in the teens as being a par- 
 ticularly manly undertaking, he was expected by 
 all, and by himself especially, to live up to the 
 enviable reputation already established. 
 
 There is nothing more unfortunate that can come 
 
 into the life of a large overgrown boy than to have 
 
 him acquire the reputation for being tough. He is 
 
 certain to live up to that reputation. Thfe compelling 
 
 104 
 
MANAGING BOYS 105 
 
 forces are so great that he can't resist them. He 
 hears of his greatness everywhere. Sometimes he 
 is admonished, but usually the admonition is ad- 
 ministered in such a way as to urge him on and 
 frequently with the express design of urging him on. 
 
 My ability as disciplinarian was always men- 
 tioned with " But Sam Morris has not started yet. 
 Sam says school will last but three days after he 
 starts. He expects to enter school on a Wednesday 
 so as not to cause any loss of time on the teacher's 
 part. He will make it even time." 
 
 The teachers in city schools, who have superin- 
 tendents, backed by boards of education, who in 
 turn are backed by the police, may look lightly upon 
 such cases as the rural teacher has to face — face 
 squarely too; but such teachers have not had the real 
 experience. A man or woman can live a lifetime in 
 almost any other vocation without meeting a propo- 
 sition more trying. 
 
 To begin with, the teacher is a non-resident. To 
 close with, the community is composed of residents, 
 and they want to live peaceably among themselves, 
 and very often the feeling is that the teacher is re- 
 ceiving much more than the common laborer, and if 
 he can't handle his job without outside help, he 
 should let someone else try it. 
 
 It is not altogether unreasonable that neighbors 
 in rural districts should cultivate each other's friend- 
 
106 THE RURAL SCHOOL FROM WITHIN 
 
 ship more than do people in the towns and cities. 
 The farmer is the most dependent person, socially 
 speaking, in the world. He cannot change his resi- 
 dence if he does not like his.neighbors. He must live 
 where his business is and he must live in peace, or 
 life is not worth living. 
 
 Many of the most intolerable social conditions 
 in the state have grown out of school troubles. Ex- 
 cept the line fence trouble, school trouble is second 
 to none, and over it many lives have been lost, and 
 in the immediate neighborhood of which I write the 
 line fence had but a few months before exacted its 
 death toll, and within twelve months an adjoining 
 neighborhood had paid the price in human life of re- 
 ligious excitement. 
 
 With these conditions, with which I was already 
 quite familiar, the approach of the day when the 
 self-announced adversary of public schools was to 
 enroll was looked forward to with no very noticeable 
 enjoyment on my part. 
 
 He came, and as announced, he came on Wednes- 
 day. He had all the marks of a bully, and he showed 
 his bluff in every movement. He swaggered, he 
 talked loud, he threw his overcoat over his shoulders, 
 presumably for the purpose of clearing for action. 
 He chewed tobacco, and he did a good job of it. 
 He had other frailties, but you have heard enough. 
 The school, which had settled down to good behavior 
 
MANAGING BOYS 107 
 
 and good feeling, was deeply impressed with Sam's 
 arrival. The girls were plainly against him, but the 
 boys scented a fight, and of course there was but 
 one opinion as to its outcome and, therefore, the 
 popularity of the one destined to defeat grew less 
 as the one who was to win grew greater. With 
 his increasing popularity he grew more insolent. 
 This was in a measure encouraging, for every bad 
 movement would justify the repulse that he would 
 be given when the time for action arrived. 
 
 To the inexperienced teacher the foregoing re- 
 marks may need explanation. 
 
 The pupil bent on creating a disturbance works 
 carefully for an opening. He does nothing directly. 
 He possesses the foresight of the outlaw, and plans 
 his attack in a way that makes detection difficult and 
 escape possible. He works the "offensive" just 
 enough to make the position " defensive " easy to 
 assume. He walks heavily enough to annoy the 
 school, but not so heavily as to make a sure case 
 against him. He drops his books, making a loud 
 noise, but leaving insufficient proof of his intention 
 to justify a reprimand. He coughs so loudly as to 
 attract attention of the whole school and the school 
 laughs. But they should not laugh, for he says he 
 has a very bad cold, and it can't be proved thait he 
 has not a very bad cold. Every act is studied. He 
 knows full well that he is safe so long as an abso- 
 
108 THE RURAL SCHOOL FROM WITHIN 
 
 lute case cannot be made against him. The teacher 
 may remonstrate with him for his heavy walking, 
 for his careless handling of his books and for his 
 loud coughing, and by that time the teacher, of 
 course, is picking on him and " nagging " him. In- 
 stead of having a case against the pupil, the pupil 
 has a case against the teacher; and public opinion, 
 the most delicate and most unreliable thing on earth, 
 turns to the culprit, and puts the " offending " 
 teacher on the defensive. When it becomes neces- 
 sary for a teacher to defend his position, he must 
 have a preponderance of evidence or the jury, which 
 is composed of resident citizens, will find for the 
 plaintiff. 
 
 Therefore, it becomes necessary for the teacher 
 who faces the expert criminal to bide his time. The 
 term outlaw and criminal are used advisedly. True, 
 such pupils are as yet embryonic, but unless checked 
 they are doomed for a career that eventually leads 
 to the prison cell. Acquaintance with the history of 
 the vicious convicts supports the belief that vicious 
 men were not model pupils, but on the contrary were 
 rebellious and difficult to control. In company with 
 a delegation of teachers, a few years ago, I 
 visited a state penitentiary. More than one of our 
 delegation called for prisoners who had at one 
 time been their pupils. Some were life prisoners. 
 No longer did these men swagger and leer and show 
 
MANAGING BOYS 109 
 
 by every movememt that they were victors. They 
 came into the warden's office, pale, dejected, heart- 
 broken men. There were many tears and childlike 
 sobs. They were truly penitent, but it was a tardy 
 penitence. Without exception they spoke of their 
 school days — of the trouble they made. Oh, if they 
 could only have a boy's chance once more! How 
 different their lives would be ! 
 
 A sight like this calls most loudly to the teacher 
 to weigh carefully his responsibility. Somewhere 
 there had been poor management and very bad dis- 
 cipline. Through negligence or ignorance on the part 
 of parent or teacher, or parent and teacher, there was 
 failure to inculcate effective ideals of respect for 
 authority and law. This respect must be engendered 
 or the coming generations will pay the penalty. A 
 school uncontrolled is a kindergarten for reforma- 
 tories and prisons, and weak sentimentalism is as 
 much out of place in the teacher and as ineffective 
 as a disciplinary measure as is faint-heartedness in 
 a surgeon. The teacher is under as great an obliga- 
 tion to save the youth to a moral life as is the surgeon 
 to save to a physical life, and failure through wilful 
 neglect or inexcusable ignorance in the teacher or in 
 the surgeon merits severe condemnation, and should 
 be a bar against future practice. 
 
 For two days Sam exercised all his arts to disturb 
 the school without stepping over the line. Just be- 
 
110 THE RURAL SCHOOL FROM WITHIN 
 
 fore noon on the third day he made a very poor 
 recitation, which I believed was intentional. There 
 were others in the class that did not do well and it 
 •was very evident that they were in an alliance with 
 the teacher's foe. They were all asked to return to 
 the room after a half hour's intermission and study 
 the lesson. 
 
 As anticipated, Sam remained outside till school 
 was called. 
 
 There was a crisis. The teacher who meets a 
 situation like this must decide upon one of two 
 courses : allow the offense to go unnoticed or admin- 
 ister proper punishment. As to what that punish- 
 ment is, he alone must decide. To allow the offense 
 to pass unnoticed means but one thing, and that is 
 failure. 
 
 The latter of the two courses was chosen, and as 
 well as I remember, the following is the account of 
 my first real experience in handling a difficult ques- 
 tion, and for it years have brought no regret. Pro- 
 grams should be carefully followed, but regular busi- 
 ness should always be suspended in the interests of 
 public safety. How teachers or parents can continue 
 the even tenor of their ways when a child needs 
 immediate relief is as incomprehensible as why a 
 locomotive engineer would drive his engine after he 
 knows there is something vitally wrong. 
 
 When the school was seated and perfectly quiet. 
 
MANAGING BOYS 111 
 
 the pupil who had broken up schools in previous 
 years, and who was avowedly there at this time on a 
 similar errand, was asked to come to the front. 
 
 This was a hard situation in which to place a 
 young man of such fame. The eyes of seventy 
 pupils were on him. There was an expectant com- 
 munity waiting the returns. He was now to be 
 weighed. Would he be found wanting? By an un- 
 controllable instinct, fear, which sooner or later 
 victimizes the moral delinquent, he was driven from 
 his position and stood before his neighbors awaiting 
 his teacher's further will and pleasure. 
 
 The teacher's attitude was now wholly imper- 
 sonal. Had it been otherwise forgiveness could 
 have been pronounced, but the great lesson that the 
 boy needed to have was incomplete. He had offended 
 society and the penalty must be paid. With his eyes 
 downcast he heard the following, so nearly as can 
 be recalled: 
 
 " Sam, are you aware of the fact that to anyone 
 who knows boys or men, you are very much of a 
 coward? You are a coward from every point of 
 view. In the first place you are a coward because 
 you are putting up a bluff on me. You have not 
 thought for a minute that there would be any physi- 
 cal encounter between you and the teacher. You 
 made your bluff work last year and that was your 
 ruin. If your teacher had given you what he was 
 
112 THE RURAL SCHOOL FROM WITHIN 
 
 well able to do and what any able-bodied man in the 
 neighborhood would give you, were you to offer him 
 any such insults as you offer the school, you would 
 have been a pretty decent sort of a fellow. In the 
 last place you are a coward, because you, without 
 reason, allow people to cause you to mistreat a per- 
 son against whom you have no really bad feeling. 
 You may have some manhood left, but it's covered 
 up in conceit and cowardice. In addition to your 
 conceit and cowardice you are a most foolish person. 
 You have made threats against an innocent person, 
 one who has the interests of the community at heart. 
 If your teacher then did not administer to you a 
 sound thrashing, as he now intends to do, he would 
 turn you over to the sheriff of the county and what 
 you or this particular neighborhood might think 
 would make no difference. All who feel they want to 
 see Sam thrashed for his assault on the Crossing 
 School will remain in the room. Those who do not 
 may pass out and remain till the ringing of the bell." 
 
 The girls without exception rose and passed out. 
 The boys, governed more by principle than feelings, 
 followed the girls, and Sam and the teacher with a 
 thoroughly good whip burned the mortgage that 
 Sam had put on the Crossing School the year before. 
 
 Sam was asked to make no promises. He had 
 paid the debt and without further ceremony was 
 restored to citizenship. 
 
MANAGING BOYS 113 
 
 Sam never caused any more trouble. It was a 
 hard struggle. He had much to face. He had a 
 conwnunity who took delight in teasing him whom 
 before they had honored. But he came out of it, 
 and while he never showed any great strength of 
 character, he became in after years a safe citizen. 
 
 We often speak of certain diseases — ^that the 
 parties did not inherit them, but rather a weakness 
 in which these diseases found easy competition. So 
 do we find in the moral health of the boy certain 
 inherited tendencies which make him more easily 
 controlled by certain forces than is some other boy. 
 It is most important that we accept these so-called 
 tendencies. They are innate, but like the physical 
 they may be corrected or they may be made the basis 
 for moral degeneration. It is not my purpose to 
 point out the weaknesses of the boy and how they 
 may be corrected. I shall, however, consider him as 
 we find him and as we treat him, leaving my reader 
 to judge if the treatment that the boy receives be not 
 usually administered with a lack of common sense 
 and if it be not a mighty force in determining his 
 destiny. In my opinion one of the most ruinous 
 forces is the erroneous prevailing opinion of what a 
 boy is. 
 
 I am sometimes asked : " Why do you emphasize 
 the boy ? Why not the girl ? Why do you not speak 
 of the forces that control the girl, or rather the child ? 
 8 
 
114 THE RURAL SCHOOL FROM WITHIN 
 
 Are the influences or forces that control the boy dif- 
 ferent from those controlling the girl? Or is boy- 
 nature different from girl nature, and, therefore, are 
 different forces necessary for its control?" 
 
 Possibly those forces which tend to draw the 
 dhild downward find a greater affinity in the char- 
 acter of the boy than in the girl. Possibly, too, the 
 girl nature, or girl character, is more susceptible to 
 those higher, ennobling and refining influences or 
 forces than is boy nature or character. Be this latter 
 speculation true or not, I would not venture to say, 
 nor even presume to think, yet something says such 
 is the universally accepted opinion. Now if this be 
 an opinion that is generally accepted, foolishly 
 maybe, is it not a mighty force? ' Aye, and if it be 
 frequently expressed might not these expressions 
 themselves prove controlling forces to the detriment 
 of the boy ? 
 
 The mischievous boy baby is often indulged by 
 the fond parent because his little naughtinesses, while 
 bad in themselves, are just like a boy. As the boy be- 
 comes a little older, his /meannesses or Eve tendencies 
 are looked upon with much the same leniency and 
 passed over with the same old observation, " That is 
 just like a boy." By and by this boy becomes a 
 school boy. The boy who was immortalized by 
 Whittier at once loses caste, and as truly to-day as 
 when Isaac was a boy, is he made the burnt offering 
 
MANAGING BOYS 115 
 
 if nothing better is at hand. He is (idiotic as it may- 
 seem) early informed that he must be good. He is 
 at once made to feel that his very presence is offen- 
 sive, and that he is not often good, and with the 
 birds of a feather idea, he assembles himself slowly 
 but surely, degree by degree, with that group of sup- 
 pressed individuals who have learned by experience 
 that " It's not theirs to malce reply." Do you won- 
 der if such a force bearing down upon a little fellow 
 may not shape and determine his destiny ? Charles 
 Dickens thought these forces most potent. Let me 
 pause long enough to say that the boys ought to 
 build a monument to the memory of Dickens. He 
 himself has been a mighty force among the forces 
 that affect the boy life, especially in this regard. A 
 few years ago it was thought that this king of prose 
 writers would soon be unread, but there are more 
 copies of his works being sold at this time than ever 
 before. He stands to-day as the greatest factor in 
 educational reform that the English speaking nations 
 have produced. 
 
 The life of a schoolboy — it is most solemn to 
 contemplate. I never see the boy entering school 
 for the first time but I have a feeling that is akin to 
 sorrow. Good, pure, innocent, trusting, confiding 
 little cherub — so soon to step upon the stage and 
 play the part assigned him. 
 
 Edwin Booth, the greatest American actor, 
 
116 THE RURAL SCHOOL FROM WITHIN 
 
 played Hamlet so long and so well, he feigned mad- 
 ness so admirably, that in the last years of his life 
 attendants had to exercise the greatest diligence to 
 prevent a real tragedy when he stabbed Polonius. 
 The boy becomes an actor. In the dramatis personae 
 he is the Boy. He is no one's darling any more. 
 He is just one of the boys. 'A boy is rough, he 
 must be rough, or he is a girl-boy. He must not 
 be dainty; that would be affectation. He must not 
 be, he cannot be, modest ; that in a boy is unpardon- 
 able. That is bashfulness. Amid all this, time 
 passes on and the boy, while no one censures or 
 particularly cares or blames him or holds him ac- 
 countable, naturally gets a little older, a little more 
 awkward, and considerably self-conscious, and in 
 this period nonsensical courses of vigorous treat- 
 ment are prescribed. He is subjected to lectures 
 (morals, hygienic) upon the not doing of the identi- 
 cal things which the forces have compelled him to 
 do. He is brought face to face with facts — that 
 he is urfcouth, unkind ; that he is not gentle with his 
 sister or respectful to his mother; that his father, 
 the monument of force, is his only control, that cor- 
 poral force by which he cam be swayed is the only 
 one to be resorted to to control his natural perverse- 
 ness of character. 
 
 At about this time the attempt is made to un- 
 teach him all that he has been taught. But he has 
 
MANAGING BOYS 117 
 
 played the part and it is now a reality. He is bidden 
 to pay a thousand little compliments to his sister and 
 to other girls and other ladies and he wonders why 
 no one ever tells them anything nice to do for him. 
 He wonders why girls are so much better, so much 
 nicer than he. He knows they must be. He is 
 always told they are. He has read about bad boys, 
 but never in all his life has he ever heard or read 
 of a naughty, bad girl. He has read that old story 
 about the boy that threw the snowball against the 
 schoolhouse door. He has heard that once popular 
 ditty, " What are little girls made of ? Sugar and 
 spice and everything nice, that is what little girls are 
 made of. And what are little boys made of? To- 
 bacco and snuff and all such stuff, and that's what 
 little boys are made of." 
 
 What fools, what fools we mortals be ! What is 
 the forecast with all these forces driving him and 
 pushing him along? Will the father be happy in 
 the realization of his hopes? The daughter so 
 gentle, so loving! She stays at home. Her brother 
 cares nothing for her now. She wonders, " What 
 use are brothers, anyway ? " And well she may after 
 the forces have done their work. These have long 
 since convinced him that he and she have nothing in 
 common. That he is not a fit companion for his 
 more refined sister, he never doubts. Why, ever 
 since she was a little girl and he was a little boy, 
 
118 THE RURAL SCHOOL FROM WITHIN 
 
 their ways have been different. Pretty curls — dirty 
 face, new shoes — chapped feet, kisses — frowns, 
 mamma's pet — mamma's heart-ache. Thus the 
 forces have driven them apart. At church, the sister 
 up in the front or in the choir, the boy in the back 
 seat or down town. Conditions, like the boy, change. 
 New conditions enlist new forces. Sisters need es- 
 corts. The controlling forces make it proper, and 
 the boy for the first time since he donned trousers 
 is induced to accompany his sister to places of en- 
 tertainment. Methinks the lad is secretly proud that 
 his sister should condescend to accept such company 
 as his, and in a very short time hereafter this boy 
 who has been the cloud on the family horizon, the 
 menace to society, the bugaboo to little children, be- 
 comes just like a man. Indeed, he is called a man, 
 and he is becoming cognizant of the new responsibil- 
 ities which the new forces are controlling and his 
 destiny begins to assume calculable proportions. 
 The new world into which he is being initiated 
 contains forces which he is slow to understand. 
 Eventually the mystery is solved, the darkness in 
 which he has wandered since he was not mamma's 
 baby vanishes and rapturously he exclaims: 
 
 " Oh, woman, lovely woman, 
 Nature made you to temper man. 
 We had been brutes without thee. 
 There's in you all that we expect of heaven, 
 Amazing brightness, truth and everlasting joy." 
 
MANAGING BOYS 119 
 
 So it is of the forces that control thg finer 
 emotions. The boy is deprived of them until his 
 nature has become hardened, and when it is too late 
 he is reclaimed in form, and for the remainder of his 
 life he is the staunch advocate of the doctrine of 
 the immoral agency of boys, and thus is another 
 if not a new force for the destruction of boys 
 created. The common sense used in controlling the 
 girl will control the boy. Pretty stories, nice toys, 
 clean faces, nicely combed hair, nice clothes, caresses 
 and kind words and social recognition are as power- 
 ful controlling forces in the boy as in the girl ; and 
 the forces that demoralize the boy would equally 
 demoralize the girl if applied. 
 
 The boy if sensibly treated is as responsive as 
 is the day in the hand of the potter. He is par- 
 ticularly sensitive on one point, and I would warn 
 all who do not understand the boy not to assume 
 that because he is so docile you can impose on him. 
 Punish him ever so severely and if he deserves it 
 he is yet your faithful friend, but convincing him 
 of your superiority by domineering and tyrannizing 
 over him will create a passion that would destroy 
 the oppressor and the oppressor's soul. 
 
 Boys are just as refractory as girls and like them 
 they sometimes need heroic treatment, and like them 
 thrive under its proper administration. Reciprocity 
 treaties with the boys will work wonders. The 
 
120 THE RURAL SCHOOL FROM WITHIN 
 
 meanest boy in your town would walk a block for 
 the privilege of lifting his hat to a lady if he be- 
 lieved that she appreciated the act. Benjamin 
 Franklin was not sorry that he turned the grind- 
 stone, though his hands burned and pained ; but the 
 flame of indignation kindled by " Scud to school, 
 you little rascal " never quite died out. The forces 
 that control the boy are those which appeal to his 
 heart, his pride and his sense. 
 
 I would not have it understood that I- am partial 
 to the boy nor would I have it understood that I 
 think the girl is better treated than she should be. 
 In fact I do not think she is too well treated. I 
 do think that she is more sensibly and carefully 
 treated than the boy, and it is for a more careful 
 and sensible treatment of the boy that I would plead. 
 The treatment that the boy is to receive in the 
 future years is going to be a great improvement over 
 that of the past, and I believe we shall grow a better 
 boy than the world has ever known. Indeed, I am 
 of the belief that notwithstanding the many frail- 
 ties and shortcomings of the boy of to-day, he is 
 the best boy, the cleanest boy, the manliest boy that 
 ever inhabited this world. He is the result of the 
 new education. He will be the result of common 
 sense didactics. True, the world has a few of us 
 left who are of that school which believes that the 
 activity of youth is degeneracy, who believe that it 
 
MANAGING BOYS 121 
 
 is the mission of the adult population to curb and 
 subdue the youth of the land, who say that the boy 
 of to-day is worse than the boy when we were boys. 
 We who think such thoughts are honest in our 
 thinking, but very ignorant of the past or what 
 would be a kinder criticism, very forgetful. The 
 boys of past generations, as their own biographies 
 will testify, were not models from certain points of 
 view. Irving says, "The boy whose passions are not 
 strong enough in youth to mislead him from the 
 path of science which his tutors and not himself 
 have marked out for him, will probably obtain every 
 advantage and honor that his college can bestow, 
 but the man whose youth has been thus passed in 
 the tranquillity of dispassionate prudence is like 
 liquors that never ferment and consequently are 
 always muddy." I do believe that the school of to- 
 day and the intelligent home of to-day are taking a 
 better and more sensible view of the matter and 
 have about concluded that nature is deserving of a 
 more liberal partronage than she has been accustomed 
 to receive. And while, as one of our prominent 
 educators has said, "When we leave the town of 
 Boyville we may never return, yet we may be per- 
 mitted to peer over Its walls and see the place where 
 we once did live, and in our peering we may recall 
 the desires, the inability to gratify them, the disap- 
 pointments, the sorrows, which were greater than 
 
122 THE RURAL SCHOOL FROM WITHIN 
 
 any we have encountered in later life, and in our 
 legislating for that younger colony let us not fail to 
 remember the very kind of legislation that would 
 have been best sviited to us when we lived there, and 
 give it to them." 
 
 This is not dangerous advice. The youths that 
 are ruined by over-indulgence are small in number 
 when compared with the number of those who have 
 been ruined by withholding the things which, in- 
 nocent in themselves, would have been enjoyments in 
 that age when such enjoyments only come, and by 
 withholding the things which youith requires, and by 
 forcing upon it what it does not want and often 
 should not have. Youth is not the time to prepare 
 for old age, so much as it is the time when the 
 most should be gotten out of life, the time when 
 beautiful characters should be formed, not for the 
 future but for the present. What man or woman 
 past middle age can think that youth is the prepara- 
 tion for old age? Youth is for development, for 
 joyful, happy times, and useful times. Take care of 
 youth and old age will take care of itself. 
 
 I plead not for a loose discipline but for a most 
 careful, watchful supervision. The miseries of per- 
 dition are no less to be shunned than the miseries of 
 the prodigal youth, whether boy or girl. The parent 
 or teacher who is ignorant of the pitfalls is unfitted 
 to lead. The parent or teacher who employs a 
 
MANAGING BOYS 123 
 
 negative discipline or repression, depression and op- 
 pression, retards and arrests development. Such 
 discipline, however, is most common, because it is 
 easier to destroy than to invent; to tear down than 
 to build up. 
 
 We must ever keep in mind that the child be- 
 comes what he likes. If we would have vice shunned 
 we must make goodness attractive. If we would 
 have ovu" followers pure, we, the leaders, must be 
 pure. We mtist remember the influence of en- 
 vironment and provide proper associations and 
 proper entertainment. And this means much prepa- 
 ration and hard work. 
 
 One of the greatest troubles of humanity is over- 
 seriousness. We magnify responsibility. We know 
 so much of the seamy side of life and so little of the 
 seamless side. We see nothing but seams. We 
 forget to look on the other side. We see so much of 
 the bad and so little of the good. With young men 
 and women there is much of the good and little of 
 the bad. In this twentieth century we have a young 
 woman who is the greatest creation, with one ex- 
 ception, that ever came from the hand of God, and 
 that exception is the twentieth century young man. 
 He is great in spite of the conditions. I say this 
 without expecting favor from the young men, but 
 for the influence it may have on those who think the 
 boy is by nature bad. I make these statements to 
 
124 THE RURAL SCHOOL FROM WITHIN 
 
 my readers, hoping to awaken feelings of responsi- 
 bility. I have had many years' experience with 
 boys. Before I began my work as a teacher I made 
 this resolution : Every boy who comes under my care 
 will receive as much care as will the girl. If he is 
 deserving commendation he will always get it. No 
 boy will ever receive any but the kindest treatment, 
 even though he be awkward, overgrown and green. 
 He may swear and do a thousand uncomplimentary 
 things, but I'll treat him fair and square. I'll b^ 
 honest with him, I'll bend him but never break him. 
 If he breaks confidence with me I'll wipe ofif the slate 
 and begin anew — open a new account. I'll always 
 remember the lad I once was. I'll give him the 
 love I used to want and did not get. I'll try 
 to forget all the bad he does and try to remember 
 all the good, and I'll always try to remember that 
 there is more good in a bad boy than there is in a 
 good man. 
 
 After over twenty-five years of acting upon these 
 resolves I stand ready to approve of them. Such a 
 policy will make honorable men out of any type. 
 It will win in the slums of the great city as it will 
 win upon the beautiful prairies. 
 
CHAPTER XII 
 
 A Teacher's Responsibility as Seen by 
 A Board Member 
 
 In every community there are men who bear 
 good names but do not deserve them. They are 
 loud in their professions of goodness, but at heart 
 they are bad. 
 
 In every community with which the writer is 
 familiar there is at least one man who is better than 
 he is given credit for being. These men have pecu- 
 liar notions of letting their light shine. They abhor 
 anything that has the faintest of show in it. They 
 are of that class of men who pray in secret, but in 
 the presence of their fellowmen seem wholly indif- 
 ferent to matters spiritual. 
 
 When they subscribe to public enterprises, to 
 the support of the church or give to charity, they 
 give grudgingly, not because they begrudge the bene- 
 ficiaries the money, but because they cannot stand 
 the publicity that it gives them. 
 
 Such a mlan was William Constad. To his 
 neighbors he had the reputation of being irreligious, 
 simply because he did not enter into the religious 
 work as did others. 
 
 When the question was put, as it often was, 
 
 125 
 
126 THE RURAL SCHOOL FROM WITHIN 
 
 " How many of you feel sure of heaven? " William 
 Constad remained seated. When the question was 
 asked, as it sometimes was, " How many hope that 
 they will be saved?" William Constad remained 
 seated. He was non-committal. When the sub- 
 scription paper was passed for the support of the 
 church, he was not the lowest on the list, but he was 
 far from being the highest. 
 
 Before I learned to know him well I expressed 
 myself to Father Rose as being surprised at his 
 tight-fistedness. But afterwards I had no such 
 criticism. In confidence I learned much that the 
 public knew nothing about. I learned that but for 
 Constad the church at that place would have very 
 slim support. 
 
 In December, soon after the schoolhouse had 
 been repaired, the weather turned bitterly cold, and 
 one day when the storm was extremely bad there 
 was a knock on the schoolhouse door. It was Con- 
 stad. He called me outside and said : " I want to 
 talk with you about a few of the poor children in 
 the school. We have two or three families that are 
 not clothed for this kind of weather. Now, I want 
 to help them but I can't very well afiford to do so. 
 There are so many who just bleed a fellow if they 
 suspect he has a heart ; and if it is known that one 
 will help, many who do not need assistance try to 
 get it. You are in a position to do such work in- 
 
A TEACHER'S RESPONSIBILITY 127 
 
 telligently and I want you to do it, and I'll furnish 
 the money. All the money that is needed to make all 
 the children properly clothed you can have, and I 
 give it on one condition only, which is, that the 
 people whom you supply shall not know me in the 
 matter." 
 
 Within a week the three families mentioned in 
 an early chapter of this book were supplied with 
 good comfortable clothing. 
 
 On the Sunday following it was a pleasure and 
 a pretty sight to see these children come to church 
 clothed in good warm clothing. 
 
 It is not difficult to analyze the feelings of the 
 man who was responsible for a dozen being suffi- 
 ciently clothed to attend church, and he had the 
 satisfaction of knowing that they felt under no obli- 
 gation to him. One must be endowed with more 
 than ordinary sense to know that for one to help 
 his neighbor who is in deep financial distress, one 
 must either give this help secretly or give it as a 
 pleasure to himself, if he would retain that neigh- 
 bor's good will. 
 
 The sting of ingratitude is most painful, but 
 there is nothing more common. The individual who 
 has become a beneficiary to the extent that he con- 
 siders his very existence is due to another's assist- 
 ance experiences feelings of revolt that not infre- 
 quently resolve into hate. 
 
128 THE RURAL SCHOOL FROM WITHIN 
 
 In doing good deeds the wise man will not let 
 his right hand know what his left hand does. This 
 principle has its application to many lines of en- 
 deavor — to the work of the teacher and the preacher, 
 as well as to the work of the philanthropist. Many, 
 many men have found to their bitter disappointment 
 that their good deeds were unappreciated — ^they con- 
 sider the world ungrateful. 
 
 The doctor laments the fact that gratitude does 
 not outlive the disease. The landlord remembers the 
 ingratitude of his tenant whom he provided with 
 the necessities of life till he could get a crop; the 
 politician remembers the many men in office that 
 are there through his endeavors, but since then, they 
 know him not. The giver of alms often claims as 
 his reward the hatred of those to whom he has 
 ministered. 
 
 To all such it may profitably be said, " When thou 
 visiteth the sick, or when thou providest the tenant 
 with groceries, or giveth thine alms to the poor, or 
 scratchest thy ticket in the interests of a friend, for- 
 get it most speedily; otherwise ye have no reWard." 
 
 Of all of Constad's good works his greatest was 
 along the lines that would be helpful to boys. He 
 never saw a book on pedagogy, but he had certain 
 ideas that were sound. He believed in providing 
 pleasures for them rather than in depriving them 
 of pleasures. He believed in opening his own house 
 
A TEACHER'S RESPONSIBILITY 129 
 
 to his children's friends, rather than have his own 
 children go to places where their amusements were 
 questionable. He believed that it was better to have 
 plenty of social entertainment in the Crossing neigh- 
 borhood than to suppress it as much as possible and 
 force the young people to seek it in distant places. 
 He believed that when the boys of his neighborhood 
 gave as a reason for Sunday baseball, that the gate 
 receipts were better on that day, and that they had 
 to have gate receipts in order to get their supplies, 
 it was up to him to subsidize that ball team, 
 thereby removing the necessity (as the boys con- 
 sidered it) for Sunday violation. 
 
 He believed that a young man who committed a 
 wrong should be forgiven and given at least one more 
 chance. His excuse for forgiving the young man who 
 forged his name to a check, and for allowing him to 
 work for him to pay back the money he had thus 
 unlawfully obtained and squandered, was that he 
 himself owed his success in life to a mere accident. 
 Here is the story in his own words. 
 
 " I was a very dishonest young man. Not only 
 was I crooked in my dealings but I actually took 
 things that did not belong to me. My father was a 
 wealthy and a very careless man. He loved his chil- 
 dren and believed in them. He felt it was wrong 
 to watch them. Whatever they told him, he never 
 questioned. He kept money in the house and it 
 
130 THE RURAL SCHOOL FROM WITHIN 
 
 was where the children could get to it, unre- 
 strained. But he never believed that he had a 
 child who would take a cent without accounting for 
 it. I became an exception. First, pennies, then 
 dimes, and later a bill. I went to bed early every 
 night — that was what my father thought. We lived 
 in a city then. I went up to my room, but within a 
 few minutes I was with the worst boys and in most 
 questionable places, and all this time I was my 
 father's pride. By mere accident my father discov- 
 ered that I had been derelict in a small matter, and 
 when once his confidence was shaken he began a 
 most searching inquisition. This inquisition dis- 
 covered to him that his son was leading a dissipated 
 life and that he was both a liar and a thief. 
 
 " At once he began to make restitution for the 
 things wherein he had been remiss. He accepted the 
 situation as he found it, and assumed full respon- 
 sibility for it all. He had indulged in unpardonable 
 credulity. Temptations to do wrong and unlimited 
 opportunity after yielding to temptations to escape 
 detection had been afforded his children. Yes sir, 
 he had hidden nothing from his children up to this 
 time, nor did he begin it there. He told me in quiet 
 tones that I was a liar; that I had betrayed his con- 
 fidence; that I was a thief, and had stolen from one 
 who had always meant to be very kind to me. It 
 
A TEACHER'S RESPONSIBILITY 131 
 
 was most humiliating to have him say all this, and 
 to have him conclude by saying ' It is all my fault. 
 Poor boy! All these years I have been making 
 money, and felt I was living for you, but I have 
 neglected you, and have placed before you tempta- 
 tions that were too strong for you. The only ques- 
 tion now, my son, is : " Can we make it all right 
 again?"' 
 
 " Then began our new life. 
 
 " He exacted but one promise of me, and gave 
 me strictly to understand that it was a promise never 
 to be broken. That promise was that I would never 
 tell him an untruth. After making him that prom- 
 ise, he said, ' If you do a wrong and 1 question you 
 about it, tell me the whole truth and we will fix it all 
 up and try to do better afterwards, but if you tell 
 me a lie, it may cause me never to trust you again.' 
 In addition to exacting the promise, the drawer con- 
 taining the money was locked. Never again would 
 he allow money of even a very small denomination 
 to lie around, where it might be picked up by little 
 children or by the servants. 
 
 " His next step was to form a closer association 
 with his family, and our home was opened to our 
 friends. True, it had not, before this, been denied 
 them, but there had been no effort made to have them 
 there. 
 
132 THE RURAL SCHOOL FROM WITHIN 
 
 " I was privileged and urged thereafter to have 
 my friends come to our home, and although I did 
 not have to be directed in my choice of friends, 
 I found myself desiring a different friendship from 
 that which I had been forming in the places of vice. 
 
 " When I think of my narrow escape," he con- 
 tinued, " I shudder to think of what might have been 
 the consequences had it not been for the timely 
 detection, and if, then, I had had an austere and un- 
 forgiving father. I claim no credit for my being 
 an honest citizen, and a man whose business integrity 
 is undoubted, and I wonder if to-day, were I a con- 
 vict in some state prison, which, undoubtedly but 
 for the accident, I would be, would I assume full 
 responsibility for a blasted life? I believe I would 
 not. I would have been the result of an environ- 
 ment as truly as I am the result of an environment." 
 
 In giving me this bit of his personal history, he 
 offered the following as his reason : 
 
 " I give you this personal experience because 
 you are a teacher and will have great opportunities 
 for doing much for the boys and girls. You will 
 also have great opporttmities for committing im- 
 measurable injury. 
 
 " Morally, teachers are an exceptional people. 
 I do not except the ministry, when I say they have 
 no superiors. I have studied teachers all my life. 
 
A TEACHER'S RESPONSIBILITY 133 
 
 I knew many of them, before I came West, and I 
 know they are a superior class of people. They are 
 usually the very best students that the schools pro- 
 duce. They come, generally speaking, from the best 
 homes. Consequently we have little to fear con- 
 cerning their morals, but there is one grave danger, 
 and that is that such people are not wise to the 
 ways of the world. Like my father, they are too 
 much inclined to undue credulity, and this as I have 
 shown may lead to bad results. 
 
 " Sometimes we find a teacher who looks lightly 
 upon wrongdoing; that is tmusual, but the former 
 fault is quite a common one. Sometimes that fault is 
 due to downright stupidity, but most often to an un- 
 natural and unwarranted confidence. 
 
 " The teacher who is a safe proposition to con- 
 sider in the matter of directing young people must 
 be ever on the alert. He need not, and if sane he 
 will not, give the young imder his care to feel that 
 they are under surveillance, but it is more impor- 
 tant that he know just what is being done than it is 
 for the merchant to know what his employees are 
 doing. 
 
 "You teachers frequently grow rather senti- 
 mental, and give for your opinions concerning 
 such matter as I am discussing doctrines which if 
 practised by the business world would overcrowd 
 
134 THE RURAL SCHOOL FROM WITHJN 
 
 our penitentiaries in a very short time. This does 
 not mean that people are dishonest, but it does mean 
 that people are weak, and that there is such a thing 
 as making it easy to do wrong. The strict and care- 
 ful auditing of the accounts of the public official 
 makes for honest service. Post office inspectors, 
 bank inspectors, combination locks and cash regis- 
 ters are not reflections upon man's integrity. They 
 all help make an honest citizenship. The teacher 
 who thoughtlessly or wilfully permits deception, 
 cheating, or lying, or makes it possible through his 
 mismanagement for the wrongs to happen, is as 
 unfit for the position which he occupies as is the 
 trustee of public funds when thoughtlessly or wil- 
 fully he is derelict in his service. And the results 
 will be more disastrous in the case of the teacher." 
 So spoke the man who never spoke unkindly of 
 his neighbors. He had had an experience that made 
 him have charity for his fellowmen. He was timid 
 when it came to professing his virtues, but bold in 
 defending the reputation of another. 
 
 It seems to be a truth, and yet it is not always 
 possible of verification, that no one can really 
 sympathize with the unfortunate, the sick, the poor 
 or the morally delinquent unless it in some way 
 touches a real experience either in his life or in the 
 life of one near and dear to him. 
 
CHAPTER XIII 
 Christmas Vacation 
 
 The Crossing School was the largest school in 
 the county. 
 
 After the corn was gathered the larger boys, 
 young men grown, came in for a few months. If 
 the spring was backward they remained in till the 
 middle of March, but February brings sunshiny days 
 some years, and fanning, such as sowing oats, 
 cutting stalks, cutting hedge, making fence and 
 breaking colts begins from two to three weeks earlier. 
 Some years there is little sunshine during the month 
 of. February, and March may be a very disagreeable 
 month, with its rains, snows, sleets and winds. But 
 March is not a time of year when farmers can regard 
 the weather. At that time of year there are hun- 
 dreds of things to be done. If the farmer is a man 
 who owns his farm, he has horses, cattle and hogs 
 (and this is the season for colts, calves and pigs), 
 and these must all be protected against the weather. 
 If the farmer does not own his farm, March is his 
 moving time. These various activities call for the 
 able-bodied young men, and by the middle of April 
 they will be needed if ever at all. 
 
 It is certainly ideal to have these young men in 
 136 
 
CHRISTMAS VACATION 137 
 
 till the close of the school year, but there are grave 
 economic questions that must be considered, and 
 they will be considered. 
 
 Farming is a business that must be done at cer- 
 tain periods or not ait all. Farming is a business that 
 will permit of no neglect. There are lines of public 
 service that seem to grow without much activity on 
 the part of those who reap the benefits, but there is 
 a maxim which is old but true, that "'He who by 
 the plow would thrive, must either hold the plow or 
 drive." 
 
 In all the efforts to give rural people the " social 
 uplift " none has solved the labor problems. Oats 
 and spring wheat must be sowed in season. Alfalfa 
 must be sowed in dry countries in the spring, and 
 the fall won't do. Winter wheat must be sowed in 
 the fall. Wheat and oats must be cut when ripe, 
 corn must be husked when matured, colts, calves and 
 pigs must be cared for when they are little and until 
 they are ready for the market, and no amount of 
 theorizing will make it different. Farmers should 
 do a thousand things they do not do. They should 
 cooperate for buying and selling. They should in- 
 terest themselves in political and social affairs, estab- 
 lish rural community centres, resurrect the decadent 
 rural church ; but after it is all said there still exists 
 that demand on the farmer's time that the bravest of 
 them dare not but honor. 
 
138 THE RURAL SCHOOL FROM WITHIN 
 
 There are those who have not had farm experi- 
 ence who can solve these questions, but they do not 
 get the same answers that the farmer gets. Tliose 
 without farm experience see the improved machinery 
 in the city implement house, and at once pronounce 
 farming a sedentary occupation and manual labor 
 a lost art. No longer does the farmer follow a plow 
 or harrow all day, walking in run-over shoes. No 
 longer does' he need to know how to make a double- 
 band to bind his wheat while the reflected sun burns 
 till he wishes he might die, regardless of his prepara- 
 tion. He just rides all day long. Plowing or reap- 
 ing, mowing or raking, he rides. To the man whose 
 nearest approach to the soil is the book advertising 
 farm machinery, farming is an occupation of riding 
 and waiting. 
 
 To the economist there is no business that is 
 more exacting of its investors than farming. No 
 more serious and important topic can engage the at- 
 tention of the student. The farmer is manager, 
 capitalist and laborer, and if he succeeds he must 
 perform three important functions : to decide ques- 
 tions of investment; to oversee the work and help 
 to perform it; to sell the produce of the farm. In 
 addition to these important functions he must study 
 crop production, crop rotation, conservation of soil 
 fertility and animal husbandry. He must be a 
 mechanic. He must be as capable of changing his 
 
CHRISTMAS VACATION 189 
 
 matured plans on a moment's notice as is the general 
 on the battlefield. With all these qualifications, is 
 it any wonder that rural districts are the seed-beds 
 from which cities are stocked? 
 
 After all is said, farming requires hard work, 
 and it requires long hours. The man in the city who 
 gets to his business at eight o'clock has no occasion 
 to rise at four or even five; but with the farmer it 
 is different. For many good reasons cows should be 
 milked early, and for just as good reasons they can- 
 not be milked early in the afternoon. The care of 
 live stock requires attention early in the morning and 
 attention at the close of the day. 
 
 To those who have never seen beautiful sunrises, 
 while driving cows from the dewy meadows to be 
 milked, the labors of the farm as just described will 
 be unattractive, but those who have seen all sides 
 of life have a longing and a yearning for the farm 
 which through some unfortunate circumstance they 
 left. 
 
 This leaving the farm may have been due to ill 
 health, loss of capital, or to a desire to see the city ; 
 or to obtain more liberal income or for more agree- 
 able social life, or for intellectual and aesthetic en- 
 joyment. To whatever it is due, there remains in 
 the minds of such people a fond memory of the days 
 when they lived there, of the green pastures, the 
 swimming hole, the red-haw tree, the days when the 
 
140 THE RURAL SCHOOL FROM WITHIN 
 
 creeks overflowed their banks and it was too wet 
 to work in the fields; of the seasons that were not 
 all alike; of snow in the winter that meant sleigh 
 rides and sled rides; bells and belles; coasting and 
 skating; spelling schools and singing schools; liter- 
 ary societies, protracted meetings and parties. Those 
 who have been the rounds and have seen it all will 
 look back to the days of stone bruises, and feet that 
 were so badly chapped that one would almost rather 
 stay up all night than wash them, and wish it all 
 might be lived over again. 
 
 President McKinley on his last western tour 
 arose from his Pullman berth just after daylight on 
 an early September morning. The train had for 
 some reason stopped in the open country. He saw a 
 sight that caused him to rush to his sleeping cabinet 
 officers who accompanied him and call them to come 
 to the rear platform. The sight was but of two 
 little boys who had come out barefooted to milk 
 cows. They had driven the cows from the warm 
 spots on which they had been sleeping and had ap- 
 propriated these places for warming their feet. 
 President McKinley said : " Gentlemen, that sight 
 recalls the happiest days of my life"; and each 
 cabinet officer in turn expressed a like sentiment, 
 and remembered having warmed his feet in that 
 same way. America's great statesmen then gave 
 
CHRISTMAS VACATION 141 
 
 three cheers in the early morning for the Httle boys 
 in Iowa who remlinded them of their happiest days. 
 
 There are a few months in the winter when busi- 
 ness on the farm is less rushing than during other 
 times, but work begins early in the spring and ex- 
 tends late into the fall, even up to December. 
 
 The boys in the Crossing neighborhood were all 
 in school by the beginning of the fourth month, but in 
 three weeks from that time school was dismissed for 
 the winter vacation. Those who needed school most 
 and who had worked the hardest to get it were con- 
 fronted with a two weeks' vacation just about the 
 time they had settled down to their studies. With 
 the certainty that they must quit school early in the 
 spring this vacation seemed, so far as this belated 
 group was concerned, entirely out of place. How- 
 ever, it was useless to arg^e that a week was suffi- 
 ciently long, or that there should be no vacation for 
 those who were late in entering. My offer to give 
 special work for them was looked upon with dis- 
 favor. They always had broken into the work by 
 this vacation and regardless of the pressing need 
 they must continue to break into it. Another bad 
 feature of the work was the total absence of any 
 gradation of the work that granted those who en- 
 tered late any particular benefit. They dropped into 
 the same classes that they had been in the year 
 
142 THE RURAL SCHOOL FROM WITHIN 
 
 before and went over practically the same ground. 
 Consequently by the time I had aroused an interest 
 there arose outside distractions which far exceeded 
 in attractiveness an)rthing I had to offer. 
 
 The generally accepted statement that the pupils 
 of the rural schools have not so many distracting 
 influences as the pupil of the town schools was not 
 borne out by my experience in the Constad School. 
 They had the same social cravings, and while the 
 opportunities for gratification were not so plentiful, 
 their reaction to the few was com^plete and the time 
 involved was greater. 
 
 The month of November and half of December 
 was taken up with protracted meeting and with its 
 close the adjacent communities began their meetings, 
 and the young people's evenings were more occupied 
 than ever. 
 
 The Christmas time was a cessation of matters 
 religious and matters educational. Christmas trees 
 and parties were planned on extensive scales. 
 Christmas trees on Christmas eve and Christmas 
 night. New Year's trees on New Year's eve and New 
 Year's night gave each community a chance to cele- 
 brate. These were their midwinter festivals. We 
 gave our Christmas tree in the afternoon and by so 
 doing solved the problem of how to have one more 
 celebration in that part of the country. 
 
CHRISTMAS .VACATION 143 
 
 Those who have attended the city tree and 
 listened to the little children speak their little Christ- 
 mas pieces and sing their pretty little songs and at 
 the close of those exercises have seen each get his 
 Christmas gift of gumdrops and cheap candy and two 
 peanuts and some more cheap candy all done up in a 
 cornucopia or mosquito bar netting may have had 
 a fairly good time, but such a celebration is very 
 simple as compared with the Constad Crossing 
 " tree." 
 
 In the first place we built a stage the full width 
 of the building. In the second place we had a real 
 evergreen tree at the right end of the stage. In the 
 third place we had a curtain that completely hid 
 from view both stage and tree. In the fourth place, 
 from the time the curtain w'as hung till it was pushed 
 aside to expose to view the Christmas tree with its 
 variegated colors, its dolls and drums for the little 
 ones, gloves, mittens and books for the big ones — 
 plush albums for the " best ones," and neck com- 
 forters of yellow and red yams, i8 inches wide and 
 8 feet long, made by the " best one " for the " best 
 one," all was excitemtent and expectation. 
 
 Nearly all Christmas trees are wonderful and 
 this differed only in being very wonderful. It would 
 be useless to describe it or to even begin to tell what 
 all it held. First came the program, and it was not 
 
144 THE RURAL SCHOOL FROM WITHIN 
 
 materially different from all programs except that 
 it lasted longer. It opened with a real Christmas 
 anthem, which was followed by some " speaking." 
 This was rudely interrupted by one of the men who 
 insisted on treating the audience to apples. This 
 required two bushels, but he was supplied. Then 
 the program started, but only to be interrupted by 
 another who passed through the crowd with peanuts. 
 It was all quite informal, and everyone was having 
 a good time. The calling off of the presents was the 
 real event of the evening. And of all the presents ! 
 Some discovered their own old clothes done up in 
 neat bundles. One man who had augmented an 
 argument with a hatchet drew down six hatchets; 
 another who had the reputation of rustling cattle 
 got a calf's tail, and every boy that had been jilted 
 was presented with a little mitten; everybody got 
 something and usually many things. The teacher 
 was not forgotten ; indeed, his present was kept till 
 the last. His present was Shakespeare's Complete 
 Works. 
 
 If there is one thing that is more difficult than all 
 other things, it is for a teacher to pretend that he 
 does not know what's being done when sixty or 
 seventy pupils are taking up a collection to buy him 
 a present. The next most difficult thing is to show 
 the proper appreciation. 
 
CHRISTMAS VACATION 145 
 
 To give a present is difficult, but to receive one is 
 a torture. It was with much pleasure, however, that 
 I received this particular present. I was particu- 
 larly fond of Shakespeare. I owed my love for 
 this great work to no teacher. In fact I liked it in 
 spite of the efforts my teachers had made to make 
 me dislike it. I do not mean that they intended that 
 I should dislike Shakespeare, but their mlethods of 
 attack were such that dislike was the usual result 
 that they secured. With my Shakespeare as with 
 Dickens or Scott or Irving, I found happy, profitable 
 hours. I read " Macbeth," " Hamlet," " As You 
 Like It," just as I read anything that I like. I did 
 not stop to dissect and parse every line, but I read 
 them enjoying them and always wanted to read 
 more. When I had the opportunity some years later 
 to attend the Shakespearean plays by the great actors 
 Booth and Barrett, I attended for seven successive 
 evenings, and these were the greatest evenings of 
 my life. I may not have learned the great lessons 
 of this greatest English dramatist as some great 
 teachers would present them, but what I did get 
 pleased me, and the effect upon my life was good. 
 The works of Shakespeare presented me by my rural 
 school are my most loved and most worn books. 
 
 As I mention in a subsequent chapter, I had 
 been telling these stories to my school. I had made 
 10 
 
146 THE RURAL SCHOOL FROM WITHIN 
 
 use of " Hamlet," " King Lear," " The Comedy of 
 Errors," and "The Taming of the Shrew," and 
 others for my morning exercises, and while I did 
 not like presents, my readers will appreciate the sat- 
 isfaction that it was to me to know that these boys 
 and girls, after discussing what they might get me, 
 decided upon what they liked best, feeling it was 
 what would most please me. 
 
 That " Christmas tree " was one joyous occa- 
 sion. It is and was the one great event of the 
 year — old scores were there settled, forgiven or 
 forgotten. 
 
 Family names are never more prominent or 
 mothers' joys are never so nearly complete as when 
 their daughters' names are being " called." For is 
 this not unmistakable evidence of popularity ? The 
 mother who would not augment this evidence by add- 
 ing to the list of presents is an unnatural mother, 
 too. They all condemn the practice, but, God bless 
 them! they all indulge in it, and the fact that they 
 do and the fact that they will makes life worth 
 living. 
 
 There is no time of the year more precious than 
 Christmas to those who are living right, to those 
 who love and deserve to be loved. 
 
 The dear Christmas pieces of Field and Riley! 
 How they stir our hearts and bring back those happy, 
 happy memories ! 
 
CHRISTMAS VACATION 1*7 
 
 Christmas! Christmas when the roads are 
 drifted, making Santa's visit a physical impossibility. 
 But the real Santa came and left unmistakable evi- 
 dence of his individuality — cookies and candy, home- 
 made, and then we knew. Happy, happy memories ! 
 
 As I left for home to take my two weeks' vaca- 
 tion it was with a feeling of love for the people 
 who were giving me a greater insight into life and 
 my responsibilities to society. 
 
CHAPTER XIV 
 
 Rural Community Interest 
 
 School opened after the vacation with a very- 
 full enrollment. Every seat was occupied and the 
 pupils seemed anxious to get to their studies. This 
 was especially true of the older boys who had but a 
 few weeks to attend. It is during these few weeks 
 that the rural school is either at its best or worst. 
 It is during these weeks that the teacher must lead 
 the strenuous life. 
 
 On the first morning a young man knocked at the 
 schoolhouse door and I bade him enter and take a 
 seat in the visitor's chair. As was the custom I 
 handed him a book in order that he might observe the 
 work of the recitation which was in progress. He 
 remained until the morning recess, at which time we 
 visited together, and during our conversation he in- 
 formed me that he was thinking of going to school. 
 
 He was twenty-six years old, and was considered 
 one of the good farmers of that neighborhood, and 
 it was only after a considerable length of time that 
 I understood that it was his intention to come to 
 school to me. He said, " I am over 21 years of age 
 but the board has given me permission to attend if 
 you have no objections. I took a load of hogs to 
 148 
 
RUBAL COMMUNITY INTEREST 149 
 
 market yesterday, and do you know I never was so 
 embarrassed in all my life. I felt sure they had made 
 some mistake in figuring up what they came to, and 
 I had to ask a man aroimd town to go over the 
 figures for me. I could see a look of disdain come 
 over his face, almost a look of pity, and do you know, 
 I could buy that fellow several times, and yet I had to 
 ask him to figure up what a load of my hogs should 
 come to. As I drove home I thought over this matter 
 and the more I thought, the more I blamed myself 
 and the more ashamed I became of my ignorance, 
 and before I had reached home I resolved that before 
 I raised another crop or fed another hog I would be 
 able to do my own figuring. If you will stand by me 
 you will be the only person whom I shall ever ask 
 to show me how to figure hogs or corn or interest." 
 He pulled from under his coat a tattered, " dog- 
 eared " old Ray's Third Part of Arithmetic. I saw 
 he was in earnest and immediately set about finding 
 out what he had done so that I might have him begin 
 work at once. He knew the multiplication table up 
 to the fives and had had a little work in short divi- 
 sion, but long division never had been mastered, and 
 he told me that long division was the subject that 
 drove him out of school years ago. My first assign- 
 ment to him was the multiplication table beginning 
 with the sixes. As soon as I had made this assign- 
 ment he inquired where he might sit, I gave him all 
 
150 THE RURAL SCHOOL FROM WITHIN 
 
 I had to offer, the visitor's chair and the teacher's 
 desk. At noon I asked him if he was going to 
 dinner. He said, " No, I am not hungry." At one 
 o'clock he was yet in his seat working on that multi- 
 plication table. Through the long afternoon it 
 seemed that his eyes were never taken from the book ; 
 sometimes they were closed as if in meditation, but 
 he worked continuously. After four o'clock when 
 the children were all gone I went to him and asked 
 him' how he was getting along. He handed me the 
 book, which I hardly needed, and proceeded to say 
 the multiplication table beginning with the sixes. He 
 went on through to twelve times twelve without a 
 mistake. I tried him on the seven times eight, and 
 the nine times seven, and the six times seven, and the 
 eight times nine, but he had them all. Before going 
 home I gave him some assistance with short division, 
 and to my surprise when I was ready to leave the 
 school building, he said he would not go for awhile 
 yet. In the morning at eight o'clock when I arrived 
 at the school I found a good fire and young Mr. 
 Turner was in his seat working on short division, 
 which he said he had almost finished. He continued 
 his work throughout the remainder of the term, 
 working just as hard in school as he would have 
 worked on the farm. He studied evenings after the 
 close of the term, and before the close of the school 
 year had mastered Ray's Third Part of Arithmetic. 
 
RURAL COMMUNITY INTEREST 151 
 
 This interest which he manifested was no other 
 than an objective one. He wanted arithmetic not 
 for itself, but for what he might do with it. He 
 had arrived at an age when he realized how this 
 subject functioned with the business of his every- 
 day life. Regardless of which interest is the higher, 
 the objective or the subjective, we must agree that 
 the objective is the determining factor in the educa- 
 tion of most people, and the one most lacking in our 
 rural schools. 
 
 In the light of past experience I see many lost op- 
 portunities to that school. There were many anxious 
 for an education such as was offered, but they could 
 not get it. The time of the teacher was too full to 
 give the needed attention ; while it was possible for 
 a student as mature cis Mr. Turner to do good work, 
 it was not possible for those of immature years. 
 
 There are two types of school that are far from 
 efficient, the one in which the teacher helps too much 
 and the one in which he does not help enough. Mine 
 was of the latter type. I had pupils who walked long 
 distances and received but little of my time. With 
 the right kind of school, which I attempt to discuss 
 in a subsequent chapter entitled " Suggested Im- 
 provements," the country can be made the ideal place 
 in which to live. 
 
 To bring clearly before the reader's mind my 
 estimate of some of the advantages and disadvan- 
 
152 THE RURAL SCHOOL FROM WITHIN 
 
 tages of both rural and city life the following recital 
 of two incidents, one of rural life and one of city 
 life, is given : 
 
 At the Crossing there were genuine community 
 interests. There were few people who had not a 
 genuine interest in the community, and there were 
 none so poor or so unimportant as to be without 
 friends. There were none who were very wealthy, 
 but nearly all had plenty, and those who had not, 
 never knew what real want meant. 
 
 In February of this year the cold weather was at 
 its worst. For three months the ground had been 
 covered with snow, and with the coming of the last 
 month of winter came a storm that swept all the 
 states of the Middle West. This blizzard began on 
 the evening of the third day of the month and by 
 the next morning it was almost impossible to find 
 one's way through the heavy falling snow. At 9 
 o'clock but few of the pupils had arrived, but they 
 continued to come cold and wet till altogether there 
 were about thirty present. 
 
 The task of caring for pupils with such accommo- 
 dations as were at hand is no easy one, and one which 
 is attended with great responsibility. Many who 
 read this book will read this chapter with little in- 
 terest. It is entirely without their experience. Those 
 who have grown up within a few blocks of the school 
 building and are accustomed to the walks free from 
 
RURAL COMMUNITY INTEREST 153 
 
 mud and snow, regardless of the weather, cannot 
 appreciate the labor and danger involved in a two 
 mile walk through deep snow drifts. Those who are 
 accustomed to school buildings heated with hot air or 
 steam, to wardrobes where one may go to adjust 
 clothing, to rest rooms equipped with couches and 
 easy chairs, where pupils who are indisposed may 
 rest and care for themselves, will not be able to ap- 
 preciate the dangers and discomfort involved in 
 attending a rural school under conditions of twenty- 
 five years ago or even ait the present time. 
 
 The modem school building is the positive and 
 definite measure of a community's awareness of 
 parental responsibility and obligation. 
 
 In considering the rural school you must not 
 expect to find that most important person in a school 
 system — the janitor. The teacher is janitor, and 
 parent and nurse. He (or she) must be on hand 
 early on cold mornings to start the fire, sweep the 
 drifts of snow from the porch, shovel walks to the 
 woodpile or coal house, pump (if there be one) and 
 to the outhouses which upon such mornings are likely 
 to be drifted full of snow. It is the duty of the 
 teacher not to make everything comfortable, but to 
 make, so far as possible, things less miserable. A 
 comparison of the snow drifted Quthouse with its 
 ice-coated benches and absolute absence of any 
 modern convenience with the inside toilets of a 
 
154 THE RUBAL SCHOOL FROM WITHIN 
 
 modern building exposes to the public a condition 
 which we would improve without casting reflection 
 upon those who suffer in order that the tax levy be 
 kept down ; who suffer because " it has always 
 been so." 
 
 On this particular morning everyone who came 
 was soaked from the deep snow which he or she 
 had been forced to wade. In years since, when I 
 have witnessed the approaches to our colleges and 
 universities cleared of snow with horse-drawn 
 scrapers, my mind goes back and my heart goes out 
 to the child of tender years who is breaking her own 
 path over storm^swept hills to the little schoolhouse 
 for which she is bound, and involuntarily I am asking 
 " How long, how long will this injustice be con- 
 tinued? " Among my pupils on this morning was 
 Rachel, she after whom Mother Rose had inquired 
 on the first day ; she who had the care of four younger 
 brothers and sisters. Her mother had died at a time 
 when Rachel most needed her. This girl was there. 
 She had never missed a day. She was dreadfully in 
 earnest. It was her ambition to become a teacher in 
 order that she might do more for her brothers and 
 sisters. 
 
 , It was plain to me, inexperienced and young as 
 I was, that she should not have come to school. It 
 it unnecessary that I enter into a discussion of her 
 trouble, a trouble of which she herself was probably 
 
RURAL COMMUNITY INTEREST 165 
 
 ignorant. Here was a condition, and here is a con- 
 dition — a young girl just entering upon womanhood 
 compelled to suffer an exposure that probably has for 
 its toll the lives or the ruined health of thousands. 
 
 In loco parentis! No mother or father is alone 
 capable of properly bringing up a family; both are 
 necessary. No woman or man is capable of properly 
 managing a mixed school and there should be legisla- 
 tion prohibiting it. 
 
 Here is a girl needing a woman's care. She 
 sits cold and neglected, and but for the neighbor- 
 hood mother, Mother Rose, she would have died 
 uncared for. 
 
 Teachers must realize their responsibility. 
 School requires an exercise of common sense on the 
 part of the teacher, and the teacher who cannot rise 
 to the occasion is a danger to the public welfare. 
 
 As soon as possible I sent a boy with a note to 
 my boarding place. The note stated the need that 
 Rachel had of a woman's care, and within half an 
 hour she was gently led to the big sled that was 
 driven by Father Rose. 
 
 It is not my purpose to make this account un- 
 duly tragic. Many of my readers have had an ex- 
 perience like that which came to me and well know 
 an isolated case is not being cited. Within two days, 
 at the home of Father and Mother Rose Rachel lay 
 dead, and in her death four children lost a second 
 
156 THE RURAL SCHOOL FROM WITHIN 
 
 mother, a tragedy due to pernicious methods of 
 taxation. 
 
 Four miles away was the cemetery where the 
 Crossing people buried their dead. The funeral pro- 
 cession was much dififerent from the ordinary. A 
 large sled to which were hitched four horses was the 
 only vehicle. On horseback preceding the sled rode 
 six young men breaking the road as well as they 
 could. Before leaving the house Father Rose spoke 
 to the few neighbors gathered, offered a prayer and 
 delegated to their teacher the conduct of the services 
 at the grave. There was no minister in the neighbor- 
 hood at that time and from this duty and obligation 
 the teacher did not shrink, although he felt most 
 keenly his unfitness. At this funeral there was no 
 blanket of roses to hide the excavations of the grave ; 
 there was no " profusion of flowers." Neither were 
 there hired grave-diggers, hired pallbearers nor 
 hearse; but there was real mourning, real affection 
 for those who were left behind, for the children twice 
 left motherless, and the father whose life was over- 
 running with disappointment and bitterness. There 
 was love and sympathy for them all. Love and 
 sympathy ending not in words, but in homes for 
 each motherless child. 
 
 Orphans' homes and poorhouses are not recruited 
 from rural communities. " The pauper whom no- 
 body owns " has no application to the world in which 
 
RURAL COMMUNITY INTEREST 157 
 
 the golden rule is the basis of the moral code, and 
 yet how often have we heard it said: " I hate the 
 country, for it is here where things small are weighed, 
 discussed and dissected. It is here where gossip and 
 slander thrive best. It is here where everyone knows 
 all about his neighbor's affairs." 
 
 This is a real rural condition and it is one not 
 common to the city. In no way can it be attributed 
 to a difference in the character of the two, the 
 ruralite and the urbanite. 
 
 Because of the knowledge that rural people have 
 of, each other there is a community interest. The 
 gossip alluded to is but one of the results that come 
 from this intimate acquaintance. It is here as no- 
 where else that we find people boiuid together with 
 a common experience. 
 
 Here the success of one in no way impedes the 
 progress of a neighbor. They are not competitors, 
 but co-workers. They have common interests, suc- 
 cess depending upon their labor and the weather. A 
 drought means hard times for all, and plentiful, timely 
 rains mean good times for all. When markets are 
 juggled all are affected in the same way. When the 
 market prices of farm products are low and every- 
 thing that the farmer buys is high, their grievance is 
 common, and thereby they are bound more closely 
 together. 
 
 A close analysis of the status of rural social 
 
158 THE RURAL SCHOOL FROM WITHIN 
 
 relations will show that in spite of alleged bickerings, 
 nowhere is there truer regard for one's fellowman, 
 nowhere such real friendship, a friendship that would 
 divide another's sorrow sooner than share his happi- 
 ness, than among the rural people. Here, as nowhere 
 else, man is not himself alone, but an integral part 
 of a relationship that is based upon trials and 
 triumphs, disappointments and happy attainments 
 common to the individuals of the group. 
 
 The criticism offered on rural society cannot be 
 made upon urban society. In the latter is not to be 
 found the friendly or unfriendly interest, but the 
 cold, cruel, selfish independence and unconcern. 
 This criticism is not made for the purpose of differ- 
 entiating between the rural and urban people. 
 Ftmdamentally there is no difference. 
 
 The urbanite, too, has reacted to his particular 
 environment — diversity of interests, the sharp busi- 
 ness competition, the absence O'f personal interest, 
 the absolute adherence to business principles, credit 
 extended to none but those of sound financial stand- 
 ing except in cases of prominent people. Everyone 
 is too engrossed with his own affairs, too intent upon 
 struggling for existence, too jealous of the position 
 he has already gained, to weigh nlatters either small 
 or large — or to gossip or slander. He neither loves 
 nor hates — he knows but few, and these few are 
 nothing to him nor is he anything to them. 
 
RURAL COMMUNITY INTEREST 159 
 
 In a former chapter I alluded to the fact that 
 the criminal, the pauper, the unfortunate, drift to the 
 city. It is there among the multitude who lack not 
 only community interest but human interest that one 
 may abide safe from molestation except from the 
 officers whose business it is to inspect life's seamy 
 side and probe the sores of suffering, fallen people. 
 
 Why the social outcast must leave the rural com- 
 munity, why he must go to the city, is imderstand- 
 able ; but why many a moral, upright man who loves 
 his neighbor and wishes to be loved in return, who 
 desires that his children shall grow up respected and 
 respecting, free from a business world that counts 
 man but as a part of a machine and discards him 
 without consideration when it is in the interests of 
 big business to scrap the machine, must go to the city, 
 is not so easily understood. 
 
 Sociologists attribute the emigration of the rural 
 young men and women of talent and capacity to the 
 unattractiveness of farm life, and to the lack of 
 opportunities for a liberal material income on the 
 farm, and to the agreeable social life and the intel- 
 lectual and aesthetic enjoyment in the city. 
 
 Doubtless these are among the incentives, but the 
 greatest of all reasons is the lack of knowledge of 
 city life. Many of these advantages are available to 
 the wealthy, but to those in moderate circumstances 
 and those who must work for a living, these incen- 
 
160 THE RURAL SCHOOL FROM WITHIN 
 
 tives are false, as thousands who have been led by 
 them could testify. 
 
 The young man raised in the country and accus- 
 tomed to the best society that his community affords 
 finds entrance into as good society in the city almost 
 impossible unless he has money or influential friends. 
 In the country he has been a factor in society, but 
 in the city he finds that he is not. 
 
 Having been accustomed to society he will have 
 it, and eventually he accepts what is attainable, which 
 is very often bad, and then a downward career is 
 begun. 
 
 Statistics give much on the girls who are lost 
 through vice every year; but if figures were obtain- 
 able the loss O'f character of young men who go to the 
 city expecting liberal income, agreeable social life 
 and intellectual, aesthetic enjoyment would be stu- 
 pendous. Occasionally one makes his mark, but 
 where one succeeds scores fail and go down in a 
 misery of degradation and sin unknown to rural life. 
 
 We have much written on " Back to the Farm," 
 but much of it deals with the beauties of rural life 
 written by those who know it by a few days' outing 
 or an occasional visit to some rural home. 
 
 As I have tried to show, all is not pleasure and 
 ease on the farm. We should not expect to find such 
 a place in this world where the majority of men work 
 for their daily bread. But there is more pleasure. 
 
RURAL COMMUNITY INTEREST 161 
 
 more leisure time, more opportunity for social en- 
 jo)mient, more oportunity for reading, for culture, 
 for living a life in the open country than in the 
 crowded city. For a day the sights of a city are 
 alluring, but living in a city and having a job in a 
 city, or being out of a job in a city, are as different 
 from " seeing the city " for a day as plowing stump 
 ground is different from visiting a summer resort. 
 There are many excursions to the city; conven- 
 tions of many kinds are held there and many places 
 of amusement are there. To the casual observer it 
 would seem that the city is one great whirl of 
 pleasure. The beautiful streets, boulevards and 
 parks, the large department stores and the theatres 
 all look very attractive when he compares them with 
 rural roads, the woods, the small stores and the 
 opera house. But all these mean but little to the 
 yotmg man and young woman who work six or seven 
 days in the week, usually for wages that barely carry 
 them over from one pay day to the next. If the rural 
 young man could study the throngs that crowd the 
 thousands of cars in a city like Chicago between 
 5 A.M. and 8 a.m., and 5 130 p.m. and 7 p.m., he 
 would be so impressed w'ith the incorrectness of his 
 notion of city life that he would yearn for the green 
 fields, the horses and cattle, and for a people whose 
 lives were being lived in freedom, away from the op- 
 pressing cares that kill the body and dwarf the soul. 
 11 
 
162 THE RURAL SCHOOL FROM WITHIN 
 
 Admitting all that has been said against rural 
 life is true (but it is not), it is the only life that is 
 suited to the moderately well-to-do and to the respect- 
 able poor. The wealthy can procure comforts in the 
 city in spite of adverse conditions — they can control 
 their environment, and the disrespectable poor can 
 live less miserably in the city than elswhere. 
 
 The great difficulty in arriving at proper conclu- 
 sions is that we know so little of the life that the 
 other man leads. We see always its best side. 
 
 No place is the teacher more appreciated than in 
 the rural schools. He has troubles, and they are not 
 imaginary ones, either, but it is there that he gets 
 credit for what he does. 
 
 In a city of over 10,000 no teacher is known by 
 many of the parents of his pupils. He becomes a 
 part of a great machine and he does his particular 
 work and there his feeling or responsibility ends. 
 
 The teacher of the rural school who is prepared 
 for his work has great opportunity for doing good. 
 If he craves appreciation of his work, if he desires 
 to live long in the memory of his people, he can find 
 no place that excels the rural school. The first prep- 
 aration for the rural teacher must be a love and a 
 sympathy for rural life. 
 
 A young man raised in a small town secures a 
 rural school. The lonesomeness of it all nearly kills 
 him. He longs for his home, but he cannot stay 
 
RURAL COMMUNITY INTEREST 163 
 
 there because he must have employment. He hears 
 of the opportunities for young men in the Golden 
 West, and with credentials from his home bankers, 
 his minister and his high school principal, and with 
 a heart full of hope and trunk and grips packed with 
 good clothes by a loving, trusting mother, he seeks 
 his fortune in a far-off city. Before leaving home 
 he secures a position which pays more money than 
 his school paid hiin, and in this position he confidently 
 expects prosperity and happiness, and in his antici- 
 pation of an escape from a life of lonesomeness 
 into one of business and social opportunity he is 
 very happy. 
 
 No larger or more delightful experience can come 
 to the young man than that which comes in a trip 
 across the beautiful western plains and up among 
 and over the Rockies and down to the Pacific Coast. 
 The world has nothing greater to offer. He who has 
 seen the beauty and the grandeur of plains, moun- 
 tains, gorges, canyons and cataracts and experienced 
 the thrills of the wonderful and dangerous preci- 
 pices over whose rim the train seems to lean as it 
 rushes upward or downward and onward, finds all 
 later experiences to suffer by comparison. The joy 
 of all these thrills and experiences is his, and he is 
 in the city of the Golden West ! 
 
 His work does not begin for ten days and in that 
 time he makes the acquaintance of his first city. He 
 
164 THE RURAL SCHOOL FROM WITHIN 
 
 writes home of the beautiful bay connected with the 
 Pacific Ocean by Golden Gate, a passage four miles 
 long and a mile wide ; of Golden Gate Park with its 
 thousand acres, with over 300 acres of closely shaved 
 sward, green and attractive the whole year round, and 
 a greater area planted with semi-tropical shrubs and 
 trees ! 
 
 During his ten days he visits the many libraries, 
 the six million dollar city hall which was twenty-<five 
 years in building, the beautiful churches, the great 
 hospitals ! His passion for nature is being gratified 
 — the mountains round about, the cliffs, the flowing 
 and ebbing of the tides — all so interesting, so won- 
 derful. As he walks about the piers he sees steam- 
 ships from every port of the world and learns that 
 the bay constitutes one of the finest harbors in the 
 world; that from here extend many ship lines to 
 China, Japan, Australia, Mexico, Central and South 
 America, the Hawaiian and Philippine Islands — all 
 so interesting, so wonderful, so educative! 
 
 The ten days' respite expires and the work begins. 
 It is a job that knoWs no week-end. The city that 
 never records any month a higher mean temperature 
 than 65° nor a lower mean temlperature' than 46° 
 becomes his permanent abode at the beginning of 
 the rainy season. In the land of semi-tropical plants 
 he almost freezes and is never warm. He is now a 
 part of a great steamship company, a very small 
 
RURAL COMMUNITY INTEREST 166 
 
 part, with great responsibilities and (compared with 
 his expense) a very low salary. The salary that looked 
 so attractive must be carefully spent or it will not 
 do him from one pay day to the next and thoughts of 
 sickness or a loss of position enter his mind for the 
 first time. No longer is he taking his meals at one 
 of the fine hotels where he stopped upon his arrival. 
 Indeed, where he can get a wholesome meal at a 
 price not prohibitive is no small part of his daily 
 concern. He is bonded, and well he may be, for every 
 day he has opportimities for making mistakes that 
 would cost his company thousands of dollars. He 
 goes to work in the morning when it is yet dark and 
 returns to his room long after darkness has returned. 
 When he left home he went with strong resolutions 
 of Y. M. C. A. affiliations and of regular attendance 
 ait church, but he discovers both of these require 
 time and money, and he has but little of either. 
 
 The bay is still there, the parks are still open, 
 the largest ferry boats in the world are making their 
 regular trips across the bay, carrying hundreds of 
 thousands of passengers every day, but his letters no 
 longer allude to these things. 
 
 Does he yet write of the attractiveness of a great 
 city, contrasting it with the unattractiveness of his 
 rural home ? Are his letters filled with allusions to 
 his "liberal material income," his " agreeable social 
 life" and "the opportunities for intellectual and 
 
166 THE RURAL SCHOOL FROM WITHIN 
 
 aesthetic enjoyment?" No. He writes of home. Not 
 his new home, but his old home. In the midst of 
 one of the world's busiest places his mind is back 
 home, where they love him for what he is; where 
 there are such words in the vocabulary as friend and 
 neighbor; where more than bare subsistence may 
 be had without a " liberal income " and an 
 " agreeable social " evening may be had without 
 sacrificing an opportimity for full meals for a week 
 following; where a young man of industrious habits 
 and clean morals is welcomed to the best of society 
 and where society is based upon a manhood and a 
 womanhood that are representative of thrift, honesty 
 of purpose and clean morals; where social vice is 
 unknown, drunkenness tabooed and virtue and tem- 
 perance exalted. 
 
 By comparison are our lots h^rd or easy. He is 
 happy because he has a job. There are already many, 
 many thousands in the city out of employment. This 
 city is no exception. Chicago, Philadelpliia, St. 
 Louis are nimiibering their unemployed by the ten 
 thousands. In the west many thousands are driven 
 from the cities into the open country, but in spite of 
 these conditions the great daily papers whose duty it 
 is to boom the cities speak of the great prosperity, 
 but say nothing of starving thousands, and in conse- 
 quence thereof each incoming train and ship aug- 
 ments the Army of Unemployed. 
 
RURAL COMMUNITY INTEREST 167 
 
 Each letter brings news of business depression 
 and of great suffering among the laboring people. 
 Each letter expresses appreciation of the job he has. 
 It is not good. It hardly pays expenses, but he has 
 a room, and by careful management he has enough 
 to eat. 
 
 In this country the Native Sons are the last to 
 be out of employment. Fidelity to duty and efficiency 
 are not sufficient to compete with Native Sons and a 
 letter brings the intelligence that within 30 days he 
 will be out of a job. The labor situation is now such 
 that there is scarcely employment for Native Sons. 
 
 He becomes a soldier in the " Army of the Un- 
 employed." He is face to face with a question for 
 which no social settlement worker or economist has 
 a solution. In the midst of millions of wealth men 
 are wanting work. They and their families are 
 starving. The Army of Unemployed who in time of 
 national danger would be the ones who would first 
 respond to a call to arms and who would gladly lay 
 down their lives to protect property which they do 
 not have, and which under present economic condi- 
 tions they are not likely to have, are begging for 
 work and fighting for bread. 
 
 These are not, as many would have you believe, 
 men who have wasted their substance in riotous liv- 
 ing, but men who have enriched the owners of 
 Big Business with their labor and in return received 
 
168 THE RURAL SCHOOL FROM WITHIN 
 
 but sufficient remuneration to enable them to buy 
 food to make if possible to perform more labor. 
 
 In this book it is not the purpose to discuss this 
 great question which becomes greater as time grows. 
 
 What is in store for the man without capital a 
 generation hence is the gravest question confronting 
 a hundred million people. The economists agree that 
 inefficiency is our greatest economic liability and that 
 we must look to our schools for a greater social 
 efficiency. 
 
 The letters of the boy no longer tell of the won- 
 ders of the city — 'beauitiful parks, beautiful bays, 
 mountains, city halls, steamships and libraries have 
 little in them that appeals to the man w!ho has no 
 money and who is out of a job. 
 
 The letters tell of futile attempts to secure em- 
 plo}Tnent, of answering a want ad before daylight 
 to find that a hundred had been there before him. 
 Times grow worse and business becomes duller, and 
 thousands and thousands more are thrown out of 
 employment. Every day there are bread riots ; men 
 are starving. But these stories are suppressed. The 
 situation grows worse rather than better. Board and 
 room rent are more than twice as high as back home. 
 There is work back home but none out West. To 
 return to his home and live or stay in the city and 
 starve are his alternaitives. He chooses the former. 
 Fortunately he has the money to pay his way, but 
 
RURAL COMMUNITY INTEREST 169 
 
 what of the thousands of boys who are less fortu- 
 nate ? These must stay to starve, beg or steal. 
 
 The economist who is himself on a good salary 
 and has probably never experienced real want will 
 say that it is only the inefficient who are out oi em- 
 ployment. This holds good when work is plentiful, 
 but man's capacity for work does not make a position 
 when the labor market is overrun any more than 
 produce will create a market when there is over- 
 production. 
 
 This is a time when men's souls are tried, and 
 it is a time when the tmattractiveness of farm life 
 grows less, and " opportunities for liberal material 
 incomes, agreeable social life and intellectual aesthetic 
 enjoyment provided by cities " grow infinitesimally 
 small. These lessons are most valuable if they come 
 early so that escape is possible. Those who learn 
 them and escape are very likely to lead happy, con- 
 tented lives. They are then in a position to appreciate 
 their homes where want is unknown, to appreciate 
 their neighbors who love them and who care whether 
 their brothers starve, beg or steal. 
 
 Many by force of circumstances become criminal, 
 while some more fortunate escape. 
 
 The cities are wrong, to a greater or less degree, 
 in permitting such labor conditions as confront them 
 every year, but the rural community is doubly guilty. 
 It takes not the pains to inform itself of real urban,' 
 
170 THE RURAL SCHOOL FROM WITHIN 
 
 conditions and it is unbelievably negligent concerning 
 its own resources. Legitimate advertising is com- 
 mendable, and legitimate advertising is a business 
 in which rural communities have never invested. 
 
 The cities draw from the rural population in a 
 most natural way. 
 
 Every attractive feature of a city is advertised. 
 It is advertised in many ways. The daily papers 
 directly advertise special business, and indirectly 
 through their columns publish the city's greatness. 
 Every article of commerce and trade bears the city 
 stamp ; even the cars that carry the merchandise to 
 the rural community herald the name of the city from 
 which they come. Every business of the city that 
 amounts to anything advertises. The commission 
 firms that sell the farmer's pigs and cattle see that 
 the farmer carries in his pocket a memorandum 
 book bearing the firm's name, and that he hangs upon 
 the walls of his home calendars advertising the 
 firm's business. Throughout rural communities em- 
 blazoned on billboards are advertised all kinds of 
 merchandise. All sorts of attractions are advertised 
 in the papers, and thus the people read daily and are 
 impressed with the city's greatness. The picture with 
 urban settings of a stylish suit is shown on a hand- 
 some man. The same with feminine wearing apparel, 
 always shown with city surroundings, fashionable 
 resorts, hotels, theatres and parks. This is business. 
 
RURAL COMMUNITY INTEREST 171 
 
 and is right, but it is not right that the rural com- 
 munities should neglect to do those things which 
 would make known to the world the beauties and 
 advantages of rural life. Homesteads should be kept 
 so as to be attractive to the eye. They should bear 
 the owner's name; the public highways should be 
 kept in good condition. If there must be signboards 
 advertising special brands of clothing, cigars and 
 tobacco for the ruralite, let there be signboards just 
 as large and just as attractive advertising community 
 interests. 
 
 At cross-roads and near railroads let there be 
 signs like the following, which tourists may read and 
 remember : 
 
 Grundy County 
 3000 pure bred herefords 
 2000 grade shorthorns 
 
 300 MULES 
 
 10 breeders of plymouth rock chickens 
 12 breeders of rhode island reds 
 10 breeders of poland china hogs 
 
 Farm Agent, Trenton, Mo. 
 
 McDoNouGH County 
 Illinois Township 
 60 miles of rock road 
 
 THREE railroad STATIONS 
 
 high grade fine stock 
 75 bushels corn per acre 
 tax levy ten mills 
 land $75 per acre 
 
 Farm Agent, Macomb, III. 
 
172 THE RURAL SCHOOL FROM WITHIN 
 
 Gage County 
 two consolidated schools 
 one rural high school 
 one federated church 
 five railroads 
 land worth $100 per acre and selling 
 
 Farm Agent, Beatrice, Neb. 
 
 Marshall County 
 
 FED 300 cars of cattle LAST YEAR 
 
 it markets $6ooo worth of eggs every year 
 its land raises 
 
 60 bushels of corn per acre 
 300 bushels of potatoes per acre 
 land worth $90 per acre 
 
 County Agent, Marysville, Kan. 
 
 Jewell County 
 land worth $100 per acre 
 i acre pastures three cows 
 i acre grows three tons alfalfa 
 
 County Agent, Mankato, Kan. 
 
 Such advertising pays or corporations represent- 
 ing millions of wealth would not practice such adver- 
 tising. The state has hundreds of townships, each 
 representing several million dollars invested. Why 
 allow these countrysides with all their fertility and 
 wealth and beauty to lie unspoken and at the same 
 time permit them to be littered and defaced with 
 signs promulgating a city's Hog Cholera Serum that 
 is inferior to and costs more than that which their 
 own agricultural college makes, for the support of 
 
RURAL COMMUNITY INTEREST 173 
 
 which they pay taxes ; with signs advertising patent 
 medicines that do not cure; tobacco that we do not 
 want, and lots in the city's " new addition," which is 
 no more a part of a city than the land which we 
 have in corn ? 
 
 So long as the farmer humbly pursues the policy 
 of " Please, what will you give? " and " Please, 
 what do you ask? " he will be a burden to himself 
 and his sons will be dissatisfied. Cooperation in 
 business and cooperation in educational matters and 
 legitimate advertising will have a tendency to hold 
 those on the farm who are already there and also 
 attract to the farm many who are in absolute ignor- 
 ance of the one place where life in its greatest fulness 
 may be realized. 
 
CHAPTER XV 
 The Closing of School 
 
 No LONGER in many states do we have a winter 
 term of school followed by a spring vacation and a 
 summer school. Such was the division of the school 
 years at Constad's Crossing. The winter term closed 
 about the middle of March, and its closing brought 
 back to use the curtain that so successfully hid from 
 view the mysteries of Santa Claus and Christmas. 
 
 These exhibitions have been decried by the later- 
 day teachers as a waste of much valuable time. The 
 criticism may be justified in some cases but in the 
 majority of cases it is not. Among fond recollec- 
 tions are the wonders of our school exhibitions. We 
 had our Irish and German dialect declamations and 
 songs; we had dialogues and orations. True, the 
 declamation and oration were not strongly differen- 
 tiated, but we had them both and everybody liked 
 them, and they created quite a little stir locally just 
 the same as a school exhibition of the present day 
 given under captions of " Senior " and " Junior 
 plays." 
 
 It is a most unfortunate condition that has over- 
 taken society as regards its entertainment. The 
 whole social scheme seems to have changed. In 
 many, many ways we have quit home production. 
 
 174 
 
THE CLOSING OF SCHOOL 175 
 
 Everything must be imported, not only imported 
 breakfast foods, imported meats, but imported speak- 
 ers, imported singers. Knowing and preaching the 
 doctrine of "learning to do by doing," we learn to 
 do by " watching others." 
 
 At the present time we are having community 
 welfare meetings throughout the state and speakers 
 are being imported to address these meetings. The 
 people gather, give respectful attention, but that is 
 all they give, and unless these people are stirred to 
 activity nothing is gained by such meetings. 
 
 I am writing of a real backward step in educa- 
 tional and social progress. This backward step is 
 being taken in every walk of life. 
 
 The sociologist cries for rural leaders and the city 
 and large town are turned over to leaders — every per- 
 formance is an all-star affair — stars in the school — 
 stars in the church — stars in the college. The in- 
 dividual who is but average looks passively on and 
 learns to do by watching under the guidance and 
 inspiration of an " all-star team." This book is 
 written in the interests of the rural school, and while 
 the rural school has much to strive for there is much 
 included in present day accomplishment that it is 
 well to avoid. , 
 
 High ideals are beautiful and helpful, but help- 
 ful only when people are led into action. The old 
 school exhibition is not considered from a literary 
 
176 THE RURAL SCHOOL FROM WITHIN 
 
 or artistic standpoint par excellence. The games we 
 once did play, for example, town-ball, in which we 
 chose up, giving first choice to the one whose hand 
 came out on top of the bat if it were a round bat, or if 
 flat, to the one who guessed lucky two out of three on 
 wet or dry, were not, scientifically considered, up to 
 present day games. But what of the results? 
 
 Who will dare say that the benefits from the 
 games were not as great when all played as to-day 
 when the school is represented by a team in whose 
 interests the entire play activity of the school has 
 been sacrificed ? Notwithstanding that the game has 
 reached a high degree of perfection, is the growing 
 child benefited by an activity in which he has no part 
 except to parrot-like scream the " Ricketty, Ricketty 
 Jams " at such designated times as are deemed ex- 
 pedient by the leader? In the old school exhibition 
 everyone had some part and every mother's boy 
 and every mother's girl did best and they were all 
 stars, and all very happy over their success, and their 
 happiness and success lasted till the next school ex- 
 hibition. Who will dare argue that the benefit was 
 less great than that which comes with our closing 
 events of school to-day when boys and girls make of 
 the occasion a dress affair which few can afford, and 
 import a speaker who does the orating and declaim- 
 ing while the class sits with folded hands amid palms, 
 ferns and cut flowers listlessly awaiting formal con- 
 
THE CLOSING OF SCHOOL 177 
 
 gratulations for something to which they have con- 
 tributed no more than have the forms in the show 
 windows of a ladies' furnishing store contributed to 
 the business management. 
 
 Throughout my writing I have felt in a pleasant 
 frame of mind and have looked upon the present as 
 better than the past, and I have a profound confidence 
 in future educational progress ; but there are certain 
 danger places which we should avoid, and which I 
 fear we are not avoiding. We have been, and are, 
 educating part of our people superlatively, and letting 
 the millions go untrained. There is too great a ten- 
 dency in our common schools and high schools to 
 get away from the individual, and universal educa- 
 tion will never come if we do not avoid this tendency. 
 In a subsequent chapter I have written on the 
 importance of play. So much is being said on that 
 subject that there is a temptation to omit it from 
 those subjects that are considered essential. But 
 when I see leading educators, or rather men in posi- 
 tions that call for leading educators, reducing their 
 schools to mere machines, keeping children for four 
 and five hours without opportunity to relax, much 
 less play, sacrificing childhood in the interests of 
 classification and violating thereby the most sacred 
 laws of child hygiene, I feel it a duty to protest in the 
 interests of the welfare of the future American man 
 aijd woman. I am far from being optimistic over the 
 12 
 
178 THE RURAL SCHOOL FROM WITHm 
 
 outlook. In the mad desire to excel and to do things 
 exceptionally well, we are sacrificing in every walk 
 of life the masses, and only the individual who does 
 exceptionally well is given recognition or even an 
 opportunity to become exceptional. Any system that 
 loses sight of the individual is bad, regardless of 
 organization effected. Many new plans have much 
 to commend them, but conditions under which they 
 operate must be considered. 
 
 The exhibition at the close of the winter term in 
 a measure denoted our year's success. From the 
 beginning of the preparation till the final act the 
 best of feeling prevailed. Everyone deported himself 
 with satisfaction to himself and to his community. 
 
 After a two weeks' vacation the summer school 
 opened, and was conspicuous for the absence of all 
 of the larger boys. 
 
 The summer school was uneventful and uninter- 
 esting. The opportunities for good work were there, 
 but I was unaware of their presence, and had I been 
 aware of them I could not have taken advantage of 
 them. 
 
 The middle of June brought it all to a close, and 
 in this I had ample opportunity for exercising mana- 
 gerial ability in establishing a centre for a larger 
 community by bringing together on Indian Creek 
 near Constad's Crossing five schools for a last day 
 picnic. 
 
THE CLOSING OF SCHOOL 179 
 
 The idea was new and very popular. Since we 
 were its originators we had another school call a 
 meeting of the teachers to discuss plans. After 
 effecting an organization composed of the five teach- 
 ers and one assistant from each school district, we 
 were ready for business. Each school became re- 
 sponsible for its part of the program, and each 
 school was to practice a song in which all would join. 
 
 A large sawmill located near the picnic grounds 
 loaned us lumber for a platform and for seats, and 
 the teams and men for handling the lumber were 
 many more than needed. Two of the districts had 
 " brass bands " and each volunteered its services and 
 was accepted. The day was ideal and for miles in 
 all directions farm work was suspended and a holiday 
 declared. So great was the enthusiasm that a 
 " stand " was maintained, at which were kept ice 
 cream, lemonade and candy. 
 
 Have you become so blase as not to appreciate 
 the possibilities for a good time with such oppor- 
 tunities as are offered by a country picnic, two brass 
 bands and a stand ! Of course, the grounds were in 
 a bend of the creek — ^that's what bends in creeks are 
 for. It is in these bends that the trees grow the 
 largest and that the grass grows the greenest, and it 
 is just beyond these bends that are found the riffles, 
 and it is in these riffles that the barefoot children 
 love most to be, where the mothers and grandmothers 
 
180 THE RURAL SCHOOL FROM WITHIN 
 
 cqst longing glances and wish they were children just 
 for a day. Under the elms on a high bank of Indian 
 Creek was built our platform, and it was no small 
 platform, but was large enough for two brass bands 
 — large enough for all the schools when they sang. It 
 was so large that it seemed limitless to the boys and 
 girls who alone and vmaided made pilgrimages across 
 when they spoke their pieces, and spoke them so low 
 as to be unheard even by themselves. 
 
 The program was divided into two parts — fore- 
 noon and afternoon. The noon hours from twelve 
 to two were not written down as a part of the pro- 
 gram, but they were a part, and to be exact I should 
 say the program was divided into three parts. My 
 recollection of the dinner is not distinct. I remember 
 the seats were used for tables and that there was no 
 grouping off, but that several hundred people, old, 
 middle aged and young, occupied places at those 
 tables and that everyone had his dinner, and that 
 lemonade by the bucketful was furnished free with 
 the name of the giver withheld. I could without 
 danger of going far wrong tell just what we had to 
 eat. Of course, there would be light rolls and jelly, 
 new beets and new cucumber pickles and spring 
 chicken and every kind of cake and cherry pie, but 
 what we had is really of small importance, and then 
 it was quite a while ago. The principal points are 
 that we had a good dinner, a big dinner, that every- 
 
THE CLOSING OF SCHOOL 181 
 
 one had all he needed, and that twelve baskets would 
 not have held what was left over. Everyone had a 
 good time, visited with his neighbor and ate with 
 him, and loved him and forgot that his neighbor 
 belonged to the Methodist Church or to no church at 
 all, demonstrating long before the idea of " The 
 School as a Social Centre " was bom that the 
 school represents the only really democratic institu- 
 tion under the protection of the Stars and Stripes. 
 The programs were successes. Nothing said or 
 given from that platform was particularly good, but 
 I have seen many programs since that day that were 
 no better, and paradoxical as it seems, I never saw a 
 poor program given by home talent. We see children 
 every Sunday in Sunday school giving recitations 
 and verses — nothing worth while. Am I forgetting ? 
 Yes, they are all worth while. They are ours. They 
 are doing things, — ^things really worth while. I have 
 seen teachers and parents mortified over the fact 
 that a child forgot his piece. The only care that 
 should be had is the effect that failure may have upon 
 the child — it tried — it faced an audience, and it re- 
 quired courage to do that ; it succeeded even though 
 its teeth burned its lips, its throat went dry and the 
 audience went round and roxmd. Give us a greater 
 sympathy for childhood and a greater appreciation of 
 the dangers of an arrested development, and let us 
 put children to doing and keep them doing all through 
 
182 THE RURAL SCHOOL FROM WITHIN 
 
 the period of adolescence, and quit importing all-star 
 companies. 
 
 The man and woman who would not rather hear 
 their own children speak and sing are unnatural and 
 should not have children. The man and woman who 
 are not for the home team, in preference to the 
 professional players have not felt the joy of being a 
 neighbor. The program for the day closed with a song 
 by the five schools. Of course, we had to open with 
 America, and (not " of course " but we did) close 
 with Onward Christian Soldiers, and we sang it 
 much better than on the opening morning. Although 
 no one was invited to the front there was one who 
 came, uninvited and unannounced, but not unwel- 
 come. He stood in the middle of the platform 
 among the children of the five schools and with the 
 last word he raised his hand to still the crowd that 
 was already quiet. In strong, clear tones he pro- 
 nounced a benediction upon his neighbors' children, 
 upon the teachers and upon the neighbors themselves, 
 and then "school was out." Another year of oppor- 
 tunities had passed and Big Indian Creek, a concrete 
 representation of living humanity, moved onward by 
 irresistible forces to the place whence it came. Old 
 Indian flows on. I visited her but a short time ago. 
 
 It was in the autumn. The trees were yet un- 
 marred by the farmer's axe. The hollyhocks seemed 
 just the same, and the murmuring sounds from the 
 
THE CLOSING OF SCHOOL 183 
 
 springhouse brought back memories — ^memories 
 sweet, memories sacred. Memories of happy days — 
 of responsibihty, hope — ^memories of dear friends. 
 Father Rose, who died a few years after the time of 
 which this story was written, was survived by Mother 
 Rose by several years. In the cemetery among the 
 hills they both lie buried, and an unpretentious marble 
 gives dates of their births and deaths, and nothing 
 more. 
 
 To my mind came the words as I stood by their 
 graves, " They are not dead. When that marble has 
 fallen apd the names are unknown to the oldest resi- 
 dent, the Constad Crossing neighborhood will be 
 better because it was once the home of Father and 
 Mother Rose." 
 
 Mr. Denman feeds the pigs and works the garden, 
 helps Kansas with her children and her chickens and 
 her cows, and complains of high taxes. 
 
 Mollie is the mother of several boys and girls, 
 and her boys are all teachers and their mother never 
 tires of telling them of her ideal teacher. 
 
 To Mr. Constad the twenty-five years have 
 brought their changes. He no longer rides horseback 
 over his farm, but drives a touring car of high power. 
 He drives it as though life were escaping and must 
 be overtaken. He talks not of the past. None but 
 the old live in the past. Constad will never grow old. 
 When he is gone a man who is but ordinary can't 
 
184 THE RURAL SCHOOL FROM WITHIN 
 
 take his place. A man who is unmerciful, who loves 
 not his neighbor, who loves to do alms before men 
 to be seen of them, who loves to pray standing in the 
 synagogues and on the corners of the street and 
 thinks he is heard for his much speaking, will not do. 
 But his place will be filled. Such men do not live in 
 vain. These men of character are the human guide- 
 posts along life's roadways. They point the way to 
 the travellers who are footsore, weak and discour- 
 aged, to those who are hopeful, anxious and am- 
 bitious and who at times are tempted to turn from 
 the great White Way to the dark danger routes that 
 lead to disappointment and failure. Yes, his place 
 will be filled — ^more than filled. 
 
 The world grows better, safer, sweeter, and for 
 this growth it owes a great debt to the rural school, 
 the rural church. Who would have the courage or 
 be so forgetful of their great work as to say that 
 they have lived in vain ? 
 
 What more impressive painting could the artist 
 paint than one of the little one-room schoolhouse, 
 " The Bethel of the Nineteenth and Twentieth Cen- 
 turies " ? 
 
CHAPTER XVI 
 A School Responsibility 
 
 One moral question far-reaching in its effect 
 upon rural life, harder to solve than a like one affect- 
 ing city life, is the unsupervised time of the child. 
 
 An enemy to the public school remarked that the 
 public school is the social cesspool. " We have in the 
 world families that are depraved, vicious and vulgar. 
 With our compulsory school laws we compel, for the 
 good of society at large, children from such families 
 to be brought into contact with children who are 
 carefully trained, and whose morals are good, who 
 have pure minds filled with wholesome thoughts. 
 We compel the cultured and refined child to associa- 
 ate with the uncultured and impure. Our schools are 
 a moral uplift for the delinquent child, but what 
 about their effect upon the other child ? Is it treating 
 the morally clean child right to force upon it an 
 association at its most impressionable age that is cer- 
 tain to work a real injury? " 
 
 These are questions of serious importance. In 
 this regard our schools will not be changed. It is 
 right that the child of unfortunate home conditions 
 be given every opportunity for proper development, 
 and that he be adjusted to conditions under which he 
 will eventually live. 
 
 1S5 
 
186 THE RURAL SCHOOL FROM WITHIN 
 
 In considering his welfare let us nqt forget the 
 child of the more fortunate home. Let us, in other 
 words, keep all we have and endeavor to get more. 
 The careful mother watches her children's associates 
 and does not hesitate to rescue her children from 
 those known to be evil and vicious. The school, upon 
 receiving these children, becomes " parent in charge " 
 and assumes an obligation to watch over their moral 
 welfare. 
 
 This obligation involves many things. First of 
 all, there must be teachers wise in the ways of the 
 world. They must be people of high ideals. If they 
 are not, the children are better off at home. A 
 thousand things must be known by the efficient 
 teacher. He must know boys and girls. He must be 
 able to detect viciousness and must be quick to guard 
 against it. He must be ever on the alert, during 
 school hours and during intermission. 
 
 Many teachers never consider the question of 
 morals in arranging the seating of a school. They 
 thoughtlessly permit a bad girl to sit where her in- 
 fluence is the worst possible; permit a boy of the 
 lowest morals to sit where he can corrupt the morals 
 of others and offer insults to girls without detection. 
 
 These are matters concerning which no book rules 
 can be given. The teacher must have common sense 
 and a willingness to use it. The teacher cannot 
 handle a large school and sit for hours behind his 
 
A SCHOOL RESPONSIBILITY 187 
 
 desk. He must know what is happening and he must 
 feel that it makes a difference. 
 
 Some years ago a mother called upon a member 
 of the school board, asking that her daughter have 
 her seat changed, stating that she then sat just across 
 the aisle from a bad boy who made vulgar and 
 insinuating remarks. The board member told her to 
 consult the teacher. She replied that she had, but that 
 the teacher had refused her request, stating that her 
 daughter was entitled to no special privileges. The 
 board member peremptorily ordered the teacher to 
 place that boy where he could offer no indignities to 
 decent pupils, and if she could not do this, to suspend 
 him at once. The morals of the school must be 
 protected. 
 
 Dtu-ing intermission the plays should be super- 
 vised. There are many good reasons for this, but the 
 only one considered here is the moral one. 
 
 Children going long distances, over lonely roads, 
 need supervision, and the adult person is of unusual 
 experience if he does not know why. There are 
 many reasons, but the reason now considered is a 
 moral one. 
 
 Supervised play, and supervision going to and 
 returning from school, is a more difficult matter in 
 rural than in town schools. 
 
 To some teachers supervision is distasteful. They 
 place it along with surveillance. They are willing to 
 
188 THE RURAL SCHOOL FROM WITHIN 
 
 " trust " their children, and such teachers who are 
 mixtures of stupidity and credulity, work irreparable 
 injury. This is an age of supervision and strict 
 accounting. As well argue that a cash register is a 
 challenge of one's morals. Carelessness in business 
 methods makes rogues, and carelessness in child man- 
 agement either in the home or the school makes for 
 imperfection. The wise teacher and wise parent will 
 not wilfully disregard the temptations for wrong 
 action that are often placed before children. 
 
 These are matters that caused me great uneasi- 
 ness during my first school. The journey to and 
 from school is one over which the teacher can have 
 but little control. The law recognizes the gravity of 
 this matter and gives the teacher and parent concur- 
 rent jurisdiction over the child from the time he 
 leaves home till he returns home, but this does not 
 insure safety from the vicious children. 
 
 There are many who are favorably located, where 
 distances are short or where morals are clean, but 
 there are those who have long distances to travel, and 
 who are forced to be with those who are immoral, 
 and it is for them that a care must be exercised. 
 
CHAPTER XVII 
 
 Mistakes 
 
 I HAVE said that one mistake I made was at- 
 tempting to teach. This opinion is strengthened as 
 I measure the results of my work during that first 
 year. As I view my work of that period I am satis- 
 fied that few teachers ever did much poorer teaching, 
 notwithstanding our grand finale and my offer of 
 re-employment at the highest salary paid in the rural 
 schools of the county. One consolation I have found 
 in that year's work is that I have been, in later years, 
 better able to detect weaknesses in teaching, for I 
 was guilty of all of them and know their results. 
 
 At the beginning of my work in a city school 
 some years ago the following incident occurred. I 
 shall faithfully recite it for the benefit of my readers, 
 believing that many will recognize in it a personal 
 experience. 
 
 A father of children in my school called me into 
 his place of business and said : " You are a stranger 
 to me, but I have a trouble and I hope you can help 
 me out of it. It may sound harsh to you to hear me 
 say it, but I have a son, twenty-two years old, who is 
 absolutely worthless. I am a poor man and have 
 five children, all of whom I desire to educate aad 
 
 189 
 
190 THE RURAL SCHOOL FROM WITHIN 
 
 make self-supporting. This son of whom I speak 
 has never been a good student. He never learned 
 very vifell, and the worst of it is, he never tried. 
 Last year I sent him to a business college and last 
 month he came home with his diploma. I got him 
 a position with an old friend of mine in a neighbor- 
 ing town. Yesterday he came home. He came 
 because he was discharged. I tell you, Professor, 
 he is no good. Now what I w'ant you to do, as our 
 superintendent and as a man who is interested in 
 yotmg people and anxious to help them succeed in 
 life, is to see him, talk to him, look him over, gain 
 his confidence, and try to fix him so he can pass the 
 teachers' examination, so that he can teach school. 
 I know where he can get a school if he can procure 
 a certificate." 
 
 I met this son, talked with him, and looked him 
 over, but fear I did not gain his confidence. He was 
 evidently not impressed with the seriousness of the 
 teaching business. He undertook it, however, and, 
 although he teaches but one term in a place, he al- 
 ways manages to be self-supporting, but, it is to be 
 feared, at the expense of a childhood that is in no 
 way responsible for the father's five children, the 
 shortcomings of his son, nor for the father's con- 
 suming desire to make his children self-supporting. 
 
 Such crimes as the foregoing are directly charge- 
 able to the system under which our rural schools oper- 
 
MISTAKES 191 
 
 ate. The system not only makes such cases possible, 
 but it makes possible the worst results imaginable 
 for such cases. If such teachers could be supervised 
 they might be tolerated and they might be made of 
 some use and some of their mistakes eliminated, but 
 under the present small district system their oppor- 
 timity for destructive work is almost unlimited. 
 
 The case cited is a double criticism on our 
 schools. The school is responsible for this young 
 man's condition, and a school that makes such misfits 
 will continue to make them so long as it persists in 
 hiring misfits for teachers. 
 
 Through a supposed kindness of heart boards 
 hire such teachers ; but kindness of heart and sane- 
 ness of mind are far from being in evidence when 
 such teachers are perpetrated upon a helpless child- 
 hood from which the opportimities of youth are 
 withheld. 
 
 Such teachers as the one just described are often 
 hired by well-meaning boards, not for the purpose of 
 giving the teachers employment, but because the 
 children in their school are small and not far ad- 
 vanced, and can, therefore, be taught by a teacher 
 who has not made much preparation. These boards 
 are certainly most ignorant concerning the necessary 
 qualifications of a good primary or intermediate 
 grade teacher. How good it makes the superinten- 
 dent feel to have his board say, " Get us the very 
 
192 THE RURAL SCHOOL FROM WITHER 
 
 best teachers for the primary department that you 
 can find." 
 
 There is one unfailing sign of a poor school, of 
 an inefficient board, and of a superintendent who is 
 either incompetent or without influence with his 
 board, and that is a school where the primary teacher 
 is not the strongest and highest paid teacher in the 
 grades. How many thousands of small district 
 schools are being taught to-day by young teachers 
 without any professional preparation whatever and 
 with a very limited education, just because " the 
 children are small and anyone can teach them." 
 
 The first mistake that I shall briefly consider was 
 my method of teaching the primary grades. In con- 
 sideration of the several methods of teaching be- 
 ginners to read we are impressed with the merits of 
 the sentence method, the word method, and the 
 phonic method and the alphabet method. The last 
 one was the only method I had heard of, but it was 
 not the only one of which I made use. 
 
 First we learned the letters of the alphabet. 
 This in itself is no small task, and if there is a sub- 
 jective interest in learning the alphabet it is so hidden 
 as to have escaped detection, and the only objective 
 interest that the child can have in it is that of mastery 
 and a possible desire for approbation. It was a hard 
 task for pupils to learn all those twenty-six letters 
 
MISTAKES 193 
 
 and by learning them they acquired a real incum- 
 brance. 
 
 By way of illustration I mention a few of the 
 words imdertaken immediately after the alphabet was 
 learned. It will be remembered that in learning the 
 alphabet we did not learn the several sounds for 
 which a letter stands. In the word a-t, at; d-o-g, 
 dog; we have the short sounds of "a" and " o," 
 and a knowledge of the alphabet was no possible 
 help there. H-o-r-s-e, horse, involves five letters 
 with a natural sound of " r " and the soft " c " or 
 soft " s." Again we are at a loss for argument to 
 defend the necessity for, or the advisability of having 
 at this time the alphabet. In the first reader then 
 in use, on page 5 occurred the word " tomatoes." 
 Some of my pupils who were able to visualize mas- 
 tered the intricacies of that word, but others were 
 tasked to the limit and then all did not master it. 
 If the word method had been advocated in those 
 days it would have received little consideration, and 
 yet it was the word method which we finally used, 
 although in our ignorance we did not know it. We 
 had them spell " at," " dog," " horse," " tomatoes," 
 etc., and in the end told them what these words were. 
 The power of the letter meant nothing to them what- 
 ever and was a real hindrance. 
 
 In comparing that blundering practice (it was no 
 method) with some of the modern methods, one 
 13 
 
194 THE RURAL SCHOOL FROM WITHIN 
 
 cannot but sympathize with the children of former 
 days, or with children of the present day who are 
 taught by teachers who have not made special prepa- 
 ration for their work. It is not the purpose of this 
 chapter to give in detail any of the methods for teach- 
 ing, but to give a few of the practices that were and 
 are yet employed by those who attempt to teach those 
 subjects for which they have made no preparation. 
 (So long as school teaching is used as a stepping 
 stone for those who are ambitious, and so long as 
 many who have no ambitions, and those who fail in 
 all other undertakings, and those who are unable to 
 compete with men and women in other walks of life 
 drift into the teaching business, we may expect prac- 
 tices that are positively vicious to the best interests 
 of education. So long as we have the present 
 methods of employing teachers this condition will 
 prevail. So long as we have school boards of three 
 men to employ the teachers for the children of every 
 ten or twelve families, and these boards must be 
 taken from these families, we can expect no great 
 improvement. The system is vicious and with it 
 cheap, inefficient teachers are sure of employment, 
 and education will suffer.) 
 
 As stated, the power of the letter was not con- 
 sidered. The pupil was taught the names of the 
 letters without regard to their function, built them 
 
MISTAKES 195 
 
 into meaningless combinations and called these com- 
 binations words after being told the words. 
 
 A trained primary teacher can easily accomplish 
 more in nine days than I accomplished with my little 
 people in nine months, and I worked hard, even 
 though blunderingly. 
 
 Reading is an art, but teaching reading is a 
 science. This is especially true of teaching reading 
 to beginners. It has been said that " the child learns 
 to read by reading." This is but the thought, differ- 
 ently worded, that " we learn to do by doing " ; but 
 modem education has added " under the guidance 
 and inspiration of true ideals." There is an educa- 
 tional maxim to which close heed must be given in 
 the presentation of this subject, and that is " to pro- 
 ceed from the known to the related unknown." 
 
 The expert primary teachers make use of the 
 sentence, the word, and the phonetic method, but 
 their greatest success lies in the close relation that 
 they maintain between what the child knows and 
 what he is about to be taught. The method I em- 
 ployed was almost without merit. I tried to lead 
 the child from what he did not know to the unrelated 
 unknown, and since I violated all the principles of 
 sound pedagogy it will not be surprising to state 
 that my primary pupils made little progress. 
 
 For the second and third and other grades I 
 made use of the word method in the reading. I 
 
196 THE RURAL SCHOOL FROM WITHIN 
 
 knew nothing of the mechanics of reading. I had 
 not learned that pitch, force, quality, expression, 
 etc., can be secured only by making them the out- 
 come of an appreciation of thought and feeling. The 
 matter of a " proper atmosphere " for good reading 
 was not one of the things I had considered. I pointed 
 to work on the board that was to be read one word at 
 a time, a practice which will make poor readers of 
 already good readers. 
 
 " Grouping " was unknown to me. If I wanted 
 them to read " The Death of Absalom " or " Little 
 Nell," I read it for them, affecting a mournful tone, 
 and required them to imitate me. This wtas very 
 poor teaching. They usually read it as well under 
 such preparation as they sang on the opening morn- 
 ing of school. I did not know then that a pupil who 
 knows the words in the selection of " Little Nell " 
 cannot read it poorly if the proper atmosphere exists. 
 In short, my reading exercises were very poor. I did 
 not teach those to read who did not know how to 
 read, and I did not make those who could read better 
 readers. 
 
 I have an idea that I did one commendable thing 
 that had a direct bearing upon their reading. I put at 
 the disposal of the school those books that I felt cer- 
 tain they would like. The first book of which I was 
 personally fond was " Robinson Crusoe." That 
 was the first book that I put on the teacher's desk 
 
MISTAKES 197 
 
 for the boys. Next to get in beside this book was 
 " Joan of Arc." " Neighbors with Wings and 
 Fins," " Flyers, Creepers and Swimmers," nor any 
 of the Seton Thompson books were published at that 
 time; but Old Mother Hubbard, Mother Goose 
 Rhymes, Little Red Riding Hood, ^sop's Fables, 
 were right up beside Robinson Crusoe — sometimes, 
 but generally none were on my desk, and these six 
 books always went home with the children at night. 
 
 I originated one thing which was full of merit — 
 a reading board. I had a board about two feet wide 
 and six feet long upon which I posted newspaper and 
 magazine clippings. We kept a can of paste ever in 
 readiness, and all contributions of interest or merit 
 that were sent in found a place. The merit of the 
 reading board was evidenced very largely by the in- 
 creased " interest " in reading. 
 
 Many have acquired an interest in history 
 through reading historical romance and an interest 
 in theology through Bible stories ; in industrial work 
 through manual training, home economics, domestic 
 science and domestic art; and in sanitation, not by 
 the stressing of active attention to the subject as 
 presented in the physiology of twenty-five years ago, 
 but through a recognition of its vital importance as 
 applied to modern day living. 
 
 On the reading board was carefully selected 
 material, material suited to the various ages of those 
 
198 THE RURAL SCHOOL FROM WITHIN 
 
 in school. My first care was to put nothing on it that 
 would not be of interest to the child. It was not long 
 before there was a general interest in my selections 
 and the pupils began to feel that my judgment on 
 what to read was good. It goes without dispute that 
 we get the reputation for being sound by those with 
 whom we agree. However, the teacher must not 
 stop here. Here this must be used as an advantage. 
 Stories were good for the reading board. A little 
 humor was not out of place. The teacher who 
 thinks these things are all right is likely to be pro- 
 nounced all right himself by the children, and when 
 I later began to add a news item to my selection, it, 
 too, was read, and before the winter was half 
 over the older pupils were bringing clippings of the 
 current events, and these clippings multiplied so 
 rapidly that a reading board for current events be- 
 came one separate and distinct reading board. What 
 a satisfaction was that reading board ! Not only was 
 it popular with the people, it was popular with the 
 teacher. It was his. He had invented it. Surely 
 this was a case of a want being the mother of 
 invention. In this community v\rhere there was little 
 to read he was given an opportunity to do what 
 to-day would be little appreciated. This board had 
 one great point in its favor, and that was that all it 
 contained had been censored. 
 
 My greatest satisfaction was in the change that 
 
MISTAKES 199 
 
 I was able to create in Father Rose. He became my 
 best reader. Many evenings after school he would 
 come in and read our clippings from the read- 
 ing board. My papers came regularly and he read 
 them regularly. One night I saw him reading from 
 a volume of my Macaulay's History of England. I 
 think there were five volumes, amd Father Rose read 
 them all. Among my books was Irving's " Knicker- 
 bocker's History of New York." Father Rose not 
 only read that book, but he read it aloud to Mother 
 Rose, and I believe he gave me credit for Irving's 
 success as a writer; at least, he gave me the praise 
 for bringing some of the good things into his life. 
 A man can be known by what he reads. 
 
 How do I harmonize his attitude toward these 
 books with his former attitude when he said that 
 reading interfered with his religious enjoyment? 
 This is an easy question. Father Rose had a good, 
 clean mind. The reading that he had been so un- 
 fortunate as to know much about, excepting his 
 Bible, had nothing to commend itself to him. It was 
 dry and lacking in human interest. Irving's descrip- 
 tions of those good, hard working, thrifty, honest 
 Dutch people struck responsive chords in this old 
 man's heart that had waited all these years for the 
 sweep of the hand of that master teller of tales. 
 
 So often have I found this great principle in 
 education violated, the fundamental principle or law 
 
200 THE RURAL SCHOOL FROM WITHIN 
 
 of teaching, that " knowledge can be taught only by 
 occasioning proper activities in the learner's mind." 
 Learning is the legitimate offspring of interest and 
 interest demands a changing environment. 
 
 Mistakes in teaching arithmetic were not as 
 numerous as those that I made in teaching reading, 
 a thing which was largely due to the fact that I had 
 fewer opportunities for making them. My school 
 was large and the more advanced pupils were allowed 
 to work at their problems with less interruption than 
 would have been the case had the school been smaller. 
 Indeed, I have seen schools in very recent years 
 whose great handicap was the time that the teacher 
 had in which she might help her pupils. 
 
 One of the weak places in our graded schools is 
 the so-called supervised study periods, during which 
 time the teacher removes all obstacles and, with the 
 obstacles, an opportunity for getting an education. 
 
 " To occasion the proper activity in the learner's 
 mind '* is" the work of an expert. The teacher who 
 turns the study period into one of slavery for herself 
 and of mental passivity for the pupil is committing a 
 radical error. 
 
 How few teachers there are who seem to realize 
 that the success of a school depends upon what the 
 pupil does rather than upon what the teacher does. 
 My mind is not clear as to the attitude of the public 
 on this point. In many places I believe the success 
 
MISTAKES 201 
 
 of a school is measured by the activity on the part of 
 the teacher rather than upon the mental activities of 
 the pupils. 
 
 Many teachers have the reputation of being good 
 teachers because they are considerate of pupils, be- 
 cause they take such pains in making everything 
 plain, clear, etc. Such a recommendation is a 
 doubtful compliment. " Pupils learn to do by doing 
 under the inspiration and guidance of true ideals." 
 At the other extreme is the teacher who does nothing. 
 While possibly less detrimental than the teacher who 
 does it all, verily she has her reward. Her reward 
 is a consciousness of having " let them work it out 
 for themselves," and while she may never know it, 
 such liberality cannot be classed as teaching. 
 
 Not everyone that sayeth " Lord, Lord " shall 
 enter the kingdom, and not every pupil who repeats 
 what is said to him is thinking. 
 
 With our boasted progress in education I am of 
 the opinion that the present year finds no great 
 increase in the number of independent thinkers. We 
 have a class of educators to-day who hide or attempt 
 to hide their inefiiciencies by deriding any effort at 
 sound building. They immediately cry, " Impracti- 
 cal, junk, rubbish." If the problem is sufficiently 
 varied from the one had in class to call for a little 
 independence in thought it is nothing but a catch 
 problem, and, therefore, obviously unfair. Mental 
 
202 THE RURAL SCHOOL FROM WITHIN 
 
 arithmetic, which once held a prominent place in our 
 schools, has been abolished these many years, except 
 in the primary grades, and technical grammar is with 
 us only in name. The young man and young woman 
 of the present are not amenable to discipline, and it 
 shows up in more places than in their attitude toward 
 the authority which is intended for their control. 
 
 There has been more or less controversy during 
 the past few years concerning formal discipline, 
 whether or not one subject carries over into another. 
 It is not my purpose to answer that question, but 
 simply to say habit carries over; character and an 
 education that makes character that is purposeless 
 carries over and it carries over very badly. The 
 college will not make a thinker of a student who has 
 never done any thinking before he gets into college, 
 and the lamentable fact about it all is that the schools 
 of the best reputation — those most thoroughly or- 
 ganized — frequently do the least to bring about a 
 better mental attitude. 
 
 In visiting a school where the teacher had each 
 alternate period for helping pupils I found a most 
 happy condition. In all the grades of that school 
 the teachers were meeting with the imanimous ap- 
 proval of the pupils. The teachers so far as I was 
 able to observe were hard working, painstaking men 
 and women. They were continually on the go. 
 When one pupil's obstacle had been pulled out of the 
 
MISTAKES 808 
 
 way and the track sanded, other demands were an- 
 swered, more wrecks straightened out and so far 
 as I could see all would get through on schedule 
 time. As I watched and listened I became inspired 
 with the thought that education is after all just 
 getting results, just getting answers. The pupils had 
 only to obey orders. He could not get his problem ; 
 teacher looks and sweetly says, " You have multi- 
 plied, dear, instead of dividing." The child divided 
 and got the problem. What more could be desired ? 
 One pupil asks, " Should it be he and me or him and 
 I ? " The teacher, who has a fine knowledge of the 
 English language but no use for " formal grammar," 
 says, " Always he and I, dear " — and another mile- 
 stone slipped by. With this same teacher I talked. 
 I asked her how much formal grammar was at- 
 tempted in her school. She frowned and said, " Very 
 little, we don't believe in it." I asked the principal 
 the same question. He said, " Well, we pretend to 
 do a little," but, lowering his voice, he said, " Be- 
 tween you and I, I haven't no use for formal gram- 
 mar." I heartily agree with any teacher who de- 
 nounces formal anything if divorced from thought, 
 but we shall never have English students that can 
 use correct English who do not think, any more than 
 we can have mathematics students who are worth 
 while that do not think. Rules that take precedence 
 
204 THE RURAL SCHOOL FROM WITHIN 
 
 over thought are destructive of the best things in 
 education. 
 
 Rules intelligently applied are, without question, 
 useful. We cannot do without them. They have 
 their proper place, but that place is not to be used 
 to the exclusion of thought. 
 
 Product divided by the multiplier gives multipli- 
 cand is a rule, and has its application in the fact 
 that percentage divided by rate gives base, or area 
 of a square divided by length gives width. R^ times 
 pi equals the area of a circle is a good rule, and the 
 individual who applies the rule will arrive at the cor- 
 rect result as soon as the one who knows the reason 
 lying back of the rule, and for the solution of a prob- 
 lem involving square or cube root the fellow with the 
 rule will be as efficient in the particular solution as 
 the one who has thought out all the principles in- 
 volved in the processes. The volume of a parallelo- 
 piped is easily obtained by application of the rule, 
 simply multiplying the area of a cross section by the 
 altitude or by multiplying together the three dimen- 
 sions. The rides are all right, but tiy some teachers 
 the rule is emphasized and thought is little or not at 
 all exercised. The result of such teaching is gener- 
 ally disappointing. 
 
 The rule teacher and the rule pupil are not de- 
 pendable people. They are not the ones whom we 
 would select to work for us under conditions of 
 
MISTAKES 205 
 
 various or of irregular presentations, or where the 
 statement of the conditions is presented in an irregu- 
 lar form. It was not in a rural school that I saw 
 young men who were supposed to have had a fairly- 
 decent exposure to high school, and to more than 
 freshman college work, go down before a problem 
 that involved no greater mathematical puzzle than 
 what must 2 be multiplied by to make 6. Mind, I 
 do not say that the above problem was propounded 
 to a college student, but the problem involved that 
 principle and no other ; the exact problem being " 64 
 is what per cent, of 512 " or interpreted, " How many 
 5.12's in 64? " The same student has never had any 
 trouble with his English. 24 is how many times 6 
 would not appeal to a high school senior as a real 
 man problem, and yet he is 50 per cent, likely to 
 miss finding out what part ^ might be of ^. 
 
 In an eastern state one of the good men teachers, 
 " unusually successful teachers," so-called, worked 
 every problem in any arithmetic that had rules. He 
 would have been thoroughly incensed if anyone had 
 asked him out of curiosity to find the volume of a 
 parallelopiped, or how to find the number of bushels 
 of corn in a crib or tons of hay in a stack ; but he 
 told a member of his board who wanted to know 
 where to run a partition in the crib to make one bin 
 holding 100 bushels of seed corn that there was no 
 rule for that kind of work; that one could figure 
 
206 THE RURAL SCHOOL FROM WITHIN 
 
 contents of a crib easily, but he necessarily must 
 have the crib before he can tell exactly what it holds. 
 With him we can have no serious disagreement. 
 
 In higher mathematics rules and formulae are 
 necessary, but rules not based upon laboratory ex- 
 perience have no place in elementary or secondary 
 education. 
 
 The case of the young man who could not tell 
 what per cent. 64 is of 512 aptly illustrates the 
 neglect of every teacher who let him ride through 
 on a rule. 
 
 There is a sentiment among teachers from the 
 first primary up that exists among piece workers, 
 that " I'll do my own work and no more," and if a 
 teacher finds a pupil lacking in preparation for her 
 subject to disclaim responsibility and wash her 
 hands. But the student gets very little that is really 
 helpful from such disposition of responsibilities. 
 
 For the student I want to express a real sym- 
 pathy. It is not his fault entirely nor largely, but 
 the fault lies in poor teaching; every teacher who 
 ever had that boy in class and did not help him to 
 think has contributed to his condition. I would 
 have it understood that I have not selected a student 
 who is not average in intellect. He is an average 
 and he is the direct result of an educational practice, 
 extending over and into every subject which calls 
 for exactness and thought. The mere repetition of 
 
MISTAKES 207 
 
 words has no place in the acquiring of knowledge or 
 adding to the clearness of knowledge. 
 
 It is not my desire to criticise our schools and our 
 teachers too harshly, but we must require more in- 
 dependence in thought if we would educate. I have 
 sometimes doubted the efficiency of the ordinary 
 recitation. The pupils who are able to solve certain 
 problems put them on the board or read them from 
 their papers. Those who cannot solve them see how 
 they are solved and at the same time are robbed of 
 another opportimity of helping themselves. I be- 
 lieve the recitation that is given up to pioneering is 
 the most beneficial. 
 
 In some states arithmetics have been adopted be- 
 cause of their most excellent rules and of their most 
 excellently solved problems. More virtue has been 
 claimed for the rules than for subject matter. An 
 arithmetic that required thought or practical demon- 
 stration soon became the ridicule of the press and 
 competing book companies, and of teachers who 
 couldn't work the problems because of the absence 
 of model problems and workable rules. 
 
 The lack of thought is one of the glaring defects 
 in modem education. Some have the opinion that 
 our students are more deficient in relation to num- 
 bers than to language, but I feel qualified to say that 
 this is untrue. I have served seventeen years on 
 teachers' examining boards, and I account for the 
 
208 THE RURAL SCHOOL FROM WITHIN 
 
 verdict that certain individuals are just " fine in 
 grammar" but can't learn mathematics by noting 
 that grammar teachers are less exacting than the 
 mathematics teachers. If they were subjected to the 
 same scrutiny and held down to the right and to 
 wrong, to the fine distinctions of which our language 
 is capable, the verdict would soon go out that " repe- 
 tition without thought is the mother of stupidity," 
 whether in language, mathematics, or history. 
 
 One who claims a working knowledge of our 
 language and professes ignorance of number rela- 
 tions flatly contradicts himself. If the elementary 
 and secondary schools emphasized thought exercises 
 and thought getting instead of form and formality 
 there would be a complete and beneficial revolution 
 in our educational system. 
 
 Some educators have insisted upon a set form of 
 analyses, but even that is not always evidence of 
 thought. While I favor having students go into 
 reasons, I do not favor a set analysis for a problem. 
 That also has a tendency to destroy originality, and 
 like the rule may be accompanied by little or no 
 thought. 
 
 Years since my first rural school I met with the 
 following condition in a room where the teacher was 
 considered strong in teaching arithmetic. She had 
 recommended a boy for promotion. The boy's work 
 did not meet with the approval of his new teacher. 
 
MISTAKES 209 
 
 To verify her charges against him she kept him after 
 school and had me hear him analyze a problem. His 
 former teacher was an " analyzer." Problem : " If 
 25 sheep cost $75, what will one sheep cost?" 
 Pupil : " If 25 sheep cost $75, one sheep will cost 
 25 times $75 or $1875." 
 
 Teacher : " Now, Albert, do you understand that 
 problem, dt are you just repeating words?" 
 
 Pupil : " I understand it." 
 
 Teacher : " Albert, please write your analysis on 
 the board." 
 
 In the meantime his former teacher was sent for 
 and was present when Albert, in his proudest tones, 
 read from the board, " If 25 sheep cost $75, one sheep 
 will cost 25 times $75 or $1875 " (and with a coup 
 de grace he added), " because 25 sheep are 25 times 
 as many sheep as one sheep." 
 
 At once his former teacher pounced upon him 
 with, " Why, Albert, don't you know you'd divide' 
 in a problem like that? " Like a game fish that is 
 away with bait, hook, line and rod, Albert bolted the 
 problem by the division route and his teacher smiled 
 complaisantly while remarking, " Albert needs only 
 a suggestion. I never knew a brighter boy than 
 Albert." Former teacher was a great favorite. 
 Albert never had any trouble while in her room. 
 Albert's new teacher suffered by comparison. $he 
 couldn't make Albert's work plain for him, and until 
 14 
 
210 THE RURAL SCHOOL FROM WITHIN 
 
 Albert is considerably older he will not know that 
 his former teacher, although honest at heart, was a 
 miserable failure. 
 
 The English round tables wail, " What's the mat- 
 ter with our high school EngHsh?" The superin- 
 tendents of the state are wailing at the higher insti- 
 tutions and asking, " Why do you not give us good 
 English teachers ? " A professor of history within 
 the last year said he sometimes wished high schools 
 did not teach history, for as it was they only hindered 
 the university work. " But," he said, " since any- 
 one can get past in teaching it in high school, uni- 
 versity prepared teachers are no longer specializing 
 in history, because it is usually taught by the home 
 girls who usually have to be taken care of." 
 
 The mathematics teacher wails louder than all 
 the others, for he is up against the stone wall. He 
 can't get past without the thought, and since he is 
 almost alone in his efforts his burden is a most 
 grievous one. In the grades, high school and college, 
 the mathematics teacher who does his work con- 
 scientiously is like the really good man, likely to be 
 very lonesome, unless he be one of those dear, good 
 men who makes it all so clear that there is nothing 
 left for the student to see. 
 
 I know the college estimate of the average high 
 school student, and I know the high school princi- 
 pal's estimate of this same average student after he 
 
MISTAKES 211 
 
 has been passed through college. It's a shifting of 
 responsibilities from the kindergarten to college and 
 from college to the kindergarten, and still the evil 
 goes on. It is probably true that now'here along the 
 line has the teacher had a chance to do good work, 
 for all along the route immature minds are con- 
 fronted with work beyond them. Number relations 
 are attempted too early in life, and the teacher in 
 desperation breaks every rule of pedagogy in ex- 
 tracting herself from a dilemma for which she her- 
 self is in nowise responsible. She is not permitted 
 to spend sufficient time on fundamentals, but is com- 
 pelled to make the pupil work faster than his mind 
 can be developed. 
 
 Short principles should be thoroughly demon- 
 strated before allowing short methods or attempting 
 to apply them. Rules should be taught as conclu- 
 sions rather than as introductions. Many a pupil 
 goes through arithmetic and algebra without know- 
 ing why 3 and J4 equals 13/4, or understanding that 
 a fraction is an indicated division, or that the reduc- 
 tion of a fraction to lower terms is simply dividing 
 both divisor and dividend by the same number. 
 
 The work of the mathematics teacher, as I see it, 
 is by its very nature entitled to first place in the edu- 
 cational curricula and to the mathematics teachers 
 must come a deeper conviction that the responsi- 
 bility resting upon them is a real one — that there 
 
212 THE RURAL SCHOOL FROM WITHIN 
 
 must be a tightening up rather than a loosening up. 
 Into these days of "easy steps to learning" and 
 " an education while you wait " must be written the 
 words of the old master, who was asked how he 
 mixed his paints, " With brains, sir, with brains." 
 
 Let every step in mathematics be taken with 
 thought. Reduce form and formality to the mini- 
 mum, and as for the rule, let it be the sequence or 
 summary of lesson taught. 
 
 Estimating my work in geography as to practi- 
 cability, I place it very low indeed. I have perfectly 
 good reasons for its being so poor. I taught it as it 
 had been taught to me. As a student I had never 
 studied geography as a science nor in its relation to 
 the sciences, nor in its relation to history. To me it 
 had been given as a memory drill, and as a memory 
 drill I gave it to my pupils. I had received a drill 
 on locative geography which was very deficient. I 
 well remember some years later, when in St. Louis, 
 of being surprised to find the Missouri River not 
 flowing into the Mississippi River at that point, and 
 that I was as wholly surprised concerning the loca- 
 tion of Chicago as I was of its size and importance. 
 As to San Francisco, it was a revelation in almost 
 every respect. My knowledge of the Mississippi 
 River was rather complete, for which I am indebted 
 to a close early acquaintance by the name of Huckle- 
 berry Finn. 
 
MISTAKES 213 
 
 Notwithstanding that the Great Lakes and the 
 mighty St. Lawrence River constitute the largest 
 body of fresh water in the world and a waterway of 
 great commercial importance and that the tributary 
 streams of these inland seas are far from being suffi- 
 cient to compensate for evaporation, I was content 
 with considering them all as so many names on 
 colored paper. Why, from whence, and whither were 
 of no concern, and because of undirected notions, I 
 was surprised when I, a man, discovered in a trip 
 from Buffalo to Montreal that the St. Lawrence 
 River flowed into the Atlantic Ocean instead of the 
 Great Lakes. 
 
 The largest cities were learned in order of their 
 population, but with that we stopped. We named 
 the waters bordering upon New England, but why 
 there are good harbors there, and why important, 
 were insignificant as compared with the fact that the 
 capital of Vermont is Montpelier, on the Onion 
 River. The effects of glaciation upon New England, 
 why New England is not adapted to agriculture, 
 what natural conditions and resources led to ship 
 building in Maine, and the introduction of the tex- 
 tile industries in Massachusetts, Rhode Island and 
 Connecticut, were nothing when compared with the 
 importance of naming the tributaries of the Cumber- 
 land River. 
 
 The mistakes I made were many more than 
 
214 THE RUEAL SCHOOL FROM WITHIN 
 
 these herein enumerated, and the one compensating 
 thought that " I did the best that I knew " affords 
 httle consolation for the students by whom the op- 
 portunities of youth have passed. 
 
 My work in history was not so bad. True, I was 
 guilty of stressing quite an array of names and dates, 
 but we did not stop there. I never was particularly 
 fond of it. I liked to read it, but I did not like to 
 outline it and make maps and charts about it. I 
 made the mistake of doing some of this map and 
 chart work, but since it was not connected very 
 closely with the regular work, it did no particular 
 harm. 
 
 If a teacher, even though in an irrational way, 
 conducts recitations in history for nine months, and 
 at the end of that time finds his class interested and 
 wanting more, he can hardly be said to have made a 
 dismal failure. 
 
 If, on the other hand, the teacher, even though 
 in a most rational way, conducts recitations in his- 
 tory for nine months, charting, outlining, note- 
 booking and mapping the exact location of every 
 wheat shock on the Gettysburg field, the house in 
 which General Bragg was quartered during the 
 battles of Missionary Ridge and Lookout Mountain, 
 and the exact location of the road through the 
 swamps of Arkansas which the Seminole Indians 
 travelled in 1837, and finds his class uninterested and 
 
MISTAKES 215 
 
 detesting the very name history, he can hardly be 
 said to have made a shining success. 
 
 Critics of such teaching condone the offense by 
 saying that such teachers shoot over the heads of 
 their pupils. To a teacher who has not caught the 
 real spirit of a historian, who has never had a his- 
 toric conception, it is a mystery why after all his 
 majoring he can manage to destroy all interest and 
 enthusiasm, and many times leave the pupil who 
 once had an interest in the subject in a really antag- 
 onistic mood. In no subject does the personal equa- 
 tion of the teacher mean more than in history. No 
 student is in school long enough to get much history, 
 but if he be given a liking for the subject he will 
 pursue the study through life. To instill within the 
 learner's mind an interesit in the career of nations 
 should be the ambition of every teacher of history. 
 But why elaborate upon history? The principle 
 underlying the successful teaching of history holds 
 good for the successful teaching of all school sub- 
 jects. To care why and to know why constitute an 
 indissoluble relationship, which the real teacher will 
 never fail to establish. 
 
CHAPTER XVIII 
 Music, Stories and Play 
 
 A FEW years ago in a very sparsely settled part 
 of a western state I was called to conduct a teachers' 
 institute. One of the first things in which I found 
 the teachers deficient was music. I am not a good 
 singer, but I can sing much better than the person 
 who cannot sing at all. I would not have a meet- 
 ing of young people if I could not have some singing. 
 I had taken with me several dozen song books and 
 at once started the teachers singing. It was a great 
 pleasure to me to help them because they enjoyed 
 singing and appreciated my help. 
 
 One Sunday I was invited twenty miles into the 
 country to visit, and was requested to bring my song 
 books. We sang together some of the old songs. 
 Notwithstanding that the parents were both gradu- 
 ates of an eastern college, neither of them could sing. 
 The mother.told me that until the year before they 
 never had had in their school a teacher who sang. 
 This teacher taught the children a part of a song and 
 then quit. To me it was one of the saddest things 
 I had ever heard about a school. A place where chil- 
 dren assembled, day after day, and month after 
 month, and no singing! 
 
 A school without music is not a fit place for 
 
 216 
 
MUSIC, STORIES AND PLAY 217 
 
 children, and a teacher who cannot conduct singing 
 is not a fit person to have charge of a school. It is 
 not absolutely necessary for a teacher to be able to 
 sing. She can teach singing if she will. A teacher 
 of my acquaintance was the most successful teacher 
 of music in a school of fourteen teachers, and all 
 the teachers but this one could sing. She directed 
 the singing; she kept the time and she kept the 
 singers together; she was successful although she 
 herself never sang. 
 
 Two- of the really commendable things which I 
 had in my first school were singing and story telling. 
 
 For the help of young teachers, and old teachers 
 who are in earnest, I will tell how I managed to 
 have singing. I could sing the old songs that I had 
 learned in church, but that was all. Twice a month 
 I went home, and there learned new pieces. Then I 
 taught them to my school. We learned many good 
 songs, and many that were not so very good, but they 
 were songs that the pupils liked. 
 
 Among the latter were, "The Spider and the 
 Fly," "A Geography Song," "Little May," and 
 " Robinson Crusoe." I can hear those children, little 
 and big, singing that last song right now. 
 
 "When I was a lad, I had cause to be sad, 
 A very good friend I did lose; 
 O, I warrant you, Dan, 
 You have heard of this man, 
 His name, it was Robinson Crusoe. 
 
218 THE RURAL SCHOOL FROM WITHIN 
 
 Chorus : 
 
 Oh, poor Robinson Crusoe, 
 Poor old Robinson Crusoe, 
 
 He went off to the sea 
 
 And between you and me 
 Old Neptune wrecked Robinson Crusoe." 
 
 In order to get children to sing there must be a 
 proper atmosphere. Children nor adults sing well 
 when they are not in a good frame of mind. But one 
 good thing about music is that unless conditions are 
 too bad it will create its own atmosphere. The teacher 
 who sends his school home in a bad humor has made 
 a mistake, one that will work personal injury to the 
 teacher. The teacher who can have his school sing 
 one verse of some good song just before dismissal is 
 making no mistake in having it do so. The 
 teacher who " permits " singing and occupies his 
 time grading papers or studying his lessons while his 
 pupils sing has too crude a notion of the proprieties 
 of a leader to entitle him to any consideration. To 
 see the children of a school who in a former year 
 had been blessed with an inspirational teacher who 
 gave them high ideals, presided over (presided is 
 not the right word) by a teacher who would " let 
 them sing " while he did some school work, makes 
 an impression that time will not efface. 
 
 Music is one of the most important subjects that 
 can be used in preparation for leisure moments. 
 
MUSIC, STORIES AND PLAY 219 
 
 It is the duty of parents and teachers to give chil- 
 dren encouragement and help in learning to play- 
 some kind of musical instrument and in learning to 
 use the voice. There are probably no public bene- 
 factors so meanly used by the public as musicians ; 
 and yet the whole world loves music. No celebra- 
 tion is complete without it. When the band begins 
 to play everyone from grandparents to babes in arms 
 begins to take on new life. Those who have been 
 gloomy and sad rejoice. 
 
 In our churches music is featured whenever pos- 
 sible. We are all proud of our pianist or organist, 
 of our bass and soprano and tenor. No service is 
 complete without them. We remember the Branden- 
 burgs, Helekers, Rhodes, Spradlings and Browns 
 who once were the leading male singers of our town. 
 They sang for our christenings and for our funerals, 
 and one dear old lady who had her teeth extracted 
 invited them in to sing so that she would not mind 
 the pain. They sang when the minister was leaving 
 and when the governor visited us. When they did 
 not sing there wlas nothing going on. Right now I 
 could tell you what they sang at the fall festival 
 fifteen years ago, although I do not remember who 
 the speaker of the day was, nor what he said, nor 
 who introduced the speaker, nor who made the slide 
 for life. 
 
 The band, with its Clifts, Weises, Stowells, 
 
220 THE RURAL SCHOOL FROM WITHIN 
 
 Warners and Bonifaces, put our town on the map. 
 They were the best musicians in the state, and a town 
 that does not have the " best " has not been discov- 
 ered. They played for everything and were bor- 
 rowed by all the neighboring towns. Everybody 
 loved them and their music. They loved them al- 
 most as much as they did our male singers. Not 
 only did we love our musicians, but we were proud 
 of them, and were always glad to have them sing or 
 play when we were anxious to favorably impress 
 visitors. 
 
 They were our singers and our band, and the 
 pianist was our pianist, and although we did not 
 mention it, " it was all so inexpensive. It did not 
 cost us anything." We could show them our beau- 
 tiful streets, park, expensive churches and our thou- 
 sand automobiles, municipal waterworks, white way, 
 but these all possessed the ever-hidden sting, " It all 
 costs, though." 
 
 All the music to which I have referred never 
 cost the taxpayers a cent. Indeed, not one lesson 
 on piano, organ or other musical instrument was 
 paid for by the public. These voices were all trained 
 at private expense and on stolen time. The young 
 lady doing high school work and taking piano lessons 
 in order that she might the more efficiently serve 
 her school and her church never had her work light- 
 ened in the school on account of this sacrificej nor 
 
MUSIC, STORIES AND PLAY 221 
 
 was her accomplishment along this line accredited 
 toward her graduation nor did it entitle her to be 
 valedictorian of her class. In her commencement 
 preparation she played for the many rehearsals. 
 They could not have done without her. But the 
 young man who could not forget and who never gave 
 the school anything that could be classified as " ser- 
 vice," who never did anything in church but sit and 
 remember, and who was a useless member of society 
 ever after, stood before our pianist, our orchestra, 
 and our band and the taxpayers making his first and 
 last contribution to a public that professed to believe 
 in a socially efficient citizen. 
 
 I anticipate no criticism of this expression of 
 music and musicians. The public seems to believe 
 all this, but school boards who object to paying for 
 keeping in repair organs purchased for the schools 
 by private subscription still live. Such boards are 
 not all found among those who are formally declared 
 uncultured and unrefined. 
 
 The student of rural education or urban educa- 
 tion is well aware that the attention given to cultural 
 subjects in our schools is yet almost negligible. In 
 the majority of schools music and art and physical 
 culture are unworthy of the name. 
 
 It requires more than fine buildings and several 
 hundred children to make a school. To give a 
 school of 200O children one music teacher, one art 
 
222 THE RURAL SCHOOL FROM WITHIN 
 
 teacher, one physical director, is to maintain these 
 subjects in the curriculum only. 
 
 A school that devotes five hours to the arithmetic 
 of a young girl or boy and one hour to music does 
 not need an educational expert to give it proper classi- 
 fication. The same is true of a school that teaches 
 art in a similar way. 
 
 The school that runs on the " six and six " plan 
 and begins at 8 o'clock, runs without intermission till 
 12.30, calls school again at 1.30, and with the excep- 
 tion of " gym " one period a week gives the chil- 
 dren no time for play, is violating the strongest 
 beliefs of our strongest modern educators. 
 
 The rural schools in whose interests this is 
 written are, regardless of the generally accepted 
 opinion, less restricted in their plays than any other 
 schools. 
 
 Indeed, with all the supervised play, with the 
 city child, play is becoming a lost art, and with this 
 loss comes an economic one that can hardly be 
 estimated. 
 
 The rural child gets to play, and only he who has 
 forgotten or never knew thinks otherwise. It is in 
 the rural school, where all interest is not centred in 
 winning teams, that everybody plays. 
 
 The games played now are the old ones and many 
 new ones. In a reflective mood I recall some of the 
 
MUSIC, STORIES AND PLAY 223 
 
 good times we had in Anthony-over, darebase, black- 
 man, townball, old cat, kick the can and soak. 
 
 Children like the dangerotis; we did not have 
 football, but we had two games that were just as 
 satisfying in their results of broken noses, collar 
 bones and cracked heads. These were shinny and 
 crack-the-whip. 
 
 It is with full knowledge of the million dollars 
 invested in the gymnasiums of our state institutions 
 and of the entire absence of investment for play 
 apparatus in our rural schools that I make the asser- 
 tion that no runner on an indoor track ever ran with 
 greater enthusiasm or with faster palpitating heart 
 than does the driver of a ten-horse team hitched to 
 a good clothes line, as drivers and horses race, un- 
 shod, down the public road. And the fun in snow- 
 balling, which is not on the tabooed list, is worth 
 remembering. 
 
 Supervised play is to be commended, but the 
 supervision must not be so close as to destroy free- 
 dom and the initiative. Cities are working hard to 
 provide play and opportunity for play, but it is im- 
 possible to do so as successfully as can be done in 
 the schools of moderate size (i.e., schools of lOO to 
 SCO pupils). Such schools can offer most advan- 
 tageously a curriculum that functions with the busi- 
 ness life and the social life of their people. In no 
 other schools ean such wholesome environment be 
 
224 THE RURAL SCHOOL FROM WITHIN 
 
 had. In no city school are there such possibilities as 
 are in store for the rural school that is sufficiently- 
 large to require a good teaching force — ^just large 
 enough to properly handle a curriculum that does not 
 a;bridge the right of any child of utmost freedom in 
 the choice of an education that will function with his 
 chosen life's vocation. 
 
 We must educate for leisure moments. Those 
 who receive no such education are unsafe members 
 of society. In substantiation of this it will be but 
 necessary for the reader to look about him, or pos- 
 sibly to look within. How do we spend our time 
 when we are not at Work? This need not apply 
 entirely to the youth, but to the adult as well. 
 
 Your day's work is over. It has been unsatis- 
 factory. You have done your very utmost to please 
 and have failed to do so. You may have financial 
 troubles. If a young man or young woman you may 
 be downcast because of social disappointment. 
 What is your avenue of escape? Are you prepared 
 to meet this dark hour? Sometimes you may pour 
 your troubles into another's soul and find comfort 
 and sympathy there, but by such relief are you made 
 stronger ? 
 
 Have you trained yourself to entertain others 
 with stories, with music ? Or are you a human para- 
 site, always receiving but never giving? While you 
 are at work you may not do yourself or society much 
 
MUSIC, STORIES AND PLAY 225 
 
 wrong, but when you are not at work is the time that 
 calls for strong special preparation. Then, if ever, 
 is when you live. You may live in literature, in art, 
 in music, in play, and if you do not, you are a dan- 
 gerous member of society. The world professes to 
 believe this, but the world does not believe it strongly 
 enough to levy a tax. 
 
 There are other avenues of escape from the ac- 
 cumulations that beset us after our day of toil, and 
 thousands there are who seek them. Some seek 
 relief in narcotics and intoxicants, others do equally 
 bad by succumbing to a morbid condition of mind, 
 while those more sane seek the society of others who, 
 like themselves, have made no preparation for leisure 
 hours. In this last case much depends upon what 
 may be the common interest and this depends wholly 
 upon a past experience and preparation. 
 
 The man burdened with business, who will quit 
 work a few minutes early to take his daughter, whose 
 life he would direct, and accompany her to gather 
 violets ; who is willing and glad to assemble his chil- 
 dren and his neighbor's children about him in an 
 orchestra practice, is doing more to stamp out social 
 evils than the man who preaches against social 
 wrongs, but never directs the activities of the young. 
 
 One must have lived a lifetime before he knows 
 that the failures in life are not all among those who 
 have not amassed fortunes. How many homes are 
 15 
 
THE RURAL SCHOOL FROM WITHIN 
 
 known to us that are not homes ? How many such 
 places have reared sons and daughters that are men- 
 aces to society ? Homes with parents who are capable 
 of making money but are absolutely ignorant con- 
 cerning the importance of training the finer emotions 
 — of training for leisure ! 
 
 Our thoughts make our character, and in these 
 days of improved methods of farming and of manu- 
 facture when many acts are mere automatisms, it be- 
 comes most important that the mind be occupied with 
 wholesome, invigorating thought. As the boy feeds 
 the machine or rides the long furrows and rows, char- 
 acter of the strongest or of the weakest sort is form- 
 ing, which it is, depending upon his trend of thought, 
 i.e., what he thinks when 'his thoughts are not em- 
 ployed in directing his work. 
 
 Many say that story telling is a gift. Story 
 telling, like singing, can be done better by some than 
 by others, but no teacher or parent who loves children 
 will neglect this great work simply because he does 
 not have the gift, and those who will are either in- 
 different to one of the great necessities of the child 
 or they are ignorant of it. 
 
 When quite a small child I heard my father tell 
 my mother something which at the time I felt in my 
 heart was untrue. I had great regard for his word, 
 but this time I doubted him from the very bottom 
 of my heart. He had simply remarked to my mother 
 
MUSIC, STORIES AND PLAY 227 
 
 that he was glad the day was the Sabbath. M:any, 
 many times since have I been glad for the same 
 reason, but in my early childhood it was a day of 
 torture and of unhappiness. In the morning we all 
 went to church. First, Sunday school and then 
 church. During the sermon we all sat in the large 
 family pew and we all sat very quiet. The afternoon 
 was never spent in visiting, hunting strawberries, 
 fishing, or sleeping. The catechisms and the Bible 
 for the older children, and the younger ones were 
 taught by word of mouth. In the latter part of 
 the day we gathered in a family circle and said our 
 catechism and Bible verses. To me, a young child, 
 this was an awful time, but after the tasks were 
 finished we had an hour that to all was a happy one — 
 story telling. It might be out of place here to tell 
 of the hard struggle which my parents had to prop- 
 erly provide for a large family; of their many, many 
 sacrifices, and of the great care and responsibility 
 with which they were burdened in their great under- 
 taking to rear so many children to become good citi- 
 zens, but after I had finished I would have to say 
 that the stories told me by them did more to bind 
 them to me in love and affection than all else. I 
 know all the stories of the Bible. Mother and father 
 told them. They turned the day of torture into one 
 of pleasure and gladness. Oh, we had other stories 
 than Bible stories, although not on Sabbath eve. My 
 
228 THE RURAL SCHOOL FROM WITHIN 
 
 mother had the " gift." She knew all the old fairy 
 stories, and she knew about Will o' the Wisp, and 
 she knew about Dido, Cleopatra and Joan of Arc. 
 Father knew about Alexander the Great, Oliver 
 Cromwell, Grant and Stonewall Jackson, and we 
 children knew about them too. He told us, and 
 when we think of our happy childhood, nothing has 
 a more prominent place in memory than the happy 
 story hours. 
 
 I have read a great deal of history, but my 
 love for history had its start in stories that my father 
 told. As a man I know of the importance of Bur- 
 goyne's surrender, but I know it but little better 
 than I knew it as a child, and sometimes my mind 
 needs refreshing on the date, but not on the event. 
 Indelibly is impressed the picture of Gates' army — ■ 
 an aggregation of scarecrows, and of Burgoyne's 
 troops, the flower of the British army. Between 
 two long lines of scarecrows I see the British soldiers 
 in their brilliant uniforms, their guns shining so that 
 they could be seen miles in the distance, lay down 
 their arms. In these stories I got not only lessons in 
 the history of our country, but lessons in patriotism. 
 I learned of the many trials endured by the patriots. 
 As a child I loved America and appreciated the 
 sacrifices that had been made that there might be a 
 government of, for and by the people. 
 
 In my first school I was certain to bring in story 
 
MUSIC, STORIES AND PLAY 229 
 
 telling. Elsewhere I have told you how poorly I 
 taught reading. I have seen history teachers who 
 had " majored " in history in universities and col- 
 leges, who could make more outlines and require 
 more map work than any student could possibly 
 master in the allotted time. They were called good 
 history teachers, but the result of their work was that 
 every pupil learned to dislike history. I care not how 
 successful a teacher may be considered, if she fails 
 to leave her pupils with a desire to " know more " 
 she has not succeeded. This may be considered the 
 acid test of good teaching. 
 
 Although I taught reading very poorly, I com- 
 pensated for this shortcoming by my story telling. 
 By story telling I reduced tardiness to zero and kept 
 the attendance almost perfect, and created in my 
 pupils a desire to read for themselves. I gave them 
 a great variety, and much was from the best authors. 
 I found that Hawthorne's stories took well, also 
 Washington Irving's. I have a very vivid recollec- 
 tion of not feeling entirely comfortable in my recital 
 of all parts of The Legend of Sleepy Hollow. My 
 greatest success was in Shakespeare and Longfellow. 
 I began with Hamlet. First I wrote the names of 
 the leading characters on the board, and as I told the 
 story, simply of course, I pointed to the names. I 
 then took up King Lear, and from it I was able to 
 draw a splendid lesson. 
 
230 THE RUBAL SCHOOL FROM WITHIN 
 
 When I told the Comedy of Errors there was 
 fun for everyone. In my library is a large volume 
 of the Complete Works of William Shakespeare. 
 The book is well worn, but the " Presented by the 
 Crossing School to Teacher, Christmas, i8 — ," is 
 still legible. 
 
 In Hiawatha and Tales of the Wayside Inn we 
 had such good times that I am sure many will never 
 forget them, and in January of that year we did 
 something that I am not certain was sensible — we 
 dropped the fifth reader and took up Longfellow's 
 poems, and we did it without a dissenting vote. 
 
 When I tell you that my best friends are children 
 and that the best friends that I have among men and 
 women are those whose friendship I made while they 
 were young, I will ask you to attribute it largely to 
 the fact that I have won my way into their hearts 
 by pretty stories. No man who loves children need 
 be jealous of their love if he can tell a good story. 
 It makes him one of them and they never forget. 
 
 Only a few years ago I made an unofficial visit to 
 a large rural school. The teacher was young, and 
 on account of having company she was nervous, and 
 because I used to get that way when I had company, 
 she had my sympathy. 
 
 She was a good teacher, but since she was afraid 
 she was just then doing very poorly. 
 
 To put her at ease I tried a formula which 
 
MUSIC, STORIES AND PLAY 231 
 
 always works in such cases. I asked a few common- 
 place questions loudly enough to be heard through- 
 out the room. I then inquired about her primary 
 grades. They were frightened at once. They are 
 afraid of men and " men are not fit to be primary 
 teachers." I asked to be allowed to give the primary 
 grades an oral examination. The teacher gave her 
 consent, reluctantly. My first question was, " Who 
 was Golden Locks? " 
 
 Second: " Who killed Cock Robin? " 
 Third : " Who was Cinderella? " 
 Fourth: "Who was Uncle Remus?" 
 None of them knew about Uncle Remus, but they 
 all wanted to know. I told the teacher that I 
 would tell the children some of the Uncle Remus 
 stories, but of course I would not want the older 
 pupils to listen. They all heard for the first time 
 stories of Brer Rabbit, Tar Baby, Mr. Dog, Mr. 
 Fox and Mr. Wolf. 
 
 Did the little people listen? Did the older ones 
 listen ? Yes, they all listened. The teacher listened, 
 and at the close of my twenty minutes' work every- 
 one was happy, and there was no " company " and 
 everyone was ready to work, and I was one of them. 
 The question may arise in the reader's mind, " Does 
 it pay to win the affection of children? " In answer 
 to this I must say yes. The love of children is 
 lasting. The dislikes of children are lasting also. 
 
232 THE RURAL SCHOOL FROM WITHIN 
 
 In the public mind there is a prejudice against 
 teachers. This prejudice is the outgrowth of child 
 impressions; those who have had teachers who saw 
 life from the child's viewpoint will, when they reach 
 adult life, seek rather than shun the companionship 
 of teachers. In substantiation of these statements 
 the reader is asked to recall his own experience, his 
 recollections of a favorite uncle — his recollec- 
 tions of the harsh and unsympathetic uncle. 
 The former may never have risen high in the estima- 
 tion of his fellowmen — the latter is a bad man, re- 
 gardless of the public approbation. So much for 
 early impressions — ^they are for life, and their 
 obliteration is impossible. 
 
 It is all important that teachers win the love and 
 respect of children if they would teach them. This 
 is not a new idea, but it is a true one and one so 
 important that no teacher can afford to ignore it. 
 To win child love and respect requires first of all, 
 real sympathy for child life, and second, strict hon- 
 esty. There is no possibility of one's escaping detec- 
 tion who is lacking in either sympathy or honesty. 
 
CHAPTER XIX 
 
 Training for Leisure 
 
 The business of farming is of such a nature 
 that it offers more time for self-improvement than do 
 most other occupations. It is generally conceded 
 that the rural school has not made as great progress 
 as the city school, and this is due largely to the fact 
 that less effort has been made to improve rural 
 schools. Rural people have left the betterment of 
 their schools to educators. In this way they have 
 made a vital mistake ; for it is a problem that must 
 be worked out not by the educators alone, but also 
 by those most interested, or relief will not be found. 
 
 In the city schools great changes have been 
 effected, but how? Comprehensive and practical 
 courses of study have been introduced, not suddenly, 
 but only after decades of agitation. They have 
 come through the very slow processes of evolution, 
 from causes in which the educator can find but small 
 comfort; since little change has come that is not 
 traceable to external influence. Apparently none 
 have been slower to see the demands of the world 
 than the educator. 
 
 Great and important changes will come to the 
 rural school, but how great, how important, and how 
 soon, depend almost entirely upon active and per- 
 
 233 
 
234 THE RURAL SCHOOL FROM WITHIN 
 
 sistent agitation of rural people. The rural com^ 
 munities are possessed of a provident citizenship and 
 are to-day facing the greatest of the world's oppor- 
 tunities. They are feeding the world, but they are 
 not teaching the world or leading the world. They 
 have, however, potentialities awaiting liberation 
 which will give to the world greater educators and 
 greater leaders. These powers are not long to re- 
 main inactive, and already expressions of discontent 
 and unrest are heard from every quarter. 
 
 The most encouraging sign of the times is that 
 the need of better schools is being generally recog- 
 nized by the rural people themselves, as everywhere, 
 on every hand, their cry is going up, " Our schools 
 are inadequate. They turn out students who are 
 unable to cope with the world's problems." 
 
 Never before has there been greater demand for 
 schools that prepare the boys and girls for the life 
 which they are to lead, and, generally speaking, prep- 
 aration means the ability to make a living. 
 
 We are witnessing as never before the drift of 
 rural people to the cities ; indeed, this movement has 
 become so great as to occasion national alarm, and 
 everywhere the question is being asked, " How can 
 the tide be turned? " " How can the boy and girl 
 who are discontented with rural life be made con- 
 tented and glad of an opportunity to remain on the 
 farm instead of going to the city? " 
 
TRAINING FOR LEISURE 235 
 
 Boys and girls who are country bred and who are 
 inclined toward the city will answer, if you ask why 
 they are leaving the farm, that they want more 
 lucrative employment, that they want shorter hours, 
 that they want better social opportunities. If the 
 mothers of these boys would be asked why they en- 
 courage this movement toward the city they will 
 reply, " We want all these things for our children. 
 We want better educational advantages, we want for 
 ourselves better homes, we want to be able to live at 
 least as well as the poor of the town." 
 
 Generally speaking the interests of the small 
 town are distinctively agricultural. Towns of 2500 
 and less are not cities in a proper sense of the 
 term, nor can their schools be city schools, and to 
 devote them solely to the interests of city people is 
 as tmjust as it is absurd. The schools of the small 
 towns are the logical centres for the first rural graded 
 schools. These places can with properly revised 
 courses of study administer first aid, and when they 
 have been made to function with the activities of 
 the lives of the people whom they are to serve, one 
 great public service will have been rendered. People, 
 whether they live in the rural town or in the open 
 country, are entitled to such schools. 
 
 The educational demands of the present should 
 be for the betterment of educational advantages for 
 rural people. Cities have safeguarded their educa- 
 
236 THE RURAL SCHOOL FROM WITHIN 
 
 tional interests, and will continue to do so, and unless 
 there be a general awakening of rural people the 
 superiority of city schools over rural schools will 
 become more marked. 
 
 The demands of the times are for a higher educa- 
 tion. If our fathers gave us but a high school edu- 
 cation they did no more for us than did their fathers 
 for them when they gave them but a common school 
 education, and to do as well by our children as 
 our parents did by us we should give them a college 
 education. 
 
 Many a father is heard to say, " I had but a 
 common school education and what was good enough 
 for me is good enough for my son." This is hon- 
 estly expressed, but it is untrue. The competition 
 of to-day calls for better preparation. Furthermore, 
 we have no more cheap lands in the United States 
 making it possible for one to get an easy start. 
 Those of the present who justify present conditions 
 by the statement, " It's always been so; the schools 
 of now were good enough for our parents, were good 
 enough for us and are good enough for our chil- 
 dren," do not realize the great social and economic 
 changes that have come to the last two generations. 
 By those who are sufficiently interested to study con- 
 ditions it is recognized as meaning more, right now, 
 to fill a place in the business world than at any other 
 time in the history of our nation. Competition is 
 
TRAINING FOR LEISURE 237 
 
 much sharper in this country with its one hundred 
 millions of people than when there were but fifty 
 millions. 
 
 Nineteen thirty-ifive is not far in the future, but if 
 the normal rate of increase continues, a child born 
 to-day will be but graduating from high school when 
 our population will have reached the enormous num- 
 ber of one hundred and eighty millions and by the 
 time he is forty-five years of age he will be one of a 
 population of three hundred and sixty millions. 
 
 In the matter of military preparedness there may 
 be good grounds for and against the proposition, but 
 in the matter of preparedness for, social efficiency 
 there can be but one opinion. This preparedness for 
 rural people cannot come through antiquated 
 methods. 
 
 A few years ago Hell Gate was blown up, admit- 
 ting many ships of the largest draught. How was 
 this done? Did they apply methods that were in 
 use a century ago? No; methods used so long ago 
 would not have been effective. With modern appli- 
 ances a little girl was instrumental in blowing to 
 atoms thousands of tons of rock and rendering safe 
 to shipping one of the danger places of the world. 
 
 Present conditions are too perilous to contem- 
 plate unless such contemplation be made with a view 
 of enabling present and future generations to rise to 
 their responsibiUty. 
 
238 THE RURAL SCHOOL FROM WITHIN 
 
 This responsibility demands not that we shall 
 cease to educate for the development of intellect and 
 character, for the inculcation of a proper apprecia- 
 tion of the flowers growing by life's wayside, of the 
 birds in our groves, of poets living and dead, of a 
 virtue that leads to honor and happiness, of a deep 
 respect and love for the drawers of water and the 
 hewers of wood ; " but that with it all we shall be 
 aware that this development and appreciation are 
 dependent upon a physical environment which is not 
 independent of that homeliest of decrees, ' Man shall 
 live by the sweat of his face.' "' 
 
 Present conditions make it necessary that our 
 children get an education and that they get it early. 
 
 In getting this education it is necessary, or it is 
 best, that it be gotten at home where parents may 
 exercise their guiding influence through the impres- 
 sionable years. If all the people or even a majority 
 of the people are to give their children a high school 
 education, this education must for financial reasons 
 be had at home. To send a boy to high school where 
 he must remain away from home and pay his board 
 will mean the incurring of an expense of four or 
 five hundred dollars per year. If the school can be 
 had at home there will be a saving of a larger part of 
 this amount of money and besides the boy can give 
 assistance by doing home work and will retain his 
 interest in the home, which is most desirable. Again, 
 
TBAINING FOR LEISURE 239 
 
 if we have the home l^igh school, it will mean a 
 local control of the school. A local control will mean 
 not only the number and kinds of teachers which we 
 may desire, but it will include the kind of a course 
 of study which shall be pursued. 
 
 It will be possible under such control to have a 
 curriculum that will meet local needs and will edu- 
 cate the boys and girls for what is likely to be their 
 life work. If a community maintains a school that 
 stands for little in which the community has a vital 
 interest, it is maintaining a school that will not be 
 very popular and will be of doubtful value. 
 
 The main business of a rural community is farm- 
 ing. The principal interest is agricultural, and any- 
 thing which has for its main purpose that which will 
 draw the young man and the young woman away 
 from the interest of that community is bad. 
 
 The rural schools should maintain high stand- 
 ards. The rural high schools should maintain ac- 
 credited relations with the highest educational insti- 
 tutions of the state, and it is possible to have these 
 accredited relations and emphasize that side of edu- 
 cation which will mean most to the community which 
 a particular school would serve. It is neither neces- 
 sary nor desirable that a high school should confine 
 its efforts to preparing for college five out of every 
 hundred and neglect to educate in terms of their busi- 
 ness ninety-five out of every hundred. Much thought 
 
240 THE RURAL SCHOOL FROM WITHIN 
 
 is being given by the sociologist as to how physical 
 and occupational environment affect the life of rural 
 people, of farmers' chances for intellectual improve- 
 ment, on the decadence of rural churches, etc. It is 
 not enough to know that certain conditions exist, it 
 is not enough to know how these conditions are to 
 be eliminated, enough will not be until conditions 
 have ibeen alleviated. These conditions must be 
 remedied through the rural schools. The people are 
 demanding relief; they have asked for bread and 
 been given a stone. The great cry of " Why away 
 from the farm? " is a direct result of our educational 
 system. The education offered has been a means to 
 an end, and that end in far too many instances has 
 been the avoidance of work. 
 
 Until recent years we have thought that manual 
 labor was degrading. We have taught that educa- 
 tion is for social efificiency, but not that social effi- 
 ciency is a capability for making a living. To be 
 educated has meant to be cultured, and culture and 
 work have been most strongly differentiated. But 
 a few years ago a professional man with more than a 
 high school education addressed a class of young 
 men and women who were being graduated from a 
 rural high school. He stressed the great importance 
 of education and after enumerating the many bene- 
 fits that would go with such an education he reached 
 the climax by saying : " Young ladies and gentlemen, 
 
TRAINING FOR LEISURE 241 
 
 had I been content to go without more than a high 
 sahool education I might to-day be following a 
 plow." Such was his notion of education. He be- 
 lieved, and was free to say to a people living in a 
 rural community, that following the plow was de- 
 grading. Schools that foster such sentiments are 
 not a benefit but a curse to a community that they 
 would serve. 
 
 One of the troubles that we are having with our 
 schools to-day is that boys and girls drop out of 
 school too early. Sixty-five out of every hundred 
 in the schools of Kansas quit school before they 
 are fourteen years old. We say that they take no 
 interest in school work, that they are not interested 
 in education. Some of our best boys and girls seem 
 to lack interest in school work. They are bright and 
 capable and industrious and would eagerly enter into 
 the activity of the school if it were more practical 
 and less negative in its processes, more constructive 
 and less destructive in its aims. 
 
 We boast of hundreds of high schools to-day as 
 compared with scores fifty years ago, and yet these 
 high schools, though supported by a tax upon the 
 public, are built upon old line policies, ministering to 
 the needs of the few and neglecting the necessities of 
 the many. 
 
 So notorious is this condition that one might 
 cite examples of rural high schools established for a 
 16 
 
242 THE RURAL SCHOOL FROM WITHIN 
 
 specific line of instruction adopting the old line 
 policies which they should especially avoid, and 
 neglecting to incorporate those subjects in which a 
 rural people are most in need, ignoring their immedi- 
 ate and personal interests. 
 
 A rural high school offering two years of Ger- 
 man and three years of Latin and no vocational work 
 is a deservedly unpopular institution. 
 
 In many cases pupils completing the work of the 
 eighth grade drop out of school because there is no 
 high school near their homes, but one of the main 
 causes for their leaving school so early, or earlier, is 
 the lack of harmony between the actual needs and 
 natural tendencies and the subjects offered them at 
 this period. Being denied the opportunity for the 
 development of the initiative, the opportunity for an 
 activity that results in originality, the opportunity 
 for doing, they drop out of school unprepared for 
 life's demands. 
 
 The revolt of the adolescent's mental attitude 
 toward the ordinary school curriculum is often com- 
 plete, and according to the views of many prominent 
 educators is most natural. In this period they wish 
 to express themselves through motor activity, but 
 ordinarily they are reduced to a state of mental 
 passivity. At the time when the school should de- 
 velop the higher activities, adequate nutrition in the 
 
TRAINING FOR LEISURE 243 
 
 form of appropriate stimuli cannot be had from in- 
 appropriate environments and suppression. 
 
 In the adolescent period the child longs to do 
 things, to produce and to acquire, and his training up 
 to this time should be such as to prepare him for 
 these activities. Not to offer those things that make 
 him a factor in the business world is to lose the bene- 
 fits of previous training and insure a future eco- 
 nomic loss to the state. 
 
 The inability to make a living, to successfully 
 compete with their fellowmen is the cause of 88 per 
 cent, of the crime for which young men are sent to 
 the state reformatory. In the reformatory they are 
 taught some trade and statistics show that 75 per 
 cent, of the inmates make good when given their 
 freedom. Quoting from Davenport's Education for 
 Efficiency, " It is dangerous to attempt to educate 
 a live boy with no reference to the vocational," 
 
 Sixty-five per cent, of our people leave school 
 before the age of fourteen. Surveys show that in 
 every community there are many young people out 
 of school with no more than a common school educa- 
 tion and frequently with less. The choice of occu- 
 pation is being left to chance. Many are at this 
 moment simply drifting, preparing for nothing and 
 looking to nothing definite. They are simply hoping 
 and trusting and we can truly say, judging from the 
 past, that many of them are trusting in forlorn hopes. 
 
244 THE RURAL SCHOOL FROM WITHIN 
 
 It is not conceivable how this condition can exist 
 without convincing the adult population of grave 
 responsibilities. The public schools have a responsi- 
 bility which they must either assume or else share 
 with penal and charitable institutions, for whose 
 growth the derelictions of the public schools is the 
 largest contributing factor. 
 
 It has been said that it is impossible for one who 
 has no leisure time to be cultured. It is quite certain 
 that leisure does no't necessarily secure culture, but 
 leisure does affect opportunities for culture, and 
 unquestionably the skilful mechanic or workman 
 will have more time for leisure and greater oppor- 
 tunity for culture. Vocational education may be 
 possessed of culture, just as may education in poetry 
 and history, and like these subjects it may be with- 
 out culture. 
 
 There may be those who translate Virgil as 
 readily as they read their mother tongue, who quote 
 from Browning, Shakespeare, Chaucer — who know 
 so much history that they grieve because more has 
 not been written, and who in spite of all these are 
 the embodiments of slovenliness. They may do all 
 these things but never write a word that they do not 
 smear, nor make lines that are not crooked ; they may 
 do all these things, but never wear colors that harmo- 
 nize ; or see sunsets that are beautiful, or women that 
 are perfect, or men who are not " diaboli incamati." 
 
TRAINING FOR LEISURE 245 
 
 There may 'be men who travel as master work- 
 men who violate every law of building, whose finish- 
 ing touches spoil the splendid work of the workmen 
 who preceded them. A beautifully designed build- 
 ing may never reach completion, because of the lack 
 of culture of its workmen — each succeeding work- 
 man doing something to mar the other's work — 
 carpenters with no respect for the masons, and rnasons 
 none for the plasterer, and plasterer none for any 
 man, woman, child, brickwork, stucco, stone or win- 
 dow that comes within reach of his trowel ; and the 
 painter for crudity, sloppiness and smear may be 
 greatest among ten thousand. Surely one must be 
 born with certain aptitudes. Thousands are wise and 
 cultured by education, and some are slovens and 
 boobs in spite of their education. 
 
 It required Booker T. Washington to discover 
 that it is dangerous to attempt to educate a negro 
 with no reference to the vocational. " It is danger- 
 ous to attempt to educate any active boy without 
 reference to the vocational," and detrimental to 
 man's spiritual expectancy to neglect to educate for 
 leisure hours. Those who have an earning capacity 
 are efficient, economically considered, but if they do 
 their work in a shiftless way, whether it be cooking 
 or sewing, plowing or building, teaching or preach- 
 ing — if they do their work without love for it, or 
 ambition to excel, and only when scourged by neces- 
 
246 THE RURAL SCHOOL FROM WITHIN 
 
 sity, their vocation is pulling them down, is degrad- 
 ing them, reducing them to the level of their kind, 
 the uneducated, unskilled, uncultured. 
 
 Culture and refinement are innate just as are 
 the wild flowers of the prairies. These will blossom 
 and give forth fragrance when warmed by the sun 
 and wet by the rains and the dews. An education 
 which opens the mind to the beauties of the universe 
 and creates within the heart a love and a sympathy 
 for every living creature, and especially for the man 
 and the woman who are the producers of wealth, 
 who earn their living by economic methods, is the 
 sun, the rain and the dew by which culture and 
 refinement can be made an integral part of a social 
 efficiency. A life of money and money alone is un- 
 economic, is destructive to the best that is in man. 
 A practical education — any education that pays — 
 must not be one that can be measured in its entirety 
 by yards, acres, pounds, bushels and dollars. 
 
 Surveys of industrial conditions, social and 
 otherwise, teach that we must educate for social 
 efficiency. This means much more than plowing for 
 corn to feed hogs, to feed children, to enable them 
 to plow more corn. It means more than working in 
 shops, offices and stores eight hours a day. It means 
 all these, but it means more — it means that the indi- 
 viduals of the many industrial classes will be socially 
 efficient when they have a trade, a profession or a 
 
TRAmmG FOR LEISURE 247 
 
 business at which they can provide for their own and 
 their families' welfare, and be happy and safe during 
 their leisure hours. If there is an educational aim 
 other than the bread and butter aim it is education 
 for leisure moments, and the boy on the farm needs 
 this education as much as the boy in the factory, 
 office or store. As man comes more and more to 
 know himself and to know his fellows, the more 
 thoroughly is he convinced that if he has not pre- 
 pared for leisure moments he is likely to be unhappy 
 and unsafe. 
 
 The rural church will continue to decay, the 
 rural school continue to be inefficient and rural com- 
 munity centres and social uplift questions remain 
 questions till we have rural schools for rural people, 
 which will mean fewer schools with many more 
 courses. The schools must contribute to the making 
 of social efficiency. 
 
 One of the great problems confronting the 
 American people at the present time is that of pro- 
 viding good teachers for all the schools. In its 
 declaration of principles the National Education 
 Association says : 
 
 " The National Education Association notes with 
 approval that the qualifications demanded of teachers 
 in the public schools are increasing annually, and par- 
 ticularly in many localities special preparations are 
 demanded for teachers. The idea that anyone with 
 
248 THE RURAL SCHOOL FROM WITHIN 
 
 a fair education can teach school is gradually giving 
 way to the correct notion that teachers make special 
 preparation for the vocation of teaching." 
 
 jjkWe cannot have better schools unless we have 
 better teachers. Fine schoolhouses, good libraries, 
 complicated apparatus are admirable, but unless be- 
 hind this educational machinery are real teachers 
 there will result no better schools than the present 
 average country school. The more we load our- 
 selves down with appliances, the more plainly it 
 appears that the prime requisite is the trained 
 teacher. Upon his or her personal fitness rests the 
 future of the country."*^ 
 
 Our schools are not properly supplied with com- 
 petent teachers, and especially is this true of the rural 
 school. The rural community needs better school 
 buildings and it needs consolidation of its schools 
 and courses of study functioning with its life, but 
 its direct need is better teachers. 
 
 It is asserted upon tolerably good authority that 
 the United States is able to compete with Germany, 
 France, England, Denmark, Switzerland, Belgium, 
 Holland, Sweden and Japan in some particulars 
 only because of her greater natural resources, which 
 are rapidly being exhausted. Unless the United 
 States improves her schools, she is doomed to take 
 second rank ere long. All those countries, earlier 
 
TRAINING FOR LEISURE 249 
 
 than we, recognized that universal education of the 
 right kind is the only road to success. 
 
 The countries named above have solved the 
 problem of providing trained teachers, for their 
 schools. France, for example, supports with public 
 funds over two hundred training schools for teach- 
 ers, selects with care young men and women to fill 
 them as students, pays the board, cost of room, 
 books and instruction of these students while taking 
 the course, provides them with schools at good sal- 
 aries as long as they teach, and when they retire 
 from active service gives them a pension sufficient 
 for their support. Every teacher in the realm is a 
 trained teacher. Teaching is in the fullest sense 
 a profession. 
 
 Agriculture is now a recognized part of many 
 state common school courses. Its importance is 
 conceded to the same extent as arithmetic or any 
 of the other common branches. A large number of 
 the teachers serve apprenticeships in our rural 
 schools. The necessity of their having agriculture is 
 at once apparent. 
 
 Those who do not have to serve this apprentice- 
 ship are called to the villages and smaller town 
 schools where the demands are not widely different 
 from those made by the rural schools. In fact, the 
 inefficiency of the rural schools is driving the rural 
 pupil into the town schools, and until these rural 
 
250 THE RURAL SCHOOL FROM WITHIN 
 
 schools are brought to a higher degree of efficiency 
 parents will continue to send their children to the 
 town schools, even at a considerable cost for trans- 
 portation. And here lies one of the dangers — this 
 large influx from the country makes it necessary 
 to provide courses of instruction along lines which 
 shall be of most service to the country child if he 
 is not to be educated away from the country life effi- 
 ciency. Even though few children from the country 
 receive instruction in the city schools, a reason still 
 exists for instruction that will be of much service to 
 the city child. 
 
 No one can successfully teach geography, liter- 
 ature or nature study who is not familiar with the 
 principles of agriculture. No one can understand 
 or appreciate the child life interests who under- 
 stands nothing of child life, and for these reasons 
 teachers should be prepared to teach agriculture in 
 city schools as well as in rural schools. 
 
 Experience in teaching in many departments of 
 school work leads to the conviction that no subject 
 requires more sound knowledge of the principles 
 of pedagogy than does the subject of agriculture. 
 Results are not immediate. In the child, objective 
 interest predominates. The child is ever interested 
 in results, and those results must be immediate. 
 The garden planted today is dug up by the impatient 
 child tomorrow, and expectancy is ever on tip- 
 
TRAINING FOR LEISURE 251 
 
 toe. Hence the child's interest must be maintained 
 until results may be accomplished naturally. A con- 
 tinuity of subject matter must be worked out, and 
 new devices are always necessary to maintain inter- 
 est, and none but the thoroughly trained in pedagogy 
 can meet these requirements. 
 
 Since the rural teacher must teach children of the 
 lower grades as well as those of the upper grades, 
 it is necessary that she be informed on nature study. 
 Preparation for nature study will require a 
 rather wider education than knowing a few flowers 
 and trees and the names of animals used for pets. 
 Nature study admirers have more than a three-fold 
 proposition unless they bow to the utilitarian as well 
 as the aesthetic. Their ideals must lead further than 
 an acquaintance with immediate environment. It is 
 well, and most commendable, that the child be led 
 to see the beauties of nature, the ever-varying tints 
 of the heavens, the beauties of the wild flowers, 
 and that it hears with appreciation songs of the 
 murmuring brooks and of the carolling birds, and to 
 observe how Arachna spins and spins and is doomed 
 to keep on spinning; but is this work so built into 
 the course that it can and will be of service later in 
 the child's school work? If so, nature study will 
 live and prosper in the lower grades of the rural 
 schools and should be correlated with every study 
 
252 THE RURAL SCHOOL FROM WITHIN 
 
 possible, forming a valuable preparation for the 
 study of agriculture in the upper grades. 
 
 Is it too much to say that nature study that pre- 
 pares not children for real life by enabling them to 
 gain an understanding and mastery of the physical 
 conditions of life and the varied utilities of life is 
 of little worth? Is it asking too much to ask that 
 nature study work develop self-reliance, respect for 
 labor and teach that only by one's self action can one 
 hope to be of service? It is too much to ask that a 
 work so beautiful in itself, so filled with good and so 
 essential to child development should be so con- 
 structed as to be a beautiful and solid foundation 
 from which may rise an edifice not only of structural 
 beauty, but an edifice that will contribute to the 
 future welfare of American citizenship ? 
 
 Nature study offers a rich practical field, and 
 through nature, sympathy and observation children 
 will have a foundation for science and scientific agri- 
 culture. Accurate knowledge of nature, however 
 simple it may be, is essential. 
 
 Nature study is based on truth, not imagination, 
 not sentimentality. Nature study develops mind, 
 ^oul and body. It lays the foundation for the great- 
 est of all industries, an industry absolutely essential 
 to national prosperity, an industry in which every 
 child as producer or consumer is an economic factor. 
 
 Theorizing on what should be will amount to but 
 
TRAINING FOR LEISURE 253 
 
 little unless it causes an awakening of those most con- 
 cerned. Rural people must work out their own 
 problems. 
 
 The rural people have made great progress and 
 have made it under adverse conditions. These con- 
 ditions are peculiar to rural life, and many of the 
 attendant hardships are the unavoidable results of 
 these conditions. 
 
 It is absolutely necessary that an agricultural 
 district be less densely populated than are manufac- 
 turing and commercial districts. The fact that rural 
 districts are sparsely inhabited throws responsibility 
 upon few instead of many. Tax is paid by the few, 
 and the territory served is so great that city stand- 
 ards for public improvements are prohibitive for 
 rural improvements. 
 
 It is beyond reason to expect that rural roads 
 shall equal city streets, or that the country roadsides 
 shall be as well kept where one man is responsible 
 for one hundred and sixty rods, as is the parking 
 along a city street where one man usually has the 
 care of less than sixty feet. It is unnecessary and 
 undesirable that city standards should prevail in 
 rural places, and this applies to rural schools, rural 
 churches and rural society as well as to rural roads. 
 
 The parent has a responsibility for his child's 
 future welfare, and nowhere so much as in rural 
 
254 THE RURAL SCHOOL FROM WITHIN 
 
 places does this responsibility extend to the neigh- 
 bor's child as well. 
 
 The sparsely settled condition of rural commu- 
 nities makes those living in those communities more 
 dependent socially than are those living in towns 
 and cities. Here it is less possible to choose one's 
 associates, and here as nowhere else can one suffer 
 neglect without all being affected. It is therefore 
 imperative that there be a closer organization and a 
 more united effort among rural people than there 
 have been in the past. Owing to adverse conditions 
 it will require a greater effort, a greater expenditure 
 of energy, time and money to make this organization 
 and effort effective than would be required for a 
 similar effectiveness under urban conditions. The 
 foregoing will illustrate fundamental difficulties in 
 nearly all rural problems and suggest that these 
 problems be attacked with a thoughtfulness, earnest- 
 ness and determination that will inevitably bring 
 solutions of all great world problems. 
 
 The activity herein suggested must be purpose- 
 ful. First of all there must be unmistakable recog- 
 nition of certain needs, clear and definite objects to 
 be accomplished. 
 
 Farming, after all, is a means to an end. The 
 farmer with children has for his purpose the rear- 
 ing of these children to become intelligent, useful, 
 happy, contented citizens ; and neither happiness nor 
 
TRAINING FOR LEISURE 265 
 
 contentment comes to those who feel that their lots 
 are harder than others have to bear, or their oppor- 
 tunities less favorable. 
 
 Better means of transportation, automobiles and 
 good roads are bringing happiness and contentment 
 to many rural homes. Social differences and social 
 distinctions are rapidly disappearing on account of 
 these. Ministers are beginning to recognize that 
 they have no longer two classes of people in their 
 congregations. Everyone recognizes the church as 
 a powerful socializing influence, but in this it will 
 not stand comparison with the school. The school 
 is a territorial institution, and our only really demo- 
 cratic institution, but the school does not measure up 
 to the church as a social institution except in the 
 most progressive and educated communities. Any 
 community can be educated and progressive, pro- 
 vided it wants to be, a simple case of heart and 
 treasure being in the same place. For the accom- 
 plishment of these results there must be a passion for 
 real productive achievement along definite lines. 
 
 It is no less unkind than untrue to say that rural 
 people do not realize their responsibility to their 
 children ; or that they are less sacrificing than are the 
 urban parents. Rural people have made greater 
 sacrifices for their children than have people in other 
 industrial lines, and these sacrifices have been re- 
 warded with incommensurate returns. 
 
CHAPTER XX 
 
 Suggested Improvements 
 
 The rural schools must be reorganized; they 
 must have consolidation so that they can have a 
 larger school luiit, so they may employ more teachers 
 and better teachers, so they may be able to keep their 
 teachers for a longer time, and so they may have 
 more comprehensive courses of study, ofifering those 
 things which do function with the business of the 
 community. The open country and the school of 
 the open country as well as the church are looking 
 to the rural town. And by the rural town is meant a 
 town of 2500 or smaller population. Our rural 
 towns must furnish the basis or the nucleus for the 
 first consolidated schools. These towns already 
 have schools of such proportion as to afford splendid 
 opportunity for their own students cmd for those 
 of the open country. It has been argued by some that 
 the rural school should not be connected with the 
 rural town school because the interests of these two 
 peoples are so widely different, but the interests of 
 these two peoples are not widely different and the 
 small town problem is not going to be benefited by 
 the establishment of consolidated schools. In fact, 
 the establishment of consolidated schools in the open 
 country is likely to increase the number of small 
 
 256 
 
SUGGESTED IMPROVEMENTS 257 
 
 towns. Following the consolidation of our schools 
 will come in some places the building of a rural 
 church, the building of a parsonage and a house for 
 the teacher, which will be followed by some other 
 small buildings such as a blacksmith shop, and a 
 store, and postoffice — another small town. Again, 
 as the means of transportation improve, society re- 
 solves itself into larger units. The schools adjacent 
 to towns will be the first to consolidate. These 
 larger schools may be properly classified as consoli- 
 dated in that they will be graded and conveniently 
 located and in that pupils from outside districts 
 will be transported at public expense. True, con- 
 solidation will be slower in establishing itself in 
 distinctively rural places, but the time is not very 
 far distant when even these places will favor the 
 larger schools. In these larger schools, as has been 
 stated, the curriculum must be made to function with 
 the life of the community and the school term must 
 be adjusted and modified to meet the requirements 
 of the community. 
 
 The greatest obstacles in the way of better 
 schools are the systems of management and taxation. 
 The schools of the several states are being operated 
 under three distinct systems — ^the district, the town- 
 ship and the county. In addition there are several 
 mixed systems in which the management is divided 
 17 
 
258 THE RURAL SCHOOL FROM WITHIN 
 
 between the district and the township, the district 
 and county, or the township and county. 
 
 The district unit, such as in Kansas, is the most 
 common unit of organization for the country as a 
 whole. It is the complete basis for rural elementary 
 school management in seventeen states and in four 
 others in part. It is also the larger factor in seven 
 others that have semi-county systems, in which the 
 balance of power rests with the districts ra,ther than 
 with the counties. 
 
 In Massachusetts when each settlement was sep- 
 arate and distinct from all others there originated 
 the first public schools, which of necessity were as 
 the settlements, separate and distinct from all others. 
 The territory between the districts so established was 
 originally unorganized, but as it became settled it 
 was included in school districts, and the district 
 system remained long after conditions responsible 
 for it had passed away. 
 
 The district system met conditions that probably 
 could not have been met so successfully by any other 
 known system, but the conditions making it the only 
 feasible one exist now but in few places in the United 
 States, and certainly in but few places in Kansais. 
 
 The statement that " any community can be edu- 
 cated and progressive, provided it wants to be," can- 
 not stand without certain qualifications. The com- 
 munity must have a desire for these things suflfi- 
 
SUGGESTED IMPROVEMENTS 259 
 
 ciently strong to induce it to secure legislation that 
 will abolish the pernicious system that makes it 
 possible for very good schools and very poor schools 
 to exist in adjacent districts. Under the district 
 system the character of the school often depends 
 upon a board wholly ignorant of what a school 
 should be, and even when the board is composed of 
 men of high ideals it is powerless because of in- 
 sufficient funds, properly to maintain a good school. 
 These are conditions that always have and always 
 will exist under the district plan. 
 
 The judgment of most observers is that the dis- 
 trict plan is neither economical nor efficient, and the 
 tendency in all the states is toward a larger unit. 
 
 It is generally recognized that the public good is 
 best conserved when the body affected acts as a 
 whole. This is most aptly illustrated by state-wide 
 prohibition and local option. There are within the 
 state, communities that would license the saloon but 
 for the prohibition placed on it by the state, and well 
 meaning temperance people would be powerless to 
 prevent it. There are many school districts that 
 have the fewest number of months of school possible 
 and hire the cheapest teachers obtainable, regardless 
 of the wishes of an intelligent, ambitious minority. 
 
 Education, like temperance, is more than a local 
 interest. The locality in which one is raised is not 
 certain to be his permanent abode, and therefore his 
 
260 THE RURAL SCHOOL FROM WITHIN 
 
 education must be for the preparation that will en- 
 able him to meet other than local conditions. 
 
 The district system has permitted the forming 
 of too many small schools and these schools do not 
 yield readily to consolidation because of the fear of 
 many individuals that in the larger unit they will lose 
 prestige. Because of this jealousy and the desire to 
 retain leadership, inferior schools are maintained 
 at great educational loss to the child and at an un- 
 economic expenditure of money. 
 
 The district system deprives the rural boy and 
 girl of the opportunity for higher education unless 
 this education is gotten away from home. The 
 citizens of the state have a right to expect that the 
 school funds be expended in the most economical 
 way. With the district system there can be some 
 good Schools, but under it there can never be a good 
 system of schools. Consolidation of the small dis- 
 tricts would equalize school advantages, and, as be- 
 fore stated, will make possible a more economical 
 administration of the schools. 
 
 There is a general agreement among school 
 authorities that there should be a larger school unit 
 of school administration. Some favor the township 
 as a unit, others the county. 
 
 Whether consolidation shall take the form of 
 several large schools in each county or shall be the 
 township system or a county system is a question 
 
SUGGESTED IMPROVEMENTS 261 
 
 for intelligent and serious consideration. All of 
 these systems are meeting with success and are 
 being quite generally approved even by those who 
 most strongly opposed them. In answer to the fol- 
 lowing questions, 39 out of 40 clerks of consoli- 
 dated schools gave favorable answers. The answers 
 given here are typical : 
 
 1. Do you transport pupils? Yes. 
 
 2. What is your longest drive? 4 miles. 
 
 3. What do you pay the driver? $25 to $35. 
 
 4. How early do wagons start? 7.30 to 7.45. 
 
 5. How far do pupils walk to meet the wagons ? 
 J4 to ^ mile. 
 
 6. Do you have trouble with or objection to 
 transportation? No. 
 
 7. What is the longest walk that any pupil has ? 
 154 to 2 miles. 
 
 8. Has consolidation increased your taxes? 
 Yes. 
 
 9. How much? 10 per cent, to 25 per cent. 
 
 10. Has consolidation been successful? Yes. 
 
 11. Would you go back to the old plan? No. 
 
 12. How has it helped your school? Increased 
 the enrollment, reduced the tardiness and irregular 
 attendance and has given us high school advantages. 
 We have more work and a better course of study. 
 
 The answers to the last two questions, since they 
 
262 THE RURAL SCHOOL FROM WITHIN 
 
 came from a clerk who opposed consolidation, are 
 full of interest. 
 
 The proposition to consolidate carries with it 
 usually the proposition to furnish free transporta- 
 tion to those who live beyond a reasonable walking 
 distance from the proposed school. Consolidation 
 can no longer be considered in its experimental stage, 
 as already legislation has opened the way in about 
 half the states for the transportation of pupils at 
 public expense. 
 
 Since consolidation is one of the most important 
 contemplated changes affecting public schools, it is 
 advisable that all those interested in rural schools 
 consider it in the most open-minded way. 
 
 (i) That we have always had the little one- 
 room school is not in itself a justification for its 
 continuance. 
 
 (2) The fact that it is a radical change is tiot 
 conclusive proof that it is an undesirable change. 
 
 (3) Because it is within walking distance from 
 every part of a certain farming district to a poor 
 one-room school the abandonment of this school 
 for a larger and more efficient school that is within 
 a reasonable riding distance should not result in 
 decreased real estate values. Improved means of 
 travel and better roads are bringing the larger towns 
 nearer to the farms, and they are bringing the larger 
 schools nearer to the rural communities. Fewer 
 
SUGGESTED IMPROVEMENTS 263 
 
 towns, better towns — fewer schools, better schools. 
 
 (4) The fact that a larger and better school 
 costs more than a small poor school is not enough to 
 warrant the dedsion that the former is the less 
 desirable. 
 
 (5) While it is alleged that children may be 
 compelled tO' travel too far in cold and stormy 
 weather, and obliged to walk .to meet the team in 
 wet weather, and ride the remainder of the distance 
 in wet clothing, and that children thus conveyed are 
 brought in too close contact with vicious children, 
 and that the driver is frequently an improper per- 
 son, it must be remembered that these are objec- 
 tions to be done away with by school officers whose 
 powers can be sufficient to overcome and prevent 
 most of these causes of complaint. 
 
 In making a business venture it is fully as proper 
 to estimate the gains and the probability of gains 
 as it is to estimate the losses and the probability 
 of losses. 
 
 (a) If rural schools are poorly graded, and it is 
 almost impossible properly to classify the pupils, and 
 these defects can be remedied through consolida- 
 tion, two very good reasons may be offered for con- 
 solidation: Better grading and classification will 
 permit both teacher and pupils to work more effec- 
 tively; more time can be given to recitation and 
 greater opportunity for much needed correlation. 
 
264 THE RURAL SCHOOL FROM WITHIN 
 
 (&) If such cultural subjects as nature study, 
 drawing and music, and vocational subjects such as 
 manual training, mechanical drawing, agriculture, 
 domestic science and domestic art, are, while very 
 valuable subjects, an impossibility in the one-room 
 rural school, but entirely possible in a consolidated 
 school, two additional reasons may be given for 
 consolidation. 
 
 (c) If nine months is a better length of school 
 term than seven months, the consolidated school is 
 better, because it is the more likely to give the nine 
 months' term. 
 
 (d) If it is true, as charged, that rural teachers 
 are young, immature, untrained and inefficient, and 
 that the ablest of these find better positions in the 
 town schools ; and if it is true, as teachers themselves 
 testify, that pupils in the small rural schools do not 
 feel the inspiration of the highly competitive life, 
 then the consolidated school is better because it 
 insures better teachers, and more contented teachers, 
 and the retention of teachers, and the consolidated 
 school offers the stimuli of large classes, creating 
 enthusiasm and intellectual rivalry and a confidence 
 which comes only from contact with numbers. 
 
 (e) If, as is claimed by those who have tried 
 consolidation, the consolidated school results in more 
 regular attendance, affords a broader companionship 
 and culture and quickens the public interest, is there 
 
SUGGESTED IMPROVEMENTS 265 
 
 not abundant evMence that the consolidated schools 
 can fill a real need in country life? 
 
 Will a larger school unit provide permanent edu- 
 cational and intellectual centres? If so, will such 
 centres determine the locations of permanent social 
 and economic centres ? As stated in a former para- 
 graph, relief for rural schools will come only through 
 the activity of rural people. It is practically safe 
 to predict that the school is to become a school for 
 the people. Up till recent years the public has been 
 slow to act in matters pertaining to education, but 
 now the nation has awakened, and like it as we may, 
 it is demanding an education that will function with 
 the life that is to be lived in a practical world. It is 
 demanding an education that has utility, an educa- 
 tion that will work. 
 
 The idea that mental development and culture 
 must be divorced from the material world, avoiding 
 everything possessed of utility, everything that is 
 practical, everything that might function with the 
 world's business, has been the educational creed of 
 many an educator ; and the only justification, apology 
 or alibi that can be pleaded is that he has led a 
 life wholly in accord with his adherence to doctrines 
 of the consecrated past, believing with a child's faith 
 that it is unpardonable sacrilege to change that 
 " which they of old time have set." Human nature 
 is probably not changing very much and while no 
 
266 THE RURAL SCHOOL FROM WITHIN 
 
 one is advocating an education with a dollar for a 
 central core, the world is demanding that there be an 
 economy of time, that the school shall mean more in 
 the future than in the past, that the school shall pre- 
 pare the youth for the life that he is to lead, and life 
 is to mean making a living as well as living. 
 
 In the township system the schools are under the 
 supervision of a board elected by the qualified elec- 
 tors of the township. The schools are maintained 
 by a tax levied on the entire township. In many 
 states operating under this system all incorporated 
 towns and cities are set apart as separate districts. 
 
 Township schools in Indiana are under the man- 
 agement of the trustee, elected for four years. He 
 employs teachers, establishes schools, provides build- 
 ings and equipment and regulates the school work. 
 This plan as operated in Indiana is open to some of 
 the same criticism as is the district plan. Any plan 
 that places its schools in the hands of one official 
 without requiring definite qualifications of this 
 official is far from being ideal. It is possible under 
 the Indiana plan for the trustee to be a man of low 
 educational ideals and no educational ideas. He is 
 elected by popular vote and is, as is frequently al- 
 leged, elected for his business integrity rather than 
 for his knowledge of educational matters. 
 
 In the New England states the township system 
 is under the management of a board called the 
 
SUGGESTED IMPROVEMENTS 267 
 
 "Town School Committee." The Town School Com- 
 mittee has jurisdiction over the rural, town, village 
 and city schools of the township, managing all as a 
 unit. District boundaries have been preserved for 
 facilitating classifications, but they are boundaries 
 fixed by the will of the committee and changed when- 
 ever expedient. Schools may be closed by the com- 
 mittee and pupils transported to other schools. The 
 committee makes all contracts, hires and pays 
 teachers and maintains graded schools and a central 
 high school. 
 
 The main difference between the Indiana system 
 and the New England system is that the former does 
 not have managerial jurisdiction of the incorporated 
 towns. Throughout the north central states where 
 the township unit is in operation incorporated towns 
 are under separate control. 
 
 Separate control for incorporated towns is as 
 unjust as the district plan, in that it prevents the 
 equal distribution of taxes. In certain townships 
 working under this plan, a city of 40,000 or more 
 may be found in one township, and the territory 
 imder township control is but a rim around the city 
 — a straggling territory and of comparatively small 
 tax value. The advantages of the Indiana system 
 over the district system are those due to a larger unit 
 of management. While it is superior to the district 
 system it is open to the criticism that it is not 
 
268 THE RURAL SCHOOL FROM WITHIN 
 
 economical nor effective to separate supervision from 
 management. The New England plan has probably 
 given better satisfaction, as everywhere the results 
 have been pronounced good. 
 
 Under the township system the schools are 
 managed as a unit, educational advantages and taxes 
 are equalized, better teachers are secured, more sani- 
 tary conditions are maintained, courses of study en- 
 riched, consolidation promoted, and the supervision 
 — while not perfect — is far superior to that of the 
 district system. 
 
 In the effort to secure a larger school unit some 
 have been inclined to offer the state as the unit. It 
 would seem that the state as a unit is open to certain 
 criticism that cannot be offered on the county as 
 a unit. 
 
 A state department of education is too far re- 
 moved from the fields of activity to do sufficiently 
 effective work in either a managerial or supervisory 
 sense (this statement applies specifically to rural 
 schools.) As advisory officials they have and will 
 continue to render a valuable service, and in Kansas 
 it is doing a great work in directing legislation 
 and in helping solve rural school problems. To its 
 activities more than any other agency is due our 
 rapid growth in rural high schools, and higher stand- 
 ards for certification of teachers, and the strengthen- 
 ing of the state department of education is of vital 
 
SUGGESTED IMPROVEMENTS 269 
 
 concern to the educational progress of the state, but 
 for efficient, economical, consistent and progressive 
 administration of the rural schools the unit hes 
 between the township and the state. 
 
 The county system is in operation in Utah, 
 Louisiana and Maryland, and is found in modified 
 forms in several other states. 
 
 The common plan is to have the county con- 
 trolled by a board of five elected by the people. The 
 county superintendent is appointed by this board, as 
 are also the deputy supervisors. Their organization is 
 similar to our city school organizations. The county 
 superintendent's work is analogous to that of the 
 city superintendent's, and the deputies' to that of 
 supervising principals'. Like a city board of educa- 
 tion, this board determines the educational policy, 
 manages the schools and abolishes or consolidates 
 school districts when in their judgment it is in the 
 interests of better education, employs and pays 
 teachers, appropriates all funds, determines length 
 of school term, and like the township board, provides 
 equal educational advantages for the pupils through- 
 out the county. 
 
 This is considered the most efficient system of 
 school administration and under it greater educa- 
 tional progress is possible than under either the dis- 
 trict or township plan. 
 
 One of the greatest defects in the rural schools 
 
270 THE RURAL SCHOOL FROM WITHIN 
 
 is the lack of supervision, that comes from lack of 
 organization. It is evident that our rural teachers 
 are inefficient — that there is ever the danger of in- 
 efficiency in the district board; but waiving these 
 objections and conceding that all rural teachers are 
 efficient, and that every board member is an educa- 
 tional expert, these would not insure an effective 
 organization, because under such a system there is 
 no large directing force such as is required for the 
 intelligent conduct of large business. 
 
 Under the county plan the supervising officer at 
 once becomes an administrative officer. The unit 
 is too large for one supervising officer, and so is a 
 city of 200,000 too large, but with assistant super- 
 visors it is of workable proportions. 
 
 It is also a better plan for taxation. It gives all 
 the county the benefit of all the tax on all the prop- 
 erty of the county. Incidentally it is well to note 
 that this equitable distribution of taxes is the real 
 barrier in the way of the county unit. Favored dis- 
 tricts that have been permitted through the present 
 pernicious systems to almost escape taxation because 
 of large corporation interests in their districts are 
 most potent factors in preventing legislation that 
 will bring about a just system of taxation. It is 
 impossible in a brief discussion of this subject to 
 more than cite an instance of the unjust distribution 
 of tax in the state. That it is necessary in one rural 
 
SUGGESTED IMPROVEMENTS 271 
 
 district to levy seventeen mills in order that it can 
 have a seven months' school and unnecessary in 
 another to levy more than two-tenths of a mill to 
 have a nine months' school should leave grounds for 
 believing that those who are so wrongfully discrimi- 
 nated against are bearing a burden which would be 
 borne with justice to all if the proper unit of taxation 
 were adopted, and with a distribution of the burden 
 would oome a distribution of opportunity for all 
 children and especially for those who because of a 
 crazy-patch division of the county into small districts 
 by the "Dido" practices of early day politicians have 
 been deprived of as good opportunities as those 
 offered pioneer settlers a century ago. 
 
 In 39 states the county is the unit of supervision. 
 The weakness of this supervision is that there is no 
 connection between it and administration. These 
 should be closely united. A supervisory officer with- 
 out administrative power is helpless. 
 
 The farmer boy beyond the eighth grade should 
 not be compelled to be in school between April i 
 and December i, or more than four and a half months 
 in the year. The average farmer needs his boys 
 during that period. Under the present system he is 
 deprived of his help from September i to the middle 
 of May. 
 
 In the spring, when crops are to be planted, the 
 farmer is without help unless he hires it. In the 
 
272 THE RURAL SCHOOL FROM WITHIN 
 
 months of Septemiber, October and November, when 
 fall crops are to be planted, feed cut, and corn gath- 
 ered, he must hire help or allow his business to suffer. 
 In all accredited high schools at least two courses 
 are maintained, one a college prq)aratory course and 
 the other a general course. The college preparatory 
 course is the main course — one or two other studies 
 not required of college preparatory students make up 
 the general course. True, the general course has 
 more than two subjects, but the remainder of that 
 course is made up of college preparatory subjects 
 with the same exactions that are required for college 
 preparatory work. For illustration, algebra is a 
 college preparatory subject and a general course 
 subject. It becomes one and the same subject in a 
 particular high school. Accredited relations require 
 it to be pursued nine months one year and four and 
 one-half months another year. This one year begins 
 about September i and ends the middle or latter part 
 of May. By this arrangement the boy who is not 
 preparing for college who can be in school but a 
 few months each year, the very boy for whom this 
 course is intended must adjust his business to meet 
 the same conditions met by the boy who is preparing 
 for college. He must enter high school during a 
 busy season if he would take the work at all. He 
 must remain in school during a busy season or he 
 is required to repeat the work the following year. 
 
SUGGESTED IMPROVEMENTS 273 
 
 This is a glaring injustice to the? farmer boy and one 
 that should be speedily remedied. As indicated 
 above a course of study should be planned permitting 
 this boy to enter school after the busy season and 
 stop when spring farm work requires his services. 
 
 At first it would appear that this cannot be done. 
 It can be done. The short course, subjects that are 
 also college credit subjects could be completed in two, 
 three or four years, and the work can be done almost 
 as satisfactorily as is done by students in the college 
 preparatory department. This means, too, that these 
 boys would get an education without being weaned 
 away from the farm. It would also mean that 
 should one of these boys conclude later that he 
 wanted to go to college, he has made some college 
 preparation without sacrificing his business. It 
 might further mean that his going to college would 
 be attended with the intention of one day returning 
 to the farm for his life work. Taking a boy from 
 his business nine months each year between the ages 
 of twelve and seventeen destroys his interest in that 
 business and is one of the factors that determine the 
 away-f rom-the-farm movement of so many boys. 
 
 If the high school would minister to the needs 
 of the rural boy as indicated above it might help 
 thousands where it is now helping but hundreds. 
 It will be argued that such a plan would be very 
 expensive. The present plan that neglects to edu- 
 18 
 
274 THE RURAL SCHOOL FROM WITHIN 
 
 cate a boy whose parent is taxed for the support of 
 an institution whose benefit he cannot have without 
 neglecting and injuring his business is very expen- 
 sive. The rural school should run nine months. The 
 children up to and including the eighth grade should 
 be compelled to attend the nine months. The rural 
 high school should accommodate those who want 
 to do college preparatory work, but a distinct course 
 in such a high school should be the short course, 
 and the utmost vigilance should be exercised that 
 the curriculum be not prostituted to do service to 
 colleges and other higher institutions of learning. 
 
 The most wonderful question concerning rural 
 schools is less wonderful than the blundering at- 
 tempts that are being made to remedy rural school 
 conditions. What rural schools need to-day is 
 legislators who recognize their needs, who recognize 
 the injustice of the present administration of rural 
 schools, and who believe that rural children have cer- 
 tain inalienable rights and have parents who are as 
 self-sacrificing as any class of people on earth. 
 
 The sub- freshman departments in the several 
 state educational institutions and denominational 
 schools testify to the shortcomings of the high 
 schools. Men of mature age are making college 
 preparation in those schools because at the high 
 school age they were not able to avail themselves 
 of the accommodations oiifered by their home high 
 
SUGGESTED IMPROVEMENTS 275 
 
 schools. Many of these men, later realizing the im- 
 portance of an education, attend these preparatory 
 schools, where they find plenty of associates of their 
 own age. Had these short courses been maintained in 
 their home high schools they might not have quit 
 school until they had finished a part or all of the 
 college preparatory courses at home. 
 
 It should be thoroughly understood that the short 
 course is not intended as the course for those who 
 can take a full high school course, but to serve those 
 who without it would be deprived of any high school 
 training. The completion of the course could be 
 equal to only one-half of a four years' course. 
 
 The great need of the rural young man to-day 
 is that the state shall take proper recognition of his 
 educational problems. He knows what he needs, 
 and he knows it better than do those who insist on 
 giving him what he does not want. He needs a 
 school that he may attend when he can without 
 jeopardizing his interest in his life work. 
 
 In educational legislation there is little recogni- 
 tion of the injustice of the present administration of 
 high schools for the benefit of rural pupils. There 
 is considerable agitation about consolidation, but 
 there is little or no efifort to use to the advantage 
 of the boy who cannot attend school for nine months 
 each year the high schools already in oi>eration and 
 operated at the expense of the county at large. 
 
276 THE RURAL SCHOOL FROM WITHIN 
 
 Much needless energy is wasted in attempts to 
 " rescue " the rural boy without considering his great 
 economic needs. Rural schools for rural people, and 
 a part of the curriculum of town high schools for 
 rural people, when rural people are taxed for the 
 maintenance of town high schools, w'ould be but 
 simple justice and the benefits incalculable. 
 
 One of the troubles of the high school of to-day 
 is over-organization. The curricula are often built 
 with automatic interlocking devices and for their 
 symmetry or architectural beauty, rather than for 
 their utility, and then the interests of the pupil are 
 sacrificed on the altar of classification. 
 
 The suggested curriculum will require about the 
 same number of teachers as are required under pres- 
 ent plans. Students taking the short course will 
 each year complete a definite amount of work, and if 
 at the beginning of any year they conclude to change 
 to the regular college preparatory course, they may 
 do so without loss of time. The short course is 
 designed primarily for those who want and need 
 more school work than they are now getting, but 
 cannot obtain it under existing conditions, and at 
 the same time it is so designed that it will be hurtful 
 to none and helpful to many. By this arrangement 
 high schools will become in fact, " schools for all the 
 people," and a rural uplift will be installed and a 
 real barrier to rural progress removed. 
 
SUGGESTED IMPROVEMENTS 
 
 277 
 
 A Suggested Curriculum for High Schools in Towns 
 Less Than 2500 Population 
 
 first year 
 
 Fall 
 3 months 
 
 WlNIEK 
 
 4}^ months 
 
 Spring 
 t!4 months 
 
 German I or Latin I 
 English I 
 Bookkeeping 
 
 Ancient History 
 Physical Geography 
 Elementary Science 
 
 German I or Latin I 
 English I* 
 Farm Accounts* 
 Algebra* 
 Ancient History 
 
 Mechanical Draw- 
 
 German I or Latin I 
 English I 
 Bookkeeping 
 
 Ancient History 
 Physical Geography 
 Elementary Science 
 
 Music 
 
 ing* 
 Manual Training* 
 Cooking* 
 Sewing* 
 Agriculture* 
 Music* 
 
 Music 
 
 second year 
 
 German II or Latin II 
 English II 
 Algebra I 
 
 M. and M. History 
 
 Mechanical Drawing 
 
 Manual Training 
 
 Cooking 
 
 Sewing 
 
 Agricidture 
 
 Music 
 
 German II or Latin II 
 
 English II* 
 
 Algebra I and II 
 
 Algebra to Quad- 
 ratics* 
 
 M. and M. History 
 
 Botany* 
 
 Mechanical Draw- 
 ing* 
 
 Manual Training* 
 
 Cooking* 
 
 Sewing 
 
 AgriciSture* 
 
 Music* 
 
 German II or Latin II 
 EngUsh II 
 Algebra II 
 
 M. and M. History 
 Botany 
 Mechanical Drawing 
 
 Manual Training 
 
 Cooking 
 
 Sewing 
 
 Agriculture 
 
 Music 
 
 * Classes designed for both short course and regular students. 
 
278 THE RURAL SCHOOL FROM WITHIN 
 
 THIRD YEAR 
 
 Fall 
 3 months 
 
 Winter 
 4K months 
 
 Spring 
 iJ4 months 
 
 German III or Latin 
 
 III 
 English III 
 Commercial 
 
 Arithmetic 
 Plane Geometry 
 
 German III or Latin 
 
 III 
 English III* 
 
 Plane Geometry 
 Plane Geometry* 
 Physiology* 
 
 Physics I* 
 Mechanical 
 Drawing* 
 Manual Training* 
 Cooking* 
 Sewing* 
 Agriculture* 
 Music* 
 
 German III or Latin 
 III 
 
 EngHsh III 
 Commercial 
 
 Arithmetic 
 Plane Geometry 
 
 Botany 
 Psychology 
 
 Mechanical Drawing 
 
 Psychology 
 Physics 
 Mechanical Drawing 
 
 Manual Training 
 Cooking 
 Sewing 
 AgriciJture 
 Music 
 , 
 
 Manual Training 
 
 Cooking 
 
 Sewing 
 
 Agriculture 
 
 Music 
 
 FOURTH YEAR 
 
 Electives fi 
 
 •om first, second and 
 
 third years 
 
 American History 
 
 Methods a 
 Physics 
 
 Music 
 
 English* 
 Vocational 
 
 Arithmetic* 
 Solid Geometry 
 American History 
 American History* 
 Civics* 
 Normal Training 
 
 Review 
 ad Management and j 
 
 Arithmetic 
 
 Mechanical 
 Drawing* 
 Manual Training* 
 Cooking* 
 Sewing* 
 Agriculture* 
 Music* 
 
 Music 
 
SUGGESTED IMPROVEMENTS 279 
 
 In explanation of the curriculum it will be help- 
 ful to indicate how the students in the several courses 
 may arrange their work. It is assumed that in a par- 
 ticular high school Latin is the foreign language and 
 that we have three classes of students : College Pre- 
 paratory, General Course and Short Course, which 
 we will designate respectively A, B and C. The 
 school year is divided into three terms: fall term, 
 three months; winter term, four and one-half 
 months, and spring term, one and one-half months. 
 
 Student A 
 First Year : 
 
 Latin, three terms. 
 
 Physical Geography, Elementary Science or Bookkeeping, 
 
 fall term. 
 Ancient History, three terms. 
 Algebra I, winter term, and Elementary Science, Physical 
 
 Geography or Bookkeeping, spring term. 
 English, three terms. 
 
 Second Year: 
 
 Latin, three terms. 
 M. and M. History, three terras. 
 Botany, winter and spring terms. 
 Algebra, three terms. 
 English, three terms. 
 
 (It will be observed that students will be required to 
 carry five studies the winter and spring terms in the second 
 year. If the student is taking Normal Training, voca- 
 tional electives from the first and second years should be 
 substituted for M. and M. History.) 
 
280 THE RURAL SCHOOL FROM WITHIN 
 
 Third Year: 
 
 Latin, three terms. 
 
 Botany, fall term; Physics, winter and spring terms. 
 
 Plane Geometry, three terms. 
 
 English, three terms. 
 
 (If the student is taking the Normal Training Course, 
 Psychology, fall term, Physiology, winter term, and Psy- 
 chology, spring term, will be substituted for Latin.) 
 
 Fourth Year: 
 
 American History, three terms. 
 
 Electives from first, second and third years. 
 
 Physics, fall terra. Civics, winter term, and Solid Geometry 
 
 Elective. „ „ 
 
 Student B 
 
 Sixteen units are required for graduation, all of which 
 shall be elective excepting two years of English, one year 
 of Mathematics, one year of American History, and one- 
 half year of Civics. 
 
 Student C 
 Eight units* are required for graduation from the 
 Short Course. 
 First Year, Winter Term: 
 Algebra. 
 
 English Composition. 
 
 Two electives from the following group: Farm Account- 
 ing, Manual Training and Mechanical Drawing, Agri- 
 culture I, Domestic Science I, and Domestic Art I. 
 Second Year, Winter Term. 
 Botany. 
 
 Algebra to quadratics. 
 English. 
 
 One elective from the following group : Manual Training 
 and Mechanical Drawing H, Agriculture H, Domestic 
 Science II, and Domestic Art II. (Electives may also 
 be taken from the group in first year.) 
 
 *A unit is one subject carried nine months, five forty- 
 five minute recitations per week. 
 
SUGGESTED IMPROVEMENTS 281 
 
 Third Year, Winter Term: 
 
 English III* 
 
 Three Electives from the following group: Physiology, 
 Physics, Plane Geometry, Agriculture, Mechanical Draw- 
 ing and Manual Training, or Home Economics. 
 
 Fourth Year, Winter Term : 
 Civics. 
 English. 
 Arithmetic. 
 American History. 
 
 Farm Management or Home Management 
 Mechanical Drawing or Manual Training. 
 
 In choosing electives from the subjects designated as 
 
 I, II, or III, I must be considered as a prerequisite of 
 
 II, and II a prerequisite of III. 
 
 Music shall be offered as an elective to all students and 
 they shall receive one-half the credit given for a " solid." 
 
 This suggested curriculum for rural high 
 schools will not, as arranged, meet the conditions 
 of all places, nor can aj curriculum that is suited to 
 all places be made. It is desirable in so far as is 
 possible or practical to have imiformity, but when 
 uniformity is antagonistic to the interests of a com- 
 munity, uniformity should be sacrificed. 
 
 * It will be observed that some Classes beginning in the 
 fall, e.g., English, permit students to enter in the winter term. 
 In such a case the work in the fall and spring is principally 
 literature, but during the winter term English composition. 
 
CHAPTER XXI 
 Our Teacher 
 
 The lack of harmony between, the child's nature 
 and his needs is largely responsible for the strong 
 desire of so many to leave school early. This also 
 has much to answer for as regards his behavior while 
 in school. Superintendents of reform schools and 
 reformatories have experiences that should bring the 
 blush to those who are responsible for the public 
 school. 
 
 Many a boy is taken from his home and his 
 home school because he is incorrigible, and when 
 taken to one of the above industrial institutions at 
 once conforms to the rules and regulations and is 
 pronounced number one in deportment and studies. 
 
 The mistake is often the teacher, but more fre- 
 quently it is the curriculum. The boy of twelve to 
 fourteen is not likely to have an objective interest, 
 especially if such an interest be very remote. In my 
 first experience as a teacher I was far from satisfied 
 with the results. My regard for the pupils was so 
 high that after all these years I think of none of 
 them but with pleasure. My two inflictions of 
 corporal punishment, to which I have alluded in 
 former chapters, are not half of all the corporal pun- 
 
 282 
 
OUR TEACHER 283 
 
 ishments that I have given in twenty-five years, but 
 in the light of past experience I can see no reason to 
 regret those punishments, although regrets for many 
 things that I did not do are innumerable. 
 
 In not accepting the school for the second year, 
 I refused on the grounds that I was unprepared for 
 the work. In this school there was a large primary 
 class, and I had done no more for them in nine 
 months than a good primary teacher could do in 
 nine days. The difference between what I did and 
 what a good teacher could have done was greater 
 than would appear at first sight. What they had 
 been taught was very little, and that little was so 
 imperfectly done that it would be a real impediment 
 to future progress. At the close of the school my 
 beginning class could not read and they could not 
 spell. They knew their letters but they could not 
 use them. 
 
 I have seen several good primary teachers and I 
 have seen scores of very poor primary teachers. 
 When I see a poor one I think of my first work in 
 teaching, of those little boys and girls whose mothers 
 dressed them and prepared their dinners for them 
 for nine months, trusting to me "to get them 
 started." One mother, who had more sense than 
 the teacher and the other mothers, became so ex- 
 asperated at having her son kept on the first ten or 
 twelve pages for six or seven months that she took 
 
284 THE RURAL SCHOOL FROM WITHIN 
 
 the book and put it on the sewing machine, quilting 
 the first few leaves together so that the teacher could 
 not use those pages any more. She was right. Her 
 provocation was great enough to justify the act. 
 How trying on a parent's patience is a poor teacher ! 
 
 I loved those children and they loved me, and the 
 affection between us lasted until they were men and 
 women grown, but love is not all that is necessary 
 to insure sound primary work. 
 
 Our neighbor's daughter may have a good, sweet 
 disposition, the children may love her and run to 
 meet her ; yet, she may not be a good primary teacher. 
 She may be a " great hand " with children and be a 
 complete failure as a primary teacher. In no depart- 
 ment of the school has there been greater imposition 
 than in the primary department. In no other depart- 
 ment is it so easy to escape detection until after the 
 damage is done. So much work that is not educa- 
 tion — ^that leads nowhere and aims at nothing — ^that 
 is showy and entertaining, but does not hitch up to 
 anything, passes for " good primary work." 
 
 Among our best trained teachers are found the 
 kindergarten and the primary teacher, and there is 
 no other school work that is more important than 
 that done by them. 
 
 Average school boards know but little of the 
 selection of a priipary teacher. (This remark has 
 no special reference to rural school boards.) 
 
OUR TEACHER 285 
 
 The trained teacher is needed, however, in other 
 places. A child may have had good training in the 
 first and second and third grades and get into in- 
 competent hands and be spoiled in grades five and 
 six. Indeed, grades five and six need experts, but 
 for unexplainable reasons there is less expert teach- 
 ing in grades five and six than is done either above or 
 below those grades. A pupil that is well taught in 
 grades one, two and three may be spoiled in the 
 upper grades, but a child spoiled in grades one, two 
 or three is a difficult proposition ever afterwards. 
 
 My success was not marked in any of the grades, 
 but was simply poorer in some than in others. 
 
 For fear the reader may lay too great stress upon 
 training, a thing which I believe is sometimes done, 
 I must make clear my position. 
 
 If it is impossible to have a trained teacher who 
 is in sympathy with child life I would favor the 
 untrained teacher who has sympathy. I believe that 
 loving sympathy is the highest qualification of the 
 teacher. While this statement will not always meet 
 with favor it will be quite generally welcomed. 
 There are those who believe sympathy and soft- 
 heartedness are certain to degenerate into mawkish 
 coquetry, sentimentalism and weak discipline. If 
 ever so, it is due to emotional rather than intelligent 
 application. 
 
 To those of us who plead for a discipline of the 
 
286 THE RURAL SCHOOL FROM WITHIN 
 
 good old kind it must be gratifying to know that 
 we have an ancestry in every preceding generation 
 since historical records began who have pleaded for 
 a discipline of the good old days, who have said that 
 the more lenient ideals and methods of school and 
 home discipline are operating to increase disrespect 
 for law. In every generation the conservatives 
 have proclaimed that disaster is certain to come from 
 the " new " practices, and in 1847 the Annals of the 
 American Institute of Instruction contained a com- 
 plaint on the laxity in the schools of that period, 
 saying : " It is to this new-fashioned laxity of rule 
 that we may impart much of the insubordination 
 and riot, yes, even ' Lynch Law,' which has crept 
 into our schools and families, as well as pervaded 
 like a pestilence over our states." 
 
 I believe that love for the teacher is one of the 
 prerequisites of learning, and that it is possible for 
 one who possesses a teacher's qualifications to have 
 this love. So much will be done for the child who 
 has a kind and sympathizing teacher that cannot be 
 done for it by the teacher who is selfish and cruel 
 by nature. The real teacher knows that nothing 
 trifling forms part of a child's life. The whole 
 principle of Froebel's teaching is founded upon per- 
 fect love for children, and it is this love that every 
 true teacher must strive to possess. " Our Teacher " 
 should be second only to " Our Mother." Fond are 
 
OUR TEACHER 287 
 
 the recollections that I have of many of my teachers 
 and of the happy schooldays spent with them. But 
 there are other days that I would forget, if in the 
 forgetting I lost not a sympathy for those whose lives 
 fall in unhappy places. 
 
 I have sat for days, weeks and months on seats 
 so high that my little short legs didn't reach half 
 way to the floor; I have waded snowdrifts and 
 reached school with frozen feet and ears, and found 
 the smoking stove surrounded by other pupils as 
 miserable as myself. I've seen it all. I have vivid 
 recollections of the woman teacher who kept the 
 little girl for a whole day standing on the floor for 
 an offense so slight that it should have escaped 
 notice. I have seen them all. I feel personally ac- 
 quainted with all the teachers whose hides were so 
 beautifully tanned by that master dermatist, Charles 
 Dickens; but the King of Beasts for whom no gener- 
 ation since the days of Herod could offer a reason- 
 able excuse, taught our little district school in no 
 earlier a year than 1878. Even, then, or yet, there 
 was an insane desire to vote the minimum levy and 
 get teachers who would " skin them alive." In that 
 little summer school, with a dozen or fifteen pupils, 
 this man, unmolested by parents who believed all the 
 old adages and prayed for more, held a reign of 
 terror. His old hickory pointers, scraped with glass 
 and sandpapered to a glossy smoothness, constituted 
 
288 THE RURAL SCHOOL FROM WITHIN 
 
 the major portion of his assets. I can hear his song 
 (why God gave him a voice for singing I cannot 
 tell) " Maine, Augusta on the Kennebec River; Ver- 
 mont, Montpelier, on the Onion River; Massachu- 
 setts, Boston, on the Boston Harbor." 
 
 While I would forget, I remember that teacher's 
 geography. I remember his big white-handled knife 
 that he used in pointing to the letters of the alphabet 
 as I stood by his side. I remember, too, how afraid 
 I was that he might shift his heavy boots and get on 
 my bare feet. Bare feet are usually hurtable, and 
 boys' feet in the early springtime are quite tender. 
 Usually there's a sore place, too — the place cut by 
 the broken glass, or the place where the locust thorn 
 went in. I think it was his utter lack of sympathy 
 and my intense fear of him, that caused me on my 
 first day of teaching, when I called my little Leonard 
 and Johnnie up " to say their letters " to put my 
 arms around each one and asked them to do the 
 pointing. It was his frowns and growls that I 
 occasioned when I called " d " " b " that caused me 
 to tell Leonard that he probably never would be able 
 to tell them apart, that I never had quite straightened 
 them out. I knew nothing about development les- 
 sons, but because that teacher had not helped me to 
 learn " d " from " b " we went into it. We had 
 comparison and differentiation right there, and we 
 all learned the difference between " d " and " ]?," and 
 
OUR TEACHER 289 
 
 it " stuck," too. Why boys should ever borrow a 
 knife from a man whom they so thoroughly feared 
 as we did him, I have never been quite able to 
 explain. We did borrow it, however, and there 
 hangs a tale. 
 
 I am not a generous man, but I have spent much 
 money for knives. I have made many Christmas 
 presents of knives to little boys, and if I think the 
 little girl doesn't need a doll too badly I get her a 
 knife, too. The first thought I have about a boy 
 after I get enough clothes on him to keep him from 
 freezing is to give him a knife. 
 
 As superintendent I have had occasion to check 
 children upon their pilfering. I never made an 
 announcement of the fact, but every boy who stole 
 a knife and admitted to me that he did steal it got 
 from somewhere a knife that he didn't have to steal. 
 Well, we borrowed his knife; technically, I guess we 
 stole it. He was not at the desk when we got it, and 
 we only intended to use it in cutting a willow for a 
 whistle. I hate a willow whistle worse than I hate 
 white-handled knives. 
 
 Now, these willows were in the ravine not over 
 thirty rods from the schoolhouse, and when we re- 
 turned with our willows we were minus the knife. 
 Louie said, " You put it in your pocket." The only 
 thing in that pocket was a hole. Money and other 
 valuables never stay very long in my pockets, but 
 19 
 
290 THE RURAL SCHOOL FROM WITHIN 
 
 that's the last time anything ever went out of my 
 pocket by way of a hole. 
 
 The absolute terror that beset us when we found 
 that the knife was lost would be difficult for anyone 
 who has not had such a teacher to comprehend. Our 
 first thought was to run away. We did run away. 
 Thus the road downward begins. To make our 
 homecoming timely we waited all afternoon in the 
 woods. I say waited. We did not play. A little 
 boy put his hand just over his solar plexus one day 
 and said, " Mr. -^ , when you feel bad about some- 
 thing, it's right here, isn't it?" I said, "Yes, sir, 
 that's just the place." I remember the afternoon 
 in the woods with thievery and truancy to be atoned, 
 and in childish fear I was directly headed for Jack- 
 sonville, asylum for the insane, or Joliet, the state 
 penitentiary. The day following we feigned sick- 
 ness, but that could not be kept up. The third day 
 foimd us both in school. After a usual amount of 
 lying we received our punishment. The old two- 
 piece stuff — denim waists and pants that button — 
 is not much protection against the onslaughts of a 
 merciless, strong man, and readers who believe in 
 children believe me when I say that when we ex- 
 amined our bare legs in the only privacy offered the 
 children of a free and prosperous people, and saw 
 the blood ,that streamed from the cuts made by his 
 stick, we were glad it was not so bad after all, and 
 
OUR TEACHER 291 
 
 that maybe we would not have to go to Jacksonville 
 or Joliet either one. Certainly our sins had been 
 atoned ! 
 
 Hundreds of times my teachers have had com- 
 plaints from parents, have had insulting or censor- 
 ious notes. It has always been my policy to say to 
 that teacher, " A soft answer turneth away wrath. 
 Be thankful the child has parents who love him and 
 want to protect him and see that he gets a square 
 deal." It is not our fault that the parent feels as he 
 does. Nor is it the parent's fault. He is simply 
 acting according to his light. He has grown up 
 among conditions that fully warrant his antagonism. 
 
 As a teacher you are kind, merciful, self-sacrific- 
 ing. The parent who' is criticising you is basing her 
 opinion upon the old-time school when our children 
 were mistreated, often most cruelly. 
 
 I do not mean to moralize, but I must not drop 
 this thought till I have said, " I never conferred with 
 a parent about his child, whether the child were right 
 or wrong, but I made a friend of both parent and 
 child." The natural parent loves his child, and in the 
 Book of Books there is not a truer statement than 
 " love begets love," nor that " a little leaven 
 leaveneth the whole lump." 
 
 In writing of the rural teacher there is great 
 danger of overlooking the many earnest and capable 
 ones who would make good but for the system under 
 
THE RURAL SCHOOL FROM WITHIN 
 
 which they work. When they begin they work un- 
 supervised and unaided. In other business no greater 
 success would be realized if conditions were similar. 
 
 The sacrificing, painstaking, hard-working 
 teacher is found nowhere more often than in the 
 little one-room rural school. 
 
 Whenever I hear the city teacher compiaming of 
 her lot, railing at the street commissioners for the 
 snow on the walks, at the janitors for the dust on 
 her desk and the freezing temperature when the 
 mercury drops below" 68 degrees, and at her principal 
 for not disciplining her room, I am reminded of the 
 little women, as well-bom and as accustomed to 
 well appointed and luxurious homes as herself, who 
 find their ways to school through rivers of mud and 
 mountains of snow, wondering " who shall roll us 
 away the stone " and find their fires unstarted, rooms 
 undusted and later meet everyone with a cheerful 
 " good morning " and a smile. Charge not all the 
 inefficiency of the rural school to the teacher, but to 
 the system under which she works. 
 
 To the rural teacher: 
 
 You may 'be teaching your first school and are 
 probably but twenty years old, maybe less. You are 
 miles from home and from your county superin- 
 tendent. You have had to make your own programs, 
 and have had to do a thousand things that are 
 baffling good city superintendents. If you get 
 
/ OUR TEACHER 293 
 
 through this year and show that you are capable 
 and able to run a school alone, next year you may 
 work in a city school, have eight recitations per 
 day instead of twenty-eight, and have a superinten- 
 dent to plan all your work and stand between you and 
 all trouble. In other words, when it is ascertained 
 that you can get along without any help you will be 
 given it. 
 
 You are holding the hardest position in the school 
 system. You are doing more work and getting less 
 pay than teachers in graded schools. Do you appre- 
 ciate the great responsibilities resting upon you? 
 You may get discouraged sometimes, and it would be 
 a wonder if you did not. 
 
 But there is another side. Too much cannot 
 be said of the beautiful silver lining of the many 
 clouds that sometimes hang over the teacher's world. 
 In the teacher's life there is a greater radiance of 
 the beautiful and the good than may be found in 
 any other vocation. Many helpful books have been 
 written dealing with the beauty side, the real love 
 side, of the teacher's life. There is world-wide room 
 for the teacher with good common sense and a loving, 
 sympathetic heart. In support of the above senti- 
 ment I give the following little story told by a promi- 
 nent American citizen, now dead, whose name is 
 purposely omitted. 
 
 " In a backwoods settlement in an eastern state, 
 
294 THE RURAL SCHOOL FROM WITHIN 
 
 I began life where good schools were unknown. Our 
 teachers were hired for their muscularity rather 
 than for their educational attainment or for their 
 ability to teach, and usually distinguished themselves 
 for ignorance, general inefficiency and brutality. 
 
 " On a February morning our little school was 
 opening for its third time that winter. The two men 
 who had attempted to direct us in the narrow path 
 by the only methods then in vogue had found life in 
 this out-of-the-way place too strenuous and haz- 
 ardous, and we were for the third time that winter 
 mobilizing our allied forces for defense, 
 
 " To our mortification the invasion of our terri- 
 tory was made by a body so inferior in size and so — 
 well ! our new teacher was a woman ! She did not 
 look very strong, was rather pale, and with boyish 
 foresight we saw our cause for battling had been 
 removed. To oppose such a teacher we must in- 
 vent a cause and employ different tactics. 
 
 " She opened sdiool by a friendly greeting; she 
 alluded not to our past; she made no rules nor made 
 known any plans. She told us that little work would 
 be attempted that day, but that she would try to find 
 out about us and our work, in hopes that on the 
 morrow she as well as we would be prepared. 
 
 " She sat down by a pretty little girl, learned 
 her name, where she lived; she passed on and on 
 about the room getting acquainted, making little 
 
OUR TEACHER 295 
 
 assignments — ^making friends. Soon we saw that 
 there was fun or trouble ahead. She was just about 
 to little ' Red Top ' Briggs. ' Red Top ' was there- 
 dirt, rags and onions. The new teacher would never 
 sit by him! But she did. She learned his name, she 
 looked through his dirty, torn old book — she learned 
 more than his name — ^she learned that his father and 
 mother were dead, and that he lived * nowhere very 
 much.' 
 
 " When she arose to leave little 'Red Top ' Briggs 
 she smoothed from his unwashed forehead some 
 matted locks and tenderly kissed the face that never 
 before had been lighted with a smile. No one 
 laughed. 
 
 " In years to come it was my pleasure to be 
 honored by and to be presented to the governor of 
 one of our leading states. This governor was the 
 little red-headed boy who ate onions for breakfast, 
 washed at the creek, and lived ' nowhere very much ! ' 
 We discussed matters of state, upon few of which 
 we agreed, but our little teacher, then dead, was the 
 one topic upon which there was no division. Of 
 her we spoke in loving remembrance and upon that 
 occasion we financed the project which resulted in 
 erecting in honor of ' Our Teacher ' a monument 
 equaled by none in that old churchyard over the 
 remains of the woman who had given life to two 
 
296 THE RURAL SCHOOL FROM WITHIN 
 
 forsaken, homeless boys — she who had been, but 
 never was, a mother." 
 
 It's easy to love the little girl with the pretty 
 curls and ribbons, it's easy to love the pretty little 
 boy with dimples that are angel kissed, the Golden 
 Locks and Little Lord Faimtleroys, who live in the 
 big white houses on the hills and who bring the 
 biggest red apples to put on teacher's desk; but to 
 love the Ruggleses and the Wiggses, the Oliver 
 Twists, and the Smikes, the Betsy Shorts and the 
 Shockeys, children who live " nowhere very much," 
 the teacher must have met face to face with the 
 Teacher who said, "Suffer the little children, and for- 
 bid them not, to come unto me, for of such is the 
 kingdom of heaven." 
 
INDEX 
 
 Activity, occasioiiing the 
 proper, 200 
 
 Adversary, to public schools, 
 106 
 
 Advertising the cities' great- 
 ness, 166; legitimate, 169; 
 as related to her farms, 173 
 
 Affection of children, 231, 232 
 
 A£5Uations, church and 
 Y.M.C.A., 165 
 
 Agriculture, prevailing type of, 
 87, 249, 264 
 
 Agricultural college, 87 
 
 A^er, 41 
 
 Arithmetics, adopted because 
 of excellent rviles, 207 
 
 Army of the unemployed, 
 Chicago, Philadelphia, and 
 St. Louis, 166, 167 
 
 Arrested development, 181 
 
 Attitude, personal or objec- 
 tive, 61; objective, 78 
 
 Automobiles, 35 
 
 "Backfiring," 98 
 Back seat a seat of honor, 63 
 Band, the school, 219, 220 
 Bible stories, 197 
 Big business, 167 
 Billboards, 170, 172 
 Blizzard, the, 152, 153 
 Boarding place, 11, 29 
 Boards of education, 43, 191, 
 
 194 
 Bonaparte, Napoleon, 65 
 Booth, Edwin, 115 
 Bossing the sdiool board, 40 
 
 Botany, 71 
 Brooms, 43 
 Bums, 31-33 
 Busy work, 48 
 
 Calvin, John, 65 
 
 Chemistry, 71 
 
 Christmas tree, 142, 143, 146; 
 gifts, 144 
 
 Church, agency to civiliza- 
 tion, 92; opposition to, 93; 
 a passive membership in, 15; 
 rural, 87, 97, 103 
 
 Cicero, 64 
 
 City, drift of rural people to, 
 234; schools, superiority of, 
 236; teacher, 19, 162; un- 
 attractiveness, 161, 255; 
 wrong in permitting bad 
 labor conditions, 169 
 
 Closing school with a song, 62 
 
 Community center, 86, 94, 96, 
 178, 179 
 
 Community interests, 152, 157 
 
 Conditions which we should 
 improve, 154 
 
 Conduct, bad, rewarded with 
 a smile, 42 
 
 Conferring with parent, 291 
 
 Consolidation, 256, 257, 260; 
 arguments in favor of, 262, 
 263; questionnaire regard- 
 ing, 261 
 
 Constad's Crossing, 36; 
 Crossing "tree," 143; Cross- 
 ing school house, 86; Cross- 
 ing neighborhood, 87,97; i^' 
 ligious harvest, 88 
 
 297 
 
298 
 
 INDEX 
 
 Constad, William, 78, 81, 125, 
 126 
 
 Controlling forces of the boy, 
 
 ^"9 . 
 
 Cooperation, 173 
 
 Corporal ptuiishment, 53, 56, 
 
 282 
 Country, the ideal place, 151 
 Country, picnic, a, 179; the 
 
 dinner at, 180 
 County superintendent, 55; 
 
 how elected in the county 
 
 plan, 269 
 County system, 257, 259; 
 
 method of control in, 269; 
 
 method of control in 39 
 
 states, 271 
 Courses of study introduced 
 
 after decades of agitation, 
 
 233. 256, 272 
 Criminal, the, loS 
 Culture and work have been 
 
 differentiated, 240 
 Culture, lack of, 245; oppor- 
 tunity for, 162 
 Curriculum, suggested, 276, 
 
 281; often the mistake, 282 
 Currying favor, 39 
 
 D 
 
 Daughters, bossing the board, 
 
 43 
 Demands upon farmers' time, 
 
 136 
 Desire to excel, 178 
 Development arrested, 123 
 Dickens, as an educator, 45, 
 
 "5 
 Dick Holmes, 50 
 Dictionary, 60, 83, 89 
 Discipline, kept even or level, 
 
 50; girls amenable to, 58, 68; 
 
 negative, 123; plead for a, 
 
 286 
 Dismissal, orderly, 52 
 District system, 257-259 
 
 Domestic science and art, 71, 
 
 264 
 Down at the cross, 36, 39 
 
 £ 
 
 Easy steps to learning, 212; 
 importance of, 93; new, 120 
 
 Education, higher, 71, 260; a 
 common sdiool, enough for 
 my son, 236; not for the 
 avoidance of work, 240; not 
 measured by yards, 246; 
 more than a local interest, 
 259; State Department of, 
 268 
 
 Educational purjjoses, 90 
 
 Educators, reducing schools to 
 machines, 177 
 
 Employee, not in a position to 
 see the other side, 41 
 
 Employment, futile attempts 
 to secure, 168 
 
 Enthusiasm of youth, 38 
 
 Environment, determines dis- 
 position, 74 
 
 Examination, teachers', 190 
 
 Exhibitions, school, 174; not 
 literary or artistic, 176; de- 
 noted year's success, 178 
 
 Experience, a teacher's, 161; 
 a personal, 189, 190 
 
 F 
 
 Failures in life, not all among 
 the poor, 225 
 
 Farm, back to the, 160; oppor- 
 timity to remain on, 234 
 
 Farmer, dependent socially, 
 106; as manager, 138 
 
 Farming, scientific, 87; an ex- 
 acting business, 137; offers 
 time for improvement, 233 
 
 Farm life, unattractiveness 
 grows less, 169 
 
 Father and Mother Rose, 29, 
 33. 92, 99. 154. 155. 183. 199 
 
INDEX 
 
 299 
 
 Father's advice, 41 
 
 Paiilts, 32 
 
 Fidelity and efficiency not 
 
 sufficient, 167 
 First day, the, 38 
 Fond recollections, 14 
 Formal discipline, 202 
 Formal grammar, 203 
 Franklin, Benjamin, 120 
 Friends and enemies, 18 
 Friendship that would divide 
 
 another's sorrow, 158 
 Froebel, 286 
 Funeral, the, 156 
 
 Games in rural schools, 222 
 Geography, 212-214 
 Girls, 21, 23, 58, 59 
 Good beginning, 38 
 Good deeds unappreciated, 
 
 55, 128, 176, 223 
 Gordons, 31, 34 
 Graham, Jack, 98 
 Gymnasium, 70 
 
 H 
 
 Hamlet, 75 
 
 Hannibal, 65 
 
 Heating plant, 70 
 
 High schools, 238, 239 
 
 History, teachers no longer 
 specializing in, 214, 215; in- 
 terest in, through historical 
 romance, 197; my love for, 
 228 
 
 Home, the, 93 
 
 Homes that are not homes, 226 
 
 Ideals, helpful and beautiful, 
 
 36, 175 
 Impression, making an, 44 
 Improvement of cattle, 81 
 Improvements of cattle sug- 
 gested, 81, 256 
 
 Incorporated towns, separate 
 control for, 267 
 
 Indian Creek, 178-180 
 
 Inefficiency our greatest eco- 
 nomic liability, 168 
 
 Institutions, higher, 71, 274 
 
 Interest, objective or subjec- 
 tive, 151 
 
 Interest to the child, 198; learn- 
 ing the legitimate offspring 
 of, 198 
 
 Irving, Washington, 121 
 
 Janitor, 13, 153 
 Jones, 31, 32 
 
 K 
 
 Kansas, 42 
 
 Kansas, Miss, 20, 21, 60, 63, 66 
 Known to the related un- 
 known, from the, 195 
 
 L 
 
 Late entrance and absence, 141 
 Law on my side, 39 
 Learning to do by doing, 175 
 Leisure moments, educating 
 
 for, 224; avenue of escape, 
 
 224; other avenues of escape, 
 .225, 245 
 Library, 73 
 
 Life to live over, if I had, 26 
 Longleys, 31-33 
 Love for the teacher a pre- 
 
 roquisite of learning, 286 
 Loving the Golden Locks and 
 
 Lord Fauntleroys, 296 
 Luther, Martin, 65 
 
 M 
 Mana^ng boys, 104 
 Man's integrity not questioned 
 
 by the use of locks, etc., 125 
 Manual labor not degrading, 
 
 240, 241 
 Manual training, 71, 264 
 
300 
 
 INDEX 
 
 Mark Tapley, more than an 
 ordinary man, 45 
 
 Marshalls, 31, 34 
 
 Martin Chtizzlewit, 45 
 
 Massachusetts, district sys- 
 tem, 258 
 
 Mastering myself, 44 
 
 Mathews, 31, 34 
 
 McGuire, Mollie, 60 
 
 McKinley, President, 140 
 
 Memories of happy days, 183 
 
 Men, like hogs, 41; emigration 
 of rural yotmg, 159; loss of 
 character, I, 160, 184 
 
 Methods of work, order in, 37 
 
 Mistakes in attempting to 
 teach, 189; in reading, 195; 
 in arithmetic, 200 
 
 Mixed schools, 155 
 
 Money, drawing public funds 
 for private use, 26 
 
 Morals must be protected, 187 
 
 Moral support of school board, 
 
 53 
 Moral welfare, 185 
 Morris, Sam, 105 
 Mourners' bench, 98-100 
 Music, 216, 224 
 
 N 
 
 Nagging, 108 
 
 Nayson, Simeon, 99, 100, 102 
 
 Natural consequences, law of, 
 22 
 
 Nature study, 251, 252 
 
 Notes, insulting or censori- 
 ous, 291 
 
 O 
 
 Obedience, absolute, 64, 65 
 Obstacles, removing the, 202 
 Onward, Christian Soldiers, 20, 
 
 21, 182 
 Opportunities for development, 
 
 19; lost, 151; year of, 181 
 Our mother, 286 
 
 Our teacher, 282, 286 
 
 Over-indulgence, youth ruined 
 by, 122 
 
 P 
 
 Palmer, George Herbert, 33 
 
 Parental responsibiUty in rural 
 places, 253 
 
 Pauper, whom nobody owns, 
 156; criminal and, 159 
 
 People, rural and urban — 
 dffierentiating between, 158 
 
 Periscope, not needed, 23 
 
 Physics, 71 
 
 Play, without opportimity to, 
 177, 222, 223 
 
 Plays, junior and senior, 174 
 
 Population, 360 millions, 237 
 
 Positions, poorest for the in- 
 efficient, 11; lost while con- 
 tending for rights, 41 
 
 Predecessors, fault of, 39 
 
 President McKinley and the 
 barefoot boy, 140 
 
 Price, for brood animal, 27 
 
 Problems, 59; certain social, 
 93; rural social, 94; small 
 town, 256 
 
 Program, making of, 48; 
 Christmas, 143, 144 
 
 Progress, educational, a back- 
 ward step in, 175; confidence 
 in, 177 
 
 Providing, pleasure mstead of 
 depriving of, 128 
 
 Psychology, 74 
 
 Public conscience, 64 
 
 Public meetings, 81 
 
 Public opinion, period for 
 forming, 49, 63; in your 
 favor, 64; fickleness of, 64; 
 unreliable, 108 
 
 Punishment, commensurate 
 with the offense, 54; certain, 
 swift and unerring, 62 
 
 Pupils, the task of caring for, 
 152 
 
INDEX 
 
 301 
 
 Q 
 
 Quitting school too early, 241 
 
 Rachel, 31, 154, 155 
 
 Reading, proper atmosphere 
 for, 196; furnishing good 
 books for, 197 
 
 Reading board, 197, 198 
 
 Recommendations, 15 
 
 Redtop Briggs, 295, 296 
 
 Regard for one's feUow man, 
 158 
 
 ReUgious attack, method of, 
 37; denominations, '29; 
 movement, 92; worship, 28 
 
 Respect for authority and law, 
 109 
 
 Responsibility, a teacher's, 
 125; a school's, 185; a shift- 
 ing of , 2 1 o, 2 1 1 ; future gener- 
 ations to rise to, 237; to edu- 
 cate for development of, 238 
 
 Ricketty, ricketty jams, 176 
 
 Rogues, carelessness in busi- 
 ness makes, 188 
 
 Room for the teacher with 
 common sense, 293 
 
 Rose, Father and Mother, 29, 
 
 33. 99. 154. 199 
 Rules, 204, 205, 211 
 Rural church, 97, 103, 247 
 Rural high sdiools, should 
 maintain high standards, 
 239; not necessary to con- 
 fine efforts to college prep- 
 aration, 239 
 Rural leader^p, 17 
 Rural people, dependent so- 
 cia^y. 95; feeding, not lead- 
 ing the world, 234; educa- 
 tional advantages for, 235; 
 a closer organization among, 
 254; are not less sacrificing, 
 255; reward incommensur- 
 ate with the returns to 255 
 
 Rural school, a market place 
 for cheap labor, 27; a religi- 
 ous centre, 29; has not kept 
 pace, 36; third place, 37; 
 betterment of, left to educa- 
 tors, 233; should run nine 
 months, 274 
 
 Rural society, criticism offered 
 on, 158 
 
 S 
 
 Sabbath, 227 
 
 Scarcity of reading material, 16 
 
 School board, managing the, 
 68; meeting of, 78 
 
 School building, repairing, 85; 
 used for other purposes 
 than school, 90 
 
 School curriciilum, revolt of 
 the adolescent's mental atti- 
 tude toward, 242 
 
 School house, radical im- 
 provements of, 88 
 
 School laws, compulsory, 185 
 
 School, preparing for, 13; ttie 
 first day of, 19; city, 36; im- 
 controUed is a kindergarten 
 for reformatories, 109; two 
 types of, 151; the closing of, 
 174; one room, the only 
 really democratic institu- 
 tion, 181; is a moral uplift, 
 185; an unfailing sign of a 
 poor, 192; of smdl town, the 
 logical centres for rural 
 graded schools, 235; school 
 unit, 256, 269; term length 
 of, 257 
 
 School teaching, a living for 
 the incompetent, 190; a 
 stepping stone for the ambi- 
 tious, 190 
 
 Scrapers, horse drawn, 154 
 
 Second day, 38 
 
 Self, forgetting of and living 
 for others, 29, 32 
 
 Shakespeare, William, 75 
 
302 
 
 INDEX 
 
 Sheep, a problem about, 209 
 Short course in high schools, 
 
 275 
 
 Singers, 219 
 
 Singing, opening school with, 
 20 
 
 Situation, accepting a bad, 44 
 
 Social evil, 225; instincts, 142; 
 Ufe, 139; rural, 87; outcasts, 
 must leave the rural com- 
 munity, 159; problems, 
 rural, 94; city, 94 
 
 Society, best interests of, 93 
 
 Stars, in college, 175; in 
 church, 17s; aU-star com- 
 panies, 182 
 
 Starting in early, 42 
 
 Sting, the ever hidden, 220 
 
 Stitdi in time, 37 
 
 Stories, fairy, 228 
 
 Story of a backwoods settle- 
 ment, 293-296 
 
 Story-telling, reduced tardi- 
 ness by, 229; how I managed, 
 229; win children's love by, 
 229; a gift, 226, 228 
 
 Study period, abused, 200 
 
 Sunday school class, 17; reci- 
 tation not worth while, 180 
 
 Supervised play, 187; study 
 periods, one of the weak 
 places, 200 
 
 Supervision, children's need 
 of, 186-188 
 
 Surveying the premises, 70 
 
 Survival of the fittest, 20 
 
 Swimming pool, 70 
 
 Sympathizing with the young 
 teacher, 18 
 
 Sympathy, looking for, 30; 
 childhood, 180 
 
 Tapley, Mark, 45-47 
 Tax levy, increased, 80 
 Tax, paid by the few, 253 
 
 Teacher, giving life for an un- 
 sympathetic, unappreciative 
 public, 24; rurai teacher, 
 doing the most work, re- 
 ceiving the least pay, 26; 
 Bossingthe school board, 40; 
 pay and holiday, 43; as an 
 outsider, 84; a non-resident, 
 105; his responsibility as 
 seen by a board member, 
 132; the present of the, 145; 
 as janitor, parent, and mu^e, 
 153; primary, 195; who does 
 nothing, 200; who does all 
 the work, 201; who has not 
 caught the inspiration of 
 the teacher, 215; doing poor- 
 ly because she was afraid, 
 230; prejudiced against, 
 232 
 Teaching, the hardest work, 
 
 145 
 Text-books, only two good, 25 
 Thinkers, independent, 201 ; 
 rules that take precedence 
 over thought, 203 
 "To the rural teacher," 292 
 Town, the small, 27-28 
 Towns of 2500 population, 235 
 Township system, 257, 260, 
 
 266, 268 
 Training for leisure moments, 
 
 233 
 Transportation, better means 
 of. 255; free, 262 
 
 U 
 
 Uncle Sam expects subordina- 
 tion, 41 
 
 United States, Department of 
 Agriculture of, 87; able to 
 compete with Germany and 
 France, 248 
 
 Unkind, cruel teacher, recollec- 
 tions of an, 287-291 
 
 Urbanite, the, 158 
 
INDEX 
 
 303 
 
 Vacation, Christmas, 141 ; 
 weeks following, 148 
 
 Valedictorian, the, who could 
 not forget, 221 
 
 Vicariousness, an aptitude for, 
 24. 32 
 
 Vicious men, not model pupils, 
 108 
 
 Viking-like to head the death 
 bark, 24 
 
 Village sdiool, accept a posi- 
 tion in, 20 
 
 Visit to a rural school, 230 
 
 Vocational education, a live 
 boy with reference to, 243 
 
 W 
 Walks, free from mud and 
 
 snow, 152 
 Want, never knew, 152 
 Water from the spring, 30 
 What are the little girls made 
 
 of, 117 
 Wixon, Manly, 100-102 
 
 Youth not the time to pre- 
 pare for old age, 122