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 Village Schools, No. i. 
 
 BY 
 
 Rev. C. C. TRACY, 
 
 OF ANATOLIA COLLEGE, MARSOVAN, TURKEY. 
 
 Leaflet No. 9, 
 
 Issued by Committee on Junior Work. 
 
Village Schools in Turkey. 
 
 BY C. C. TRACY, OF ANATOLIA COLLEGE, 
 MARSOVAN. 
 
 ITHIN the last quarter century a vast 
 
 V V system of common schools has been de¬ 
 veloped in the Turkish Empire. From these 
 have come forth, in the main, the high schools 
 and colleges. Whatever may be said to the 
 contrary, the great procuring cause of this re¬ 
 markable educational movement, hitherto, has 
 been evangelism. The preaching of the gospel, 
 the publication of the Scriptures in the tongues 
 of the people, the issue of religious books and 
 periodicals, have stirred up inquiry and set the 
 land agog, especially in regard to desire for 
 knowledge. 
 
 The Evangelicals have signally led in this 
 movement, and they were first led by the gospel, 
 in this direction, as they are still. The signifi¬ 
 cance of all this is such as may well attract 
 the earnest attention of American Christians, and 
 enlist their deepest sympathy. 
 
 The fact that evangelical truth is the prime 
 mover and chief promoter of anything so great 
 as a whole school system, is a weighty one; but 
 
the fact that the same truth has the opportunity 
 to be the rnolder and controller of the system 
 is a weightier one. 
 
 The evangelical colleges in the Empire easily 
 take their place as the leading educational insti¬ 
 tutions of the land. The same may be said of 
 the evangelical seminaries for girls, and high 
 schools for boys, as far as solid and symmetrical 
 training is concerned. 
 
 The question arises, How is it with the com¬ 
 mon and village schools ? Has the evangelical 
 influence the same advantage here? I should 
 say, Yes, so far as it goes. It is not so ex¬ 
 tended as it ought to be, nor is the full amount 
 of attention required given to this part of the 
 work. It is of consequence that we build walls 
 as well as towers. Good colleges and good high 
 schools will not long be possible unless there 
 is an extended and excellent system of common 
 schools for them to rest upon. No system of 
 evangelism or of education is sound which does 
 not contemplate reaching the whole population. 
 And let me say here that, in our part of the 
 missionary world at least, evangelical education 
 is so identified with the preaching of the gospel 
 that no line of distinction can be drawn between 
 the two. 
 
 The subject of the village schools, then, rises 
 before us in all its importance. In these schools 
 are found, at the most impressible age, the 
 young minds which are to control thought and 
 character thirty years hence. To whom shall 
 such a work as this be committed ? Who 
 
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guides here, guides almost all. Here is the 
 watershed that turns the streams to either sea. 
 
 In such a country a really capable teacher — 
 man or woman—is a person of great weight in 
 the village, not to say in the cities also. He 
 or she is the learned, the wise one, the personage 
 of the community, the authority in science, the 
 counselor in doubt, the referee in difficulty. In 
 places where no regular preacher can be sup¬ 
 ported— and there are many such —the discreet 
 and sensible teacher becomes the spiritual and 
 intellectual leader of the people — the pastor. 
 In not a few instances women have attained to 
 this degree of influence. 
 
 And what a fountain of influence a village 
 may be! I could point to more than one such 
 place that has developed a dozen or a score of 
 leading personages in the evangelical ranks. 
 
 The better development of the village school 
 system is a work which the Woman’s Boards 
 may well lay hold of with all the enthusiasm 
 which marks their operations. There is a large 
 sense in which a Woman’s Board may become 
 the mother of a rising generation in a distant 
 land. 
 
 Ladies in the Central Turkey Mission have 
 acted as superintendents of the common schools 
 in the field. They could hardly do better work. 
 If there is any branch of the work which at the 
 present time needs special thought, and care, 
 and prayer, it is the planting and guiding of 
 such schools. They must be thoroughly visited 
 and kept toned up; inefficient teachers must 
 
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be weeded out. The importance of the work 
 ought to be magnified. Various means and 
 measures should be instituted for enthusing the 
 teachers and the pupils, for there is nothing 
 duller than a school without enthusiasm. 
 
 There are difficulties to be overcome. One 
 of them is the desirableness of adhering to the 
 policy of self-support. To establish free schools 
 is to insure non-success, according to our idea of 
 success. We wish to plant institutions, not in 
 pots, but in the soil, where they shall not need 
 indefinite foreign irrigation to make them grow. 
 The poverty of the people is such as to make 
 this difficult, but the difficulty can be largely 
 overcome by increase of spirit and numbers. 
 The spirit of self-sacrificing love will accomplish 
 almost anything, anywhere. 
 
 It is time this subject was made prominent. 
 Let the young people undertake to bring it for¬ 
 ward and prosecute it. 
 
 The Committee on Junior Work proposes to issue a series 
 of leaflets on the village schools of different countries. 
 
 Articles containing interesting information on this subject 
 may also be found in 
 
 Missionary Herald 
 Missionary Herald 
 Life and Light . 
 Life and Light . 
 Life and Light . 
 Dayspring 
 
 August, 1889. 
 June, 1891. 
 February, 1887. 
 September, 1890. 
 November, 189a 
 October, 1887. 
 
 Price, two cents. 
 
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