Rural life and education; a study of the rural-school problem as a phase of the rural-life problem

Front matter

ilii

VM

■'nm

Introduction

A RECENT writer has stated that the rural-school problem would be much easier of solution if some writer on the subject would clearly set forth the nature of the problem. The suggestion was a good one, as most writers on the subject do not seem to see clearly the nature of the problem they are considering.

The rural-school problem of to-day is a social, even more than an educational problem, and is the result of a long national evolution, coupled with recent profound changes in rural life itself. The rural-school problem is inseparable from the rural-life problem, and of which it is but a phase. Those who do most toward its solution will be those who see the problem clearly in its historical and sociological setting, and who have some grasp of American rural history.

To give the problem such a setting has been the purpose of the first part of the book. The rural-life problem is there set forth in its historical development, and the origin and present status of the rural-school problem shown. With this as a basis the student is ready to pass to the second part of the book, which sets forth specifically the present rural-school problem, and points out the fundamental nature of the remedies which must be applied for its solution. The many

VI INTRODUCTION

plates and figures in the text have been introduced to give greater concreteness to the discussion.

Such a presentation of the rural-Hfe and rural-educational problems as is set forth in the following pages might well form the basis, as a textbook, for normal-school classes in Rural-Life Problems, Rural- School Problems, or Rural Sociology, and ought to be of particular value to such students in properly orienting them for intelligent work in rural education. Those studying the problem in normal-school or college classes in School Administration ought also to find the presentation helpful, from an administrative point of view. To teachers and supervisory officers in service the presentation ought to prove instructive and useful, as they are dealing with the problem at first hand. It is also hoped that the work will prove interesting and instructive to farmers, ministers, rural librarians, rural social-workers, and other students of the rural-life problem. The book has been prepared with a view of meeting the needs of these different classes of students and citizens.

ANALYSIS OF CONTENTS

CHAPTER I. Changes in the Nature of Rural Life 6 Four periods of development

I. The first period, up to 1830: — Early pioneer life — Markets — Trading — Subsistence farming.

II. The second period, 1830-1860: — A period of transformation — Rise of commerce and manufacturing — Home and school.

III. The third period, 1860-1890: — Homestead laws — Inventions and developments — The home-builder farmer

— Expansion and overdevelopment — The cityward migration — Saving in farm labor — The result.

CHAPTER II. New Rural-Life Conditions . . 29

IV. The fourth -period development : — Fourth -period characteristics — Importance of the changes.

I. The urbanization of rural life: — Changes in rural living — New rural conveniences — Better homes — The new rural life — The town movement.

II. Reorganization and commercialization of agriculture: — The U.S. Department of Agriculture — New agricultural development — New markets — Agricultural expansion — The future — Commercialized large-scale farming — Intensive small-scale farming — Decreasing rural population.

III. Farm tenantry: — Recent increase — Recent change in character — New tenants — The Southern Negro tenant

— The intermittent farm laborer — The fourth-period changes — Significance of the changes.

viii ANALYSIS OF CONTENTS

CHAPTER in. Effects of these Changes on Rural Society and Rural Institutions ... 63

I. New rural social life : — Early social life — New and larger interests — City connections — Enjoyment of life — Tenantry and social life — Degenerate rural life.

II. Local government — Loss of interest in — The new tenants and government. — Effects of the change.

III. The church: — The rural church — The New England influence — Large influence of the early church — Early religious intensity — The intellectual revolution — Social nature of the old Sunday meeting — The process of church decline — Dying churches — Problems which the church faces to-day — Great potential usefulness, nevertheless — Social mission of the rural church — The teacher and the church problem.

CHAPTER IV. Effects of these Changes on the Rural School 83

Origin of the district school — At first a purely local undertaking — The demand for state schools — The second-period school — The early schoolmaster — Efficiency of the education for the time.

Changes in rural education after about 1870 — The change in direction — The city-school influence — Decline in efficiency — The rural school and the fourth-period changes — New fourth-period demands — Gradual desertion of the rural school.

Present inadequacy of the old education — Breakdown of the old administrative machinery — Increasing needs and costs — The burden of taxation — Present pUght of the rural school.

CHAPTER V. Rural Life and Needs of To-Day 104

Reconstruction and reorganization necessarj'^ — The educational deficiency — The great rural social problem — Ownership vs. tenantry — Important rural economic interests — Great rural interests are human interests.

Fundamental rural needs: — 1. Better schools — Retention of personality — The school and personality — 2. Larger life and outlook — 3. Better homes — Better kitchens — 4. A community center. Early centers for the community life — Can the church become such now — Need of a

ANALYSIS OF CONTENTS ix

program for social work — Need for cooperation — Rural organizations — The rural library — The school — 5. Community life — 'Constructive rural service — The call for rural service — Meaning of the country-life movement.

CHAPTER VI. Some Worthy Examples of Rural Service 131

I. Church organizations: — 1. A rural church — 2. A village church — 3. District nursing.

II. Organizations for young people: — 1. Y.M.C.A. — 2. Y.W.C.A. — 3. Boy Scouts, and Camp-fire Girls —4. Agricultural Clubs.

III. The rural library — Examples of such service.

IV. Farmers' organizations : — The Grange — The Hesperia movement.

V. Organizations for agricultural improvement — The farmers' institute — The county farm expert.

Part II. The Rural-school Problem

CHAPTER VH. Fundamental Needs in Rural Education 163

The school and democracy — The decline of the district school — The result of recent changes — Rural school still of large importance — Poor rural schools not necessary — The recent criticism from without — The recent rural-life movement — The away-from-the-farm influence in rural education — Need of redirecting the school — DiflBculties to be encountered — The great rural-life interests — What the Country-Life Commission had to say — Revitalizing the school — Legitimate functions of the redirected school — A group of problems involved.

CHAPTER VIII. Organization and Maintenance 177

I. Types of organization: — 1. The district system — Its essential features — Evolution of district organization — District powers and duties — Curtailing the powers in the interests of efficiency — Where the district system rendered service — Chief objections to the district system — Excessive number of school oflScers — 2. The town or township

X ANALYSIS OF CONTENTS

system — The New England town system — Town vs. district control — The Western township system — 3. The county system — The county unit in evolution — Advantages of the county system — 4. The state unit.

II. Types of maintenance : — General taxation for education — 1. District taxation — Changes in wealth and education — 2. Town or township taxation — Town and township inequalities — 3. County taxation — Equalizing effect of a county school tax — 4. State taxation — General vs. local effort — Systems of distribution — Fundamental needs for rural-school progress.

CHAPTER IX. The Teaching Equipment ... 206

The need for better equipment: — 1. The building — The type — Why they persist — A common condition — Limitations to instruction — The cheap building — Fundamental needs in a school building — Library, science, and work rooms — 2. The site — The site for instruction purposes — The site and aesthetic training — 3. Teaching equipment — Needed teaching apparatus — 4. School library.

City and country compared — Better equipment essen- • tial — Difficulties in the way — The need of educational reorganization.

CHAPTER X. The Reorganization of Rural Education 226

The multiplication of districts — The present result — Recent attempts to improve conditions — The root of the difficulty — Equal rights for the country child.

The consolidation movement — Beginnings — The plan in Ohio — The essentials of the plan — Advantages of the plan — Disadvantages of the plan — Inaugurating the movement — The common plan — Township unit; stranded districts — The county-unit plan — The county-survey plan — Advantages of the county unit.

The need for such reorganizations — Such schools natural community centers — A community school illustrated — A state reorganization.

CHAPTER XL A New Curriculum 256

The old curriculum — Why such instruction continues — Recent attempts to change these conditions — The old tradi-

ANALYSIS OF CONTENTS xi

tional curriculum — Arithmetic — Grammar and language

— Geography — Physiology and hygiene — History. Redirecting the school — New instructional needs — Nature study and agriculture — What can be taught — How such instruction works — Domestic science — Manual training — Organized play — The new and the old compared — Possible correlations — How far is such redirection possible

— The rural high school — Redirecting the high school — The country boy who goes to the city.

CHAPTER Xn. A New Teacher 283

A new teacher needed — Training and wages compared — The natm-al result — The remedy — Importance of the wage question — Present status of teacher training — New attention to the rural-teacher problem.

Teachers' training classes — Nature of the instruction offered — Why such courses are inadequate — Probable future development — A suggested one-year course — Explanations of — What such a course prepares for — The rural high-school teacher — The call for rural leadership — Possibilities for usefulness — Personal attitude; steps in the process.

CHAPTER Xni. A New Type of Supervision . 306

Larger rural leadership — The county unit in evolution

— The evolution of the school superintendency — New conception of the ofBce — Our present supervision — The system to blame — Present conditions in the county office — Why the cities draw the best — WTiere the fault lies — Stock arguments — The way out — What democracy should mean.

A reorganized county system — The county board — The plan applied — The gain in supervision — Bad features it would eliminate.

CHAPTER XIV. Noteworthy Examples in Rural Education 328

L A one-room rural school — Its building and equipment.

II. A consolidated school — Its building, equipment, and work.

xii LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

III. A county-unit school system — The county board — The slow development, and the present conditions — The work of the county superintendent — The present excellent county system — The five reasons for it.

INDEX 363

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

Facing

Primitive Conditions — Subsistence Farming 12

A Farmhouse of the Home-Builder Period 13

Per Cent Land in Farms forms of Total Land Area, by Counties: 1910 30

Per Cent Improved Land in Farms forms of Total Land Area,

by Counties: 1910 31

University Extension in Agriculture 58

New Farm Workers and Owners 59

The District School — Primitive Conditions 92

Satisfying the Social Instincts of Youth 112

Lads from the Farms at a College Lecture on Corn . . . 148 An Automobile that has taught a County to read . . . 149 One of the Local Meetings for Community Improvement , . 149

Where the District System rendered Service 184

A Common Type of Schoolhouse Site 216

School Ground Decoration 217

Different Means for transporting Pupils 236

New Forms of Instruction, I 268

New Forms of Instruction, II 269

Rural High-School Instruction, I 280

Rural High-School Instruction, II 281

Teaching Country Children in Terms of Country Life . . 290

A Rural School Exhibit . . . _ 304

Boys' Session of the Farmers' Institute 305

The Model Rural School at the Kirksville, Missouri, Normal

School 328

The Harlem Consolidated School, Winnebago County, 111. I . 334 The Harlem Consolidated School, II . . . . . . .335

The Harlem Consolidated School, III 338

The Harlem Consolidated School, IV ...... 339

FIGURES, DIAGRAMS, AND MAPS xiii

FIGURES, DIAGRAMS, AND MAPS

1. Showing Recent Rapid Growth of Urban Population . . 8

2. An Early Home H

3. The United States in 1850 . 17

4. Development of Farms. East North-central Division . 19

5. Development of Farms. West North-central Division . 20

6. Value per Acre of Farm Property 23

7. Development of Farms 24

8. Distribution of Population by Decades . - . . . 25

9. Relative Rates of Increase in Population and Production 27

10. Per Cent Land in Farms forms of Total Land Area, by Counties: 1910 facing 30

11. Per Cent Improved Land in Farms forms of Total Land Area, by Counties: 1910 facing 31

12. Farm Property Values per Acre 43

13. Black Counties in Georgia 48

14. Per Cent of Increase in Rural Population, by States, 1900-1910 49

15. Changes in the Rural Population in Eight Important Agricultural States 50

16. Acreage of all Land in Farms classified by Character of Tenure of Operator, 1910 -53

17. Percentage of Foreign-born Whites, and Native Whites of Foreign or Mixed Parentage combined, in the Total Population, 1910 57

18. Average Value per Acre of Farm Property .... 67

19. The Polish Farmers'-Day Poster 70

20. Typical One-Room Rural Churches 73

21. An Overchurched Indiana Township 78

22. A Typical Early School Interior, I 84

23. A Typical Early School Interior, II 86

24. A Schoolmaster of the Old Type . . . . • -87

25. Decreasing Percentage of Men Teachers . . . .91

26. Increasing Cost of Education, per Pupil, in Average Daily Attendance 99

27. Increasing Length of Term, in Days 101

28. Results shown by the Census of 1910 109

29. Percentage of Total Population in Rural Districts, 1910 112

30. A Community Center of Large Influence, in the Wrong Direction ^1^

31. Diagram of a Country Community-Center . . . .119

32. Union Church, Proctor, Vermont 121

33. The Original Church 132

34. The New Institutional Church 135

35. Y.M.C.A. — City and Rural Development . . . .140 xiv FIGURES, DIAGRAMS, AND MAPS

37. A Traveling Library in a Farmhouse 147

38. The Clinton Plan for Agricultural Betterment . . .157

39. The School by the Wayside 164

40. A One-Pupil Class 165

41. A Typical Run-down Schoolhouse 167

42. A Typical Rural School of the Better Class . -. . . 171

43. Forms of School Organization 179

44. Early Organization of School Districts 181

45. Later Organization and Reorganization 182

46. New England Towns and Western Townships compared . 187

47. A Typical Present-Day Interior 208

48. A Typical Weather-boarded Box 209

49. A More Attractive Exterior 210

50. A Rearranged Interior 211

51. A Suggested Exterior ... 213

52. A Model Interior for a One-Teacher Rural Schoolhouse . 214

53. An Ohio School Site . 216

54. Progress of Consolidation in Indiana by 1908 . . . 231

55. Diagram of Gustavus Township, Trumbull County, Ohio, showing Transportation Routes 232

56. Central Public School, Trumbull County, Ohio . . .234

57. The Ordinary Road to Learning 236

58. One of the Landmarks 240

59. Where Consolidation started in Ohio 241

60. Map showing Extent of School Consolidation in Delaware County, Indiana, 1908 242

61. Stranded Districts . . . . . . . . . .244

62. Map showing Consolidated Districts and Location of Consolidated Schoolhouses in Duval County, Florida . . 245

63. Douglas County, Minnesota 246

64. Douglas County, Minnesota, reorganized 247

65. Details for District XIV 248

66. Map of Ada County, Idaho, showing the Boundaries of the School Districts and the Location of Rural District Schools

" and High Schools, 1908 249

67. Same County, illustrating a Tentative Plan of Consolidation 250

68. A Community-Center School 252

69. First-Floor Plan of a Community-Center School . . . 253

70. A Reading Chart for Rural Schools 266

71. Township Supervision in Ohio .... . . 312

72. Basement Plan of Model Rural School 330

73. First-Floor Plan of Model Rural School 332

74. Attic Plan of Model Rural School 333

75. The Harlem Consohdated School Grounds, Winnebago County, Illinois 337

RURAL LIFE AND EDUCATION PART I

THE RURAL-LIFE PROBLEM

INTRODUCTION

To one who has given little or no attention to the subject, it is hard to appreciate the great revolution in rural life which has taken place during the past three quarters of a century. The changes which have been accomplished have been of far-reaching importance, and they have touched every phase of rural life. Almost nothing is now as it used to be; almost nothing is done now as it was three quarters of a century ago. We of to-day live in a new world — a world of which our grandfathers scarcely dreamed. Life everywhere to-day is far more complex, intricate, diflScult, and fruitful of both pleasure and profit than w^as that of which our grandfathers formed a part. The great changes which have taken place in living and industry have affected all of our people, rural and urban, but perhaps nowhere has the revolution in living and industry been of more far-reaching importance than to those of our people who live on the farms and in the little villages of our nation.

This social and industrial revolution has profoundly changed the whole nature of rural life. Some rural communities naturally have experienced a greater change than others, but no community has wholly escaped. The revolution, too, has been so rapid, so extensive, and so far-reaching in its consequences that both rural people and rural institutions have not changed rapidly enough to keep pace with the demands of the new civilization. The result has been the development of a rural-life problem of great social and economic consequence, and one which involves most of the cherished institutions of rural society. It has become particularly acute, as it relates to the character and elements of the rural population itself, the conditions of land-ownership and farm-tenancy, rural home life, rural society, the rural church, and rural education. Taken altogether and as a whole, we call this collection of problems the rural-life problem. While of necessity referring to each of these phases of the rural-life problem, as they are in a way all tied up together, this book will have special reference to the problem as it relates to the rural and the village school. It may accordingly be considered as a treatise on that phase of the rural-life problem commonly known as the rural-school problem, concerning which much has been said and written within recent years.

Like all social problems, the rural-school problem has had a gradual evolution and is closely related to the other rural-community problems, and this it will be our purpose first to trace and to explain. Almost any social problem is more understandable if we can see it in its historical setting, and grasp it in its relations to other community forces and problems. After giving

INTRODUCTION 5

the problem this setting, the rural-school problem as such will be examined in some detail, the relation of teachers and supervisory officers to it pointed out, and the remedies which must be applied to it explained.

Chapter I

Four periods of development. The development of rural life in the United States, since the beginning of our Republic, may be divided into four great periods, each, with the exception of the first, covering about the life of a single generation. Each of these periods has been characterized by important movements in the population, by important changes in the nature and methods of agriculture, and by marked changes in almost all of the conditions and surroundings of rural life. Each period, too, has been characterized by more fundamental and more far-reaching changes than the one which preceded it, until to-day the changes have become so great and so profound that they partake of the nature of an agricultural revolution. New methods in farming have been employed, entirely new markets have been found, inter-communication has been established in ways before undreamed of, machinery and labor-saving devices have tremendously simplified and cheapened production, the old rural institutions are dying out, the home and its management are no longer the same, and opportunities for leisure and a taste for higher pursuits have been developed to a degree which would have seemed impossible even half a century ago. It is certainly no exaggeration to say that, in all of the time from the crusades to the beginning of the second quarter of the nineteenth century, no such profound and far-reaching changes in the methods of agriculture or the conditions of rural life were accomplished as have been accomplished in the United States during the last seventy-five to one hundred years.

The rural-school problem, which is to be the special theme of this book, has arisen as a result of these many and far-reaching changes, and the difficulties which now confront the rural school will be understood much better if we first trace these great historical changes in rural life, and show the relation of these changes to the problem in hand. Accordingly we shall first sketch this development, state the chief characteristics of each of the four great periods which we have said that rural life in the United States may be divided into, and then state the conditions which confront rural society to-day.

I. UP TO 1830

The first period of development. The first period in our agricultural development may be said to have extended up to about 1830 or 1835. In a way it was an extension of the colonial period, and of the system of farming and of rural life then in vogue. Nearly all life at the time our National Government was established was rural, and nearly every one lived on farms or in little villages. But 3.35 per cent of the total population, or but one person in thirty, lived in a city of 8000 inhabitants or over in 1790, and but 3.97 per cent

Fig, 1. SHOWING RECENT RAPID GROWTH OF URBAN POPULATION

in 1800. Still more, there were but six such cities in the whole of the thirteen original states until 1810, and the largest city in the United States had less than 75,000 inhabitants. Even in such a city all life was far simpler then than in a small Western county-seat town to-day. Almost everywhere then the people lived on little farms, and their chief object was to clear the tract.

develop the land, and obtain a living from the soil. There were few markets, and these were local to a high degree. A little wheat was sold in the Middle Colonies for shipment to England, as was tobacco in the Southern. Rice and indigo were also raised for export in the Carolinas and in Georgia. Even these, though, could not be sold except when raised near to the seacoast, as the almost complete absence of roads and the difficulties of transportation made a market elsewhere impossible. The division of labor had not as yet made much headway, either in industry or in agriculture. Families lived off of the land, and produced by hand nearly all that they ate or wore. If near a village or a crossroads store, a part of the surplus of certain crops was exchanged, by barter, for certain manufactured articles. Life was exceedingly simple, and difficult as well.

Almost immediately after the establishment of peace with Great Britain, a strong westward movement of the population began. New England people had already settled New York and northeastern Pennsylvania, and men from Virginia and the Carolinas had moved westward into Kentucky and Tennessee. Soon this movement extended farther westward. First Ohio, then northern Indiana and Illinois, southern Michigan and Wisconsin, and, still later, Iowa were settled by people of New England stock. Kentucky, Tennessee, southern Indiana and Illinois, and Missouri were settled by people from Virginia and the Carolinas, while Alabama and Mississippi were a result of southern migrations, chiefly from Georgia. The beginnings of the national land policy after 1785, after which time farms in the wilderness were sold to settlers at low prices,^ greatly stimulated migration and helped to settle the new territory. After 1820 a constant stream of wagons poured into the wilderness, and by 1821 nine new states had been added to the Union, all carved from these Western lands, while the frontier had been pushed out to and beyond the Mississippi. Four more states were added from this Western domain by 1848, completing the Union out to and including the first tier of states west of the Mississippi, with the single exception of Minnesota.

Early pioneer life. Life in the new land was full of hardships, and one of unremitting toil. Forests had to be cut down, stumps burned out, swamps drained, and, to the westward, the thick sod of the prairies broken. Farm life west of the Alleghanies became a repetition of colonial life to the east of the mountains. It was a period of intense struggle with the untamed forces of nature, and the pressing demands on the new settlers for food and shelter for the family and stock left little time for any leisure employment. Every member of the family had to work and work hard, and every member was made useful from a very early age. The agriculture was largely experimental, and was carried on by the primitive methods and with the primitive

1 At first fixed at $2 per acre, but after 1821 fixed at $1.25 per acre.

implements of the times. The ox and a rude form of plow were about all of the labor-saving devices at hand. The home was of the simplest kind, and the furnishings exceedingly primitive. A log cabin, chinked with mud ; an open €>4c^^ fireplace, with a stick-and-clay chimney; homemade furniture and simple equipment were the characteristics of the times. Of fuel and food there

was plenty, and the family raised and prepared almost all that was eaten or worn. Corn was the chief crop at first, and cattle and hogs the chief animals raised. The people laid by corn for winter; smoked their own meats ; preserved such few poor fruits of the time as they cared for or had the means to keep; made their own lard, butter, candles, and clothing; manufactured sugar and syrup from the forest maples; evaporated salt from the salt springs or *' licks "; and ground their corn in rude hand-operated mills. Of intercommunication there was little; of comforts and pleasures, very few; of doctors and nurses, almost none. It was the rude and primitive existence of the sturdy pioneer; and the hard work, the difficulties of

Fig. 2. AN EARLY HOME n RURAL LIFE AND EDUCATION

the struggle with the untamed forces of nature in a new land, the lack of outlook, and the loneliness and isolation of the life must have borne hard on many a man and woman.

Markets. Of markets there were practically none, except near the seaboard, and agriculture everywhere was in what has been termed the self-sufficing stage of its development. A farmer could raise enough for his own needs, but there was little chance to dispose of any surplus. Cotton in the South, due to the perfection of the cotton-gin, was an exception, and had become a staple crop; and the numerous rivers of the South made the marketing of cotton relatively easy for plantations not too far removed from the seaboard. Little, though, could be sent from the Northwest over the Alleghanies. In Kentucky and southern Ohio some cattle were raised for market, but to drive them to Baltimore or Philadelphia was something of an undertaking, and consumed nearly all of the profits. The building of the National Turnpike to St. Louis, through Zanesville and Columbus, Ohio; Richmond, Indianapolis, and Terre Haute, Indiana; and Vandalia, Illinois, opened up somewhat a new territory, while the opening of the Erie Canal through New York State, in 1825, provided a new and easier route for the transportation of grains from the West. Wheat from the interior could now be shipped, via Lake Erie and the canal to New York, for sale in the Eastern and European markets. Wheat now displaced corn as the chief money crop on farms not too far removed from connecting navigable water.

Trading. Even up to 1830 there were but twentysix cities in the United States of over 8000 inhabitants, and fourteen of these had less than 12,000 of population. A number of small towns were developing in the new West, however, and these were rapidly becoming centers for local trade. The crossroads store was also becoming common, and in it were beginning to be found a number of the new manufactured articles. There was little money as yet in circulation, especially in the West, and business was carried on chiefly by barter. Salt, bears' grease, pelts, and corn possessed fixed values. Even taxes were paid in produce; such units as half of a beef, a quarter of venison, a peck of corn, and a half-peck of salt were legal tender. Gristmills and sawmills, run by water-power, were beginning to supersede hand mills, where grinding and sawing were now done " on shares." Shoes were soon substituted for moccasins, and woolen and linen cloth for buckskin. The tanning of hides became an industry, and harnessmakers, wagonmakers, wheelwrights, and carpenters began to be in demand. Better barns and better farmhouses began to be erected, especially by the New England people, and life in the wilderness, by the end of the first agricultural period, began to lose something of its harshness and forbidding aspect. The rich farms of Ohio began to replace the heavily timbered wilderness which met the early pioneers.