The rural teacher and his work in community leadership, in school administration, and in mastery of the school subjects

Front matter

ii--

Class L j_^ /sz-^ y

Book J~ Y-^

Preface

This book is written as a companion volume to The American Rural School, which was first published some five years ago and, in that time, has met with a most gratifying reception from the public. The new book, like The American Rural School, addresses itself to the great army of rural school teachers, superintendents, and school ofBcers ; members of teachers' reading circles, normal school and high school training classes, and all others who are interested in the greatest measure of progress in American rural life. Much of what was pointed out in the former book as desirable and expedient has actually come to pass. The new and revitalized rural school is taking form, thanks to the nation-wide propaganda which has been carried on by educators, philosophers, poets, preachers, and sociologists of every degree, these last few years.

Still, the beginnings only have been made. There is much of isolation and barrenness in rural life yet to overcome ; the farm folk must attain better organization both for social and economic ends ; and a new kind of life outlook must take hold on rural communities.

The factors entering into the socialization of our present-day rural life are many. But it is safe to say that none is more important than the rural school. For it is school education that must furnish the leadership so essential to the solution of the problems of rural life. Without strong viii PREFACE

men and women imbued with the spirit of masterful action, and thoroughly prepared for their work through study in the redirected rural schools, there can be no satisfactory adjustment of rural life. Let no one misunderstand this matter. The propagandist beginnings mentioned above, directed by educators and social philosophers speaking from the school rostrum and in the public assembly, can only call the attention of the rural folk to their needs and suggest remedies. The ultimate readjustment will come at the hands of a new generation of farmers who are now children in school. The present task of the rural school is therefore clearly defined.

Any form of education, to be effective, must reflect the daily life and interests of the community in which it is employed. With us, agriculture is the chief, primary industry ; consequently our rural education must be agricultural in nature. By this is meant vastly more than the teaching of agriculture as a school subject. The school must give expression to many things, chief among which are: (i) Good scientific farming, rendering ample returns for labor and capital employed ; and (2) a rural social life satisfactory to those living it. Clearly, then, this means that the rural school must prepare better farmers and better farmers' wives ; it must make the occupation of farming more remunerative, and life in the open country more attractive and more worth living as well as freer from outside domination.

Before the rural school can fully merit its place as chief agency in this social-economic reorganization, several important changes must be brought about. Some of them, indeed, are in the process of changing at this time. Chief of mention are: (i) The reorganization of the schools on modern business principles with provision for a large unit

PREFACE ix

or organization and adequate maintenance, so that ultimately all rural children may receive equal educational advantages ; (2) the professionalization of the entire working staff of administrators, supervisors, and instructors ; and (3) the redirection of the entire rural school course of study, making it both more thoroughly cultural and more immediately practical.

It is manifest to any one taking the trouble to analyze the above enumeration that of the three factors the teaching force or instructors should properly stand first. Even with a first-class school organization together with efficient board members and supervisors, if the teachers are lacking in vision and power, the new leadership must fail of realization.

The teachers who would have part in the reorganization of our rural life must at least attain this tripod of educational acquirements : (i) Be strong enough to establish themselves as leaders in the community where they are to live and labor ; (2) have a good grasp on the organization and management of the new kind of farm school ; and (3) show expert ability in dealing with the redirected school curriculum.

The book is built up around this educational tripod. Its legs become respectively Parts I, II, and III of the test. Part I emphasizes as essential that the teachers actually live the farm life they would assist in improving. Part II deals with the intricacies and complexities of school organization and management. Part III is devoted to the new subjects essential to every complete rural school and to the best methods of presenting both the new and the old subject matter.

The subject is so broad that a book could easily have been written on each of the three great topics. No one of

X PREFACE

these has been treated exhaustively. Only the main leading-threads have been indicated, and it is hoped the readers will make these their guides to further study as indicated in question studies and selected readings which form an important part of each chapter.

The book is the result of many years spent in practical work for rural school and rural life improvement. The author has had particular opportunity in the Government servdce to study at first hand school conditions in every state of the Union. This has enabled him to treat the subject from a national rather than a sectional point of view, as has been the case with many other books on this subject.

Acknowledgment for assistance rendered is due a great many educators throughout the country; while special thanks are due my colleagues in the United States Bureau of Education for valuable suggestions and the use of hitherto unused diagrams, charts, and photographs.

H. W. F.

Washington, D.C,

September, 19 16.

Contents

Preface vii

Introduction : The Rural School Teacher and His Opportunity i

Part I. The Rural School Teacher As Community Leader

I. Our Changing National Life and the Schools . . • i7

II. The Rural Community Problem at Close Hand . . 32

III. Fundamental Agencies in Rural Life: The Home . . 44

IV. The Church and Allied Agencies in Rural Life . . 52 V. Other Educational Agencies and Organizations Adapted

TO Cooperate with the Rural Teachers ... 69

VI. Preparing Teachers for Rural Leadership ... 94

PART 11. THE TEACHER AS ORGANIZER AND ADMINISTRATOR

I. Rural School Organization and Administration

II. Professional Supervision of Rural Schools

III. The Redirected One-teacher School .

IV. Coming of the Real Rural Community School . V. Rural High Schools

VI. Rural Continuation Schools and Extension Courses

119 136 150 176 194 207

Part III. The Teacher As Maker Of The Revitalized Course Of Study

I. The Reconstructed Course of Study Based on Rural

Needs 225

11. The Traditional Subjects and the New Emphasis . . 232 xii CONTENTS

PAGE

III. Nature Environment the Background of the New

Curriculum 261

IV. The iManual Arts and Home Economics . . . .281 V. Hygiene and Rural Community Sanitation . . . 292

VI. The Rural School and Community Recreation . . 305 VII. Daily Program and Model Curriculum for the One-teacher School 319

Introduction

THE RURAL SCHOOL TEACHER AND HIS OPPORTUNITY

A Farmer's Charge. — Recently a leading farmer of the community entered the writer's ofhce in quest of a teacher.

'' Send us a teacher," he said, '' who has some comprehension of rural life and its needs, and is willing to settle down as one of us and help solve our problems. He must be cultured and practical, and above everything else, understand that many of his opportunities for good in the community lie outside the four walls of the school."

'* Our teachers for the last ten years," he continued, " have spent five scant days a week with us, and have then hurried away to town where their real interests are. They never seemed to realize that they had opportunities for real leadership beyond the classroom."

This farmer was right. Himself a graduate of a state agricultural college, he understood well the needs of present-day rural life, feeling keenly that the teachers who must eventually take the greatest responsibility for giving the farm community its leadership and correct outlook on life, are not fully aware of their responsibilities and the great

Opportunities in this vast new field, forced to our attention as it has been, through recent changes in American agricultural life.

Our Changing National Life. — As a nation we have long since passed from the pioneer stage of national life and the days when every farm place produced all that it needed to sustain life, independent of the city. The nation has for some time been in the midst of a period of exploitation of the soil and what grows on it and what lies under it, but we are now getting ready to enter upon an era of husbandman farming, when all people must understand the significance of the holiness of the soil. This calls for a new, intelligent leadership for the open country ; and to bring this to pass we must somehow get a more effective kind of rural school.

In pioneer days school tasks were limited mainly to teaching the three R's. The average home was still a mighty teacher, instructing the children in the common handcrafts which have recently been falling more and more to the lot of the school. In this way It appears that the teacher's field of activity Is becoming greatly enlarged with the opening of the new age of husbandman farming.

It Is fair to presume that the first rural teacher In America was town bred and town trained, had city wa3^s and sympathies, and brought with him to the country a town course of study. But In the early days this was of little consequence ; for then even city life, so called, was provincial, and really little more than an overgrown rural life. But times have changed. Our towns have become mighty centers of commerce and manufacture. The needs of city life have found expression In courses of study preparing children for the varied activities there. Meanwhile, the needs of rural life have been slower to find expression. In many sections of our country the demands of modern agriculture have not yet been sufficiently strong to bring into being schools adequate to modern needs ; while, inversely, in other sections the pioneer-day schools still linger on, retarding the growth of new leadership and correct outlook on agricultural life.

Rural Teachers not Trained for Real Community Schools. — It is undeniably true that the professional schools in charge of the preparation of teachers, and our general educational leadership have been slow to recognize the need of specific training for rural schools. There are still good schoolmen among us who insist that any one who has taken a good general academic and professional course in college or normal school should be able to teach satisfactorily in rural districts. Fortunately for the future of American agricultural life, these beliefs no longer bear the weight they used to have, and men argue with good reason that if kindergarten teachers and teachers of English and History must have special preparation for their work, then why not also the rural teachers who come face to face with the increasingly difficult problem of reshaping rural community life !

The average rural teacher in the United States to-day has little specific preparation for his work. A great many teachers go into the schools with a surprisingly small store of academic and professional knowledge of any kind. A country-wide survey of the efficiency and preparation of rural teachers recently completed by the National Bureau of Education has disclosed the fact that almost four per cent of all the teachers now engaged in rural school work have had less than eight years of elementary school preparation ; that 32.3 per cent have had no professional preparation whatever, and that only one-tenth of one per cent report attendance at institutions of learning making a specialty of preparing rural teachers.^

Intimate Relation of Teacher Preparation and Professional Rewards. — The figures just quoted are startling ; still they might have been worse. The blame can in no sense be placed at the door of the teacher ; but rather on the prevailing system of school organization. And this system, again, is what it is to-day because of the rapid transition in our national life from pioneering, through land exploitation, to scientific agriculture. In other words, school conditions, as they have prevailed in the past, were due to economic conditions, largely beyond human control. But now the nation is entering upon a new era, throughout which science and professional preparation must set up new life standards for the agricultural population. In this great work there can be little place for amateur teachers.

The amount of salary received by the teacher is a measure of his efficiency on the one hand and of the value in which his services are held by the people on the other. Just now the average annual salary of all public school teachers in our country is $490. The salary of rural teachers is considerably less. It is scant consolation to know that the teacher's pecuniary earnings come in the form of salary and not in wages, and that in addition to the money income he has many real satisfactions of an altruistic nature. All this is true, but it remains that the nation has placed a low valuation on the teacher's services, with the result that the nation has had to be satisfied with much mediocre teaching.

It is immaterial to the present discussion whether better professional preparation shall precede increased salaries or whether increased salaries must come first. Both are

1 Bulletin 1914, No. 49, United States Bureau of Education.

essential in the new school organization. Probably these two essentials must come hand in hand.

Great Opportunity for Teachers in Rural Leadership. — In any event it is a noticeable fact that scores of teachers with good academic and professional preparation are continuously going into rural communities where they build up the schools and reorganize community interests so satisfactorily as to become practically indispensable. Such teachers are irnbued with the right spirit. They have attained somehow a correct outlook on country life. In instances of this kind, the school patrons are usually quick to respond. Their appreciation takes the form of increased salary to keep pace with the increased value of the teacher's services. In other words, when all is said, much depends on the teacher's capacity for leadership. In the long run, he is quite sure to receive what he is worth to the community.

Never before in our history was there such opportunity for well-equipped young men and women in the field of rural leadership. An awakening is going on in the primary institutions of rural life as at no time in the past. Urgent demands come for teachers from the newly organized farm community schools and from higher educational institutions which are themselves striving to prepare teachers, local agricultural experts, and other country life leaders.

Years ago the nations of continental Europe faced the serious problem of diminishing returns from the land, and found a satisfactory solution in a new type of education. In our country a similar transition is coming about. A new generation of rural-leadership teachers is beginning to come into its own. These teachers will take the responsibility of preparing the educated men and women who, in their turn, are to furnish rural districts with the practical aggressiveness, the correct outlook on life, and the finer idealism, which are all essential to wholesome agricultural life.

Illustration from Danish Rural Schools. — The older European civilization is replete with examples of such teacher-leadership. Denmark affords, perhaps, the best illustration. Here the central figure in rural life is the school teacher. At least he is one of two central figures — the other being the local pastor. He, more than any one else, should have the credit for the enlightened, wholesome, and contented rural life that is now being pursued by more than sixty per cent of the nation. He has rightly won his place as community leader by making himself indispensable to his patrons.

The close of the German war in 1864 had left the country war-scarred and practically bankrupt. The system of agriculture in use was indifferent and the peasant classes were poor and often illiterate. The rural schools were bad and could do very little to meet the crying needs of the times. But out of these very hardships a new educational philosophy was promulgated. It taught that education must become universal, practical, and democratic ; that hereafter the nation's defense must be built on the foundation of broad intelligence, rooted in the love of God and home and native land — and the school teacher became its herald.

In the short time that has passed since then, Denmark has become the most scientific among agricultural peoples. The sole explanation is the one given here, that the country has been wise enough to organize a most complete system of rural schools under the leadership of carefully prepared teachers, well paid and of permanent tenure, who live in the heart of the community month by month and year by year.

The New Teacher — a Permanent, Professional Teacher.

— It is perfectly true that many of our best and most painstaking teachers are devoting their Hves to teaching in the open country, accomphshing great good there. But, unfortunately, these teachers are a very small body as compared to the surprisingly large army who are mere peripatetic amateurs with little intention of becoming permanent teachers.

One thing is certain, the type of teacher who spends five days out of the week in the school community and the week-end elsewhere is not the right kind of teacher to master our pressing rural problems. These call for a broad understanding of rural needs ; an almost sublime faith in self and the importance of the new tasks ; and a willingness to forego some of the pleasures and greater conveniences of the larger centers of population — entirely aside from a good academic and professional preparation for school work.

It is not to the credit of our rural population to have to admit that the average teacher must endure considerable hardships in the pursuit of his work in the open country. This has reference particularly to poor construction of the school plant, with its unsatisfactory equipment, and to inconvenient and often intolerable housing and uncongenial social environment. But all of these things must be faced and corrected. It is in such matters as these that the real teachers show their true metal. Teachers who flinch before the many obstacles encountered while the reorganization is under way, are not worthy of the new leadership. They should shun teaching, which at best is difficult and a real man's or a strong woman's task.

John Tracy, a Teacher of the New School. — People often ask: Is it worth the while? Does it really pay? It might be well to let John Tracy answer these queries. The name is an assumed one, as the owner does not wish to have his real name used.

This teacher came as a young man into one of the richest communities of a great state in the Middle West a few years ago. He might have done exactly what his predecessors had done before him — followed the beaten rut of established school monotony for a term of seven months at forty-five dollars per month, and then have passed from the community, leaving not the slightest feeling of regret behind. But Tracy was different. He came into the community imbued with a vision of great, untouched possibilities for school and community reorganization. To tell in detail his life story does not lie within the scope of these pages. Let it suffice that he brought new life to the community. His spirit was contagious ; whatever he touched became quickened with new activity. The old schoolhouse soon proved too small to house the varied community interests that Tracy enlisted. . The farmers' institute, the women's club, the choral society, and the agricultural club, all demanded better quarters. This led to building a modern schoolhouse. Meanwhile, the budding, grafting, and layering, the soil studies and crop rotations, craved more space than the small half acre of school ground could offer. This accordingly was enlarged by purchase into four acres^ and is now used as playground, experiment plots, gardens, and home garden for the teacher. He has recently married and lives happily in a comfortable cottage erected through community donations, at one corner of the grounds.

Does it pay in dollars and cents? John Tracy began with a poor school plant in a rich but neglected community, at forty-five dollars for a term of seven months. Now he is the acknowledged leader of the community ; he is housed at community expense, and receives one hundred and twenty-five dollars per month for ten months of the year, although he teaches only nine. Assuredly it pays !

The Teacher Fitting Himself for Leadership. — At this juncture it may well be asked just what the ambitious teacher or student-in-training shall do to fit himself for the new rural leadership. Just what must the academic and professional preparation be for the work ? Briefly answered : The general academic preparation of the new kind of teacher must first of all be much deeper and more comprehensive than is the academic foundation of the average teacher now at work in the field. Our agricultural population is suffering as much from the want of a vision-giving breadth of culture as from the want of technical preparation for their life work. They need, in fact, a great measure of both to make them real thinkers, able to organize their agricultural life without outside let or hindrance. Only teachers who are themselves students and thinkers of reasonable maturity can hope to counteract the effects of the comparative isolation from which the open country suffers and be able to assist the people there to think much and read broadly so that ultimately a new and ennobling altruism shall become part of our rural community life.

A broad measure of academic culture should, therefore, be considered a first essential to all rural teaching success. To this must be added a reasonable knowledge of the general phases of teaching, including a knowledge of child study, psychology, philosophy, and history of education, together with school management and methods of study.

But entirely aside from these, the rural teacher to succeed well must have a good measure of specialized preparation for his difficult tasks. This preparation should embrace : (i) an intimate knowledge of the problems and needs of lo INTRODUCTION

rural life, In order that he may take his place in the community leadership discussed above ; (2) a thorough understanding of modern school organization and administration, so that he may become an intelligent leader in the work to convert the prevailing old-time school into an institution suited to modern agricultural needs ; and (3) a mastery of the new subject matter in the course of study which farm folk must know in order to get the most out of Hfe.

Knowledge of Rural Life Problems, a Chief Factor in Teaching-Success. — To have been born and reared in the country is no proof in itself that a person understands the needs of rural life, although it is probably easier for such a person to get the right outlook on life in the open country than would be the case with the average city-bred person. Experience has proved that whether the teacher is from rural district or town, he knows little, in a concrete way, about the fundamental economic and social problems that underlie modern agricultural life and hence are of vital importance in school conduct. It may seem harsh to say, but it is nevertheless true, that a teacher who does not, in the study of these rural problems, find inspiration enough for a redoubled effort in his work, and vision clear enough to see and do the tasks of the new rural community school — had better retire from teaching and seek a less trying occupation.

The higher professional schools are beginning to be of some assistance on this phase of our problem, by offering courses in rural sociology and farm economics. In a number of normal schools special rural school departments are built around these studies as fundamental. The teachers who are actively engaged in the schools, can master this important field through carefully chosen reading courses

INTRODUCTION ii

and by getting in touch as much as possible with experienced country Hfe workers, in real field studies. The purpose of Part I of this book is to assist the teacher to gain a mastery of these various rural, social-economic problems and, so far as feasible, to make clear the great possibilities in this but lately explored field.

Importance of a Good Understanding of the Organization and Administration of the New Community Schools. — The old-time teacher limited his tasks to the four walls of the school. He taught a few traditional subjects and dreamed of no innovations. The schoolhouse was constructed without regard for sanitary safeguards, as no one worried about such things in those days. The school was a place for book-learning and had no concern with the general community welfare. Now things are changed. The modern rural school is a very different kind of institution. Its tasks are no longer limited by the four walls of the school. The effective school nowadays goes so far as to project its activities into the homes of the community, preparing the farm youth for active, contented life on the farm.

This calls for a modern school plant, for enlarged school grounds, and for many other things unknown a few years ago. There must be reorganization from the ground up. Not alone is the organization of the school greatly changed, but its administration has become rnore complex as the problems to be considered have multiplied. All in all, it takes a teacher with a specialized knowledge of these phases of school life to master the new situation. This side of the teacher's special preparation is considered in Part II of the book.

A Mastery of the Revitalized Course of Study, Essential to Success. — The new school curriculum is based on what the farmer and his wife ought to know. There is, first of all, the human element to be considered. This includes health and happiness. Then comes the preparation of the members of the family for the privileges and responsibilities of citizenship, and, finally, their right to a preparation that will help them make a good living from the soil. Any course of study that includes less than this will not answer the new demands. A teacher who is not reasonably well prepared to teach some part of this curriculum cannot be considered well fitted for the new schools. Part III shows how the tasks of an agricultural population must be rooted to the nature environment in which they dwell, and it lays particular emphasis on those things which are of greatest value to the teachers who are eager to set themselves abreast of the new spiritualization in country life.

Each chapter of the book closes with a set of suggestive questions and special studies which are intended (i) to stimulate class discussion, and (2) to assist in further research. No one is able to gain sufficient inspiration and breadth of vision for vital leadership from reading a single book. Only as a result of broad reading, mature thinking, and sensible application of both of these to everyday work does the teacher acquire a real mastery of his chosen field.

One of the chief purposes of the present readings is to make the teacher conversant with the best thought in the rural life field. Every teacher should own a well-chosen collection of such books. A complete bibliography and shorter buying-lists are given at the back of the book from which teachers can make their selections.

Summarize your reasons for believing that rural teachers should have a distinctive preparation for their work.

Is it fair to say that the new kind of rural teacher must take the greatest responsibiHty for giving the rural community its needed leadership and correct outlook on agricultural life? Explain.

Show wherein the responsibilities of the rural teacher have been increased vastly since the passing of the three R's school of pioneer days.

Prove that rural teachers have, in the past, not been prepared for work in real farm community schools.

What is your interpretation of an "amateur teacher"? Show how such a teacher usually gets all the salary he earns.

Do you believe the statement that in the long run the teacher is quite sure to receive what he is worth to the community? Explain in full.

Do you spend your week-ends in the school community? If not, how do you justify your action?

Enumerate the essentials of a permanent, professional teacher.

Do you know some John Tracy in your community? If so, tell his story.

Defend this statement : The academic preparation of the rural teacher must be more comprehensive and specialized than it has been heretofore.

Just why must the new kind of teacher have a thorough understanding of present-day rural life problems ?

To what extent should every rural teacher have a knowledge of the problems of modern school organization and administration?

What is meant by revitalizing the rural school course of study ?

The following subjects are suggested for further research. They may be used for written themes, for written or oral summaries, for class reports, or in such other ways as the instructor may direct :