tion, manufacture and distribution provide employment for more than three-fourths of our population. Foresight, judgment and personal culture are quite as much in place on the farm as in other pursuits, and intelligent, well-directed labor will always be the most remunerative. Through the schools and the influence of our teachers, both in and out of school, we should endeavor to correct the popular impression that only the most rudimentary education is required for agricultural pursuits, that learning unfits our youth to engage in them, and that it is quite unnecessary for them to spend much time in school unless they propose fitting themselves for one of the so-called learned professions or wish to engage in some employment which they regard as more congenial and genteel. Views thus erroneous are adverse to progress and culture in the rural community, cause its youth to appear at a humiliating disadvantage when brought into contact with those who are urbanbred, early engenders a dislike for country life and a desire to get away from it. Because of this feeling the attendance of many rural schools is greatly diminished, others are attended only by the children of the farmer's tenants and some are closed; while the school boards of our cities and towns are finding it more and more difficult to provide adequate school accommodations. Our rural interests are so vitally important that it behooves us to furnish educational advantages that will promote their highest development and materially add to the attractions and advantages of rural life. Instruction is needed that will instill a love of nature, introduce more intelligence and culture into the rural home, that will beautify it and its surroundings and bring city and urban life into closer touch.

A higher order of intelligence is needed on the farm. Farming along the old lines has, in many localities, ceased to be remunerative. A knowledge of plant life, of the soil and its elements, is essential to the adaptation of means to ends. Though the school may fail to impart this special line of knowledge, it should at the least develop an intelligence that will make it easily acquired.

Our so-called elementary or common schools do not prepare the great majority of our youth for the duties of citizenship. Any pupil of average ability can, under a good school system, easily complete the usual common school studies by the time he reaches thirteen or fourteen years of age. He is then graduated, not educated, and sent adrift into the world unprepared for its experiences, unfitted for its duties, unfortified against its temptations, and this at the

most receptive period of his life, just when best prepared to learn. There is not a teacher of extended experience who has not seen many pupils of this age, who have been given further school advantages, make more substantial progress in a single year than during any previous three years of their school life. Without the secondary or high school the pupil is deprived of the instruction to which all his past life has led up and prepared him to receive, deprived of the instruction needed to enlarge his mental horizon, that is required to carry his thoughts beyond the environments of home and community to the interests of the State and Nation, denied the advantages that would introduce him to a higher manhood, and which would count for so much in his future career as a social and civic factor. Not until this stage of development is reached is the teacher, however skillful, able to lead the pupil to discern and acquire a taste for what is best in literature, permanently to interest him in the affairs of State and successfully instruct him in the duties of citizenship which it is his birthright ere long to assume.

Many, with much regret, have noted that, according to our last census, there were in the United States in 1890, 6,324,702 persons above ten years of age who could neither read nor write. It is a matter for still greater regret that we have far more than this number who, in point of intelligence, are hardly one whit the superior of these illiterates, and who have good reason to be far less innocent. Though they can call words, they either read not at all or read that which is trifling or corrupting. Their thoughts revolve in the same narrow circle and their feet tread in the same aimless, unaspiring, monotonous round of life. In this age of enlightenment and progress it seems almost incredible that any citizen of any State should insist that our public schools should be tied down to imparting the merest rudiments of an education. No State can expect a higher order of fealty and service than it qualifies its citizens to render.

While important concessions have been made in many States to the rural population as regards the levying of school taxes and the apportionment of school funds, the conditions have been such that the rural schools have been operated at a great disadvantage. Though no material with greater capabilities can be found, such schools have, in the matter of elementary education, failed to keep in line with those of ou: cities and larger towns. The spirit of our institutions and the vital principle of our government demand "equality under the law." The indispensable concomitant of "equality under the

law is equality of opportunity, and this is the central idea of popular education.

As the State is the true educational unit, to it must we look for a remedy for existing inequalities. Such remedy is the township high school. It will give the rural schools the supervision so long needed. It is their only hope of deliverance from the rut into which they have fallen. Much time and money and a large measure of the golden opportunities of school days have been lost to the youth of rural communities because their schools have been without professional supervision. Such a high school would add to their character and efficiency, because they would be compelled to adapt themselves to its requirements. It would stimulate purpose in their pupils by holding up to them a measure of attainment, and induce them to remain in school that they might graduate at the end of the course. It would be a spur to their ambition by placing before them a goal to reach. With the child the standard of attainment is always the one in sight. Such high schools would relieve our ungraded and some of the so-called graded schools of pupils who have outgrown the opportunities they have to offer. Every rural school with whose conditions I am familiar has several such pupils. They are so far in advance of the others that separate classification is necessary, and the attention they receive consumes an undue proportion of the teacher's time and energy. Though the instruction given them is in some cases of doubtful benefit, there is no question as to its detriment to the lower grades. The law very graciously extends to them the privilege of attending school, but fails to provide educational advantages adapted to their needs. It would do better were it to close the doors of our elementary schools against them and welcome them to the township high school, which, together with the kindergarten, is required to round out and complete a public rural school system.

The State has need of all the gifts that can be brought into its service, and through its failure to develop these gifts, to marshal all its available forces, falls far short of securing the high order and full measure of service that is its privilege. The township high school would make possible to many the advantages of the college or university who could never enter upon its broader vista unless kindly carried by a grand, generous, free public school system to its very doors.

We often hear unpleasant reflections upon life's misfits, such as: "There is a good farmer spoiled for the purpose of making a poor teacher."

The number of these can be very materially lessened through the larger range of selection which a broad and symmetrical public education would provide, and which a more discriminating public would be qualified to make.

Our American system of public education, though now comparing favorably with that of any other country, cannot long continue to do so if we fail to broaden its foundations and to add to its strength and efficiency. The State of New York has for many years used the income of the United States deposit fund to enlarge the scope of secondary instruction in her high schools and academies. Several of the eastern States and many of the western States have already taken a step in advance as regards the encouragement and support of high schools. Massachusetts was the first to make provision for secondary education and to this fact owes her present educational supremacy. Instead of a tardy following of their example each of the other States should help them set the pace.

There is in New Jersey a strong and growing sentiment in favor of extending the advantages of high schools. In 1894 our legislature abolished the old district lines and gave us the township as the district unit. In June, 1896, our State Board of Education adopted a resolution requiring each county superintendent to prepare and establish a uniform course of study in the schools under his supervision, adopt a uniform system for the promotion of pupils and a standard for graduation. This resolution, in connection with the township system, carries with it uniform text-books, uniform grades in schools, uniform work by teachers throughout each township, and is the second important movement well considered and wisely made in a direct line toward the maintenance and establishment of the township high school. A third important step is the appointment of township supervising principals by many local boards of education, and of the purpose of the people to do their full share in advancing the cause of education throughout the State.

There was introduced, moreover, in the legislature of 1898 a bill providing that the law governing the taking of the school census should be so amended as to include all children between the ages of four and eighteen years, instead of between five and eighteen years; that the increased amount raised from this change in minimum age shall constitute a special fund to be used according to the discretion of the State Board of Education for the encouragement of secondary and kindergarten schools. As nearly as can be ascertained this would increase the number of

pupils of school age about 40,000, make an increase in tax rate of one-fortieth of one per cent., and provide a special fund of $200,000.

The question of transportation is so certainly essential to the improvement of present rural school facilities that it demands very serious consideration. The best minds in our country have for years been giving their best thought to the solution of this problem. In 1894 the National Educational Association appropriated $2,500 to defray the expenses of a special committee to devise means for the improvement of rural schools. After extended consideration,

this committee arrived at the conclusion that the establishment of a larger unit of organization is necessary, clearly meaning to include transportation and systematic grading of pupils.

Many ask: "Why seek to prove the benefits of the unattainable? Why dwell upon privileges which are denied to a large portion of our population? Many large townships are so sparsely settled that they cannot furnish sufficient patronage to maintain a central high school. If two or more townships shall unite in such enterprise the difficulties confronting it are increased.” We shall always have with us those who are far more fertile in excuses than rich in expedients and enterprise. Where there is a will there is a way, and in this matter the way is provided far in advance of the will to utilize it. In every educational advance by far the larger measure of effort is expended in arousing a correct public sentiment. Many pupils now make daily trips by our railways to the high schools of our cities and towns. Extensive systems of trolley lines are now in operation, others are in process of construction, and a still greater number are in contemplation. Let the school children make such use of the cheap and convenient means of transportation now provided as they should, and it would stimulate further enterprise in this line beyond our anticipations. In addition to steam and electricity we have the bicycle, whose continued improvement and increasing popularity will make it an important factor in the maintenance of township high schools. Many of our young cyclists think nothing of taking an eight or ten-mile constitutional before breakfast. If this be both a benefit and a pleasure, it would certainly be a delight and blessing to ride as far, or even farther, for a purpose, after fortifying their systems with a good, substantial meal. By act of 1894 the New Jersey school law provides that any school district may, by special tax, raise an amount sufficient to transport all pupils who are remote from school facilities, and are for this reason unable to attend school.

New York, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Ohio, Connecticut, Vermont, Iowa and Maine also have laws providing for the transportation of pupils, and many other States are seriously considering the necessity of their enactment. Ohio has taken a good long step in advance of the other States by authorizing boards of education to establish township graded schools. One of the first schools established under this special legislation is located at Kingsville, Ashtabula county, Ohio. The following quotations, taken from a report of Supt. F. E. Morrison, of Kingsville, show the decided advantages of such a school:

"By this system the pupils of the sub-districts have the same advantages as the village pupils, and this result has been obtained without not only working any disadvantage to the village pupils, but has inured to their benefit by reducing the number of grades in a room. The pupils of sub-districts have not only secured the advantage of more extended associations and larger classes with which to recite, but they also have the advantages of a school where the teacher has fewer recitations; thus the pupil's progress is much more rapid than is possible in a room where there are three times as many classes and one-sixth the number of pupils. It is a pleasure indeed, to note that the number in attendance from the sub-districts that have availed themselves of the new system has, in some cases, increased from fifty to one hundred and fifty per cent., and that there has been a large increase in all cases; the daily attendance from the same sub-districts has increased from fifty or sixty per cent. to ninety or ninety-five per cent., thus increasing greatly the returns from the school fund invested. This has been accomplished at a saving of more than $1,000 to the taxpayers in three years."

According to the preceding quotations transportation in Ohio has proved a most fortunate and successful experiment, and all interested aver that nothing could induce them to return to the old plan. The results are greatly im proved school facilities, increased attendance and reduced cost. What more could be desired? Such results not only prove the entire feasibility of maintaining the township high school, but also the township graded school. The proportion of our school funds used in maintaining small and weak country schools without professional supervision and which are taught by unprofessional third-grade teachers can be more judiciously expended.

The educational advantages we have make further advancement necessary. When the ideal

T

HE

educational world is agreed that the aim of education is not knowledge, but the development of ethical character. This development, like all other, comes by the observation of the individual or the concrete example. Such examples cannot be found in the world around us, since each human being knows the lives of but few others, and only parts of these; therefore we must turn to some other source for them, and this other source is history and literature.

With so vast a field from which to choose, what guides have we in selecting? First, child study; second, study of literature. The first may lead to the conclusion, either that the individual in his development passes through the same

stages as the race, or that there is a broad similarity in the development of the two, or that there is nothing in the one to suggest the other. Experience has led a great majority to the second conclusion. With this as a guide and a knowledge of all the world of books, as Mrs. Browning has called the vast field of literature, the following sequence seems to form itself: Folk lore, fairy tales and myths in the earlier years, when the imagination is most active; heroic stories when there begins the seeking for the real, and then biography or the concrete of history; the abstract of history comes much later. One consideration should be made emphatic: Each story selected should contain a truth which will help to form well-rounded character. In order that this may be accomplished, the story should not only contain a truth, but the truth needed, because of the particular stage of development of those to whom it is to be presented. The material having been selected, how is it to be used?

The teacher must so fully apprehend the truth and beauty, as well as the details through which this truth and beauty are to be made real, that he is prepared to live the part as the dramatic artist does his. Success in this work depends largely upon the teacher's knowledge and appreciation of literature, a knowledge of the child, a large vocabulary, and a well-trained voice and body. To do this work in an ideal way one needs to be a teacher, a student of literature, an artist in the use of language, and something of an actor. A young teacher, who seemed about to fail in doing the story work, suddenly began to improve, and became very successful. She said: "At first I was one thing, the children another and the story another, and I was attempting to put the story into the children, but later I came to live the story with the children."

The teacher must know the experience of the pupil, both in real and imaginary life, in order that the new may be built upon the old. The little people of our own town, Oswego, have Lake Ontario on the north, wide stretches of lake shore, a great profusion of trees, and the traditions of Indian life which come to every American boy and girl, as preparation for the friendship with the little Hiawatha, and when this experience is fresh in the mind, brought there by skilful questioning, resulting in a real "experience meeting," the little stranger who lived by The Big Sea Water" may be intro

duced.

Step by step the teacher and pupils enter into the life of the Indian boy. The teacher may give the matter in her own carefully chosen words, or, better still, whenever it is possible, she gains the matter from the pupils by questioning. For instance, the following questions will meet a ready response if the work has been well done:

Since Hiawatha lives by the water what will he wish to own?" "Where will he find material from which to make his boat or canoe?" From what in the forest will he get the material."

In the average second-year class these questions will be easily answered, because the little citizens of the world know so many things which we never teach them. Again, the teacher may question to find what qualities Hiawatha would wish his canoe to possess, for what purpose he will use it, what feeling he will have for it, how he will care for it, and many other points. This use of questions results in an active state of interest, and helps to cultivate power to think. One who has never known the results of this method of presentation in story work will be surprised to know how soon children have power

to infer. A fourth-year boy, when asked what he believed Achilles would do under certain circumstances, gave an answer without hesitation. When asked to give a reason for his opinion, he stated several occasions when Achilles had been in similar circumstances, and his conduct in each, and then the pupil added: “You see he must do now as I said he would."

When the little Hiawatha has become one of their own circle, the little men and women of the class-room, like "Children of a Larger Growth," almost instinctively seek to know in what way this new friend is like or unlike the old. Did he love the animals as did Mowgli and Toomai of the jungle? If the class is an older one, and the new friend is Lincoln, there are Washington, Napoleon and Cæsar, yes, and Pericles, who have been great men in their respective countries, and with each of whom the class has thought and willed. In what is the most recently known hero like the others? And in what is he different? are but natural questions and result in the discovery of the motives in the life of each, and a conclusion as to which motive is truest and best.

Need I say that through all this' work there is the greatest opportunity for various forms of expression? To tell "the story of yesterday" and the story of to-day" becomes a delight to the children and a privilege sought, and as one stands before the class enthusiastically reproducing some part of the day's work, the teacher by unobtrusive corrections helps to form right language habits. A reproduction of the story on paper is quite as enthusiastically given. A little girl, when told at the close of the period of oral work that the class would not write the story that day, said: "Oh, I am so sorry, for I am so full."

The little people of the first and second years delight in playing the story told. A class which has been at work on Mowgli, that inimitable story of Kipling's which is already a classic, will play "The Council at the Rock" with the greatest zest. The "Pied Piper" is another piece of material which offers good opportunity for putting thought into motor expression. A fifthgrade group, taken out for a "geography trip," organized themselves into an army which was going on a crusade, and lived over and over again experiences which had come to them through the telling of the story of the life of Richard Cœur de Lion. In this work the children should make their own plans, selecting those who are to represent the different characters, and arranging such details as are necessary. So far as possible, the teacher should be a spectator.