SCHOOL GROUND BEAUTIFICATION. In the Lykens Centralized School District, Crawford County, a community improvement association was formed and Superintendent Bruehlman was elected president. Professor Cruikshank of the Ohio State University made drawings for landscaping. The trees were donated and planted by the members of the community association. The shrubbery was purchased by the association and planted by the high school. The lawn was fertilized with manure from the transportation. THE RURAL HIGH SCHOOL. In early times secondary education was not so essential to the successful transaction of the ordinary affairs of rural life as it is at the present time. High schools were widely scattered and but few country. boys and girls attended them. As a result, their educational training approached uniformity, and competition was to a great degree fair and equal. Down through the years, however, high schools multiplied and the number of pupils that were obtaining a secondary education greatly increased from year to year. Now it is absolutely necessary that each and every boy and girl obtain a high school education and it is the duty of boards of education and other school officials to provide such school facilities as will give them ample opportunity for their fullest possible development. Otherwise, in the race of life there will be two classes: I am fourteen years old and live in the country. I want to go to High School, but I am too young and it is too costly for me to leave home and go to the city. I want a rural consolidated High School so I can remain at home and attend. Please grant my request.-THE BOY ON THE FARM. those who are well prepared by the training of higher education and those who have failed to obtain adequate training. The latter will not have an equal chance to win and will be the trailers in life's race. There was a time, when, if a country boy attended high school, his neighbors and associates took it for granted that he was preparing to become a lawyer, doctor, teacher, or minister, and never assumed that he might be preparing to become a farmer. This trend of thought prevailed because there was nothing in the program of studies in the high schools that was directly related to the interests of farming and rural life. Secondary education was thought Agricultural Class at Work in Laboratory, Harmony Township High School, Plattsburg, Ohio. to be necessary only as a preparation for professional work and consequently the boy was trained away from the farm and became interested in other vocations. Provision should be made whereby it is possible for a country boy who remains on the farm to obtain a secondary education in his own community that is directly related to his needs and purposes and commensurate with the importance of the work in which he is engaged. The possibilities of agriculture and rural life are thus revealed to him and he will be equipped with knowledge necessary to the scientific performance of his work. Then from the farm instead of from the law office and counting room will come those who know what the needs and interests of the farmer are and who will be better qualified to represent these interests, standing shoulder to shoulder with the ablest advocates of other *11 P. I. interests. It is the duty of the members of every rural community to provide opportunities for such training and development for its boys. and girls. Agriculture is the most important industry of the nation. Its interests are many and varied. Its relation to other occupations is complicated and intricate. A boy may be able to plow and sow and reap without having received a higher education but he will not be able to realize the greater possibilities of his business and to champion his cause in the keen competition of modern society. The old time traditional academic high Home Economics Department, Harmony Township High School, Plattsburg, Ohio. school course of study is not sufficient nor is it adapted to the needs of rural life, although it has been retained by many rural and village high schools of today. It is high time that these communities realize that the program of studies should be articulated with the industrial life of the community. The rural school problem is not difficult but it has been neglected. It is the city with its diversity of interests and mixed population that presents for solution a difficult school problem. In the rural community there are but two leading industries, agriculture and home. making. By keeping these objectives in view, it is easy to provide a program of study that meets the demands of rural industrial and social life. |