The Nonpartisan Leader Newspaper, April 13, 1916, Page 5

- are the farmers’ schools’ in training; and, just as im- ‘portant, by demanding that ° fm”&u thnt g ttam 0% Abstractof addtess dellvered” THE NONPARTISAN LEADER ' e e R R R A FIVE ould be Organized It Is Time’"for the Tillers of Soil-“ to- Furnish Their : Own Statesman ‘A Y OWN attitude ' /W for several years .. VN as a student of ; farm matters has been one of sympathy with the aspirations and efforts of the farmer to-better his condition. Every conscien- tious agency and movement which the farmer enterprises should be welcomed. I am one who believes the-farmer should organize in his own behalf. He can do it better than any outside party. He knows his own neceds better, and he certainly will look after his own interests with a greater devotion than will anyone else. Let us twrn now to “The schools in the service of the farmers.” The rural schools the most immediate sense. They are closer to him than are the other institutions, and 95 per cent of the farm children will receive no other educa- tion -than at these schools. What- ever schools can give farmers in the way of training for life must be found there. “If they are not efficient, the farmers and the farm suffer the con- sequences. We are all interested in having: these schools made efficient, but the farmers are more interested in" this than any one “else. - What should these mstitutions do for the farming people? C First, they should train for intelli- gent citizenship. Agriculture is im- portant but the qualification for cit- izenship. in. the large sense is even .more important. The farming class must begin to furnish its: own states- manship. - Hitherto it has looked to other professions and callings for this statesmanship. Farmers have many difficult problems to solve in the fields of eduecation, government, industry, and agricultural improvement gener- ally. They want .the best leadership that can be found, a leadership that is :devoted to their interests. I be- lieve the best way to obtain this leadership is to develop it in the schools of the country districts. MbRE MEN TEACHERS NEEDPED IN RURAL SCHOOLS But in order to do this these schools must. be improved. They must have better teachers. There should be more men -teaching in the country schools, for men are generally _more fundamentally and permanently inter- ested in the problems of the times than are the women feachers, The schools need vitalizing with intelli- gence. Much of the teaching now is a_ matter of memorizing text books without getting the meaning. There should be teachers who have received good sociological training and who can really think, and who teach -the boys and girls to think. We have ‘come to a time when the rarmer must use his head more, and his feet and hands less. From now on the farmer’s prosperity and progress has ot to. depend on the use of brains. gcientific agriculture demands brains. Problems of rural credit, of farm marketing, of farm insurance of ali . ; kinds, of building up the community life, demand brains, . The wise farmer will haye a good understanding of his times and his state. The wise farmer will know when he is:being given mere political dope:and when he is getting the truth, The wise farmer will knovs how to run not ‘only his farm, but have accurate ideas on how the state finances and the state taxes should be regulated. * But in order that the farmer may be wise, intelligent about his problems, not susceptible to the wiles - of the political grafter and shyster, he ~must have a ., rational, scientific, = socio- logical education. ‘And his own schools must be depend- ed ‘on.to give it to him. He must have wise teachers in his schools, and wise teach- ers can be obtained only by putting up the stan s of - before imass meeting of Nonpar- 'tisan League in Fargo April 1. ment, says Professor Gillette. citizenship and statesmanship of farmers. university. which are used in some sor Gillette is a man wh organization, to solve his own preblem keeping in too narrow a field and that thr service, he can broaden-his infuence and of the weorld. By J. M. Gillette * —_—mm teachers shall give larger attention to rural matters. Second, rural schools must be so reconstructed that they bear on and train: specifically for farm life. If I lived in a mining. region, I would ex- pect the schools to teach a great deal about mining, for most of the children in school would have something to, do with mining when they go to work. If I lived in a manufacturing region, I would expect to see the schools give much time to educating the young for industrial pursuits. : And if I lived in an agricultural He is the author of seve S. T IS time for farmers to furnish their own statesmen—to depend on men of their own class instead of other classes to fill the offices of govern- Fo do this sociology and studies relating te should be an essential part of the education These studies should occupy more of the courses commen school, beeause 9 education in these schools. Professor Gillette is dean of sociology at the North Dakota state ral books on the subject, some of of the agricultural colleges as text books. o believes in th reéion, I ought to expect the schools of the farmer to devote a great deal of attention to farm matters. Yet it has not been long ago since none of these expectations were true. The schools went on giving the old tra-- ditional education, oblivious to the fact that the most of the pupils had to make their own living and conse- quently needed to have a special kind of knowledge and skill in order to do so successfully. - Farm life is a miserable failure un- less the farmers know how to live comfortably, happily, and well. And Library at the State University. “The rural schools are not the only schools - that belong to the farmer. All the schools ~of the state belong to the farmer and he has a right to say how those schools of the rural 3 per cent of farmers’ boys and givis end their Profes- e farmer and in his ability, through He believes the farmer has been ough the schools dedicated to his take no small hand in the affairs and Office Holders, Says Gillette the farmer’s ability to live comfortably, happily, and well, depends as much upon the kind of home- makers and home-keepers the country produces, as up~ on the farmer’s success in getting crops. If life is to be worth while, we want comfort, happiness, and well- being every day as we go along. We. do not want to put those things off until we get rich. But if we are to have them as we go along, we must have wise and effie- ient household managers. As a consequence we want the country schools to develop training for the girls that farm women. First, enlarge your school districts. This will en- able you to have a real school building, one that will permit of modern teaching and that' will have the equipment for agricultural and heusehold teaching work. You cannot have a modern school in a primitive building with no equipment. flicient education, like efficient in- dustry or. business, costs money to establish, and it takes a plant that is diveetly intended and fitted to pro- duce specific results. If you farmers had to farm with a one-horse plow, a brush harrow, put in ‘the seed by hand, cut the grain with a cradle, thresh it out with a fail, and clean it by. letting the wind blow out the chaff, you would con- sider faxming and life a failure. Yet 'zhat is practically. the kind of -a basis he- farmer is condueting his school upor. - Most of owr rural schools are as far short of modern education ags the cradle and the one horse plow are behind modern farm machinery. - The rural sehools are mot the only schools. that belong.to the farmer. The farmer helps support the higher Institutions of learning and he has a proprietary intevest in them. More than that, he sends his sons and daughters to them for education and he receives teachers from all of them to teach his children.. He also gets: the services of many kinds of callings, which these higher. educational in- stitutions have = trained. AN the schools. of the. state belong to the farmer and he has a right to say how, those schools shall be conducted. SPECIAL TRAINING NEEDED FOR RURAL TEACHERS There is a demand. for elementary teachers larger than the normal schools can supply. What is the re~ sult for the country schools? They get what the cities do not take. Teachers desire to live in the cities if. thoy cap, just like manv xesi--3 farmers, and take town positions first. Consequently rural schools have a smaller preportion of trained teachers than do the town schools. g How much can the normal schools do to remedy this situation? I believe the normals must do more to specialize teachers for the work in rural schools. Rural school teachers should have a different training. than those who teach in cities. They must know agriculture, the domestic econ- omv of the farm home, and under- stand the various problems of rural life. They should have. a strong course in rural economics and in rural sociology. I believe these are things the farmer should appreciate and tum their attention to. Farmers should ask and insist that the institutions that train for teaching shall give more attention to specifically training' . teachers for rural school work. In past years:many things have been ..made: required, some of which it seems to me have little direct bearing: on * life. Now we recognize that industry and =~ commerce, of the organization of society, 2 of the problems of collective . |'. life. are necessary for good leaders who are capable - shall make them successful the study of government, of- . citizenship. We . can have