SCOPE OF THE CHAPTER. CHAPTER XV EDUCATION 436. Few educational problems have been more anxiously, or more widely, debated than that of the type of education best adapted to the needs of an agricultural population. That so many of the outstanding features of this problem recur with little variation, wherever rural education exists, is no doubt due to the fact that most of the essentials of rural life are common to all agricultural countries. The agriculturist lives a simple life in comparative isolation, away from large towns and the modern amenities they provide. Agriculture, more than any other industry, is indissolubly bound up with the lives of the workers. It dominates the whole social and domestic outlook of the individual, whether farmer or labourer, to a degree unknown in any other calling. The comparative loneliness of his life, and the restriction of neighbourly relations to workers in the same industry, react on his whole mental outlook. Unlike the factory hand, the farm worker does not escape from his working environment at the end of his day's toil. The nature of his business makes it impracticable for him rigidly to limit the exercise of his calling within certain definite periods of the day, and his hours of leisure are perforce spent in much the same surroundings as are those of his working life. In no profession is the fortune of the individual worker, however humble his lot, more dependent upon his own skill and judgment, and in none is the possession of a sound elementary education, and of the balanced and progressive outlook that it imparts, more likely to prove of commercial advantage. Thus it is that in dealing with the problems of rural education, it becomes difficult, if not impossible, entirely to dis sociate elements which are purely cultural from those that are technical. That which broadens the cultivator's views on life must inevitably widen his outlook on his calling, and, conversely, much of the technical knowledge proper to his industry is of service in his private and domestic life. The idea that education in rural areas should bear a close relationship to the daily lives of the people is but the recognition of the truth that the environment in which rural workers live is different from that of the towns. It is essential to the happiness and efficiency of children in the villages that their up-bringing should be in harmony with their environment, and to this end it is most desirable that every element in the education they receive in their village schools should draw strength and inspiration from the life of the country-side. Viewed from this aspect, the problems of rural education are divisible into the teacher, his character and training; the curriculum with its text-books; and the organisation of the school. In no particular must these be at discord with the rural environment, and, to secure this, the directing and supervising authorities should themselves be in close MO Y 286-33 |