CHAPTER VI VOCATIONAL TRAINING Rural children have almost everywhere been quitting school as soon as compulsory education laws would permit, and in thousands of cases have dropped out in defiance of the law. Educators and public-spirited people are gravely concerned over this exodus, as they may well be. But is it surprising that the children should drop out? What with inexperienced teaching and poor equipment, the conditions in the rural school have not been inspiring at best; but added to this, the curriculum has been at fault; the studies have been such that the pupils have failed to see any close relation between the lessons studied in their books and what life required of them outside of school. Reared in the freedom of the country, they have felt the call of the open, but they have been wholly tied down in their school work within the four walls of a dingy and uninviting building. Interested in growing things, in crops and cattle and horses, they have been given a mental pabulum of conjugations and declensions, of dates. and definitions, of rules and classifications. Feeling the pressure of real problems and duties resting on them, they have been put off with empty drill in mental gymnastics, in the dim hope that in some way this process might help them to meet their responsibilities. Small wonder that they have rebelled against the school and sought relief from such irksome tasks in the real affairs of every-day life. The attitude resulting in the desertion of the rural school before completing its course can never be changed Remedy lies in by lecturing to the children on the advitalizing school vantages of an education. The remedy is deeper than this; it lies in making the school work an actual part of the pupils' lives, and its lessons so valuable that they can not afford to miss them. In other words, the rural school should be made into a vocational school, and thus related immediately to the activities of the farm. This does not mean that nothing but agriculture and the industrial arts shall be taught in the rural school; but rather that these things shall afford the point of contact between the school work and the home life and interests of the pupils, and shall shape the mode of approach to all other subjects of study. Difference in attitude of rural and city child This close relation between the study interests and the home interests is especially necessary in the rural school. For the children of the farm begin work at a relatively early age, and have come to realize its value and feel its responsibilities long before the city child thinks of engaging in any occupation outside of school hours. The result is that the rural child develops a practical turn of mind, and has a tendency to look on education if its practical trend is not evident with an impatience that is not felt by his urban cousin. The city child is not engaged on anything in particular outside the school, and hence has no definite measure of the immediate interest and value of his education; the country child is doing real things, and confronting actual problems, and hence has a constant tendency to compare the worth of the time spent in school with the time spent outside of school. Without being wholly conscious of it himself, he demands practical results from his education. Growth of vocational education The movement for vocational education in this country is now in full swing. Six states-Massachusetts, New York, Connecticut, New Jersey, Wisconsin and Indiana-now have more or less complete systems of vocational instruction. The newer education which they are so successfully introducing is not meant to replace the old, but to supplement it, by giving training for a specific employment in addition to the regular school studies. Elementary instruction in agriculture is now required in the schools of nearly half the states, and the movement is extending with every session of the legislatures. It is safe to conclude that the next few years will see vocational training a part of the regular education of a very large proportion of all our industrial workers. The rural school has an exceptional responsibility in carrying out its share of this new problem. Until recent Responsibility of years agricultural production has been rural school able to keep pace with the increased food demands of our growing cities. As the hungry mouths multiplied in number, new areas were put under the plow, and more corn and wheat raised. Modern machines made it easy to cultivate the added acres, which the government supplied; so there was no reason to husband the resources of the soil. It was natural that much waste should occur under such a system; the only thought was immediate returns, and these were not always intelligently sought. But with much of the most fertile land greatly exhausted by improper methods of cultivation, and with the free public lands all gone, conditions have greatly changed. The value of land has constantly mounted, and the price of produce has steadily risen. The old wasteful methods will no longer do. An important part of the conservation of our resources is the education of the boys of the farms for the great industry on which they are to engage. They must be trained for their vocation, and not left to learn by costly mistakes what they may easily be taught by simple instruction in the course of their education. The rural schools must prepare for the vocation of agriculture. to the task It is argued by many that the rural schools are not equal to this additional burden. It is said that the Rural school equal teachers are not prepared to teach these subjects, nor are the schools equipped for teaching them. This is all too true of a large proportion of the rural schools of the present; but it is not true of them all, and the conditions are rapidly changing for the better. Thousands of teachers are studying the new subjects in summer schools, or taking time off to master them; and other thousands about to enter on teaching are now having an opportunity to prepare in the vocational subjects as a part of their own education. Many rural schools are equipping for the teaching of the newer branches and others stand ready to act whenever conditions are ripe for the introduction of the vocational lines of work. The question is no longer whether we shall introduce the vocational subjects into rural education, but how can it best be done. One point is clear with reference to the introduction of agriculture and allied subjects into the rural schools: Vocational studies these branches must be taught as pracmust be practical tical, applied subjects, and not as so many detached facts or so much class-room theory. The |