they show a high type of
efficiency, the rural school has barely held its own, or has, in many
places, even gone backward. The rural community confronts a puzzling
problem which is still far from solution.

Certain points of attack upon this problem are, however, perfectly clear
and obvious. _First_, educational facilities must be improved for rural
children, and their education be better adapted to farm life; _second_,
greater opportunities must be provided for recreation and social
intercourse for both young and old; _third_, the program of farm work
must be arranged to allow reasonable time for rest and recreation;
_fourth_, books, pictures, lectures, concerts, and entertainments must
be as accessible to the farm as to the town. These conditions must be
met, not because of the dictum of any person, but because they are a
fundamental demand of human nature, and must be reckoned with.

What, then, is the relation of the rural school to these problems of the
rural community? How can it be a factor in their solution? What are its
opportunities and responsibilities?

_The adjustment of the rural school to its problem_

As has been already stated, the problem of any type of school is to
serve its constituency. This is to be done through relating the
curriculum, the organization, and the teaching of the school to the
immediate interests and needs of the people dependent on the school for
their education. That the rural school has not yet fully adjusted itself
to its problem need hardly be argued.

It has as good material to work upon in the boys and girls from the farm
as any type of schools in the country. They come of good stock; they
are healthy and vigorous; and they are early trained to serious work and
responsibility. Yet a very large proportion of these children possess
hardly the rudiments of an education when they quit the rural school.
Many of them go to school for only a few months in the year, compulsory
education laws either being laxly enforced or else altogether lacking. A
very small percentage of the children of the farm ever complete eight
grades of schooling, and not a large proportion finish more than half of
this amount.

This leaves the child who has to depend on the rural school greatly
handicapped in education. He has but a doubtful proficiency in the
mechanics of reading, and has read but little. He knows the elements of
spelling, writing, and number, but has small skill in any of them. He
k