st be admitted that throughout our entire school system there
remains something to be desired in the spirit of cooeperation between
pupils and schools. The feeling of loyalty which the child has for his
home does not extend commensurately to the school. Too often the school
is looked upon as something forced upon the child, for his welfare,
perhaps, but after all not as forming an interesting and vital part of
his present experience. It is often rather a place where so much time
and effort and inconvenience must be paid for so many grades and
promotions, and where, incidentally, preparation is supposed to be made
for some future demands very dimly conceived. At best, there is
frequently a lack of feeling of full identity of interests between the
child and the school.

The youth, immaturity, and blindness of childhood make it impossible, of
course, for children to conceive of their school in a spirit of full
appreciation. On the other hand, the very nature of childhood is
responsiveness and readiness of cooeperation in any form of interesting
activity,--is loyalty of attitude toward what is felt to minister to
personal happiness and well-being. In so far, therefore, as there exists
any lack of loyalty and cooeperation of pupils toward their school, the
reasons for such defection are to be sought first of all in the school,
and not in the child.

While this negative attitude of the pupils exists in some degree in all
our schools, it is undoubtedly more marked in our rural schools than in
others. In a negligible number of cases does this lack of cooeperation
take the form of overt rebellion against the authority of the school. It
is manifested in other ways, many of them wholly unconscious to the
child, as, for example, lack of desire to attend school, and
indifference to its activities when present.

Attending school is the most important occupation that can engage the
child. Yet the indifference of children and their parents alike to the
necessity for schooling makes the small and irregular attendance of
rural school pupils one of the most serious problems with which
educators have to deal. County superintendents have in many places
offered prizes and diplomas with the hope of bettering attendance, but
such incentives do not reach the source of the difficulty. The remedy
must finally lie in a fundamental change of attitude toward the school
and its opportunities. Good attendance must spring from interest in the
school