are socially negligent. They
are faulty in the purpose for which they have been created.

The second difficulty comes from the first. The rural school still needs
a larger program. When it seriously undertakes to assume its function as
the most effective of our social institutions, it will make radical
changes in its program. To affirm this one need not forget or undervalue
the changes already made. Additions have been made to the program. The
spirit of the program has not been radically changed. We still provide
an individualistic preparation--hopelessly inadequate though it
is--rather than the social training which can be the only safe
foundation for social progress. We still overvalue ancient knowledge and
former educational values. We still refuse to admit into our schools
occupations and interests that belong there because they are consistent
with the instincts of the child. The country school has been stupidly
indifferent to the wealth of its resources and has forced upon its
pupils a meager and lifeless program. When a country high school, for
example, attempts to minister to the needs of its students with a
program of study that includes no science of any kind, the people of
that community ought to be told, as recently in one case they were, that
they are enforcing an educational policy that prophesies community
suicide.

The third difficulty of the rural school system is its institutionalism.
No effective organization can be developed without creating in it the
danger of too great institutional concern. Those who are connected with
the schools very easily come to regard its problems from the point of
view of the welfare of the organization rather than that of the best
interests of the children. Of course this mistake is nearly always
unconscious and those who are really influenced by the professional
instinct to protect the immediate interests of the school as an
institution come to believe that they are also doing the best that can
be done for the people. It is, however, the clear teaching of human
history that effort to maintain the welfare of any social organization
is likely to decrease the attention given to its efficiency. The
attitude of institutional self-protection leads to uncritical methods,
easy-going content, and rigid, unprogressive habits of thought. In our
public school system the vital influences are always in conflict with
the constructive endeavor of those who, because of their desire for