domestic animals--all of these things will give the child a
better start in education, a better comprehension of the life he is to
live, a better idea of the business of farming, a better notion about
the importance of agriculture, and will tend to fit him better for
future life either on the farm or anywhere else, than could any amount
of the old-fashioned book knowledge. Is it not a strange fact that so
many farmers will decry book knowledge when applied to the business of
farming, and at the same time set so much store by the book learning
that is given in the common arithmetic, the old-fashioned reader, and
the dry grammar of the typical school? Of course anyone pleading for
this sort of study in the rural schools must make it clear that the
ordinary accomplishments of reading, writing, and ciphering are not to
be neglected. As a matter of fact, pupils under this method can be just
as well trained in these branches as under the old plan. The point to be
emphasized, however, is that a course of study constructed on this
theory will tend to bring the school and the community closer together,
will make the school of more use to the community, will give the
community more interest in the school, while at the same time it will
better prepare pupils to do their work in life.

2. A second way of making the rural school a social center is through
the social activities of the pupils. This means that the pupils as a
body can co-operate for certain purposes, and that this co-operation
will not only secure some good results of an immediate character,
results that can be seen and appreciated by everyone, but that it will
teach the spirit of co-operation--and there is hardly anything more
needed today in rural life than this spirit of co-operation. The schools
can perform no better service than in training young people to work
together for common ends. In this work such things as special day
programmes, as for Arbor Day, Washington's Birthday, Pioneer Day; the
holding of various school exhibitions; the preparation of exhibits for
county fairs, and similar endeavors, are useful and are being carried
out in many of our rural schools. But the best example of this work is a
plan that is being used in the state of Maine, and is performed through
the agency of what is called a School Improvement League. The purposes
of the league are: (1) to improve school grounds and buildings; (2) to
furnish suitable reading-matter for pupils and peo