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Title: Rural Life and the Rural School

Author: Joseph Kennedy

Release Date: August 3, 2009 [EBook #29600]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

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RURAL LIFE
AND THE RURAL SCHOOL

BY

JOSEPH KENNEDY

DEAN OF THE SCHOOL OF EDUCATION IN THE
UNIVERSITY OF NORTH DAKOTA

AMERICAN BOOK COMPANY
NEW YORK CINCINNATI CHICAGO

RURAL LIFE AND THE RURAL SCHOOL
W. P. 2.

PREFACE

This volume is addressed to the men and women who have at heart the
interests of rural life and the rural school. I have tried to avoid
deeply speculative theories on the one hand, and distressingly practical
details on the other; and have addressed myself chiefly to the
intelligent individual everywhere--to the farmer and his wife, to the
teachers of rural schools, to the public spirited school boards,
individually and collectively, and to the leaders of rural communities
and of social centers generally. I have tried to avoid the two extremes
which Guizot says are always to be shunned, viz.: that of the "visionary
theorist" and that of the "libertine practician." The former is
analogous to a blank cartridge, and the latter to the mire of a swamp or
the entangled underbrush of a thicket. The legs of one's theories (as
Lincoln said of those of a man) should be long enough to reach the
earth; and yet they must be free to move upon the solid ground of fact
and experience. Details must always be left to the _person_ who is to do
the work, whether it be that of the teacher, of the farmer, or of the
school officer.

I am aware that there is a veritable flood of books on this and kindred
topics, now coming from the presses of the country. My sole reasons for
the publication of the present volume ar