cal
experiences rural life and thought form the anchorage of their later
academic instruction. This early experience constitutes what the
Herbartians term their "apperception mass"; and children, as well as
grown-ups, can interpret new matter only in terms of the old. The
experiences of the child, which constitute his world of thought, of
discourse, and of action, are the only means by which he grasps and
interprets new thought and experience. Consequently, the texts which
rural children use should make a strong appeal to their apperception
mass--to their old stock and store of knowledge. It is the textbooks
that bring to the old knowledge new mental material which the teacher
and the textbook together attempt to communicate to the children.
Without an interpreting center--a stock and store of old knowledge which
constitute the very mental life of the child--it is impossible for him
to assimilate the new. The old experiences are, in fact, the mental
digestive apparatus of the child. Without this center, or core, the new
instead of being assimilated is, so to speak, merely stuck on. This is
the case with much of the subject matter in city-made texts. It does not
_grow_, but soon withers and falls away. It is, then, essential that the
textbooks used in rural schools should have the rural bent and
application, the rural flavor, the rural beck and welcome.

=Rural Teachers from the City.=--A great many teachers of country
schools come from the city. A number of these are young girls having,
without blame on their part, the tone and temper, the attitude, spirit,
and training which the city gives. Their minds have been _urbanized_;
all their thoughts are city thoughts. The textbooks which they have used
have been city textbooks; their teachers have for the most part been
those in or from the city. It can scarcely be expected that such
teachers can do for the rural districts all that ought to be done. Very
naturally they inspire some of the children with the idea of ultimately
going to the city. This suggestion and this inspiration are given
unconsciously, but in the years of childhood they take deep root and
sooner or later work themselves out in an additional impetus to the
urban trend.

=A Course for Rural Teachers.=--What is needed is a course of
instruction for rural teachers, in every state of the Union. In some
states the agricultural colleges have inaugurated a movement to this
end. In such colleges, agricultural hig