es--in fact
their curricula are as extensive as were those of the colleges of sixty
years ago. Vast numbers attend them; their faculties are composed of
college graduates or better; they have, as a rule, various departments,
such as manual training, domestic science, agriculture, commercial
subjects, normal courses, etc. In addition to the traditional curricula,
the high schools, like the universities, normal schools, and
agricultural colleges, have kept pace, in large measure, with the
material progress described in the first part of this chapter.

=How Is the Rural School?=--We have described the progress that has
been made in various fields of the industrial world and also in several
kinds of educational institutions. At this point the question may, with
propriety, be asked whether the rural schools have generally kept pace
in their progress with the other and higher institutions which we have
mentioned. We believe that they have not. The rural schools have too
often been the last to attract public interest and to receive the
attention which their importance deserves.

[Illustration: A neglected school in unattractive surroundings]

[Illustration: A lonely road to school. No conveyances provided]

[Illustration: A better type of building with some attempt at
improvements]

[Caption for the above illustrations: THE ONE-ROOM SCHOOL]

CHAPTER V

A BACKWARD AND NEGLECTED FIELD

=Rural Schools the Same Everywhere.=--The one-room country school of
to-day is much the same the whole country over. Such schools are no
better in Michigan, Wisconsin, or Minnesota than they are in the
Dakotas, Montana, or Idaho. They are no better in Ohio or New York than
they are in Minnesota or Wisconsin, and no better in the New England
states than in New York and Ohio. There is a wonderful similarity in
these schools in all the states.

Nevertheless, it may be maintained with some plausibility that the rural
schools of the West are superior to those farther east. The East is
conservative and slow to change. The West has fewer traditions to break.
Many strong personalities of initiative and push have come out of the
East and taken up their abode in the West. Young men continue to follow
Horace Greeley's advice. Sometimes these young men file upon lands and
teach the neighboring school; and while this may not be the highest
professional aim and attitude, it remains true nevertheless that such
teachers are often earnest, stron