OCR Text |
Show RURAL SCHOOLS REAL NATOINAL PROBLEM I he division of rural education in the United States bureau of education has an energetic and efficient chief in Mrs. Katherine M. Cook who is fully conversant with the subject of rural schools. In an interesting article on "The Biggest Problem of Our Education" Mrs. Cook says in the current issue of the National Republic: "What's the biggest problem in American education today? Undoubtedly Un-doubtedly it is that of providing a square deal educationally for children from farm homes and rural communities. The social and economic welfare of the farm population is admittedly of nationwide nation-wide importance. Standards of living in farm homes, the farmers '. income as compared with that of persons engaged in other occupa tions, advantages and disadvantages of cooperative markketing, methods of regulating supply and demand for farm products, are subjects on which a number of recent research have been made and much eloquence expended. In general the farmers economic situation situa-tion is receiving unwonted attention. Undoubtedly there is a basis in fact for this in existing conditions. Farmers are apparently at the present time less able to solve their economic and social problems than other occupational groups. This article does not attempt to suggest one reason as solely responsible. There are many reasons as is usually true of serious problems, especially when complicated by extension over a period of years. It does aim to call attention to one phase of the question frequently overlooked, namely, that concerned with the educational welfare of farm communities and the educational facilities of farm children. "The principle on which the economic success and independence independ-ence of citizens of the United States are based is equality of opportunity, oppor-tunity, an equal chance in so far as humanly possible, for every man to choose the occupation for which he is best fitted and to develop to the limit of his innate ability in his chosen vocation." |