Evening Republican, Volume 21, Number 166, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 24 July 1918 — Educational Opportunities for All Country Children Must Be Given [ARTICLE]

Educational Opportunities for All Country Children Must Be Given

By MARY C. C. BRADFORD

State Superintendent of Public Instruction, Denver, Colo.

The rural school problem as a whole is practically one with the great problem of America’s function in modern civilizatibn. For America’s proper discharge of its mission in twentieth-century life depends upon the effectiveness of its educational system, and that part of the school organization embraced in what are called rural schools provides for the training of more than one-half of the children in the United States. Therefore it is easy to see the importance of giving to the majority of the school population of our country such advantages as will enable them to become worthy to transmit the best traditions of American life and thought to future generations. Ample educational opportunities for all country children must be afforded by any school system claifning to do efficient .work. Education broad and deep and rich in content and practically adapted to the needs of the rural community must be the aim. The country child is entitled ,to instruction from professionally trained teachers and to the use* of schoolhouses and playgrounds arranged in such a way as to conserve health and comfort and to develop appreciation of beauty and the use of power. The community, is entitled to the possession and use of' such buildings for all purposes tending to enrich the- community life and to tighten the bond of community unity. The rural school teacher is entitled to a salary commensurate with the cost of living and the present-day demands in the lines of scholarship, professional activity and community leadership. The teacher is also entitled to a home environment of comfort, added to'at least a modicum of beauty, to the end that hours of preparatory work and leisure may be spent in congenial surroundings, thereby increasing the .efficiency of the teacher. '