Jasper County Democrat, Volume 12, Number 71, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 18 December 1909 — Boys Would Stay on Farm Were Life Made Attractive. [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

Boys Would Stay on Farm Were Life Made Attractive.

By JAMES R. GARFIELD,

Former Secretary of the Interior.

CHE farm is a PLACE OF DRUDGERY when it should be a PLACE OF BEAUTY. It has lost its hold on the boys because of that deadening drudgery. The country school, with its decreasing numbers, has

NOT THE INSPIRATION OF THE CITY SCHOOLS, with their efficient instructors and their up to date methods, nor has it the healthy tone it had in the days of these lads’ fathers, when the schools were crowded. There is no more vicious association than is often found in the country school. IT SHOULD BE SEEN THAT THE COUNTRY BOY, INSTEAD OF BEING A DULLARD AND VICIOUS, HAS HIS MIND OPENED TO WHAT IS GOING ON IN THE WORLD ABOUT HIM AND IS AROUSED SO THAT HE WILL TAKE A KEENER INTEREST IN HIS OWN WORLD AND LIFE.