Chapter III: The Curriculum of the Rural School

=The Scope of the Rural School Curriculum=

1. The modern demand for a broader education 57

2. The meagerness of the rural school curriculum 58

3. The rural child requires full elementary and high
school course 60

4. Disadvantages of sending rural child to town school 60

5. Necessary reorganization in rural school offering
broadened curriculum 62

6. General nature of the new curriculum 62

=The Rural Elementary School Curriculum=

1. Relation of the curriculum to social standards
and ideals 64

2. The mother tongue 65

_a._ Necessity for its mastery 65

_b._ Learning the mechanics of the language 66

_c._ Developing the art of expression, oral and
written 67

_d._ Creation of love for reading 67

_e._ Formal grammar out of place in the elementary
school 68

3. Number 69

_a._ The prominent place occupied by arithmetic 69

_b._ Importance of development of the number concept 69

_c._ An undue proportion of time devoted to arithmetic 70

_d._ Desirable changes in the teaching of arithmetic 71

4. History and civics 71

_a._ The right and duty of every person to know
the history and government of his country 72

_b._ History not to deal chiefly with war and
politics, but to emphasize the social and industrial side 72

_c._ The library of historical books 73

_d._ Functional versus analytical civics 73

5. Geography and nature study 74

_a._ Advantage of the rural school in this field 74

_b._ The social basis of geography 75

_c._ Application of geography and nature study
to the farm 75

6. Hygiene and health 76

_a._ Criticism of older concept of physiology for
the elementary school 76

_b._ Content of practical course in hygiene 77

_c._ Application of hygiene to the child's health
and growth 77

7. Agriculture 78

_a._ Adaptability to the rural elementary school 78

_b._ Content of the elementary course in agriculture 79

_c._ Relation to farm life 79

8. Domestic science and manual training 79

_a._ Place in elementary rural school 80

_b._ What can be taught 80

_c._ Its practical application 80

9. Music and art 81

_a._ Necessity in a well-balanced curriculum 81

_b._ Appreciation rather than criticism the aim 81

10. Physical training 81

_a._ Need of physical training of rural children 82

_b._ Rural school athletics 82

=The Rural High School Curriculum=

1. Rural high schools not yet common 83

2. The functions of the rural high school 84

3. English in the rural high school 84

_a._ Its aim 85

_b._ Points of difference from present high school
course 86

4. Social science to have an applied trend 86

5. The material sciences as related to the problems
of the farm 87

6. Manual training and domestic science 89

7. A modified course in high school mathematics 89

8. Foreign language not to occupy an important place 90

9. The high school course to include music and art 90