THE EDINBORO QUARTERLY Yol. II. September, 1915 No. 4 IEJJtnbor0 ^uart^rly 'T'HE EDINBORO QUARTERLY is issued in December, March, June and September by ^ the Edinboro State Normal School. The March number constitutes the Alumni Reg­ ister, the June number, the Catalog. and general news matter. The other two numbers are filled with announcements "Entered as second-class matter, December 11, 1913, at the postoffice at Edinboro, Pennsylvania, under the act of August 24, 1912." FACULTY FOR 1915-16 FRANK E. BAKER, PRINCIPAL Education A. B., Allegheny; A. M., Harvard WILLIAM G. SIDDELL, VICE- PRINCIPAL Mathematics A. B. Syracuse; A. M., Clark ANNIE L. WILSON Librarian Edinboro Normal School; Western Reserve Library Board MARY ELIZABETH POWELL Art Clarion Normal School; Valpariso University; Harvard Summer School H. SACKETT History and Mathematics A. B. and A. M., Washington and Jefferson OLIVIA J. THOMAS Music A. B., Thiel; Dana Institute; Chautauqua Summer School; pupil of Madame von Klemmer WALLACE J, SNYDER Science Sc. B., Bucknell GEORGE B. FROST Manual Training Alden Academy DAVID STANCLIFF Science and Common Branches Edinboro Normal; Leland Stanford JANET GILLESPIE Critic Teacher, first and second grades Edinboro Normal School; Teachers’ College Summer School THE EDINBORO QUARTERLY MAUD HOWARD Critic Teacher, fifth and sixth grades Edinboro Normal School; Teachers’ College Summer School FRANCES BURCHFIELD Critic Teacher, third and fourth grades Edinboro Normal School; Teachers’ College Summer School RUBY ANDERSON Critic Teacher, seventh and eighth grades Edinboro Normal School HOWARD H. DENISON Principal, High School Department A. B., Allegheny College FLORENCE FOWLER BAKER Household Arts Miss Cook’s School of Domestic Science, New York; New York Library School ELLEN M. SULLIVAN English Edinboro Normal School; Emerson College ROBERT PATTON ANDERSON Latin and French A. B. and A. M., Princeton FRANCIS L. LaBOUNTY English A. B. and A. M., Allegheny LEILA M. COBB Supervisor, Training Schools North Carolina State Normal School; Teachers’ College FRANCES H. CLARK Psychology and Principles of Education B. S., Teachers’ College VERA SCHUELLER German Hoehere Maedchenschule, Pirna, Saxony STUART D. GRAHAM Physical Training and Athletics Edinboro Normal School; Springfield Y. M. C. A. Training School; ^ Harvard Summer School MABEL E. ENTERLINE Critic Teacher, Model Rural School Edinboro State Normal School; State College Summer School BEATRICE K., SHERWOOD Piano Ohio Wesleyan Conservatory of Music MRS. RHODA SMITH ROSSMORE Matron and Nurse LOUIS GVATSOVSKY Violin THE EDINBORO QUARTERLY 3 work of the German Department in any of our best private schools or to fill the position of native instructor in a college. She has been a constant student all her life, and much of the time she has assisted her father in tutoring Americans who come to him for advanced work. For the past four years she has done advanced private tutoring in Helsingfors, Finland, largely with University men and wo­ men. In all of this work she has had the highest success. ‘T fell sure that Fraulein Schueller would be a strong addition to any faculty, or a most valuable private tutor, if she cared to take such a po­ sition during the summer.” During the present summer, Frau­ lein Schueller has been instructing in German in the Summer School of Middlebury College, Middlebury, Vt. MISS VERA SCHUELLER Miss Vera Schueller comes from the German Department of the Packer Collegiate Institute to take charge of the same department in the Edinboro State Normal School.. Fraulein Schueller was born in Pirna, Saxony, and was educated in the Hoehere Maedchenschule of that town and in her father’s school of lan­ guages. The following extract is from a let­ ter by Miss Eulalie Osgood Grover, author of the “Sunbonnet Babies:” “I first knew Fraulein Schueller when she was fourteen years old, at which time I spent eight months in her parents’ home studying the lan­ guage and literature with her father. I have kept in touch with her during the intervening years, and it has been a great pleasure to watch her develop into the finely educated and cultured woman which she now is. Two years ago I was again in her home in Ger­ many for a few weeks, and I was at that time assured of her quite unus­ ual practical and inspirational quali­ ties as a teacher. Fraulein Schueller is, I believe, thor­ oughly competent to conduct the FRANCIS L. LaBOUNTY All friends and alumni of the Edin­ boro State Normal School will be glad to hear that Mr. Francis L. LaBounty is to come back to the school as head of the English Department. Mr. LaBounty was graduated from Allegheny College in 1907. From 1907 to 1911, he taught English in 4 THE EDINBORO QUARTERLY Alden Academy. In 1911, he became head of the English Department in the Edinboro State Normal School, resigning in June, 1914. to take up newspaper work. Mr. LaBounty has contributed to various newspapers and magazines and to the Centennial History of Al­ legheny College. In 1913, he was elected an honorary member of Phi Beta Kappa of that institution in recognition of the scholarly merit of a paper read by him at the Founder’s Day Celebration, entitled “Timothy Alden, A Study in Leadership.” lege during the regular sessions of 1906-7 and 1914-1S and the summer sessions of 1910-14, securing a certi­ ficate in supervision of elementary schools, a diploma in supervision of rural schools, and the degree B.' S. in education. ' MISS LEILA M. COBB Miss Leila M. Cobb, who has been appointed Supervisor of the Training Schools for the year 1915-16, has had unusual experience and training for this work. She was educated in the Goldsboro, N. C., Pligh School, in the State Normal School of North Caro­ lina, and in Teachers’ College of Columbia University. After graduating from the Normal School, Miss Cobb spent eight years teaching and two years in country school supervision in the state of North Carolina. For the next three years she taught in the Normal De­ partment of Winthrop College, Rock Hill, S. C. During the years 1913 to 1915, she was a student in Teachers’ College, receding a certificate in Elementary Supervision in June, 1915. Miss Cobb has lectured and in­ structed in summer institutes in the state of North Carolina, has taught in the summer school in the Univer­ sity of North Carolina, and is now engaged in the Summer Normal School at Richmond, Va. FRANCES H. CLARK Miss Frances H. Clark, who will have charge of the new department of Theory of Education, is a native of Tennessee. She taught in the rural schools of that state from 1902 to 1906 and in the Isidore Newman Manual Training School from 1907 to 1914. Miss Clark attended Teachers’ Col­ MISS MABEL E. ENTERLINE The appointment of Miss Mabel E. Enterline as Critic Teacher of the new Model Rural School assures the success of that departure. Miss Enterline became interested in the country school problem during her senior year at Edinboro. Those who attended the 1914 Commence­ ment will remember her excellent or­ ation on “The Country School a Social Center,” which was published in full in the October, 1914, Edinboro Quarterly. Last year Miss Enterline taught a very successful country school in Mercer County, under the able super­ vision of County Superintendent H. E. McConnell. She is now at State College Summer School, taking courses in Rural School Methods. THE EDINBORO QUARTERLY 5 the end of one year in that school he received an appointment as athletic director of a branch Y. M. C. A. of Toronto, Canada. Mr. Graham is spending the sum­ mer at the Harvard Summer School, making special preparation for his work next year. STUART D. GRAHAM It can almost be said that Stuart D. Graham was brought up in a gym­ nasium, his father having been in­ structor in gymnastics at the Uni­ tarian College in Meadville for twenty years. During his course at the Edinboro State Normal School, Mr. Graham distinguished himself in all branches of athletics, football, basketball, tennis and indoor gym­ nastics. After graduation from the Edin­ boro State' Normal School, Mr. Gra­ ham entered the Y. M. C. A. Train­ ing School at Springfield, Mass. At MISS BEATRICE SHERWOOD Miss Beatrice Sherwood, who will assist in the Department of Music, is a graduate of the Conservatory of Music of Ohio Wesleyan University. For the last two years she has taught piano and pipe organ in the Synodi­ cal College of Missouri. 1915-16 PROSPECTIVE The Edinboro State Normal School created the department of Theory of will begin its fifty-fifth year on Sep­ Education, and chose Miss Frances tember seventh with unusually bright Clark of Teachers’ College to fill the position. This will give the head of prospects. Educationally, there will be several the Department of Education more departures. In order to unify and time for the supervision of the prac­ strengthen the professional work of ^ tice work and will result in greater the school, the Board of Trustees unity in the professional instruction. 6 THE EDINBORO QUARTERLY Hereatfer, all the strictly professional subjects will be taught by the Prin­ cipal, Miss Cobb, Miss Clarke, and Mr. Siddell. The Rural Model School, which is described below will be another step in the differentiation , of the profes­ sional work of the school. Much new equipment has been ordered and will be installed before September seventh. The Music De­ partment will be equipped through­ out with new Henry F. Miller pianos. Twelve new instruments, ten up­ rights, one concert grand and one parlor grand, have been ordered and will be ready for use on opening day. Much new physics and chemistry apparatus, new chemistry desks, and one hundred new tablet arm chairs for the remodeled class rooms in Normal Hall have been ordered. The Board is planning to spend nearly $20,000 in improvements, all of which they hope to have completed before cold weather. The first floor of Normal Hall is being remodeled, partitions are being removed and windows added to in­ crease the light. These changes will give three more large, well lighted classrooms. The book room will be moved from the basement to the first floor and will be combined with the Registrar’s office. The first floor of Science Hall is being remodeled so as to make room for the new chemistry desks. The walls of Reeder and Haven Halls are being repaired and redec­ orated and new furnishings installed. Contract has been let for the con­ struction of an addition to Haven Hall 125 X 65 feet. For the present, only the basement and first floor will be completed. The first story will contain a dining room to seat five hundred, kitchen, serving rooms, pantrys and servants’ dining room. The basement will contain cold stor­ age rooms and servants’ quarters. With the completion of this wing, there will pass another landmark among the school buildings. South Hall will be torn down and its site made ready for the new science build­ ing which it is hoped the next session of Legislature will make possible. THE RURAL MODEL SCHOOL The most definite educational trend among Normal Schools is toward greater differentiation. Superintend­ ents and school authorities are no longer satisfied with teachers who have had a general professional train­ ing. They demand teachers trained especially for the kindergarten, pri­ mary grades, or the grammar grades. The demand for specially trained rural school teachers has just begun, but it is growing more insistent every year and soon will become impera­ tive in many counties. The Edinboro State Normal School was one of the first in Pennsylvania to recognize the demand for trained rural school teachers; in fact, Edin­ boro has done much to foster this demand. Heretofore we have been greatly handicapped in our rural school work by the lack of a rural model school to supplement and strengthen the theoretical work given in the classes in Rural Methods, Rural Sociology, etc. To remove this handicap, the Board of Trustees has provided a Rural Model School for the year 1915-16. Such schools have been in operation in the west for several years. Two plans have been adopt­ ed there. Either the Normal School has built a model rural school on its own campus and transported the children to the school, or else the Normal School has made a contract with adjoining districts by which the normal students in the rural school group were allowed to practice and THE EDINBORO QUARTERLY observe in these schools, under com­ petent supervision. The latter plan has been adopted at Edinboro. The Trustees of the Normal School have entered into contract with the Trustees of Venango township, Craw­ ford county, by which the Torry school in that township will be used 7 as a model rural school. Miss Mabel Enterline has been employed as critic teacher, and seniors in the rural school group will be sent to the dis­ trict in groups of two or three, each group to remain in the district a week at a time to practice and observe in an actual country school under rural conditions. THE MUSIC DEPARTMENT, 1915-16 The Music Department of the Edin­ boro State Normal offers two-year courses in piano, voice, violin, theory of music, and public school music. Three teachers, Miss Olivia Thomas, director, who teaches piano, voice, theory, pipe organ and public school music, an assistant teacher and an instructor in violin consti­ tute the teaching force of the de­ partment. Music Hall has been newly painted and has undergone ex­ tensive repairs during the summer and the studios and practice rooms have been equipped throughout with new pianos. The assembly room, the meeting place of classes, or­ chestra and choral society, and Nor­ mal Hall have new Grand pianos. The orchestra, which plays for chapel each morning and for all school affairs, is composed of stu­ dents and meets once each week under the direction of the head of the department. The Choral Society, whose mem­ bers are students and towns people, is, an active organization of about fifty members. This society prac­ tices once each week and gives can­ tatas, concerts, etc., and furnishes music for all public services held in Normal Hall. Gaul’s Cantata, “Ruth,” was given by the society last spring and proceeds given to the charity fund of the town. Three persons graduated in June in public school music, two in piano and one in voice. THE COUNTRY GIRL’S VISION Edna Hazen, ’15 Just as naturally as birds build their nests do girls want to be homekeepers, and though many customs have changed through the slow pro­ cess of evolution, yet we find this instinct more deeply rooted in the hearts of our girls than ever. To be an efficient home-keeper in every sense of the word is what the Amer­ ican girl should attain. It is woman’s sphere to make life livable anywhere. To her is given the sense of the graceful and gra­ cious, the touch that molds the com­ mon-place into the exquisite. It is her highest faculty and her mission and yet everywhere about us we see girls failing to accomplish this very purpose. Where do people get that desirable quality, which we call re­ finement? Surely it is only through the influence of the home and com­ panions. Whatever the effect of this influence upon our lives may be, the prime source of it, the home, should be pure and sweet. 8 THE EDINBORO QUARTERLY Though the country home should be the ideal place for developing in our girls this inborn instinct of home­ keeping, it seemingly has not ful­ filled this ideal. Let us think what the conditions of the average coun­ try girl are. The farmer has long been progressive and has tried to teach his boys how to raise more corn per acre and better stock, but he has not thought about helping his daughter to make a better home. And because he has not thought of that he is unable to keep his boy in the country, for the boy is leaving the country more because of the lack of an attractive home than of any­ thing else. The farmer has long since invested in as expensive and up-to-date farm machinery as he can get for himself, yet, rarely do we find a kitchen with modern conven­ iences to the same degree. Slowly, wearily, time-killingly, health-killingly mothers and daughters are making drudgery of their work, which keeps them going round and round in the same spot instead of going forward. It is because of this, that mother and daughter rarely find the time or need for home-keeping magazines. Each knows very little of the world out­ side her immediate community. The girl longs for a good time, but where will she go for it. The country church offers very little in the way of an attractive recreation, and there is almost no other resort but the dance, and the influence of the coun­ try dance, as we usually know it, is questionable. Thus only as a natural result of such an environment, the girl de­ velops from girlhood to woman-hood, living as it were, from day to day with no ambition, merely expecting that she will, some day, be married, and have a home of her own. We often find her married in her teens, settled down to a life of almost con­ stant drudgery, void of those many things which make life so attractive, and help one over the hard places. Her home is surrounded by nature’s beauties, and yet the little spot of ground around her house is often the barest and dreariest place one can imagine. She has found nothing to in­ spire her, and because of this she fol­ lows along in the same way, never changing her life for something bet­ ter. But all country girls are not willing to settle down in this ambitionless and hum-drum way. There are some who have visions and because they have visions they reach out to grasp better things, and the nature of their visions determines the heights to which they will attain. For instance, there is one type of country girl whom we all known, and whom we often must pity, because her life is so many times a tragedy. The dis­ content among the farm wives and daughters is brought to bear directly upon her life. She is discontented, not so much, because she must work, but discontented because, after all her hard work, her life is not satisfying. She is alive and ambitious, but her vision is wholly material. There are two things which she wants, and which she thinks the cky will offer her. They are money and, more al­ luring still, an attractive marriage. So, in her effort to broaden her life, she pushes out from the country road to what is often a more narrow city street. She is eager and hopeful, but we know how many, many times she is disappointed. We find her sometimes with little more wage per week after several years’ service in the city than when she started. Per­ haps she is married, living in a rented home with little more of this world’s goods than the household furnishings and the constant worry that the hus­ band will be thrown out of work. She has fulfilled her vision, yet in a larger sense she has failed—but the fault lay in her vision. But there is another country girl, who like her more unfortunate sister, has been yearning and longing for something to make her own life more satisfying. The vision which has come to her is not merely the satis­ fying of her own material wants, Tut THE EDINBORO QUARTERLY the enrichment of her whole life. She sees the utter desolateness with which those about her go from one day’s work to another, thinking of it only as dreary, montonous drudgery. She realizes that the bareness and sordid­ ness which fill their lives should not be there, but instead an eager and en­ thusiastic interest in their work and the things about them. She realizes that if the housekeeping were run on a thinking and intelligent basis and not on a mere matter of physical en­ durance, that the home would become attractive and inspiring, and with the home changed, the attitude of those in it would be altogether different. The wife would have time to be a companion to her husband and a true mother and comrade to her children. And because she sees how directly the influence of the community is brought to bear upon the home and children she reaches out to help this too. She knows there is too little of real pleasure and thinking of the better things in life, and so she grad­ ually works to make the lives of those people about more enjoyable and more worthwhile to themselves. She sees before her what will be at times a very difficult and discourag­ ing life, but oh—how very satisfying! Country girls, whoever you are, wherever you are, and amid whatever 9 surroundings, should there ever come to you the faintest glimmer of such a vision, will you not nourish and care for it, so that it may grow and become the beacon-light to your lives? You have the chance to put into your hearts and souls and char­ acters, all the things that are most worth while, if you can only compre­ hend that God created the country with the greatest advantages in the whole world for you. We carry our own happiness and our satisfaction to a great extent in our own hearts, and if your eyes are wide open, you may find right at your doors what you might search in vain for, else­ where. It rests entirely with you what you are going to get out of your country life. It is you that count for— Some ships sail east, and some sail west. By the self-same winds that blow: ’Tis the set of the sails, and not the gales That determines which way they go. Like the winds of the East are the forces of fate. As we travel along through life; ’Tis the set of the soul that deter­ mines the goal. And not the calm or strife. SHOULD THE COURSE OF STUDY FOR RURAL SCHOOLS BE FUNDAMENTALLY CHANGED? Rural School Conference, February, 1915 By Helen W. Zons The course of study for the mod­ ern rural school must be broader and more practical than that of the old type of school. Rural schools for­ merly met the requirements socially and intellectually. In those days there was no need for Manual Train­ ing, Domestic Science, etc., because such training was received in the home. Almost everything, from clothing to furniture and farm ma­ chinery was the product of their own hands. In modern times, however, this home-manufactory has passed away and in its place we have the factory and the workshop. Life has become more complex, and children must be trained to meet the new re- 10 THE EDINBORO QUARTERLY quirements. They must learn to work with the hand as well as the brain. The old course of study is no longer adequate. It must be changed to meet the new demands. The aim in reorganizing the course of study in rural schools, is to select a point of common interest and to use this as a foundation, on which to build a mastery of the fundamentals of knowledge, and then to add cer­ tain things which have heretofore been lacking. This will lead to a more complete learning of the ele­ mentary branches, and create a de­ sire for more extended and helpful education than the children are now receiving. The fundamental basis of interest is easily found in the lives of rural school pupils for they all come from homes founded on the same type of occupation—agriculture. They are interested in the same industrial problems. For this reason. Nature Study should be made the basis around which the other subjects are to be grouped. Manual Training of the type most related to the needs of the farm, and Home Economics suited to the condition of the farm home, should also receive their share of attention. This does not mean that the branches now taught are to be omitted and neglected; they are only to be set in their proper relation to the interest and experience of the pupil. Reorganization, not annihila­ tion is the aim. The old curriculum has been mod­ eled after that of the city, and does not meet the needs of the country child. In fact, it has been educating the child away from the country. It has laid too much emphasis on the technical and theoretical side rather than the practical. The new curriculum, on the other hand, connects the school with the home activities, by starting at the most practical and natural starting point—nature study. Thus the child learns to appreciate the country, with its beauty, to live a more hygienic life and to be a more successLil far­ mer. And these, we all realize, are vital points. Nature study forms a natural basis for all other branches that deal with our physical environment, such as Geography, Physiology, Agriculture, Manual Training, Farm Mechanics, etc. Reading, Writing and Arithme­ tic will not be neglected but will be taught even more efficiently than ever before. We all know that there is much room for improvement in these subjects, in the average coun­ try school. Music and Art should also constitute a part of the rural school program. The country child has as much right to enjoy good mu­ sic and good pictures as the city child, and since he has not the oppor­ tunities that the city child has, there is all the more reason why they should be brought into his home. The Rural Schools must meet the require­ ments socially, if children are to be kept in the country. One of the greatest questions we have to consider in America today is that of the high price of food. This vital question will not be solved until people stop leaving the country for the city, and until agriculture is car­ ried on in a more scientific way. I believe that these conditions can be brought about only by the reorgan­ ization of the course of study in Rural Schools. THE EDINBORO QUARTERLY II REVELATIONS AND POSSIBILITIES OF THE COUNTRY CHURCH Ethel Bentley, ’15 Almost two thousand years ago a ter that all this life and activity and child was born among the hills of far progress must be vitalized and spirit­ Judea. Fostered with loving care, ualized. A great and glorious oppor­ and guided by wise hands the Child tunity is hers if she will but reach grew into manhood beautiful and out and grasp it and lay hold of it as strong, and “He went about his something very precious. There is Father’s business.” He gathered no good reason why the country about him a group of simple country church should stand alone as such. folk, and lo! the first church had its It should, and can be made a social, beginning. Close to the very heart as well as a religious center for the of nature from which it drew its very whole community. It must not mere­ life and strength and peace; living ly save souls, but it must save and under the stimulus of the divine com­ conserve and develop for this present mand, this simple country church has life the bodily, moral, and the intel­ developed even to the present day, lectual powers. until the numbers of its members Kenyon L. Butterfield of the Com­ have increased from the few scores mission on Country Life says: “Ag­ of fishermen and farmers at Galilee ricultural prosperity is not to be the to its hundreds of thousands. One final result of rural improvement. day this Man taught his people a The rural problem is the preserva­ Prayer. It was this; “Thy Kingdom tion upon our American farms of a Come.” For a long time men did not fine, strong, intelligent, resourceful, understand what that could mean; honest class of people.” Spirituality they struggled in their ignorance to is absolutely essential to this reali­ bring that Kingdom to earth; they zation, but spirituality must not be did not realize that this earth must mis-used. It is the country church be brought nearer the Kingdom and itself that has laid the foundation for not that the Kingdom should descend its own death during the decades to earth. And now at last, men have when it tried to teach the people not come to know that they must seek to be well and wise and prosperous salvation through this world—not be and happy and good, but merely to dodging around it. And it is to the be religious. Surely it is not a par­ country church that a divinely mute adox to say that a religion of “Thou appeal is even now being made—to shalt not’s” produces at the outset a help mankind; to lift up to a new class of people whose goodness con­ richness of life and a broader concep­ sists of not doing things—the exact tion of an existence truly worth while. opposite of the American ideal of to­ The opportunity of the country day, which finds its real salvation in church is almost boundless. It is in doing things and in rendering ser­ the heart of the world’s greatest in­ vice to others. dustry. The farmer indeed stands be­ Therefore, we find that t1 e task of tween the world and starvation. The the country church is well nigh stuprosperity of the nation and of the penduous. It must achieve results world depends on the prosperity of which will find expression in human the farmer. A great tide is sweeping character and in social environment. over our country bearing upon its It must be an inspirational force to crest the good news that country life the home. It must instill in the has not yet had its day. And it is hearts of the young people a love for through the country church as a cen­ farming and for country life; it must 12 THE EDINBORO QUARTERLY glorify- toil and idealize it; but above all else it must inspire the country with a spirit of belief in itself. But that the country church as well as any other church will meet diffi­ culties and hardships we all know. Every community should keep open one church and only one. Too many churches are not founded right. A strife arises and now two churches stand where one and only one is needed. In a country town which I know not far away, there are three churches only a few yards distant from each other. In one, services have not been held for many years, and the other two are struggling along for mere existence. Coopera­ tion, not creed is the secret of church union in country as in city. The only sound basis for a vital church today is the spontaneous religious emotion of a happy and prosperous people. Another difficulty is the unattrac­ tiveness of the church itself. The farmer spends a great deal of time and money in modernizing and beau­ tifying his home, but still the coun­ try church stands there year in and year out, weather beaten and unpaint­ ed, and if the windows are unbroken and the roof sheds rain, the far­ mer stands back and views it com­ placently. Then, too, the church must strive not to be too narrow. The “boss” system rules in many rural districts to the detriment of commun­ ity life. Two or three families are often as real tyrants as an eighteenth century duke. Many a country church has had this discouraging feature to cope with, and many a congregation has given up the struggle-for democ­ racy and equality in despair. The greatest mistake, however, is made in separating religion from life. The little white church on the hill is the place where an intelligent and in­ dustrious class of people meet to worship; to greet each other in happy fellowship, and to hear plain practi­ cal sermons that will teach them to live in the best and, happiest way. The church must be made a neces­ sary part of their lives. It must lead in community activities and must share in a great campaign for rural progress. It is high time that due consideration was given to all our legitimate interests as a part of our religion. Indeed, there is no good reason why the young people could not meet together at a rural church and on the same evening have an oyster supper and a prayer meeting— and in such a way that each would be vitalized by the other. The church must remember that the body, mind, and spirit are to be cared for and developed. The church plant must be enlarged and made attractive and useful. In some places classes have been established in agriculture for the boys, and in domestic science for the girls. Everywhere these have met with great success. Surely a new era is dawning in which country people are recognizing the fact that if they would keep their boys and girls on the farm they must educate them for the farm. It is too big a life to enter into without careful preparation. The country has too many problems for -the uneducated man. The young peo­ ple must be surrounded with a stimu­ lating atmosphere, harmonious and cultural, that will teach them to love the country and to believe in it. The church and its two great allies, the home and the school must co-oper­ ate in this work. If each of these is made attractive and inspiring, the country boy and girl problem will be solved. Probably the greatest factor in the rural church problem is that too many country ministers are not well prepared for their work. The country minister must be a power in the com­ munity. He should know the up-todate methods in agriculture and all phases of farm life. He should re­ ceive special training for a rural pas­ torate, for his duties there vary from that of janitor to high financier. He must be public spirited, and public spirit is only another name for ser­ vice—his great ideal. A large part of the life of the Christ was filled with social service which was loving and THE EDINBORO QUARTERLY kind and beautiful, and the country minister divinely called to a great work must need also spend a great deal of his time in this splendid work. To men of vision, who love the open country with its pulsating life and beauty; who love old Mother Nature and the soil with its marvelous pos­ sibilities, the country parish is send­ ing a mighty challenge, and to him who accepts this challenge earnestly, prayerfully and hopefully, the reward will indeed be great. And O! let us believe in the gospel of labor for there is work to be done, wherever we are in city or country, good and glorious work, all of it, and our part is to do it gloriously and well, for: In some great day The country church Will find its voice And it will say: “I stand in the fields Where the wide earth yields Her bounties of fruit and of grain: Where the furrows turn 13 Till the plow shares burn And they come round and round again; Where the workers pray With their tools all day In sunshine and shadow and rain.” “And I bid them tell Of the crops they sell And speak of the work they have done; I speed every man In his hope and plan And follow his day with sun; And grasses and trees. The birds and the bees, I know I feel everyone.” “And out of it all As the seasons fall 1 build my great temple alway; I point to the skies. But my foot stone lies In the common-place work of the way; For I preach the worth Of the native earth To love and to work is to pray.” THE MINIMUM PROFESSIONAL REQUIREMENT OF THE RURAL TEACHER Rural School Conference, February, 1915 Mabel Shattuck There is no other one factor that contributes as largely to the success or failure of the school as the teacher. The people of the district may be in­ terested in improving the school; the •directors may be liberal and progres­ sive; but, if the teacher is a failure, the school will be a failure. This is especially true of the rural school. In the city schools, the principal and supervisors oversee the work, to some extent; but the country teacher is her own supervisor and principal. Since so much depends upon the rural teacher, it is very necessary that she be well prepared for the position which she is to fill. First of all, she must have an adequate scholastic training, equal at least, to a good high school education; but beyond this, she should be professionally trained to teach. It was formerly thought that scholastic training was all- that was necessary to become a successful teacher; but time and ex­ perience have proven this to be a mistake. The great specialists are often the poorest teachers. They are masters of their subjects, but they do not know how to present these subjects to students. The teacher must not only be perfectly familiar 14 THE EDINBORO QUARTERLY with the subject, herself, but she must know how to present this sub­ ject in such a way that the pupils will be able to grasp it. We say that some people are “born” teachers; but this only means that they are quick to grasp the fun­ damental principles underlying in­ struction, and are skillful in putting these into practice. Even the Ijorn teacher needs to be trained in the principles underlying her art. The fate of the new branches now being introduced into the rural school depends in a large degree upon the skill and effectiveness with which they are taught. If agriculture, domestic science, and manual train­ ing are presented in an impractical way, both the pupils and their par­ ents will be likely to see little value in the study of these subjects. While, if they are taught in such a way that the children can apply them in their everyday lives, these subjects will find an important place in the rural school curriculum. In order to receive this training, so necessary to successful work, the teacher must take some course es­ pecially designed for this purpose. In connection with some high schools, there are teachers’ training classes that are efficient to a certain degree; but, in the majority of cases, a nor­ mal school education should be the minimum professional requirement of the rural teacher. THE IDEAL IN EDUCATION John Harbaugh, ’15 When you have looked for the last time into the truthful eyes of the children, as the relation of teacher and pupils is about to be severed, and they stand before you on the threshhold of manhood, and move slowly onward to fill their places in this world of activity, think of what you have produced and see if you can say, “It is well, I am content.” What will the harvest be? How have you trained these lives? Society asks of you a perfect man. What have you given her? These questions invari­ ably arise and they must be answered. You cannot evade them, teachers, ministers, parents, and, whether you will or not, your answer will go on record. How will the men and women you have trained, your educational goods, so to speak, be rated in the markets of success? Will superior mental products crowd them to the bottom or will they be leaders among men? When Christ gathered the children around Him and said, “Suffer the lit­ tle ones to come unto me,” well might He have said, “These are My loved ones, take them, teach them, train them for life, and, when you have done, send them again to Me.” But would they have returned to Christ filled with the joy of right living, strong in the service of right, pro­ ducts worthy of the Master, or would they have returned mere creatures of habit, with no designation as to what that habit is? With questions of this nature ring­ ing in our ears do we not naturally pause to see what our schools are producing? What are the fruits of our toil? Let us look about us. At once we observe the man in thestreet, the beggar, the man who toils^ that he may have bread to keep away hunger. That is, we see the creature of habit, the human machine. He goes because he was set going with­ out knowing why. He labors be­ cause he is hungry or because he was; so commanded. Go down into the mine and see another class from whose life sunshine itself is withheld. Go into the shop and see the mam THE EDINBORO QUARTERLY standing over the machine of which he seems to be the counterpart, toil­ ing for the miserable pittance by which his life is sustained. But some­ one will ask, do they not live an hon­ est, industrious life? Invariably yes, but so does the ox that is harnessed to the plow, or the dog that does his master’s bidding. Human machines, creatures of circumstance. But if these constituted all the vis­ ible waste products of our educa­ tional system, the cry of uneducated lives for redress would be lowered from a shriek to a wail. If I were to tell of the thousands of thieves, drunkards, and murderers found in society today, and ask the cause you will say at once, “improper training.” But let me tell you, parents, minis­ ters of the church, teachers of the school, when you see a young man hurried toward the electric chair with the hand of the law upon his shoul­ der, you may truthfully say, “There goes a product of my toil, for the moulding of this life I drew my wage. This I handed to society when she asked a man. He asked of me edu­ cational bread and I gave him a stone.” We perceive another type of man in society. The partially educated man, the man of intermittent aspir­ ations. He is like a traveler journey­ ing at midnight in a thunderstorm when his only light is an occasional flash of lightning revealing the path here and a chasm there, but once the lightning has passed, a greater dark­ ness prevails. So to this man comes luminous hours, rebuking the common life and as Hillis says, “Then does his soul revolt from any evil thought and thing and long for all that is God-like in character, for honor and purity, for valor and courage, for fidelity to the finer convictions deep hidden in the soul’s secret recesses. What heroes are there—in the vision of the hour! With what fortitude do these soldiers bear up under blows—when the battle is still in the future! But once the conflict comes their cour­ age flees.” As the frost upon the 15 window pane shows trees, houses, thrones, cities, castles, which quickly fade away, so before the mind the im­ agination hangs pictures of the glory and grandeur of the higher life, but one breath of temptation proves their evanescence. In this group of individuals, moti­ vated by intermittent ideals, we ob­ serve the contestant who never quite wins, the judge who never fully de­ cides, the teacher who is not quite sure of his work, or the artist whose paint is never quite right—creatures of mediocrity. Teachers, are we going to be con­ tent with producing such men? Or are we going to renew faith with our ideals and lift them above the social horizon and produce for the world the educated, pulsating, soul-archi­ tects, who travel forward, not any whither but towards a definite port, who steer not by clouds, but by fixed stars? Men, high in manhood, who have for their ideal life’s great Ex­ emplar? With the idea of transmitting to society such a man we naturally look for the place to begin his education. The training begins with the grand­ father or even his father. The child must be well-born. He must spring from sound, sane stock, then the problem of his development is decid­ edly lessened. Eugenics must play their unquestionable part in develop­ ing this individual. Wendell Phillips, when asked how he acquired his skill in oratory, said, “By getting a hun­ dred nights of delivery back of me.” So the best development begins not with the child, but with the grand­ parents. “Let him who would be great, select the right parents,” says President Dwight. Now consider the parents’ respon­ sibility, the child’s training before he enters school. This is the perilous moment. It has been said that fu­ turity is vulnerable only at the point named childhood. The parent must deny himself some of his ease, intel­ lectual advantages, and perhaps some of his cultural pursuits, make a con- i6 THE EDINBORO QUARTERLY slant companion of his child, harvest for the child all the wisdom of his own long years of experience, teach him self-control, and finally reflect his own nature in the child. Children are wax to receive and steel to hold the parents’ teachings. Every man thinks of his parents with tenderness and devotion if he has been trained by them as he should. ’Tis this train­ ing that carries him through the per­ iod of doubt when in later years he begins the study of science and is wont to grow skeptical. Now the child is given into the teacher’s charge, a bubbling lad of six. Here is the teacher’s problem, how to cultivate his life. He must remember to begin with nature. Drummond says: “Nature is the scaf­ folding by which we climb from the known to the unknown, from the maaterial to the mental, and from the mental to the spiritual.” With nature he must work and to her he must ever go for guidance. With the simple law of the natural world in his grasp, the humblest teacher, so far as he uses it, is on an equality with the most famous. I scarcely need mention that the teacher must be guided by the law of continuity, that he must never forget that mind is a force, not a receptacle for a text or proscribed rules and daily routine. Viewing the mind as a passive recipient rather than a force is one of the most, if not the most, baneful weaknesses of present and past teaching. He must accept with a glad heart the truth that mind naturally enjoys growing right, and, having put his mind and heart into the faith, look not backward. His concern is with real vital things, with the spirit, not the bones of a dead past. He must remember to educate the entire man, for individualism in education, though fundamental as a motive, is inadequate and disappoint­ ing as an ideal. He must develop a man beyond the training required for any industrial occupation. And thus the teacher pushes for­ ward in his work, never weary, never faltering, ever upholding his ideal, laboring to fill the demand of society, aiming to develop the man Whittier depicted when he said: “Our yeoman should be equal to his home, set in the fair, green valleys, purple walled. A man to match his mountains, not to creep dwarfed and abased below them.” Thus he produces a well poised, refined, cultivated human be­ ing, one that can cope with any phase of life. He must not endeavor to reach his ideal too quickly, but re­ member that the one perfect product of this type was thirty years in prep­ aration. Thus he strives for his ideal, “Slow as the oaks grow, lifting man­ hood up through broader culture, finer manners, love and reverence, to the level of the hills.” As the young artist who had at­ tached himself to the master-painter and had struggled through many years toward the same goal,’ seated before the canvas one day felt the spirit of the master glow within him, seized the brush and began to paint. But ere he had his vision on the can­ vas his ideal had eluded him. He sank down in discouragement and fell asleep, and as he slept the master entered, saw the canvas and, with one deft stroke, added all that was needed to complete the ideal. So with our struggle for the ideal in education; with the spirit of the Master glowing within us, let us go to work with the zeal of the artist and, if we do not quite attain the ideal, surely after we have lain down to rest the Master’s touch will bring perfection.