ervision as the system is at
present organized, make us again turn to the consolidated school as the
remedy for these adverse conditions. For with its improved attendance,
its skilled teaching, and its better supervision, it easily and
naturally renders such conditions impossible. Give the consolidated
school, in addition, the greatly enriched curriculum which it will find
possible to offer its pupils, and the vexing question of the relation of
the rural school to its pupils will be far toward solution.

Let us next consider somewhat in detail the curriculum of the rural
school.

FOOTNOTES:

[Footnote 1: See "Consolidated Rural Schools," Bulletin 232, U. S.
Department of Agriculture.]

[Footnote 2: Bulletin 232, U. S. Department of Agriculture, p. 38.]

[Footnote 3: Bulletin 232, U. S. Department of Agriculture, p. 51.]

III

THE CURRICULUM OF THE RURAL SCHOOL

If we grant the economic ability to support good schools, then the
curriculum offered by any type of school, the scope of subject-matter
given the pupils to master, is a measure of the educational ideals of
those maintaining and using the schools. If the curriculum is broad, and
representative of the various great fields of human culture; if it
relates itself to the life and needs of its patrons; if it is adapted to
the interests and activities of its pupils, it may be said that the
people believe in education as a right of the individual and as a
preparation for successful living. But if, on the other hand, the
curriculum is meager and narrow, consisting only of the rudiments of
knowledge, and not related to the life of the people or the interests of
the pupils, then it may well be concluded that education is not highly
prized, that it is not understood, or that it is looked upon as an
incidental.

_The scope of the rural school curriculum_

Modern conditions require a broader and more thorough education than
that demanded by former times, and far more than the typical district
rural school affords. The old-time school offered only the "three R's,"
and this was thought sufficient for an education. But these times have
passed. Not only has society greatly increased in wealth during the last
half-century, but it has also grown much in intelligence. Many more
people are being educated now than formerly, and they are also being
vastly better educated. For the concept of what constitutes an education
has changed, and the curriculum has grown