k philosophers, becoming teachers of youth,
turned the nation into a set of students and disputants over
philosophical questions. Sparta taught her boys the arts of war, and
became the chief military nation of her time. Germany introduces
technological studies into her schools, and becomes the leading country
in the world in the arts of manufacture. Let any people emphasize in
their schools the studies that lead to commercial and professional
interests, and neglect those that prepare for industrial vocations, and
the industrial welfare of the nation is sure to suffer.

The curriculum of the rural school must, therefore, contain the basic
subjects that belong to all culture,--the studies that every normal,
intelligent person should have just because he belongs to the
twentieth-century civilization, and in addition must include the
subjects that afford the knowledge and develop the attitude and
technique belonging to the life of the farm. Let us now consider this
curriculum somewhat more in detail.

_The mother tongue._ Mastery of his mother tongue is the birthright of
every child. He should first of all be able to speak it correctly and
with ease. He should next be able to read it with comprehension and
enjoyment, and should become familiar with the best in its literature.
He should be able to write it with facility, both as to its spelling and
its composition. Finally, he should know something of the structure, or
grammar, of the language.

This requirement suggests the content of the curriculum as to English.
The child must be given opportunity to use the language orally; he must
be led to talk. But this implies that he must have something to say, and
be interested in saying it. Formal "language lessons," divorced from all
the child's interests and activities, will not meet the purpose.
Facility in speech grows out of enthusiasm in speaking. Every recitation
is a lesson in English, and should be used for this purpose; nor should
the aim be correctness only, but ease and fluency as well.

The child must also learn to read; not alone to pronounce the printed
words of a page, but to grasp the thought and feeling, and express them
in oral reading. This presupposes a mastery of the mechanics of reading,
the letters, words, and marks employed. The only way to learn to read is
by reading. This is true whether we refer to learning the mechanics of
reading, to learning the apprehension and expression of thought, or to
learn