of the girls educated,
trained mothers. To be sure this course would not make of the boys
railroad presidents or United States senators; but even that is not a
drawback because, incredible as it may sound to many old-fashioned
ears, the vast majority of these boys will be miners and mechanics. The
question is, therefore, Shall they be good miners or bad ones? United
States senatorships bother them not a whit.

If there are, as there always will be in such a village, a few
exceptional children who desire more advanced work, the teacher can do
exactly what he does now--namely, give them special instruction.

Such an educational system as that outlined would require more training
in the teachers, and an additional outlay for tools and school-rooms,
but it would train the boys and girls of the village to live their lives
effectively.

The mine-village educational problem is rendered especially easy of
solution because the community is small in size, and because there are
only two occupations, mining and homekeeping, into which the children
go.

A similar situation may be found in most of the agricultural districts,
except that the boys take up farming instead of mining, while the girls
are called upon to participate in farm work to the extent of caring for
chickens and pigs, and sometimes for milk. In such an agricultural
community the same outline for study might apply, except that in
training for occupations boys should be taught the facts regarding soil
fertility, fruit culture, dairying, market gardening, and other
agricultural problems, while girls need instruction which will fit them
for domestic life and for parenthood.

In New York State a number of agricultural high schools giving a course
such as the one just hinted at, have met with marked success. Most
country children do not go to high school, however--although they are
doing so in increasing numbers--and hence the necessity for shaping the
elementary course along similar lines.

VII The Educational Problems of an Industrial Community

When the mining village and the farming district are replaced by the
industrial town and the city, the school problem is greatly complicated
by the crowding of many people into a small space and by the great
diversity of occupations which the people pursue. The larger the town
the worse the crowding and the greater the variety of jobs. Otherwise
the problem of education remains largely the same.

The most apparent ne