ollow the
flame, but that so many remain on the farm. Insofar as the schools do
stimulate the two great disintegrating tendencies of rural life, the
townward trend of the boys and girls and the increase of absentee
landlords, the country folks have a right to complain. Let the schools
train for the soil rather than away from the soil. Let them exalt rural
ideals and develop rural interests. Let them open the eyes of the country
boys and girls not for fault finding and discontent, but to see the beauty
of the country, the privilege of country freedom and the vast
possibilities of scientific farming and soil productiveness. Before this
can be done, normal schools for rural teachers must move out of the city,
or import, straight from the country, enough country sense and sympathy to
fit the teachers personally for their tasks. Probably the latter. To meet
this evident need, progressive Wisconsin has established county training
schools which give prospective teachers distinctly the rural point of
view; and more than sixty normal schools have established special
departments for the training of teachers in country life and the
essentials of a rural education. Meanwhile some serious problems handicap
the rural school.[31]

_Inferior Equipment and Meager Support_

There are twelve million country school children in the United States and
only half that number of children in cities. Yet the city has invested
twice as much as the country in public school property and spends far more
for school support each year. The average country boy's education costs
but $12.52 a year; while the cities spend $30.78 annually on each pupil.

The question is a fair one, should the boy and girl be penalized for
living in the country? Why should the boy who happens by the accident of
birth to live in the country suffer a needless handicap? When our Puritan
ancestors established the free public school system, the purpose was to
maintain _equal rights for all_, the children of both rich and poor alike.
The welfare of a republic depends on the maintenance of this principle.

It was a significant way-mark of human progress when schools were
established in every community, in city or country, where all children
might have an equal chance before the law. But with the growth of great
cities and the decadence of once prosperous rural communities, the
country boy has been losing his share. The city's growth has in many ways
cost the country dear. It is