course calculated to prepare for a trade, business or a profession. See Education, History of; Education, Modern; Normal Schools; Schools, Rural and Schools, Secondary.
Schools, Ru′ral, are generally called country or district schools. The term is applied to that class of elementary schools found in agricultural regions or in communities possessing a more or less scattered population. In the United States, at the present time, the rural school is a public school, free to all children of school-age, (which varies in different states, beginning at four, five or six years and extending to eighteen, nineteen, twenty or twenty-one years), of both sexes, residing within a defined territory, — the school-district, the township or the county. Comparatively few instances of such schools being of parochial or private character are known. In the southern states separate schools are provided for the white and negro children. Special schools for Indian children are maintained by the Federal government on Indian reservations.
As ordinarily existing, a rural school is
taught by a single teacher, in a building
having but one school-room. It is in
session from a few weeks each year in the
poorly provided and less progressive
communities to seven or eight months in the
more favored and progressive sections of
the country. The time of the year at which
the school-session or term is held differs
in different regions, being influenced by the
character of the climate, quality of roads
and occupation of the people. The number
of pupils attending a rural school varies
between the widest extremes. It is not an
uncommon thing, in thinly populated
reigions and in sections divided into many
districts of small area, to find a school
having but a half dozen or fewer pupils.
Frequently, however, in the midst of a
numerous population, or wherever the school
supplies a somewhat larger area, a single
schoolroom may serve for forty, fifty or
sometimes close to a hundred pupils. Some
states have enacted laws which make it
necessary to build another school-room and
employ another teacher when the attendance
of the school reaches a maximum
number, say sixty. Through consolidation
of schools and the transportation of pupils
a widespread movement is going on to
decrease the number of small, poorly
attended and isolated rural schools, and at
the same time to encourage longer and
more regular attendance of pupils. While
the laws making the attendance of children
between certain ages (8 to 14) compulsory,
now in operation in thirty-six states and
territories, are generally intended to apply
to all children, irrespective of whether they
live in city or country, for the most part
no great effort is made to enforce these
laws in the rural districts. The difference
between city and country in this respect
is shown in a striking manner by the fact
that, while the average daily attendance of
pupils in village and city schools is seldom
below 90 per cent., that of the rural schools
is most frequently in the neighborhood of
50 or 60 per cent.
The course of study of the fully organized rural school is usually eight years in length, and is composed of the recognized elementary or common-school subjects, — reading, writing, arithmetic, spelling, English grammar, geography, United States history, civil government, physiology and hygiene. Of recent years some of the more progressive states have added instruction in elementary agriculture, manual training and domestic science. Instead of being a graded school, that is, one made of pupils of nearly the same age and advancement, studying the same subjects together in classes, the rural school in the majority of cases is an ungraded school. In the smallest schools each pupil is a class by himself. In the large schools the whole number of pupils is divided into three or more groups for teaching. By law in most of the states all public schools must be taught in the English language, although in some sections of the country instruction is actually carried on in other languages; for example, in Louisana teaching in the French language is permitted in those localities where the French language predominates and in New Mexico in Spanish where that language is largely employed. While the typical rural school gives instruction of only elementary character, frequently secondary or high-school subjects are included. The establishment of rural and township high-schools and the consolidation of schools, particularly during the last decade, have greatly increased the opportunity of country children for a better and more advanced education.
Organization and Government. All of the public schools of each state are organized into a system. Every public rural school, then, is a state institution and, as such, falls to some degree under the control of a branch of the state government, which is usually presided over by a state superintendent of public instruction or a state board of education. In practice the actual control over any particular school is exercised by school-officers, elected by the people of the locality or chosen by the state educational officials. The local school-officers are known as school-boards, boards of school-directors, boards of education, school-trustees or county superintendents. The method of selection, the powers and the duties of these school-officers vary much in different states. However, it may be said that they act in general under the direction of a state-superintendent or a
