EDUCATION IN RURAL SCHOOLS.
237
colleague, is the outcome of this recognition. In the meantime
another organization has been called into existence. Last 3'ear
Sir Wm. Hart-Dyke, M.P., and Mr. Henry Hobhouse, M.P.,
brought together a most powerful "Agricultural Education
Committee," composed of every Member of Parliament interested
in the subject, together with a large number of educational,
agricultural, and administrative experts.1 After many meetings
and much discussion a number of resolutions were framed and
brought under the notice of the Duke of Devonshire and Sir
John Gorst by a most representative deputation which was
received at the Education Department a few months ago by the
Lord President and the Vice-President of the Council. These
resolutions covered the whole ground of rural education, both in
its elementary and advanced stages, and were supported by Sir
Wm. Hart-Dyke, Sir Henry Roscoe, Principal Reichei, Mr.
Macan, the present writer, and others.
That the sympathy of the Education Department would be
secured from the first might have been inferred from Sir John
Gorst's speech at Dunmow last year. It is with particular
satisfaction, therefore, that all educationalists and all lovers of
Nature will read the following Circular addressed to the
Managers and Teachers of Rural Elementary Schools by the
Board :—
" Board of Education, Whitehall, London, S.W.,
" April, 1900.
" Sir,—The Board of Education are anxious to call the attention of
Managers and Teachers of Elementary Schools, situated in the agricultural
districts of England and Wales, to the importance of making the education in
the village school more consonant with the environment of the scholars than
is now usually the case, and especially of encouraging the children to gain an
intelligent knowledge of the common things that surround them in the
country. From experience gained in various districts, it is found that by a
suitable arrangement and handling of the school curriculum this object can
often be attained without necessarily adding any new subjects to the time-
table, or demanding any undue burden or work from teachers or scholars.
" The Board would deprecate the idea of giving in Rural Elementary
Schools any professional training in practical agriculture, but they think that
teachers should lose no opportunity of giving their scholars an intelligent
knowledge of the surroundings of ordinary rural life, and of showing them
how to observe the processes of Nature for themselves. One of the main
objects of the teacher should be to develop in every boy and girl that habit of
inquiry and research so natural to children ; they should be encouraged to ask
their own questions about the simple phenomena of Nature which they see
1 The writer is a member of the executive body of this Committee, the formation of
which is almost entirely due to the zeal of Mr. Hobhouse.