EDUCATION IN RURAL DISTRICTS. 239
the spot about animals in the fields and farmyards, about ploughing and
sowing, about fruit trees and forest trees, about birds, insects, and flowers,
and other objects of interest. The lessons thus learnt out of doors can be
afterwards carried forward in the school room by reading, composition,
pictures, and drawing.
" In this way, and in various other ways that teachers will discover for
themselves, children who are brought up in village schools will learn to
understand what they see about them, and to take an intelligent interest in
the various processes of Nature, This sort of teaching will, it is hoped,
directly tend to foster in the children a genuine love for the country and for
country pursuits.
"It is confidently expected that the child's intelligence will be so
quickened by the kind of training that is here suggested that he will be able
to master, with far greater ease than before, the ordinary subjects of the
school curriculum.
" The Board would further urge upon any teachers now in rural schools
who happen themselves to be of urban up-bringing or to have been trained in
urban centres, to seize every opportunity of gaining a closer insight into the
special conditions and problems of rural life, and they trust that those whose
previous education has not enabled them to obtain full knowledge of the main
principles and phenomena of rural life and activities, will be able to attend
such holiday courses and classes as may be placed within their reach for this
purpose by County Councils or other Local Committees ; since it is only
when the teacher is genuinely interested in, and well informed about, the
occupations of country life that any such results can be looked for in children
as have been referred to as the proper object of rural schools in the present
circular.
" I have the honour to be, Sir, your obedient servant,
" G. W. Kekewich."
The curricula for Schools of Science in rural districts have
also been revised and brought into harmony with local needs to
an extent that was quite impossible under the old regulations.
By the time this note appears the new Directory will no doubt
be before the public.
It is needless to point out to the Members of the Essex
Field Club that the whole spirit of this new departure in our
educational programme is in absolute accord with the aim and
objects of all Natural History Societies, and should in the long-
run result in a general increase in the intelligent appreciation of
the work of such societies.