Eighth.--The farmer, the country woman, the country teacher, the country
editor, the country doctor, and the country business man must all join
hands for better living along every line in the country.
Ninth.--The community is the proper unit for rural development.
Tenth.--The community must learn how to educate, to organize, and to
develop itself.
In attempting to carry out the ideas expressed in the statements quoted
above, emphasis has been laid upon educational rallies, school farms,
farmers' Chatauquas, and other means which have as their aim the idea of
arousing community pride and community coöperation, not only for the
benefit and betterment of the school, but also for the benefit and
betterment of the members of the community who are not of school age. A
great deal of emphasis has been laid upon rural school extension work,
that is, work carried on under the supervision of school officers but
which really devotes its main efforts to adults who are living in rural
communities. One of the most recent steps in this direction was the
passing of the bill known as the "Smith Lever Act" by the Federal
Congress in 1914, which ultimately carries with it an appropriation of
over $4,500,000 for agricultural extension and rural welfare. Under this
bill, Porto Rico receives $10,000 per year for extension work among the
farmers, the work being carried out under the supervision of the Federal
Experiment Station located at Mayaguez.
Another movement which is prominent in rural school affairs at present,
is the tendency toward a larger unit of organization for taxation and
administration. The rural schools of Porto Rico are already under the
municipal unit of school administration, which probably will not be
changed, as close supervision demands rather small units of
organization. In the report of the Commissioner of Education for 1915-16
a suggestion is made that the appropriation of money for schools
throughout the Island be determined by the school population in a given
community and not by the taxable wealth of that community. It frequently
happens that the wealthiest municipalities are the ones which are least
in need of additional school facilities, and this recommendation tends
to make the unit for school taxation and appropriation of funds an
Insular rather than a municipal unit, as we have to-day. The idea, of
course, is based upon the fact that Porto Rico is small enough so that
every citizen should be interested in the education of all the children
of the Island, and that the movements in education should be Insular in
unit rather than municipal.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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