The Land and Life: An Analysis of Problems of the Land in Relation to the Future of English Rural Life With a Policy for Agriculture After the War by Montague Fordham

Author:Montague Fordham [Fordham, Montague]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Political Science, General
ISBN: 9780429608001
Google: ZtmMDwAAQBAJ
Goodreads: 44492169
Publisher: Routledge
Published: 2019-03-08T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER V

SOME SPECIAL ISSUES

THERE are many other problems involved in the reorganization of agriculture and rural life. In our limited space we must content ourselves with special comment upon five : Education, Social life, Local Government, the Mechanization of Agriculture, and, finally, problems much discussed to-day, relating to Production, Fertility and Nutrition.

At the end of this chapter, a few remarks will be made on other issues.

Education. In few occupations is a man’s work more nearly his whole life than in agriculture. Work and leisure are not sharply divided or opposing elements, and the countryman is troubled by fewer of the conflicts which divide the urban dweller’s personality. In spite of this relative unity between outlook and action, our educational system does not harmonize with the rest of rural life. We need an education that will be animated by a recognition of the value of what Mr. Massingham has called country-mindedness. Country-mindedness— “objective vision” or “direct prescience” as it is sometimes called—leads to seeing things as they are. It is a form of intelligence that does not lead to intellectualism and thinking in terms of abstractions : it leads to realism and constructive thinking and is one of the great contributions of country people to civilization. Moreover, expert knowledge and skill in some particular direction is an important part of any man’s education. In agriculture, in which skill at work involves so much more than fulfilling adequately a specified working day, technical education becomes particularly important. It is also important because, if there is to be an improvement in the conditions and rewards of work on the land, there must be a corresponding improvement in the quality of all types of worker. It would be courting disaster to increase the size of the agricultural industry without training more efficient workers in greater numbers : and this is chiefly a matter of education.

At the primary and secondary stages, rural education has for too long been an imitation of that in towns. The “special place” system has drafted a large proportion of the able country children into town secondary schools, whence they have gone into urban jobs. The fact that only about 1.6 per cent. of secondary school-leavers take up agriculture speaks for itself. Also, the town child who would be happier on the land has every discouragement from following a rural occupation. Even at the elementary school stage—with the exception of a few areas of which Cambridgeshire with its Village Colleges is a notable example—little is done to point out the advantage of country life or give a form of education that specifically visualizes the future of the rural child. It is, in fact, a testimony to the inherent attractions of agriculture as a way of life that as high a proportion as 63 per cent. of country-born boys become farmworkers or go into village trades.

A first step in reform should be the establishment of separate courses at the Training Colleges for teachers destined for schools in rural districts and country towns.

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