The movement toward using the schoolhouse as a center for the social activities of the community is gaining ground every year and through this movement the school, as an organization consisting of the teacher and pupils, is rapidly coming to have much more influence in the community life than was formerly the case when the school was considered as merely an organization for the teaching of academic subjects. The need of a social center in the country districts is especially marked, inasmuch as there is a decided tendency among the country people to gather in small groups, based upon relationship or intimate friendship, to the exclusion of the wider interests of the community. Little attempt is usually made to direct in any way the outside activities or the recreation hours of the young people and often their activities take a direction which is distinctly unsocial.

The school in adapting itself to the community in order that it may serve as a social center must make certain investigations, because the need of social service and the kind of service which shall be instituted, depends upon existing local conditions. Some of the most necessary lines of investigation to be made by the teacher and pupils before the most effective aid can be rendered, are those which follow:

First.—The number of farmers who own the farms upon which they live and the number of tenant farmers.

Second.—The average size of the farms; the number of well-arranged homes; the total number of acres devoted to each of the important crops.

Third.—The distance to the nearest market, and the number of miles of well-kept roads.

These three points will determine largely the direction which any social movement must take, because upon them is based the economic situation of the community. In addition to considering the community from the economic point of view, we may also consider the sanitary conditions that prevail in the district, and the teacher and pupils should make a survey of the district with the following points in mind:

First.—The sources of water supply. If water is from open wells, where are they located, and what is the distance from barns and outhouses; are they built in accordance with specifications from the Department of Sanitation?

Second.—How is garbage disposed of in the neighborhood; are common drinking cups and the common towel prohibited in the schoolroom? Is the school furnished with a covered water tank, and does it have facilities for washing the hands and face? Do the people of the neighborhood know the regulations of the Department of Sanitation in regard to sanitary conditions; is there much preventable illness in the district, and to what extent are patent medicines used by the patrons of the school?

Third.—Are the houses, including the schoolhouses, well ventilated and well located as far as distance from standing water or other mosquito-breeding places is concerned? Is the floor of the schoolhouse swept every night, and are foot scrapers and doormats provided? Does the teacher inspect the outhouses, and are they built according to specifications from the Department of Sanitation?

A union of all the patrons of the district is necessary if any movement is to be carried out with telling effect, and the teacher should find out if there is or has been any organization of the men, women, girls, or boys in the district of a social or civic type; has the school done anything up to the present time to improve the social life in the district, and has it ever encouraged local fairs or exhibits of school or agricultural products, and has it founded boys' or girls' agricultural or home economics clubs?

How does the religious condition affect the community, and what is the attitude of the community toward these matters and toward social affairs? How do the young men and young women spend their leisure time? Has the school any magazines or farm papers in its library, and how many homes in the district have any library, or any musical instruments?

What has been the attitude of the previous teachers in the district toward the affairs of the community; how long has each remained in the district? Are changes in the position of the teachers frequent, and if so, what is the reason? Have previous teachers actually resided in the community or have they lived in the nearest town? Have the previous teachers been professionally trained, and have they taken any interest in the affairs of the community outside of their regular school duties?

When the school has succeeded in getting together the information noted in the above paragraphs, it will then be in a position to determine what lines of social activity will be best for the particular community.

The organization of men's clubs and women's clubs for the discussion of topics of general interest and for the purpose of arousing a feeling of community interest should be undertaken as soon as possible, the teacher always remembering that the management of these organizations should be in the hands of the members who compose them, and that the teacher should act only as an adviser in case advice may be necessary. The people should feel that on them rests the responsibility of developing the civic and social life of the community, and the teacher should not allow them to shift this responsibility. The organization of boys' clubs and girls' clubs will present no difficulties to the teacher who has made a study of the situation and who is prepared for his work. The boys and girls are in the most easily influenced period of their lives, and whether or not they will develop a sense of civic and social responsibility, depends very largely upon the attitude which their teachers take in regard to these matters.

Rural life in any community has a tendency to be monotonous and deadening to the finer qualities. Uninterrupted and unduly prolonged physical labor tends to the detriment of both the physical and the mental abilities of the individual. The isolation of the country home tends to narrow and restrict social intercourse, and the difficulty of travel and communication increases the monotony of country life. These circumstances do a great deal to offset the advantage of living in the country and have contributed a great deal to the stigma that has always been attached to the countryman.

If there is to be any reform in this isolated social life of the community, the reform must come about through the schools. The Government can aid to a great extent through the provision of well-kept roads and by the establishment of means of communication such as the telephone and the telegraph. The man who is in touch with the large affairs of life forgets his own petty annoyances in the contemplation of problems of greater importance, while the man who has nothing to think about except the annoyances of his own life tends to become self-centered and narrow.

Rural social center work in the United States has made great progress within the last few years and has been successful in practically all the places where it has been tried, especially if the teacher is a person of tact and intelligence. A great deal depends upon the attitude which the teacher has in this work, and it is not enough that the teacher should undertake such work as a burden added to the already overcrowded curriculum of the day, but the teacher should enter into the movement with a sincere desire to improve the condition of the community and bring the patrons of the district to a higher degree of efficiency as workmen and as citizens. In every community there are many young women and young men who are above the average school age who are compelled to work during the day, and who are fast becoming fixed in the monotonous life that has surrounded the older people of the community, who might easily be interested by the teacher and influenced through the formation of social clubs, so that they would form the nucleus for a better coming generation of citizens. The meetings of young people should partake of recreation as well as of serious study, and while the avowed intention of new clubs formed by the school should be for the purpose of bettering the social and civic condition of the people of the community, they must be placed in as favorable a light as possible, for it should be remembered that people will often undertake a movement which will have decidedly beneficial results if it is disguised under the form of recreation, when they would hesitate to give their continued assistance to such a movement if it partook entirely of the nature of serious study.

The Department of Education in the Island of Porto Rico is making a special effort at the present time to interest the older girls and the women of the towns in social betterment through the medium of mothers' clubs and girls' clubs, organized under the direction of the teachers of home economics. These clubs have been organized in practically all of the towns of the Island and are meeting with general success. In many cases the girls' clubs assume an aspect of economic improvement in that they undertake the production of certain salable articles such as embroidery or handwork, and the teacher in charge of the group provides the market for the articles produced. Little has been done up to the present in organizing the men and boys into social groups. Boy scout organizations were widely established through the Island several years ago, but on account of the lack of some individual to devote his time to the organizing side of the movement they have decreased in number and in influence. Anyone who is at all familiar with the social situation in Porto Rico, especially in the rural districts, will see at once the necessity of organizations of the kind mentioned above and will be impressed with the possibilities for good in a community which can be exercised by the rural school under the direction of an efficient, well trained, enthusiastic teacher. The democratic form of government which the Island enjoys demands the highest possible development of civic and social ideas and obligations, and in order to fulfill its highest mission the school should undertake such lines of work as will tend to develop not only better educated people of academic attainments, but also better trained citizens in the social and civic sense.