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This very interesting little book is the story of the rural visiting teacher work carried out as a part of the demonstration program of the National Committee on Visiting Teachers. The work was developed in three rural centers, chosen because they were fairly representative of three different types of rural community—Monmouth County, New Jersey, Huron County, Ohio, and Boone County, Missouri. The demonstration occupied a three year period in Monmouth County and a five year period in the other two counties. The present volume was prepared toward the close of the demonstration by Miss Benedict, who made a careful study of the entire situation.
In four sections she treats successively “The rural child and the community,” “The rural child at home and in school,” “Visiting teacher work in a rural setting” and “Group work in school and community.”The first two sections are concerned largely with narratives taken from the case records. Here are all the social problems with which we are familiar in an urban setting but immeasurably complicated by the isolation of the homes, the bad roads, the lack of hospital and clinic facilities and nearly all the other tools that society has developed for dealing with the problem child and his parents. Though the leaders of the communities were intelligent and coöperative, it was upon the teacher herself, that the burdens of reconstruction fell and whatever help she had must be obtained through her own efforts. In reading these stories one marvels again and again at the patience and wisdom and unquenchable faith in human nature displayed by these women. It is the old story of the pioneer who overcomes unbelievable obstacles, the romance of the worker in the far-flung outposts of human endeavor. It is a story to do us all good in our moments of discouragement over human nature—our own included.