These are the very terms of Dr. Foght’s report to the Government.  This specialist in rural school practice, of the Bureau of Education, Washington, was engaged in this survey from August to November, 1917.  His report was dated Jan. 20, 1918.  At the session of that year it was submitted to Parliament and served as the basis of new legislation.  Its reading will prove most interesting to friends of education, and most suggestive in the outlining of new policies of administration and in the remodelling of the curriculum.

II. Lesson.—­This Saskatchewan Crusade for better schools carries with it a pointed lesson.  In our humble estimation and from our view-point this lesson is a call for action; at the same time it sounds a warning.

1. An Invitation.—­There is nothing, we believe, nothing more inviting than the readiness of our Western Provinces in dealing with problems.  Here we have a beautiful example of that boldness of western youth, so confident in its resources, so optimistic in its views.

Like the West, let us diagnose our educational problems; a survey of prevailing conditions will show facts and figures.  Let us see and admit the truth; camouflage is a poor policy in matters of such importance.

This diagnosis will naturally suggest remedies.  Although there are certain standards in education, which are as stable as human nature itself, nevertheless, we must not forget that the human mind is a living thing—­ever re-adjusting itself to environments that various factors have created.  This readjustment of our methods in teaching and of our policies in administration, we know, is a very delicate process.  But it has to be done and done rightly if education is not to be a misnomer.

This re-adjustment will demand the co-operation of the educational expert and the masses.  The expert has his ear to the ground, his hand on the pulse to grasp the trend of human thought.  He walks ahead to blaze the way.  To find or, at least, to train specialists to direct the forward march is the easiest part of the problem.  The greatest difficulty in all great movements is to overcome the profound and widespread indifference of the masses.  Yet through this co-operation of the people will come the only valuable and permanent reforms.  Without it our experts will court failure.

Two initial tasks impose themselves if we wish to enlist in this great educational movement the sympathies of the people:  1.  To arouse interest in local communities. 2.  To organize individual and group action.

A wide publicity campaign (in the papers, by means of lectures, distribution of literature, in season and out of season) is the only means of arousing the people from their apathy.  It takes time to see the ideas of leaders and experts filter down into the lower strata of society.  Yet we should always have faith in the mastery of ideas, in the ultimate triumph of truth and right.