merely as a suggestion. Our plea here is for forward looking and consistent planning, which at present is an almost entirely absent quantity in the work of perhaps most school boards in the United States.

Herewith we present a few suggestive plans with photographs of exteriors of school homes that have been erected. The best is not too good.for the teacherage. Less than the best is a poor investment if it is to function as an example and an inspiration or the contrary to country folk for fifty or more years. Enterprising communities will soon go far beyond what has already been done in this new and very interesting line of development in American rural education.

BLIOGRAPHY

1. Josephine Corliss Preston-"Teachers' Cottages in Washington." Bulletin No. 27, 1915. Olympia, Washington.

2. "Cottage Homes for Teachers." Southern School Journal, 24:1112, May, 1913.

3. Southern School Journ, 24: 11-13, July, 1913.

4. Mary B. Flemington "The Teachers' Boarding Place." American School Board Journal, 50: 18, February, 1915.

5. "Homes for Rural Teachers." North Carolina Education, 9: 18, March, 1915.

6. Mrs. Percy V. Pennybacker-"Need of Teachers' Homes." Ladies' Home Journal, 32: 25, February, 1915. Illustrated. 7. "Teacherage." Ladies' Home Journal, 31: 5, September, 1914. 8. Mrs. Mary I. Wood-"The School Manse in Reality." Ladies' Home Journal, 32: 25, February, 1915.

Other publications which will be found particularly helpful in this connection are:

9. Fletcher B. Dresslar-"Rural Schoolhouses and Grounds." Bulletin, 1914, No. 12, U. S. Bureau of Education.

10. Wm. L. Hall-"Tree Planting on Rural School Grounds." Farmers' Bulletin, No. 134, U. S. Department of Agriculture.

11. A. C. Monahan and Adams Phillips-"The Farragut School." Bulletin, 1913, No. 49, U. S. Bureau of Education.

12. A. C. Monahan-"The Status of Rural Education in the United States." Bulletin, 1913, No. 8, U. S. Bureau of Education.

13.

"County Unit Organization for the Administration of

ways with the practical problems of manse management. The cost accounting offers a capital example of bookkeeping. The use of the school as a community centre is widened and its value enhanced. The school as an institution takes on a more vital character in the eyes of the countryside.

Most of all is the effect upon the teacher. Comfortably heated, well-lighted quarters, comradeship with colleagues-and at the same time personal privacy-a satisfying, co-operatively managed table, independence of the petty family rivalries of a small community, a recognized institutional status, combine to attract to the consolidated rural-school manse teachers of a type which will put the country school abreast of the modern educational movement. It is futile to preach the gospel of sacrifice for the cause of rural education. There is no reason why rural teachers should be called upon to sacrifice themselves. They ought not to do it, and they will not do it. The school manse is not a fad, nor a luxury; it is a fundamental necessity.

The General Plan.-The architecture and location of the home, or homes, should be pleasing and convenient. A landscape artist should plan the location and beautification of the various buildings, the farm, the playgrounds, and other features. If the principal's home alone is constructed at first, space in the ground-planning should be left for the other homes for teachers and men-of-all-work about the school plant. The school building also should be erected with the future extensions plotted so that the whole plant and site will be planned with reference to possible future developments. Many general designs for such plants have been printed in the reports of various State superintendents and students of this question. The United States Bureau of Education has a model of a complete plant which was exhibited at the Pan-American Exposition, and is published in its volume on the exhibit there. A reproduction of it will be found in the last chapter of this volume. With not less than twenty acres of land, a school building as described in Chapter IX, and modern homes for teachers and caretaker, such exhibits might well be set up in every county seat. One of these may be taken and adapted, or used

CHAPTER XI

TRANSPORTATION OF PUPILS AT PUBLIC EXPENSE

PRELIMINARY PROBLEMS

1. What are some of the chief advantages and disadvantages of pupils walking to the one-room schools?

2. What effect does it frequently have on attendance? On health? On morals? On punctuality?

3. What is the difference in these respects arising from transportation of the right kind?

4. In what ways may consolidation be a means of obtaining better roads?

5. What regular routes of wagon and automobile travel and transportation are maintained throughout the year by the government post-office and other agencies?

I. WHEN TRANSPORTATION IS NECESSARY

Public transportation of pupils is not always a necessary part of the programme of consolidation. It depends upon the size of the district to be served by the consolidated schools. If the district is not greater than 10 square miles, and nearly as wide as long, with the school located near the centre of the territory, no child under ordinary conditions would live beyond walking distance. A square 3 miles on the side would contain 9 square miles of territory, 80 per cent of which would be within 1.5 miles of the centre. No point of the square would be farther away from a school if located at the centre than 1.73 miles. Of course the distances by travelled roadways would be greater than this. If no rural school served a territory of less than 9 miles, however, there would be but approximately one-half of the present number of rural schools in the half of the United States east of a line extending north and south to our borders, through the centre of Nebraska and Kansas.

In many parts of the United States (in most of the strictly farming country) districts larger than 9 square miles will have to be taken to secure enough children to make a school large enough to require the services of three or more teachers the minimal number of teachers if the school is to be really satisfactory. To obtain large enough taxing areas to provide not only sufficient pupils but enough money to provide a first-class school plant and upkeep, a larger area is desirable. Transportation then becomes necessary, although there are many consolidated schools in all parts of the country serving much greater or larger districts than 9 square miles that do not furnish public transportation, the parents making such arrangements as they see fit to get their children to school.

II. REQUIREMENTS

Importance of Satisfactory Transportation.-Without doubt the question of transportation is the most difficult one connected with the consolidation of schools. The transportation furnished must be absolutely satisfactory or there will be constant dissatisfaction with the school. Fifty years of experience in transporting country children to public schools in the United States has shown quite definitely the essentials that must be provided if the transportation is to be satisfactory. These essentials are:

I. A route not too long to be covered in reasonable time.

2. A definite time schedule for each wagon.

3. A comfortable and safe vehicle.

4. A satisfactory driver.

- The Transportation Route.-The length of the satisfactory route cannot be stated in miles-the important consideration is the time element, and this of course depends upon many things besides the distance. No route should be longer than can be covered under average conditions in 45 minutes, or in bad conditions in about an hour. This

means usually with good roads and horse vehicles not over 6 miles. If automobiles are used, the distance may be greater.

The transportation wagon should run on a fixed schedule, leaving certain points along the route at the exact time announced. Children will then know at what time to leave their homes to meet the wagons without being required to stand and wait. Wagons should not wait for the children if they are not at the proper places on the scheduled time. The condition of the road should not be allowed to interfere with the schedule; the contract with the driver should require him to furnish the necessary "horse-power" to get through on time. Of course, two different schedules may be arranged-one for good travelling and one for the bad road season. Where children live off the road at some distance a small shelter-house may be erected. A mail and parcel-post box may be placed in the shelter.

Whether the wagons should follow the main highways or should go to the homes to pick up the children is a question which has caused considerable trouble. In the early experiments with transportation, the conveyance was from the abandoned school building to the new school, the children assembling at the old building. Later, startingplaces were established at points nearer the homes of the children who lived farthest away from the school, and the other children were picked up along the route. To settle difficulties which arose over arranging the routes nearer to one home than to another, the practice began of having the school wagons leave the main road and travel in and out byways to the homes. Such practice lengthens greatly the time required to cover the route, and is never satisfactory. The most satisfactory plan is to arrange the routes in such a manner as to accommodate the majority of children, requiring all to meet the wagon at fixed places along the route. For children living more than a mile from any route special arrangements must be made. A suggestion is given