21. Why farmers move to the city.

22. Modern conveniences on the farm.

23. The business side of farming.

24. The products we can market best.

A SUGGESTIVE PROGRAMME FOR A COMMUNITY MEETING

1. Music.

Subject: "Reading Matter in the Home"

2. Paper-The Magazine I Like Best, and Why.

3. General Discussion.

4. Recitation.

5. Paper-What makes a good children's book, and where can it be found?

6. General Discussion.

7. Round table-(a) The papers that should be in every home.

8. Music.

(b) Influence of an early reading habit.

(c) How to satisfy the love of adventure in boys'

reading.

(d) Recent books on farm life that are worth while.

PROBLEMS IN APPLICATION

1. What steps could be taken in the district where you teach or some other similar district to establish a community organization?

2. What are the principal pitfalls encountered by such organizations and how may they best be avoided?

3. Review one of the bulletins of the U. S. Bureau of Education on the Community Centre.

4. Review the chapter on Play and Recreation in Country Schools in Rapeer's "Educational Hygiene."

5. Make up a list of the five best pamphlets and books on play and recreation for country people.

6. What could such an organization do for civil education?

BIBLIOGRAPHY

1. Curtis-"Play and Recreation for the Open Country." Ginn & Co.

2. Perry-"Wider Use of the School Plant." Charities Publication

Committee, New York.

3. Foght-"The Rural Teacher and His Work," part III, chap. VI. Macmillan.

4. Bancroft-"Games for the Playground." Macmillan.

5. Parker-"Methods of Teaching in High School." Ginn & Co. 6. Stern-"Neighborhood Entertainments." Sturgis & Walton. 7. Ward-"The Social Centre." Appleton.

8. Jackson-"A Community Centre, What It Is and How to Organize It." Government Printing Office.

9. "Recreation Manual for Teachers."

struction for Oregon.

State Dept. of Public In

10. Rapeer "Teaching Elementary-School Subjects," chaps. I, XIX,

XXI, XXII. Scribner.

CHAPTER XXI

THE DIFFICULTIES OF CONSOLIDATION

PRELIMINARY PROBLEMS

1. What are some of the reasons why the facts and promises of consolidation are not brought to the attention of many communities that would profit by it?

2. What are some of the faults in the methods of presenting this reform to rural communities?

3. What are some of the leading reasons for not acting on consolidation after the matter has been presented?

4. Give some of the arguments usually advanced against consolidation.

5. Name the points over which most care must be taken in consolidation to avoid complaints and reaction.

Source of Material Used.-In studying the problem suggested above an attempt has been made to learn what the leading rural leaders of to-day are thinking and saying about rural school consolidation. Accordingly, the State Superintendents of Public Instruction and the State Supervisors and Inspectors of Rural Schools have been requested, as the persons who would perhaps be best prepared to give opinions of value, to report on the consolidated school as they found it. The discussion which follows is based very largely upon the contents of the letters which these leaders were kind enough to write in response to a questionnaire.

Our first impression in going over the large number of letters received from these state leaders is that probably no single scheme or plan of consolidation of schools can be followed by all, or even by any very large number, of the states. It is a matter which depends upon the kind of school organization in a given state, the topography of

the country, the condition of public highways and of other means of transportation, the attitude of the people toward progress in general, their past experience with schools, and upon a number of other conditions peculiar to a given state or section of the country. If one should take a report of what one state, or what a group of states, is doing by way of consolidation and undertake to duplicate closely that system for his own state, he would probably fail in his undertaking. Consolidation of schools must be the result of years of study, invention, experimentation, and adaptation, on the home grounds. But, of course, the experiences of others are of incalculable value to the one who plans for the consolidation of schools, particularly so if plans are being laid upon state-wide proportions.

Four Fundamental Problems. The reports from the several states are extremely interesting. Whether expressed or implied, a few points stand out boldly as constituting the fundamental problems of the consolidation of rural schools. They are (1) the conservatism and the prejudices of the people, (2) the transportation problem, (3) the added expense, and (4) the character of the teaching in this new type of public school.

From Massachusetts, the mother of the consolidated school, comes a summary by Mr. Francis G. Wadsworth, Agent of the State Board of Education:

DANGERS

(a) Inadequate provisions for transportation.
(b) The unsupervised noon hour.

DIFFICULTIES

(a) Securing appropriations for new buildings.

(b) Bad roads.

(c) Finding competent drivers for barges.

(d) Satisfying parents whose children are required to walk to

meet the school barges.

(e) Providing warm luncheons for children at the schools.

SHORTCOMINGS

(a) It takes the children away from home for a longer period of the day, and limits the working time of boys and girls on the home farm.

(b) It makes it difficult for parents to visit the school so as to become intimately acquainted with the work therein.

A moment's thought upon these statements will indicate the wide range of possible dangers, difficulties, and shortcomings of the rural consolidated school. That the arguments are not all on the positive side of the question is clear. But no scheme is without shortcomings.

State Superintendent Chas. A. Greathouse, of Indiana, where consolidation has been effected on a very large scale, has this to say: "The only real objection raised by the patrons is the matter of transportation, usually the fault of the township trustee in allowing too long a route. When this is adjusted, I think I can safely say there is very little difficulty."

Let us consider the four principal points stated above. 1. The Conservatism and the Prejudices of the People.We do not mean to imply that these two terms are synonymous. They are, however, very closely linked together. In the first place, rural people are characteristically conservative. They require some time to think things out and reach new conclusions. The danger is that the rural leaders may be overambitious to get results quickly. To act, or to lead the people to act before public sentiment approves, will probably result in failure, or at least in disappointment. The possibility of going too fast, or of going too far, in a consolidation project constitutes a very serious danger of the consolidated school. A great many readjustments have had to be made and in some cases the consolidatedschool buildings have actually been abandoned, and the little neighborhood schools again opened. Sometimes we literally make haste by going slowly.

Furthermore, one failure of this kind will be so adver