In district schools the conditions are very different now from what they were twenty or thirty years ago. Instead of young men and women, we find children, a great majority under fourteen years of age. In eighteen schools visited recently, only ten pupils over fourteen years of age were found. The same condition prevails in other states. The first thing needed is that parents send their children to school longer. The courses in our present rural school cannot be extended, but a school may be provided giving a kind of training not found in schools now organized, a training for rural life, an opportunity for intellectual life on the farm. At first this may be considered on a money basis, but after a practical interest is aroused, higher motives may and will follow. I would advocate a class of secondary schools to meet the needs of those completing the course in rural schools. As an illustration, in Wisconsin, county schools of agriculture and domestic economy are being founded. These have a two-years' course, which may grow into a longer course, designed to meet the needs of boys and girls from the farm. These schools undertake three lines of work: first, the elements of agriculture, including the study of soils, relations of crops to soils, and similar practical topics; second, the study of plant life on the farm, from the economical as well as the scientific standpoint, beginning with the seed and continuing to its care before marketing the product; the same course is pursued with regard to animal life; the use of farmers' tools is also taught; third, such high-school branches of practical value as may be carried along with the above. In these schools girls are taught domestic economy, practically applied to such home problems as preparation of foods, selection and adaptation of foods, with the scientific basis of the same; the ventilation, lighting, and heating of the home. Two counties have voted liberally for the erection of such schools. Similar schools are found all over Europe, adapted to the particular needs of various communities. From these country schools the plan will work down into rural schools in suitable form. This year Wisconsin will try a six-million-dollar experiment. Last year there was a loss of six or seven millions due to the smut in oats. The prevention of this would cost one cent per bushel on seed. The plan of prevention will be put in an Arbor Day Manual sent out to all the teachers, and thru them reach the farmers. DISCUSSION Mrs. Virginia C. MEREDITH, State Agricultural School, St. Anthony Park, Minn.— I agree with Superintendent Harvey as to giving instruction in rural schools. Minnesota has an agricultural high school in connection with its university. Here are five hundred students, one hundred of them girls. There is a six-months' term, which is one of the foundations of its success. A nine-months' term trains the taste away from the farm. Most states have an agricultural college, but no training to make boys and girls eligible for admission. The greatest obstacle in the way of such training schools is their expensive equipment. In the Minnesota school, girls are given the same instruction as boys. Girls also learn something of sewing in connection with a knowledge of fabrics, and of cooking and of foods. The cause of families leaving the farm is often the dissatisfaction of the women, who do not sympathize with farm work because they do not understand it. The future of farming depends largely on what women put into the farm home. Young men attended this school ten years before girls were admitted, their admission coming by request of the young men. It is a good thing to keep boys and girls together at work, especially at work for the farm. Here is an illustration of what one of our students accomplished after leaving our school: A girl of twenty began teaching in a country school. In addition to her regular work she gave lectures on plant life; also instruction in sewing, which the boys wanted as well as the girls. As a result, the attendance in this school was the best in its history, and the teacher's wages were raised by the board without request on the part of the teacher. If she had added cookery to her subjects, how many homes she might have affected in that community! In physiology the child learns that the skin is an organ of excretion, and immediately forgets it. The fact would be of some practical benefit if taught in connection with home life, including bathing, changing and airing of clothing, airing of beds, use of sleep, etc. Man agricultural high schools are needed in each state, fitting the boys and girls for the life they will lead. Girls often become property owners, and hence have a right to know how to take care of the farm. SUPERINTENDENT SCHAEFFER, of Pennsylvania.- From what area do the students come ? Answer: From hundreds of miles, even beyond state limits. SUPERINTENDENT BARRETT, of Iowa.- Are these students enrolled in the college? Answer: No, there are about forty students in the college proper. SUPERINTENDENT CARRINGTON, of Missouri.-In Missouri the state is trying to prepare teachers in such subjects as nature work, preparatory to the work of the more advanced schools. Summer courses in the elements of agriculture are offered to teachers. In twelve weeks much is learned that has proved beneficial to ordinary rural schools, improving and modifying the work as a whole. In southern Missouri a fruit experiment station has been established. This year a summer school will offer a course in horticulture. Some work is also done in the normal schools, each of which has an agricultural department. SUPERINTENDENT J. W. Olsen, of Minnesota.- Do district officers show appreciation of these efforts by offering and paying teachers thus prepared better wages? Answer: Salaries are raised, and such teachers are in demand. SUPERINTENDENT ROBERTS, of Peoria, Ill.-I was much disappointed that the leaders both led away from the subject of agriculture in the rural schools. Superintendent Harvey pronounced the work in the district schools a failure. I think something can be done in a simple, practical way in the rural schools to awaken the interest in the commu nity before they are ready for high school or county school. Many boys never will get to either. There should be something done to get the work down to the district school as an incentive to go on to higher work. An experiment was tried in Illinois; work was planned at the university and outlined and presented to the teachers. Seventy-five per cent..of them tried to carry out instructions. The course was very simple, including such subjects as the kind of chickens raised in the district, lists of vegetables raised in the neighborhood, the baking and boiling of potatoes, garden work, keeping accounts, etc. This work can be done in rural schools. SECOND TOPIC: THE FINANCIAL PHASE OF THE CONSOLIDATION OF RURAL SCHOOLS CHARLES A. VAN MATRE, COUNTY SUPERINTENDENT OF SCHOOLS, MUNCIE, IND. To the end that knowledge and learning be generally diffused thruout a community, the various states have provided for a general and uniform system of common schools, to be supported by a public tax. Schools have been established in each community within convenient walking distances of the homes. Owing to the uneven distribution of the population, some communities may have very large schools, in which the per capita cost is small, while the adjoining communities may have small schools, in which the per capita cost is comparatively large. A school of fifty pupils may be maintained at practically the same expense as a school of ten. The principal items of expense are tuition, fuel, supplies, repairs, and buildings. A small school must have the same provisions as a larger one in all these items. The per capita cost cannot be reduced by maintaining each separate school. The only solution to the difficulty is to combine two or more such schools, or to combine them with larger schools. In this manner it may be possible to reduce the cost of tuition by reducing the number of teachers, of fuel by reducing the number of rooms to be heated, and consequently the cost of supplies, repairs, and buildings. While there is a saving in all of these items, another factor is introduced by the consolidation - the cost of transportation of the pupils of the abandoned schools. That the per capita cost of the small schools may be reduced, this cost of transportation must not be greater than the saving in the other items of expense. The reduction in per capita cost and the expense of transportation will depend wholly upon local conditions - the number of pupils to be conveyed, the distance, and the condition of the roads. The following The subject may be best presented by studying special cases. statistics have been collected from places where the experiment has been made : From the above list it may be seen that Daleville, Ind., has a school employing six teachers. Five are doing grade work, while one is doing high-school work. A small school of seven pupils is conveyed to this school. No additional expense is incurred in the Daleville school because of the admission of these seven pupils. The only expense for these seven pupils is the cost of transportation, which is $1.25 per day. To maintain a separate school for them would cost much more than this amount. Other district schools in the township in which this school is situated cost from $2.75 to $3 per day. The same results would be secured had the school as many as twenty or twenty five pupils. All could be conveyed in one wagon, and the large school would still admit them, since they would be distributed thru the grades. No one teacher would receive all of them. Cross Roads, Ind., shows similar conditions. A school of seven pupils is conveyed to this school, which employs two teachers, at the daily expense of $1.25. The saving in this case is the same as at Daleville. These two schools are located in the same township. The wagons are provided by their drivers. Thus the total expense for each is $1.25 per day. The saving to the township is from $3 to $3.50 per day. For a sevenand-a-half-months' term of school the saving is from $450 to $500 per year. Selma, Ind., shows even greater results. Two schools have been abandoned and combined with the Selma school. The pupils-twenty-four in number — are conveyed in one wagon at a daily expense of $1.50. No additional teaching force is required in the Selma school. The saving to the township is about $600 per year. As a solution to the rural-school problem, the school at Royerton, Ind., is a fruitful field for study. Six districts, comprising an area of about eighteen square miles, have been combined into one. The union school is located at Royerton. Under the separatedistrict plan seven teachers were employed two at Royerton and one in each of the other districts. Now five are employed in the union school, a difference of two teachers resulting from the change. Three teachers are doing grade work, one does high-school work, and one divides his time between grade and high-school work. Some little highschool work was given when there were but two teachers in the Royerton school, but no high-school work was given in the district schools outside of the Royerton school. Under the separate-district plan seven rooms were maintained. Now there are but four, and a small room used for recitations, which adds no expense. No additional buildings were needed at Royerton, due to the fact that there was an old building which had not been in use for several years. Thus there has been a saving in tuition by reducing the number of teachers. Not considering the high school, four teachers do the work formerly done by seven teachers - a difference of three. The cost of fuel, supplies, and repairs for seven rooms has been reduced to the cost of four. There are 190 pupils enrolled in the school, 129 of whom are conveyed from the abandoned schools - about two-thirds of the number enrolled in the union school. The daily expense for transportation is $8.75. The following will show the comparative cost of the two plans: Salaries for seven teachers for seven months. DISTRICT PLAN Institute fee for seven institutes..... Fuel for seven rooms at $30 per room Supplies for seven rooms at $10 per room.. $2,492.00 124.60 210,00 70.00 140.00 The salaries shown in the above estimate are the actual salaries paid the teachers. The cost of the fuel has been estimated upon a coal or wood basis. The supplies include maps, globes, charts, desks, books of reference, etc. The repairs include fencing, wells, pumps, floors, windows, papering, janitor work, etc. These are only estimates. If there is any error, it has been in making them too low. However, this would only make the saving greater, and does not interfere with the argument. Buildings are not included. There was no additional expense for buildings. The pupils of the original Royerton school are not transported, which makes a reduction from 14.1 to 7.2 cents per capita. There are about sixty pupils in this district. In the township in which Royerton is situated there are other schools not centralized at Royerton. Each of them enrolls more than thirty pupils. The cost of tuition cannot be greater than 8 cents per capita, using as a basis the same rate as used in the other estimates - $2.50 per day. The cost of transportation cannot be much less than 6 cents per day per capita, considering that the average cost of driver, wagon, and team is $1.25, and that a wagon may convey from twenty to twenty-five pupils. If there be thirty pupils, two wagons may be needed, which would increase the per capita cost. To consolidate such schools would be more expensive than to maintain separate schools. Webster township, Wayne county, Indiana, has centralized all its schools at one point-the town of Webster. But two wagons are used. The township is small, and much of the school population is centered near Webster. The outlying districts have a very small school enumeration. It has been found very much more satisfactory to convey the pupils from the three out-districts to the Webster school than to maintain these small schools. Three schools have been abandoned. To maintain these schools would cost from $8 to $9 per day. Aside from the high school but one teacher has been added to the Webster school because of the consolidation, at an expense of $2.50 per day. Twenty-five pupils are conveyed in two wagons at a daily expense of $2.20. Twentyfive pupils are conveyed in private conveyances at about the same expense. Perry township, Wayne county, Indiana, shows similar conditions. The township has one school at Economy. The rural population is scattering. Twenty-five pupils are conveyed at a daily expense of $1.15. Formerly there were four schools maintained in addition to the Economy school; now there are but twenty-five pupils not within convenient distance of the Economy school. MASSACHUSETTS Six years ago Warwick maintained nine schools twenty-four weeks per year. The average attendance of pupils in the town was eighty-seven. Teachers' wages in the eight outside schools were $5 per week; in the center school, $6 per week. With few exceptions, the teachers were young and without experience, educated in the district schools. Some were under sixteen years of age- -one term a pupil in a school, the next term a teacher. Occasionally, in recent years, a teacher of marked ability and successful experience has been employed, but the number of schools made it impossible to pay wages that would retain the services of well-qualified teachers many terms. The schools were poorly supplied with books and materials. Now all the pupils in town are in three rooms of one modern, well-lighted, heated, ventilated building, pleasantly situated in the center of the town. The rooms are supplied with good blackboards, and with books and appliances for the use of pupils. The school has three teachers - normal-school graduates of exceptional ability. The average wages paid are $9 a week; the school year is thirty-six weeks. Special teachers of music and drawing visit the schools each week. Pupils are conveyed to the center union school from distant parts of the town. The average attendance in the fall term was ninety-six - a gain over the attendance in all of the nine schools six years ago. The schools are well-graded from lowest primary to highest grammar grade, three classes in a room. |