tion allows more sub jects to be taught. little history, on account of the difficult conditions under which she Consolidais working. It is, however, very desirable that music, drawing, sanitation, manual training, household arts, and agriculture be taught, both for their general culture and their utilitarian values, and also for their value as vitalizing agents in the school curriculum. [These additional subjects cannot be taught in the one-teacher school, but can be taught when consolidation provides] a school of three or more teachers. . . the rural "Possibly one of the greatest results accomplished by the con- Consolidation and solidation of the rural schools is the establishment of the township high schools. Students who could not have entered a high school had high school. they been compelled to leave home, attend these schools, and, in most cases, graduate from them. . . . [For example,] the great increase of students attending the high schools in Indiana in the last two years is due in great part to the work of consolidated schools." effects of consolida The added value of the consolidated school over the small one- Socializing teacher school as a socializing agency can hardly be estimated. The larger school brings its pupils into contact with several teachers and tion. a larger group of children than in the small school. . . . This contact with many children widens their visions and gives to them a breadth of view impossible in the small district. . ... ing force. One of the advantages of the consolidated school is the possibility Consolidation permits of maintaining a stable teaching force. . . . A permanent teaching the imforce is essential in making a school efficient and satisfactory. It provement of the teachis particularly desirable that a good principal be obtained. . and retained as long as his work is satisfactory. [This can be done in the case of the consolidated school more often than in the case of the smaller school, for where schools have been consolidated it is possible to pay teachers larger salaries, while, in addition, the higher standards of the consolidated school are naturally attractive to highgrade teachers.] 150. The development of community spirit in the country1 The realization that there is need for a more wholesome social life among farmers has of recent years stimulated the development 1 From the Wisconsin Country Life Conference, Third Annual Report. Madison, Wis., 1913; pp. 111-113, 115-118. The school and the church as social cen of community spirit in rural districts. The nucleus of rural social life is almost always either the school or the church. On the whole, the rural school is developing more rapidly than is the rural church, ters in rural and in many sections social life has tended to develop around the school rather than about the church. The use of the rural school as a social center may be illustrated by the following account of the Mendota Beach schoolhouse in Dane County, Wis.: districts. The establishment of a schoolhouse in a rural district in Wisconsin. A Sunday School is organized and allowed to use the school house. Changed viewpoint toward a wider use of the school plant. [Formerly there was no schoolhouse in this vicinity, i.e. the rural district between Madison and Middleton, Wis.,], and as recently as 1900 the state superintendent of public instruction was obliged to exercise the power given him by law and compel the organization of a school district, the engaging of a teacher, and the erection of a school building. [When the schoolhouse was built and] opened for school purposes in 1901, children from the neighborhood twelve years old and over attended, who up to this time had had no schooling. Grown men of the neighborhood, unable to read or write the English language, although reared here from childhood, have told how they were too far from school to attend in the winter, and in summer they were needed on the farm. . . . Newcomers in the neighborhood were insisting upon religious instruction for their children, and were asking why a Sunday School couldn't be opened in the schoolhouse. It was a new proposal and at first did not meet with favor. [But at length better counsel prevailed, and] seventeen persons, many of them children, met at the schoolhouse on a Sunday afternoon and organized the Mendota Beach Sunday School. That first Sunday it was agreed, and the position has ever since been consistently adhered to, that the meetings should be strictly undenominational; that persons of any creed or no creed would be welcome; that the purpose of our gatherings would be to make us better neighbors and better citizens, and that we would make a study of the Bible to find in it whatever we could that would help us in this purpose. At each annual school meeting the electors present vote on whether the schoolhouse shall be opened to the Sunday School and other community meetings. There was some hesitancy about authorizing these uses the first time the electors considered the question, but at subsequent meetings the very objectors have declared that in their opinion the uses to which the schoolhouse has been put outside of school hours have been of larger value to the community than the regular school work. At the time these meetings were started there were but one or two Some effects of this musical instruments in the whole community, almost no singing changed ability, and only one person who would attempt to play the organ viewpoint. at the meetings. A singing teacher was engaged from the city, and on Monday evenings for some twenty weeks the young people gathered at the schoolhouse and were taught to sing. To-day there is music in the day school, music at the Sunday School, and some musical instrument - violin, organ or piano in nearly every home. The school library had only some fifty volumes of children's books. Library imA Library Association was organized two years ago and a "one hun- provement. dred volume" State Traveling Library is now regularly to be found at the schoolhouse with the teacher as librarian. . house increasingly used for social pur poses. The young people of the neighborhood have come forward as an The schoolactive social force. They first learned to sing. Then they arranged for a series of open social and literary meetings at the schoolhouse. Programs have been arranged with music, declamation, and debate, and live topics have been discussed. The young people and even the grown-ups are beginning to feel confidence in themselves. "Woman Suffrage," "Advantages of Country Over City Living," "Good Roads," ," "The Silo," "Alfalfa," "How to Make the Hen Productive," are some of the subjects that have been discussed. . . . Farm tenants, farm owners, business and professional people from Some rethe city who have moved into the community, and artisans and laborers meet together on a common footing at the schoolhouse and get each other's viewpoint. . . . [The opening of the schoolhouse to community uses has had great value socially]. . . . The folks are all neighbors now. . . . They move together and have a sense of individual and community strength in the consciousness of sympathy and union. sults. Questions on the foregoing Readings 1. What, in general, is the cause of the cityward drift? 2. Why does discontent with farming usually mean discontent with rural life? 3. Explain the effect of deferred or restricted recreation upon discontent with rural life. 4. How may advertising add to rural discontent? 5. What is the primary aim of the Federal Farm Loan Act? 6. What per cent of the amounts loaned under the act have been used for the purpose of buying farm land? 7. What are some of the rules which should be observed by persons intending to make use of the Federal Farm Loan Bank system? 8. What is the social significance of the problem of marketing farm produce? 9. What is the first step in marketing? 10. What should be the attitude of the farmer toward the storage question? II. How can the farmer's transportation needs best be met? 12. How might farmers strengthen their position as sellers? 13. Compare young country men and young country women with regard to the tendency to move to the city. 14. Explain why the farm woman needs more leisure time. 15. Explain why isolation bears more heavily upon the farm woman than upon the men and children in rural districts. 16. What are the outstanding problems of the farm woman? 17. What is meant by the term "consolidation of rural schools "? 18. What are the two primary motives in the movement to consolidate rural schools? 19. How does consolidation allow of more adequate supervision of schools? 20. What is the advantage of consolidation from the standpoint of recitation periods? 21. How does consolidation permit the curriculum of the rural school to be enlarged? 22. Name two rural institutions around which social life may develop. 23. Describe the beginnings of a school in the rural district between Madison and Middleton, Wis. 24. What were some of the results following the use of the schoolhouse for community purposes? 25. What was the effect of this wider use of the schoolhouse upon the development of sympathy and coöperation in the community? CHAPTER XXVI EDUCATION 151. Standardization of schools within the state 1 ment toward the standardization of educilities cational fa within the state. Occasionally it is suggested that all of our educational facilities The moveought to be so standardized and coördinated as to form one great system. At the present time, most authorities oppose this suggestion; on the other hand, there is a general feeling that it is desirable to bring all of the educational facilities of a single state under some sort of centralized control. There are a number of states in which the reorganization and centralization of the schools is a problem of immediate interest. At the request of the Arizona School Officials' Association, the United States Bureau of Education in 1916 conducted an educational survey of Arizona. The following is the Bureau's summary of recommendations relating to public elementary and Arizona. secondary schools in that state: An educa tional sur vey of tion of the state school 1. Centralization of the state school system, placing the responsi- Centralizability of the administration of the public-school system definitely upon the state board of education and the state department of education work- system recing in coöperation with the county boards of education and school-district trustees. The state should exercise a sufficient degree of administrative control to assure that schools are maintained wherever needed and that all schools are efficient. This can be done best through the following organization: 1. For the state, a state board of education and a state department of education, the state superintendent of public instruction being the executive officer of the state board and the actual head of the department. 1 From the United States Department of the Interior, Bureau of Education. Bulletin, 1917, No. 44. "Educational Conditions in Arizona." Washington, 1918; pp. 158-162. ommended. |