The Valentine Democrat. [volume] (Valentine, Cherry Co., Neb.) 1896-1898, 1897-06-24
killing to School.

ing and the district school has justly
been called the cornerstone Of the ma
tion's liberty
No doubt the parents of many present
readers of the Companion III their
youth attended the district school.
Their memories of those days would
recall a gathering of fifty or sixty pu-
pills, under n competent teacher. who
secured good work. But when those
find only six or eight children playing
about the door at recess. and inquiry
discovers dissatisfaction and Il lack of
interest Oh the part of the pupils.
The decline of the district school is
noticeable and general throughout the
country. 1t is due to the fact that large
families are less common than former
ly, and to the congestion Of population
in the cities.
1t is impossible for a teacher TO get
good results from a school of five or
six pupils. The enthusiasm of numbers
and the stimulus of wholesome rivalry
are absent. Good teachers will not
take such schools and cheaper and less
competent instructors must therefore
be hired
Educators in many States who have
sought remedy for this evil are al
most unanimous in advising that weak
district schools be closed, and that the
pupils from such schools be conveyed
at public expense to a central point
where a good school can be maintained.
This plan, first tried in Concord. Mas
sachusetts, has spread throughout the
rural districts Of many States.
The town furnishes covered wagons
of the sort cOmmonlqy called 'barges.'
These are placed in charge of expert
enced drivers. who are responsible Tor
the safety and good behavior of the pu-
pills Oh the way to and from school.
Every morning the barge goes from
house to house throughout the district,
the blowing Of a horn announcing the
approach of the carriage. At night the
barge calls at the SchOOlhOuse, and
leaves the pupils one by one at their
homes.
the schools; gives opportunity for thor
Ough work in special studies: secures
more competent teachers; adds the
stimulating influence of large classes;
leads to better SchOOlhOuSes. and-nOt
least in impOrtance-iS cheaper.
1t costs as much to warm school
house and keep it in repair for five pu-
pills as for forty, and the salaries of
three or four cheap teachers amount
to much more than the salary of one
good teacher; so it is possible to carry
the scattered pupils to a central school,
give them better instruction and more
of it. and still save money
Six district schools in Enfield, Con
necticut. which had less than ten pu-
pills apiece. each cost the town nearly
seventeen hundred dollars year; the
cost of carrying those same pupils to
the central school is only about one
thousand and forty-five dollars a year;
and the more than six hundred dollars
saved can be spent to good advantage
in hiring better teachers or lengthen-
ing the school year.
A town in Massachusetts which was
educating children in small schools at
a cost in one case. of sixty dollars a
year for each pupil. by consolidation
reduced the cost for each pupil to eight
dollars year, including tranSpOrta-
ton.
The value of the district school has
always been that it made education
free to all. The town school which is
growing up in its place is shoot from
the same tree. and has inherited the
same good quality.-Youth's Compan-
ion.