The Baltimore County union. [volume] (Towsontown, Md.) 1865-1909, 1903-02-28
From The Outlook.
COUNTRY SCHOOLS-THE NEW PLAN.
BIZ cLARENcE 4. MArsoN, or kANsAs.

husky boy Of sixteen or eighteen. who goes TO
school few weeks In midwinter when the farm
There to ouT
pupils in class. The teacher Is compelled TO
teach everything from the primer to higher
arithmetic. No two pupils are OF equal pro-
ficiency, and the work is necessarily haphazaru
to great degree. Some of the pupils walk two
miles or more to school, and when the weather
is bad they arrive late, with garments damp and
shoes coated with mud. Sitting with cold wet
feet all day often undermines the pupils health.
me term IL only I'VE or SIX months long Inc
school can teach him by the time he is fifteen,
and If he advances further he must be sent
away to the high school in town.
Then imagine modern school building OF per-
baps four rooms, properly heated and ventilated.
The walls are adorned with suitable pictures.
The school is graded, giving the teacher Oetter
opportunity to do effective work. Each teacher
has from thirty TO forty pupils. There Is appa-
ratus of different kinds and library to help
with the school work. Larger classes and com
petition stimulate interest: The pupils are
brought to and from school in coverd spring
wagons, and there is little cause Tor wet Ieet
and resultant i'll health. A high-school course
covering two or three years Is established. Inc
term is eight or nine months. The teachers are
better paid than the one teaching only ten or
fifteen pupils, and consequently more capable
instructors are secured.
Such is the change that is being wrought in
many communicate the United States through
the consolidation of rural schools. In this age
of Capitalization the country school has been
caught in the popular trend ana IS Delng greatly
benefited by it. The rural schools of the twen-
tietb century win be far in advance of those of
the nineteenth, but there will not be so many OF
them, for the consolidated district will embrace
as much territory as is now included in from
three to six average districts.
Rural consolidation" as the movement Is
termed by educators, is the result of expert
ments and discoveries, and nearly every State
in which the plan is now authorized had to make
the discovery for tse IN ~ my OVID Seat t nan s,o
irons of the schools in Green Garden township,
Ellsworth county, thought it would be economy
house in which graded school might be con-
Quoted. A feature of the plan was for some OF
the more distant farmers in each direction to
make daily trips to the schoolhouse and pick up
all the children along the way, the district pay
ing them proper remuneration for their work.
The Kansas n passeq Il sPec as law
ton, but little attention was paid to 1t outside
of the districts interested. The school was
called Lorraine. The plan for the transporta-
ton of the pupils evolved into the employ
ment of persons with properly covered spring
wagons for that work. The plan proved great
rest of the State found it out. Then other dis
tricts wanted to try 1t, and the Legislature
PASSED a general law authorizing the consQl idae
her discovery to the world when she found that
seventeen other States had made the same dis
covery, some of them a. few years previously
but the majority about the same time as Kansas
That was two years ago-1ust as the twentieth
century was dawning. Since then the move
ment has gained great impetus, and within .
very few years hundreds of school districts will
be abolished in their present form and central
consolidated schools will take their place.
The seventeen States besides Kansas in which
rural school consolidation is authorized are
Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachu-
setts Rhode Island. Connecticut, New York,
consin, Iowa. Nebraska. North Dakota. south
Dakota and Florida. In Ohio the plan was first
tried ten years ago under circumstances similar
to those In Kansas, but not till 1898 was il au-
thorized In the entire State.
The rural schools have by no means kept pace
with those In the towns In advancement in the
past quarter-century. While the town schools
use up-to-date methods and are able TO employ
teachers who have received special training for
their work. the methods used in the average
two or three decades ago. One of the disadvan-
tages OF country life Is the lack of the best
school facilities The rural school problem has
been dilhcult one for educators 70 solve, but the
consolidation idea seems TO present the solution.
There are. however, objections urged against IL,
and Il i quite probable that Il would not be APP
plicable 20 all eomrunlties- Those who object
% the plan are. a. a rule, persons who are OD-
posed 70 progress. People who would be &C
distance from a proposed central school fear
that the distance may cause q depreciation ID
the value OF their farm lands. Then they dis
ike e taink o. Their children four or i've miles
driver may be Questionable. Experience. how
ever. largely does away with these objections.
Ia has proven that a farm from which children
are transported Ia q comfortable Conveyance
four miieA % Weil-equipped school IL more val
uaole comparatively than one from which the
N"AA.AANA -. = AAAAN - t4tN oCuDuls lut IN
troduction Of the rural telephone il rapidly an
uihilatlnT fear Of distances Ia the country and
q = a. easy % secure adriver OF good character
The chief advantages 10 be gained by CONSOLE
datlon are First. better teachers; second a re-
a 2. oi the cost OF edncation per eapita;
easier supervision on the part of the county SUI
perintendent: a. the number ss, OF schools IN
meut larger daily attendance, and far greater
puDctuallfy, as all children are brought In by
me transportstoh WAGONS o ~. nine O'Clock IN
tition. and greater interest and enthusiasm
among the pupils; seventh, better school build
ings. well ventilated and heated. and far better
equipment; eighth. a short high school course
The hiRh-echool course, especially, Is an i'm
portant consideration. Under the old system.
little remains for him to learn In the average
district school. For further education IL is
necessary for the pupil to leave home and go to
many an American farmer to leave his farm
when his children have arrived at an age when
the district school could no longer benefit them,
and move TO the town or city, that his children
might have better educational advantages.
Rural consolidation does away with this neces-
sity. 1t brings the high school to the farm in
stead of compelling the farmer to take his chill
dren to the high school. 1t will aid in stopping
the rush from the farms to the cities, for there
will no longer be the incentive to move to town
tosecure ample educational facilities-and when
the boy and girl once get taste OF city life the
farm often becomes dlstasteIll 70 them: AND
every farm within the scope of its influence, so
the consolidated school will add still greater
amount to the. value of every farm within
much larger radius.
At first thought one would naturally suppose
that the betterment of the schools to such an
extent, and the cost of transporting the pupils
to and from school each day, would materially
increase the school tax but actual experiments
prove that this is incorrect. In fact, in large
majority of cases, the opposite has proven true.
The fact that the number of teachers Is usually
reduced brings about an economy in wages,eyen
little economies in other directions.
The consolidated school at Buffalo Center,
Iowa, was organized in 1896. Last year it en-
rolled. Only lis of these had to be transported,
however, and six teams and drivers were en-
ployed for this purpose The drivers were paid
$34 per month for their work. and the average
cost of tuition per month for each pupil was
S1H.
At Terrill, Iowa, the enrolment in the con-
solidated school is 165, nearly all of whom are
brought to school in wagons. Seven drivers are
required, and the average distance the pupils
are brought is three miles. Four teachers are
EMPLOYED in the school. The average cost of
tuition per month per pupil Is $1.53.
In the Lorraine school in Kansas which was
the experimental school in that State, the fnan-
cial showing is not so good, owing to the few
districts which combined but the advantages
which have been secured through consolidation
nothing could induce the patrons of the school
to return to the old district system. When the
four districts were hrst consolidated only three
of a two years high-school course another
teacher has been necessary, so that the aggre-
gate amount spent for the school Is considerably
Increased over that spent on the old system.
Notwithstanding this. the average daily attend
ance has so largely increased that the cost per
pupil, based on the daily attendance. has been
slightly reduced, as the following comparison
will show:
Before After
CONSOLE CONSOLE
dalton. dalton.
Cost per year............$ 81. 0ol.00 $1,79l.O0
Cost per month........... 1879 $3.50
Cost per capita of school
population. ............. LII l.1O
Cost per capita on enroll
menC.... LILO z.l0
Cost per capita on aver
age daily attendance. 2.S 2.27
Population (schooD...... l32 1l0
Enrollment 95 Ill
Average daily attendance " lO5
Average school year,. 6Kmos. AZ mos.