The progressive farmer. [volume] (Winston, N.C.) 1886-1904, 1904-03-29

thus be brought into the country without taking
the country into the world and subjecting it to
all that is worst in it. Good schools and the
general intelligence disseminated by them would
hasten the bringing of these other things into
the country; and on the other hand, of course
good roads and rural telephones and the easy
dissemination of news and literature through
free rural delivery would hasten the improve
ment of the schools and become, in connection
with them, potent factors in the education of the
people. These forces that make the progress,
prosperity and happiness of a people are strange
ly bound together in mutual helpfulness and
rarely travel singly.
[ desire to offer some suggestions for improv-
ing the country schools. These suggestions are
the results of a sympathetic study, as careful as
the means and time at my command have permit
ted, of the existing conditions of the country
schools and the causes thereof. The first means for
the improvement of the rural schools to which I
desire to invite the careful and unprejudiced
consideration of your readers is the enlargement
of the school districts by reasonable consolida-
ton of unnecessary small districts.
In the outset, I wish it understood that I recog-
nize the right of every child to be within reason
able reach of some public school-house; that I
have never advocated and shall not now advocate
consolidation of districts beyond the point of
leaving a school-house within reasonable walking
distance of every child; and that I do not con-
slider consolidation on so large a scale as would
necessitate the transportation of children, prac-
ticable and feasible in North Carolina with the
present condition of our roads and our present
small school fund. Having walked three miles
to school every day of my life while getting my
preparation for college, I must say that I do
- ILL.,
few healthy children to walk over an ordinary
road in order to have a good school for themselves
and all other children of the district.
In the first place, let me call your attention to
some facts appearing from the reports of the
County Superintendent and of the State Super
intendent that ought to convince any reasonable
man of the need of a reduction of the number
of school districts and the enlargement of the
average school district by reasonable consolida-
ton of many of the unreasonably small school
districts.
-scHooLHoUsEs ONLY ONE OR TWO MILES APART
There are 5.37O white and 2,346 colored
school districts in North Carolina. The inhabita-
BILE area of the State is $4,000 square miles. The
average size of the white school district is, there
fore, SO square miles. A simple calculation will
show that in the average district of this size
the school-house, if centrally located in a district
of reasonably regular shape, would be about two
miles from the farthest child and within one
mile of a large majority of the children of the
district. Of course many districts are larger than
this, but many must also be much smaller in order
to make this small average.
It is a fact that in spite of the law directing
that no school-house shall be built within less
than three miles of another school-house, except
for sparsity of population and geographical bar
riers, such as streams, swamps, mountains, etc.,
there are hundreds of school-houses in North