Daily Kennebec journal., 1904-03-18
The Law and the Rural Schools.

! The Law and the Rural Schools.
Concerning the paragraph in the Ex-
press last night relative to the abolition
of the school districts in Maine further
attention is called to the report Of the
State superintendent of common
schools, recently published, which
shows that there has been falling off
i'm school attendance within the State
in proportion to the number of children
OF school age, that there has been an
increase in the cities and large towns,
but this increase does not make up for
the loss IN the rural communities. Su-
perintendent Stetson complains that the
reason for this is the lack of enforce
ment of the truancy laws. But in the
days of the old school districts one
rarely, if ever, heard of the need of a
truant officer. The children would
cheerfully walk a mile in drifting SHOWS
of winter, for the privileges school gave
them. They feel differently now that
they have been turned into automatons
to be experimental upon for the bene-
fit of faddists who have theories they
wish to exploit. We believe it would
be found that the average attendance
in proportion to the number of scholars
would not decrease in the rural schools
IL the district system were again SUBJ
sti:utcd for the one, no one has yet
named it, now in vogue. Children pre-
fer to so to school rather than to be
"conI eyed" there.-POrtland Express.
In its opposition to the present school
laws of Maine and particularly in it's
attack upon the system of Transporting
pupils in the rural sections. our Port
land contemporary has great difficulty
i'm getting its facts on straight. The
lack of enforcement of the truancy laws
of which Superintendent Stetson COM
plains is wholly i'm the cities and manu-
featuring ccnters. and not at all in ru
raj sections. 1t IS true that there was
Il decreased attendance in the public
schools of Maine last year from the
year before, in spite of the increased
population and the increased number of
young people of school age; but COM
parison of the reports of the State su-
perintendert for the past two years
places as Biddeford. Auburn, Sanford
Madison. Watervile and other places
where there are mills in which children
are employed. There is no decreased
attendance in the rural schools of
Maine. except in those sections where
the population is growing smaller, and
where the conditions have necessitated
the changes in the school laws which
provide sor the consolidation of schools
and transportation of pupils.
The country children walk as cheer
fully now as in the old times, through
drifts of snow to gain the privileges
which school gives them and they are
not being experimental upon by fad
dists who have theories to exploit. Cn-
der the present law no rural school is
discontinued il it has eight or more pu-
pills. and we do not believe anybody will
contend that it is profitable to maintain
schools with fewer than eight pupils,
when money can he saved and the pu-
pills given more weeks of school by pay
ing for their daily transportation to "A
larger school in another part of the
town. The matter of transporting pu-
pills is wholly in the hands of the COM
mittecs in the several towns. the law
giving them absolute discretion in the
matter: and for that matter. even
though a school has fewer than eight
pupils. even if it has only one or two
pupils in attendance. it can be MAIN
tanned if the town SO votes at its annual
meeting.
The changes in our schools are by no
means so radical as the Express Is
seeking to make it's readers believe in
its attacks. In the good old times. the
little rcd schoolhouse on the hill was
filled with half n hundred boys and
girls. but as the years have passed by
and many country towns have de-
creased in population. and with fewer
children in the families. the same little
dozen or a dozen pupils in attend
ance. 1t was them as we pointed out
the other day. wisely concluded that it
was neither economy nor Commonsense
to maintain two schools a mile or two
apart, with a dozen pupils in each. for
20 weeks in the year. when by trans
porting the pupils of one school TO the
other. a school of dozen pupils could
be maintained for so or 35 weeks for
the same expenditure of money This
is the situation in a nutshell. The
country towns are satisfied and the
standard of rural education has been
raised by the change.
One campaign poet is making capital
out of the fact that Hearst" rhymes
with first" 1t is in order for the other