The Redwood gazette. [volume] (Redwood Falls, Minn.) 1873-1940, 1904-03-16
SCHOOL TRUSTEES CONFER.
Sixty Attended the Meeting at WabassO
on March 5th.


betterment of our rural schools.
Rural School Consolidation and
Transportation Of Pupils excited
discussion and the question arose
as to whether FIVE teams could gath
err the children living in the remote
parts of township and carry them
to the center at a cost of $25 per
quarter section Nearly two-thirds
of the trustees said yes, if the new
conditions would give school 100
h per cent greater in value than the
one-room, multi-form grades that
I now confront us. Shall the boy
and girl in the country have equal
/ opportunity with his city and viii
7 Iage cousin? Yes, why not2 The
law now gives districts which have
small schools the right to contract
with any district for education of
its children, even to paying for the
transportation of the pupils. Small
schools could il this way unite with
the stronger ones. The present
objection seems to be that our poor
roads, large townships, love for the
little lone school house. and the ex-
cessive tax Of II mills ian estimate)
would be unsupported. Then too,
the children living in remote parts
of the township would be nearly
frozen before the teams would ar
rive at the schoolhouse. Then, too,
the children would need to get up
so much earlier in order to catch
/ the ambulance. The questions we're
many.
Four schools in township could
be closed and in place three teach
ers under one roof could and would
do the same work two hundred Eper
cent better. In this way our chill
dren would be at.home on the farm
every night and yet have equal adj
vantages with his city cousin. The
school would give added value to
the farm. Probably FIVE teams are
insufficient for township six miles
square. Yet six teams would sure
ly bring and return the pupils far
more comfortably THANH many are
now, who must needs walk one or
more miles. The wagons would all
be covered and each would be sup
pliee with robes and foot stoves in
cold weather. In Iowa, Indiana.
Ohio, Pennsylvania and New York
the plan works well. No. one dis
trict, so far as is known, has gone
back to the one teacher in the one
teacher in the one room with all
| grades to teach.
| In our best rural schools as COM
pared with our city or village schools
the work cannot be called good.
The spirit of the age has caught the
wide-awake farmers boy and girl,
and they leave the rural school at
II to IA years of age and go to the
city graded school mot high school.
Enrolment in our rural schools is
Outlines %, while the average daily
attendance is about IL. In the city
| schools the reverse is true. This
| gives us poor schools in spite oil
| poor teachers, or poor buildings or
appliances. Irregular attendance
/ in our schools was hit some hard
blows by school trustees. Poor
schools with poor teachers always
have poor attendance. A good
school does not, very often.
i One thing is now noticeable, thai
boys and girls l6 to Is years of age
are not to any great extent in our
rural schools. They simply drop
out at the end of the sixth or sew.
enth years work. They don't &c
very much after they enter the 9th
grade, not more than 40 or 80 days
Iduring the year. Such attendance
cannot accomplish very much.
Would three or four department
school in each township do away
with irregular attendance? No,
not entirely, but it would seriously
induce our big boys and girls to re
main. We certainly should have
better teachers, better buildings,
better libraries, and more subjects
taught than is now possible. Tar
diness would be reduced to mini
mum, while now it is at its maxi
I'll 49,, uc,,l1 10 1<.-c, 49, :. -