The commonwealth. (Greenwood, Miss.) 1896-1923, 1904-04-09

was also stated that there is i grow.
ing sentiment in Georgia in favor Of
schools where more than one teacher Is
employed. They are finding out that
work done in schools where two or
three teachers are employed is much
better than the work done In schools
where there is only one teacher. Two
teachers can teach eighty pupils bet
ter than n teacher can teach twenty.
FIVE" State School Commissioner
Glenn, OF Georgia, gives it as his judg.
ment that this movement will go for.
ward rapidly in the State. until all of
the weak and ungraded schools
in the rural districts will be consoli.
dated into strong, well-graded central
schools.
State Superintendent Joyner, of
North Carolina, has recently issued a
special bulletin on the subject of con.
%solidation Of districts. AS an object
lesson in his State, Superintendent
Joyner cites Durham county, where
the number of districts has been re-
duced from sixty-fve to forty-nine, and
still more than nine-tenths OF the chill
dren are within less than two miles of
the school,, and less than n hundred
of them are a far as three miles
from the school, while many improved
school houses have been built in the
county. In many other counties of the
State, where districts have been con-
~solidated, funds have been raiseld by
private subscription for the erection
of school buildings, and citizens are
apparently ready and willing to go to
this expense if assured of better in.
struction and equipment in the cen,
trail schools.
One of the school districts of Knox
county, Tenn, the county in which
Knoxville is situated-is now attract
ing much attention as the seat Of an
attempt to establish a model rural in
dustrial school, in which instruction
will be given in both indoor and out
door manual training. The people of
this district-the tenth-are intel
ligent citizens, and are dissatisfied
with the schools now in operation in
their district, of which there are nine
for white pupils and two for colored.
The census Of 1900 showed that there
were in the district S03 whites of
school age and 124 colored. The av-
erage compensation for teachers has
been $32 a month. The people of the
district have now determined to unite
the nine white schools In one efficient
central school, in which will be taught
elementary lorms of manual training
knife work, carpentering, scientific
cooking, sewing, elementary agricul-
ture, horticulture, bee culture and the
like. Ten acres Of land will be Sc
cured as a school site, and this will be
added to if necessary. 1t is intended
that this school shall be a growth, and
probably at least four years will be
required for its completion. The prog
ress of this model school will be
watched with great interest, especially
in Tennessee and the South, and will
no doubt provide a stimulus to like
undertakings in other sections.
These notes on the school cunsolida-
ton movement, North and South, show
that the scheme has been found prac-
ticable in one form or another under
widely diverse conditions. The sys-
tens under which school funds are
raised and expended differ greatly in
the different States; but we have seen
that whatever the system may be a
way has been found to bring about the
merging of feeble schools into strong
ones to the satisfaction Of patrons, and
that this has been accomplished with
seemingly equal facility in district,
township and county systems. No
scheme Of consolidation or centrali2a-
ton can be devised that can be ap.
piled with equal success to every 10.
Cality. The local situation must be
considered in each separate case. Be-
the people of Ohio have succeed
ed in centralizing their schools under
the township plan, it by no mean fol-
lows that Lne people of Georgia or Mis-
sissippi can do precisely the same
thing in precisely the same way, work.
ing under their county system. For
some communities that have not yet
adopted any plan of action, Ohio's
methods may seem practicable; for
others, particularly in the South, the
experience of Georgia, may have more
useful lessons. No advocate of con.
solidation, so far as we know, believes
that identically the same scheme a
be employed in all the States.