The Tupelo journal., 1904-04-15

anu wonder Oh the natural WOTlu. I1eIo
they make character. To have added
to all these opportunities the advan-
tagessof a good school education, with
out any Of the disadvantages that
attend the spending of evenings, with
out chores or home duties, in the town,
is an educational condition that is al
! most ideal"
With fewer schools as a result OF
consolidation the possibility for better
supervision is greatly increased. Close
supervision is a necessity in an efh-
cient system Of education, and with the
schools located as they are now it is a
matter of impossibility. How a a
superintendent in the period OF the
brief school term visit with any sort
of satisfaction to himself or good to
the system the numbers of schools
under his supervision?
Summarizing the benefits to be de-
| rived from consolidation we find some
Of them are:
/. Fewer teachers are required, so
better teachers may be secured and
better salaries paid.
2. Children are in better school
houses where there are better heat
ing, lighting, ventilation and more ap-
| pliances of all kinds.
3. Pupils work in graded schools and
both teachers and pupils are under
| systematic supervision.
A.. Better opportunity is afforded for
| special work, such as music, drawing
and manual training.
5. Cost per pupil is reduced and eff
! cheney of instruction is increased. This
includes cost and maintenance of build
ings, apparatus, furniture and tuition.
g.. Pupils are benefited by a widened
| circle OF acquaintance and culture.
Z. The school becomes the chief cen
ter of concern in the district, and.
thereby, the whole population is drawn
together by a community of interest.
s. Free distribution of mail is being
extended by the national government
in the rural districts of Mississippi.
If the pupils should be transported at
| public expense it will make possible a
daily distribution of mail throughout
the district.
9. Finally, with splendid schools the
farm becomes the ideal place for the
bringing up of children, enabling them
to secure the advantages of a good
| school and social life and to spend
their evenings and holidays in the
country in contact with nature and in
work, instead Of idly loafing about
town.
Eighteen States have adopted the
principle of consolidation with most
satisfactory results, and we might close
this report in no better way than to
tell just how this idea was first ap-
piled and in what way it has developed
into such extended use in so many
States. But the space allotted to this
report precludes that, and we shall
conclude what We have to say by quot
ing from an article by William B. Shaw
in a recent number of the Review of
Reviews to show what is being done
after this to improve the
schools of u own section: Some OF
the most interesting experiments in
rural school consolidation and improve
ment have been in progress for sew
eral years past in the part Of the coun-
try that has heretofore been regarded
as the least progressive in educational
matters. In the States of North Caro-
lima and Georgia the conditions are
quite different in every way from those
prevailing in New England and the
Middle West, where the school consoli-
dation movement has attained its
greatest impetus. Yet it has been
fully demonstrated in each of these
States that it is cheaper and better
to transport a dozen children four or
five miles to a central school than to
employ a teacher and provide a school
house for these children near their
own homes. The State school COM
missioner of Georgia has asked the
legislature to confer Upon the county
boards of education the authority to
consolidate the weak and inefficient
schools of a number of sparsely-set-
tied communities into one strong GEN.
trail school whenever, in their judg-
ment, such consolidation is deemed
wise and proper. In North Carolina
the number of school districts was
reduced last year more tina a thou
sand; the patrons of the schools in
that State continue to ask for con-
~solidation and Capitalization. Farther
south, in Florida, one county-Duval-
has concentrated schools over an area
of about one hundred square miles.
Here. as in other Southern States,
where the transportation system has
been introduced, the wagons are
owned by the counties. Drivers and
teams are hired by contract let to the
lowest bidder.
A conference of the county school
commissioners of Georgia, held at
Athens in September last, devoted
much attention to the subject OF school
consolidation and transportation OF pu-
pills. In the cours of this discussion
Superintendent Smith, of Greene
ty, stated that, in his county. three
schools had been consolidated Win
great success. Wagon frames and
horses were purchased by the county,
and a contract was made for the trans
portation of children to school at five
cents per head per day. Previous to
consolidation the cost of maintaining
the schools was II IL cents per pupil
per day; the cost now, including. that
of carrying the children, is II IL cents
per day. This testimony was followed
by a statement of Superintendent
Rogers, of Washington county, giving
the history of a school which four
years ago had twenty pupils and paid
the teacher a salary Of $50 a month,
and today has one hundred pupils,
with one teacher at $50 a month, and
a second at $40, and a third at $50, the
school being carefully graded. Twenty
six of these pupils are transported at
a cost to the county of SIS per term for
each pupil. All this was brought about
by abolishing two little schools and
transporting the pupils who could not
otherwise reach the school house. The
increased interest that this school has
aroused has caused the people willing
Iv RI raica tho money that il takes to