The herald and news. [volume] (Newberry S.C.) 1903-1937, 1905-11-14
GOODBYE COUNTRY SCHOOL
As an Educational Institution 1t IS
Rapidly Giving Place to the Mod
ern Centralized School.
New York Sun.

country school,. As a people we have
had a mania for multiplying school,
houses. We dotted on landscape
well supplied with them.
Peao1e were never too hoarse to
cheer a certain Indiana super1nten-
dent who, for his part, was never too
hoarse to shout his ambition to equip
all ,Hoosierdom within "a schoolhouse
at every crossroads" Somebody
else's pet slogan was: "A church on
every hilltop and a sohoolhouse IN
every valley"
Maybe it was the other way around:
But the proportion was the same. And
the general idea was that, if it rained
schoolhouses one day, the millennium
might be expected the next day or,
at the furthest, the day after.
That's all changed. Certainly
schools are being shut up by the
score. But don't get excited. The
voung idea is not being deprived OF
its right to shoot. On the contrary,
it is at least receiving just as good a
chance along that line as used to be
the exclusive privilege Of town chill
<dren.
This is the way 1t is done. Take
anywhere from two to dozen splnd-
ling, tottering, half dead country
schools. There are thousands Ot
them. Throughout the east the rural
school population has dwindled to
half what it used to be.
One reason is the movement toward
the cities. Anoth her. is that the degree
and kind of learning handed out in
these familiar little old buildings was
not able to bring a child within less
than hong distance communication
with an education.
It was nobody's fault, OF course.
You can't expect Mamie Smith, aged
18, at $50 month and her board, to
be of the proper cal1bre to teach an
assortment of pupils from e to Fl
years of age. At any rate Mamie must
be forgiven if the higher branches
are rather sighted. Sudb school is
apt DO degenerate into mere set-to
between teacher and pupils, in which
all the rules and most of the furniture
get sadly out of repair.
Under the new system all Of these
scratch-scrabble schools in town
ship are closed. If there already ex-
lists a graded school within the town-
ship, the country pupils are taken back
and forth between their homes and
4he school, the cost Of their trans
portation being paid out of the school
fund of the township.
The result is that the country cha1-
dren have the same advantages as
those in town. And the cost to the
township is less.
The reports on the working Of the
new system are interesting. The
change began in New England but
now is in use in about 80 states.
The south, where the school funds
are lamenrably small and the country
districts are lucky to get three months
Door teaching in the course OF the
year, is behind the procession. But
in Florida, Virginia, North Carolina
and Georgia the system is gradually
gaining ground.
In the north it is fairly revolution
7zing farm life. Take one instance
rhat of Green township, Trun1bull
county, Ohio.
This is the real country. Not a city,
not a town, not even a s1zeable VII
age in the township. This is rural
community, if ever there was one. It
is II miles from one railroad and six
miles from another. The township
itself is five miles square.
In 1000 THE people of Green town
ship built modern brick building
at a cost Of $6,ooo The building is
steam heated It contains six class
rooms, with two additional rooms.
one for a library, the other for office
and reception room.