The Daily Ardmoreite. [volume] (Ardmore, Okla.) 1893-current, 1911-03-13
PASSING OF LOG
SCHOOL HOUSE
CONSOLIDATED RURAL EDUCA-
TIONAL SYSTEMS ARE Al
READY FACTS IN THE STATE.

Oklahoma City, March 1.-TWO
strong educational tendencies in Ok
lahoma came prominently into The
limelight during the session of the
legislature just closed BY his veto
Of appropriation bills for state col
leges, Governor Cruce called emphat-
ic attention to the multiplicity of
state educational institutions which,
he said, were tending to lower the
standard of all and converting many
of the higher educational normals
and colleges into little better if any
than local high schools.
The hard fight of the farmer mem-
bers for a $2,500O00 appropriation
for the encouragement of rural con
solidated graded and high schools
called as emphatic attention to a
radically different tendency that of
the district schools toward centrali
cation in larger schools and dis
tricts.
The consolidated rural school dis
trict is already a fact in Oklahoma,
and is growing in favor at rapid
rate. The days of the little log
school house are numbered. These
dear relics of the frontier and back
woods are being replaced by brick
and stone structures of modern con-
struction and every modern improve
ment. Even the long tramp of the
rural scholar in the cool of the
morning with his heavy lunch bas-
ket hanging on stick has given
way to an easy jaunt in vehicles
provided by the school districts, es-
specially in the consolidated schools.
The district school, as every one
knows, is time-honored. Every rural
, community has Or had one, usually
an unpretentious building at some
Cross roads, gathering in the pupils
from one to three miles around.
This still is the unit of the common
school system in Oklahoma, though
the consolidated district is making
great inroads and eventually will
supercede the district school proper.
To the first state superintendent of
public instruction, h. d. Cameron, Is
due the first great impetus to the
consolidated rural school idea in Ok
lahoma. Three years ago he urged
vuch a system, and advocated is con-
isstently until he retired from office
the first of this year. The advant-
ages of the plan are numerous, and
lhiefly consist in better schoolhouses,
higher grades and better teachers
Instead of three or four or five or
six little single districts of four to
six or eight square miles each, the
consolidated district is often as big
as an entire township, II fact Sc
square miles is the average. in
place of the four or five little log
school houses at every cross roads
and grove, the taxes of the consoli
dation of the smaller districts are
sufficient to build handsome and
commodious brick building at some
central point, engage four or five
good teachers and transportation of
the outlying scholars.
In his first message to this legis- !
lature, Governor Cruce urged such !
a system, for the advantages have |
been proven in the last two Or three
years of such plan.
Several bills were introduced in .
the legislature to appropriate two or |
three million dollars to assist in the |
construction of such consolidated rur-
al school buildings, the plan being |
for the state to pay half of the con
struction cost of such buildings. The |
farmer members were so insistent .
that they practically held up the
passage on nearly all important ap-
bills in the house until a
bill was passed TO appropriate 81
100000 for the half-payment of such
over the state the liability
of the state being limited always to
one-half the construction price and !
never to be more than $4,000 for .
any one district.