The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1912-11-29
ONE ROOM SCHOOL
NOW OUT OF DATE

THE rural school has made some
progress in the last twenty-five
years, but as compared with the
schools of villages and cities during
the same period it seems they have
stood stock STILL" declared e. NJ
Phillips, state rural school commits
sioner, in his address on rural
school consolidation at the conser-
Walton congress today He said that
no scheme for improving rural con-
ditions can omit the betterment Of
the rural school.
If the country school is to assist
in improving rural conditions, work
ing hand i'm hand with other agen-
cies now at work to make the coun-
try better place to live in, the
one-teacher school system must be
replaced by the consolidation of
rural schools, declared Mr. Phillips.
Mr.. Phillips discussed the Holm
berg act of 1911. providing state aid
10 consolidated schools, giving the
requirements prescribed in order to
set state aid. Teachers, he said,
are required to have the same quail
iticationS as in the best city schools
and the principal is chosen for his
special fitness as a farming commu-
nifty leader
First, last and all the time, it
is the intention of the state to make
the consolidated school a community
institution" he declared. in all its
activities it must reflect community
needs, community interests ,commu-
nifty life, at their very best, and
must foster the ambitions of both
children and parents for better con.
ditionS."
Sixty-one Schools.
The Holmberg act went into eff
feet April IS, 1911. Since that date,
consolidation has been effected at
sixty different points, located in
thirty-one counties. He continued,
Thirty of these schools are now
very well equipped and organized
and, therefore, it is possible to haz-
ard an opinion as to their adapta-
tiOn to purpose. First, it is certain
now that pupils in the new schools
are receiving better instruction than
they ever received in the old-al-
though the new schools are still
crude in organization. We find, too,
that children are attending more
regularly and more punctually than
was possible in the country with
out transportation. There seems no
reasonable or unavoidable objection
to transportation on the part of
patrons. Protection thrown about
children through the provision of
better buildings. with warm, SAM
tary closets, good drinking water,
uniform heating and adequate ven
tilation, and numerous other sani-
tary provisions, is bearing evident
results in improved health. What
the result will be in the direction
of attaching children to farm life
and the farm home, we can, at this
early date, only conjecture. There
seems no doubt that efficient schools,
the broadening of thought which
follows the association OF large
numbers for common purpose, and
the addition Of industrial work to
the old curriculum, can have no
other effect than to keep the young
people Of rural communities from
hurrying away to the cities for en-
plOyment.
Land for Each School.
Each school has connected with
it a small tract Of land, varying in
extent, from one to ten acres, which
is to be used by the principal teach
er as an agricultural laboratory. AS
principals are employed for the en-
tire year, this land can be used TO
good advantage. 1t will be used in
verifying for children and parents
those agricultural facts of immedi-
ltn as n vi l.
ize the classroom work in general
agriculture All this will logically
lead to a growing and intelligent
part of the children. who will nat
urally become the practical agricul-
turists of the next generation.
Minnesota has about 1000 iso-
lated one-room rural school districts.
OF this number, al have, in one
year, been combined into very prom
Using consolidated schools. There
are very few counties in the state
where steps have not been taken
looking toward further consolida-
ton. If the sixty schools now es-
tablished fulfill our expectations as
to efficiency, their influence will
give the consolidated school move
ment an impetus sufficient to carry
the state for this system within the
next decade
Secretary f. F. Soaring Of the
Commercial club received letter
this morning from T. J. Malone, of
the educational department of the
Minneapolis Tribune in which Mr..
Malone asks for the cooperation oi
the Commercial club in furthering a
project of Prof. Edward NJ. Lehn.
crts of the geographical department
of the University of Minnesota. Prof
Lehncrts wishes to inaugurate a
series of tours of the state this sum.
mer, the tourists to be made up OF
teachers and superintendent OF
schools, in order to give teachers
and others first hand knowledge
of the geography of the state. Prof
Lehnerts wishes to have the Com
mercial bodies i'm the cities on the
route of the tourists arrange for
hotel accommodations, aud perhaps