Audubon County journal. (Exira, Iowa) 1884-1993, 1913-09-11
GOOD SCHOOLS FOR
COUNTRY SCHOOLS

I'm a recent issue the Journal point
ed out some of the advantages Of |
consolidation of rural schools The
following ARTICLE by Chester H.
Gray in the Country Gentleman 81 4l
the result OF an interesting investi-
cation made by the people Of dis
trict which was contemplating the
adoption of the plan:
The consolidation Of rural schools
seems to point the way to the So
luton of a great big problem: How
shall the farmer children receive
an education worthy of our eni-
lightened and progressive times?
The little red schoolhouse is an an
achronism and a back number.
It is appalling to those of us
who live on farms to see the
great majority of our young folks.
girls and boys from twelve to six
teen years Of age, quitting school
when they have reached only the
seventh or eighth grade, and them
allowing the meager mental training
they have had go to seed. 1t is
surely time for the old order to
change. We owe it to civilization
and to the agricultural life OF our
immediate future to furnish our
young farmer folk with a better
q broader and more technical ed
ucation. Socially it is wholly unfair
and professionally it is criminal to
deny the coming generation of
farmers and farmers wives an ed
ucation in their youth that prepares
In broad way for 'Hte,s work.
This education should be pnovid-
ed for them at home while they are
under the influence Of parents and
country life. The city high school
is unsuited for this work; the dis
trict sschool is wholly inadequate
and must ever remain so from its
very nature of incompleteness and
smallness. On the other hand, the
consolidation of rural schools offers
true solution and is no longer an
experiment that is, in many local
tiles. In the sections where it has
not been tried out the farmers nat
urally demand proofs.
There is no better way to get
these proofs than to visit some con-
solidated school that has been in
operation long enough to establish
itself in a community and prove its
place Such visit has just been
completed by a personal and COM
munity representative of a locality
in Missouri wherein it is desired
to consolidate four districts.
The. school chosen for investiga,
tion in this instance was the Har-
lem Consolidated School in Winnie
bago County, Illinois. This school
was chosen because of its advanced
ideas concerning farm education
s and social life. Here are, some things
the investigator found: A corps OF
fine teachers, each one. a normal
0CluOOl S1dounCOp " R44ASiRtA4 WAOS IL
addition to being trained for the
usual work, is equipped to teach
manual training and agriculture;
an assistant principal trained to in
struct in domestic science and sew
ing; a building of four schoolrooms
each with proper lighting, seating
capacity, heating and ventilation;
manual training room with ade-
quate appointments; domestic
science room; chemical and agricul-
tural labratories; two furnaces, one
tor steam and the other for all
heating; a gas plant for lighting
and cooking; a large attic FOL
Danleas; and three acres of ground
4.It is only with such an equip
ment as this that we can hope te
give the farm children their just
due educationally. 1t is possible te
have as thorough work done ir
country as in city schools II the
farmers are willing to enlarge theil
boundaries to reach more people AM
to raise their taxes somewhat. ~
the Harlem school the rate of taxa
= ton for school purposes is 81
cents on each hundred dollars O
assessed valuation. In Rockford,
city adjoining the consolidated dis
trict, the rate is about double tina
of Harlem. There is scarcely a cit!
anywhere that maintains it's schools
SO cheaply as do the consolidated
districts. Consolidation costs mor
than the district schools, but les
than the same grade of work il
cities. Moreover, the consolidiatat
enter the universities as free Q
conditions as do the city higl
schools. The farmers have {
"snap," financially speaking. il