The Brookings register. [volume] (Brookings, Brookings County, S.D.) 1903-1971, 1914-02-26

that we need to look to. In no other
line of work do we hold that the
cheapest is the best. Because an old
fashioned reaper costs less than a
modern harvester a farmer does not
buy the reaper but Is willing to pay
several times the cost of that article
to get the better machine because of
the greater efficiency. Here he sees
quick results and therein lies the
secret. If he could see quick results
of better education he might be on
WINGED but educating and character
building are both slow processes. We
must look to the good to be accom-
plished not to the first cost.
Our rural school shows poor results
considering the results We ought to
accomplish and the number that we
ought to be educating. This Is moi
the fault Of the teacher. Parents in
many cases are ast%onishingly lax in
sending their children to school. Many
are kept out to work while still inside
the compulsory school age. We read
much of child labor laws in the cities
where inhuman parents put their
children to work in the factories and
mills at an early age. How is that
parent different from the one who
keeps his boy out as soon Is he is
large enough to become useful on the
farm. Many a farm boy is kept at
home if there is anything he can pos
sibly do and we are considered un-
reasonable if we insist that the law
be carried out. To be sure the effect
on the child's body is not so serious
as the child who Is put to work in fac
tory or mill but his brain develop
ment Is certainly arrested and by the
time he Is thirteen or fourteen years
old and has reached only the fifth
or sixth grade he dislikes to enter
school even for a short time through
the winter to be classified with pupils
much smaller than himself whose reg
ular attendance has enabled them to
make their grades al the normal age.
Argue as people will, (and l know
these things to be true ofter) that
help Is often hard to secure and crops
must be attended to, when it is
brought down to a fine point is there
anything on the farm of more value
han the child? And is anything more
vital to the child than it's education?
Then the sacrifice to be made, If any,
is for the purpose of giving the rural
communities the chance to educate
all the youth of the communities.
In considering the cost we must
look somewhat to the number bene-
fitted. 1t has always worked out that
the cost per capita is less with con-
solidation than with the old system.
In the former case all the pupils are
given an opportunity while in the lat
ter only a favored few can go beyond
the grades and many of them neve
finish the grades. In this county
alone every year there is being paid
to the town schools about 81, 10000 for
tuition. This is a very small part of
the cost of sending children from
home when extra clothing, more
spending money, board and transpor-
tation, are considered not to mention
the danger Of the loss of home in
fiuence and parental care to the child
at this most impressionable age as
well as the loss to the parents of the
child's much needed help at home.
Consolidated schools with their
good substantial sanitary, well equip
ped buildings would attract the best
teachers. Now, out of one hundred