The Prescott daily news., 1915-12-07

JIG, can lOnS accCmpllSn the impossible. been
 severe ana methods of business have so changed that a better and broader education is necessary for our coun- try children. The proper education of the farm boys and girls cannot be neg lected without finally bringing ruin upon the farming communities. If these advantages are not provided they will drift into other callings.
 When we reflect that it costs just as much to support a small school IS one of thirty or more pupils, we catch some idea of the tremendous per cap- ita cost of the Arkansas rural school If, through consolidation or otherwise these rural schools could be brought to have an average attendance of say thirty-five pupils, the number of teachers required therein would be one-half the number now employed.
 But the financial question, however important, is not the most imr:,rtn,.t consideration. The fatal weakness in these schools lies in their size. It is impossible that schools so small as many of these are should do the best work. With but a handful of pupils no teacher can secure the best re,s suits. The pupils themselves miss the incentive and inspiration that comes of numbers. As soon as the boy and girl are free from the oper- ation of the compulsory attendance law they, too, often leave school be- cause they find little to attract.
 It is held by all students of this problem that the only remedy is the consolidating or uniting of two or three or more small or weak schools into one. Consolidation, in it's fullest sense, means the disorganization of two, three or more school districts and uniting them into one large school district, organizing in it a large central school, and, if necessary, transporting the pupils thereto
 At first thought consolidation would seem expensive. Experience. however, shows that this is not true to any considerable degree. By com.ln- ing small schools, fewer teachers arc needed than under the separate sys- tenn, thus saving z certain outlay. While several buildings are now nee. essarily maintained, under the new plan but one needs to be provided and cared for.
 Consolidation is by no means new movement. Ohio, Indiana, Illinois. Missouri, Iowa, Nebraska, South Da. kota, Kansas and Colorado are all abandoning their weak schools. North Carolina has only recently con. solidated twelve hundred districts.
 The difficulties in the way of con- solidation are bad roads and a dislike to see the school house placed in any location that is farther from tho farm than the old site Some of the more obvious of the many advantages ct consolidation follow:
 CD Many country school districts are so small and weak that no school is conducted; CD many others consist of but three or four pupils, and the expense for elementary schooling ire. quently amounts to more than the tn. ition for collegiate instruction, (3) at least one-third of the country schools are too small to be even fairly sue. cessful; (D consolidation and trans portation tend greatly to lessen ex pense, so that the same srade or schools can be had much cheaper. or far better grade at the same ex- pense, as patrons may desire; or. if they please, full equivalent of the best city schools may be established and conducted at slightly greater cost