Albuquerque morning journal., 1916-01-29

Of SCHOOLS NOW
AIM Of CONWAY
Success of Plan Operated by
Superintendent AtanaSio
Montoya Spurs Santa Fe
Man 10 Similar Activity,

ESPECIAL coRRrspoaoFneE TO MoaH'Ne 'ooHNNli
Santa Fe. Jan. 2S.--"School consol-
fdation," such as County Superlntend-
ent Atanasio Montoya has brought
about in the Rio Grande valley IN
Bernalillo county is the reform to
which County superintendent John ".
Conway will devote the next rev
months.
Four consolidated and graded build
ings are planned to replace some
twenty widely scattered one-room
school houses. There is to be five-
room consolidated building in the
Glorieta valley, a five-room building
in the Aqua Fria, five-room struc-
ture in the upper Pojoaque and four
room building in the lower Poioaque'
Cerrillos and Santa Cruz already have
modern graded schools. Each new
building is to have adequate manual
training and domestic science rooms
and equipment as we'll as school gar
dens.
Views of Secretary.
"a majority of our school children
are in the rural schools. The query
arises: Are our rural schools doing
their part in making life in the coun-
try desirable? An ambitious people
will go where education can be had
for their children writes the secre-
tary Of the interior in his last annual
report in dealing with the bureau OF
education that is part of his depart
ment. There is no sense in talking
j of the charms of country life and
/ the independence and dignity of pro-
/ ducing from the soil if the school at
/ command is no more modern than the
wooden plow. The old fashioned one
room school house which holds forty
/ to fifty ungraded pupils, having buo
a single teacher who knows nothing
but books, is not q modern institution,
though great men have issued from its
+ dhors. 1t may be all that the country
can afford where many schools are
maintained, but it is not all that the
country can afford If schools are
grouped and grades instituted
Capitalization is everywhere and
Capitalization in education is bound to
come Modern transportation meth
DDS have hurried this along New
Mexico is Going something for consoli-
dated schools and some counties have
progressed faster than others, but
there is no discounting the fact that
in the more thickly settled communi-
ties the little red school house VIII
soon be a thing of the past AS the
state fills and land becomes more val
liable the consolidated school will be
everywhere said superintendent
Conway.
, Santa Fe county has a few con.
, solldated and we'll graded schools. bu'
an effort will be made during this
| year to consolidate the Aqua Fra
| valley the Poioaque valley and thu
Glorieta mountain districts, replacinl
all the small school buildings will
substantial. consolidated, we'll graded
modern, up to date centralized struc
lures.
Progress Made in County.
"Wnhin the past two years there
have been built at least sixty schoo
rooms in Santa Fe county. forty-thre'
of these were built through the hell
of state aid, the others by direct ef
fort Of the people residing in the va
rious districts. All these building
were erected without resorting L
bonds or indebting the districts, eoun
tv or state in any manner. The peo
pie responded willingly and the resul
has been a transformation Of schoo
conditions in the rural communitie
of Santa Fe county.
while in three different instance
consolidation was attained the major
ity of school buildings are the one
room school house with two rooms 10
manual training and domestic scienc
work. In some communities, consol
idation will always remain out OF tn
question, but in the thickly settle'
valleys Capitalization viii be bless