The Brattleboro daily reformer. (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1913-1955, 1920-11-27
OUR LITTLE RED SCHOOLHOUSES
Those That Have Gone Were No Longer Needed Rural
Schools Found Wherever There Is Rural Population

that of the present, even with its recent
material advance; second, to stimulate a
desire for service where service is most
needed: third, to- eneouTage a kindly at
titude toward the teacher, and this APP
plies to all communities, rural and Urban :;
fourth, to establish some professional
goal ahead toward which the teacher may
work. These agencies, singly or together,
may not achieve all that is desired, but
they will help. aa ~7
Next to the teacher, the second reali-
site of a successful school is pupils who
are students. Some pupils are merely
school attendants, others are students. A
teacher may stimulate and inspire some
children; the efforts of the best teacher
are lost on others. Some simply cannot
respond. Others might readily if they
received the right direction at home. The
school and the teacher cannot do it all.
The home, IN these modern days, n~eglects
the duty 1t formerly . performed, and
which 50 well supplemented the work Of
the little red se~hoolhouse.'
Other things being equal, a good-sized
school Will outstrlD n few in numbers
Psychological, of course, the influence of
mind upon mind. Here is where the rural
school of our fOrefathers had an immense
advantage over the typical present one.
The larger families, the greater rural pop
%ulation, the older age Of pupils. all COM
blned to make the large and active school.
A@N--N1~NN- NN' NA4AA=1o NlAA1
The town school has profited, but the
rural school has suffered. We hear a
great deal about restoring the rural
school. Ii we could only restore the
rural population, there would be no diff
Guilty on that score. The rural schoOl
has such a hold that it will almost always
continue until a community disintegrates.
And 1t will revive. with half a chance of
usefulness. Whenever economic condi-
tions change and people flock back to the
] H. - I
rural school viii move on ahead of the
! recession. Like the rural church. it is
ow weakened. BY every natural and
'nslble means 1t should be aided to
Try On, for the sake Of the young yet
naming who must depend upon it for
cir needed elementary education. So
~ as the number and location of the
bile schools are left with the local au-
critics, we may be sure that the most
SpOnsIve agencies Will look ont for the
aitafe of their several communities. The
ct that there are at present l,J57 rural
hools I'M operation in Vermont an av-
age OF about seven to each town. not
Guiding the cities or large towns with
It rural schools, shows that the state
we'll served IN respect to their number
ID distribution. The closing of rural
.hools and transporting of pupils to cen
Eal schools rs not general, but eXcep-
onal, and IN most cases where Is is lone
andItIOus make is necessary. The large
m expended for transportation are
tostly for carrying pupils who reside at
distance from the schools they naturally
tend.
Not every problem in this life can be
lEy and satisfactorily solved. The
hances are that, owing to radical changes
rite beyond any power to prevent, the
fraI school viii never AGAIN be the same
Iative factor in education that it once
IS. But it still has a Dlace and a mis-
IN, not to be filed by any other agency
81 reasonable effort or expense should be
aared TO maintain it, and at as high a
.andard of efficiency as possible. ANY
ducatioHal system. or any administra,
rs, that disregard this manifest duty
anuot be dispensed with too quickly fol
he public good.-RandoIph Herald and
a1blic News.