The Little River news. (Ashdown, Little River County, Ark.) 1897-current, 1920-11-06
GOOD COUNTRY SCHOOLS

, tic equipment. Each boy in the agri-
/ cultural class has an acre plot at
, home which he cultivates under my
supervision, and that is d part of his
school work
n MY assistant teaches the Holden
System of vitalized agriculture, and
1--WE make many excursions to farms in
the district and study planting, grow
ing crops, livestock and all things
pertaining to work and Ifs On the
farm. The girls are taught garden
ing and housekeeping in all their
branches. My idea is to have this
school teach the young men and
women of this neighborhood not only
the things usually taught in high
schools, but how to work with the
land and with livestock and to see
beauty in it and love it.
/ went to see different farmers in
the district to learn what they thought
of the school Among them was G. d.
Gray, president of the school board.
When asked him about the school
he scid:
I'm a practical farmer, been here
all through and saw the old style and
the new, and you can Just say for me
that a good school is the biggest asset
| a farm community can have. Take
our case. Here we were, seven miles
| from town. There wasn't a church in
our district no lodge, no place to hold
entertainments in, and, while seven
miles isn't far when a man has a car
and roads. are good, still it's a long
ways when the roads are bad
Just look at what the school has
done in religious way. There were
no church services in the neighbour
hood at all before. Now we have a
regular church and Sunday School
every Sunday afternoon in the school
auditorium with a regular pastor
Then we have the biggest grange in
| Oklahoma, that meets in the auditor
ium and has over 200 active members.
That was organized since the school
was built
Talk about fun! We had an all
day contest in our. school auditorium
two weeks. ago withithe Pioneer School
sixteen miles from here. We had
spelling matches, arithmetic contests,
solo and chorus contests, and a de-
bate and athletic contests on the
school grounds. That was all a result
of the new school, The whole neigh
borhood turned out.
liz. the old days our boys and girls
who wanted to go to high school had
to go to Chickasha and stay four years,
and that weaned them away from the
back. Now they go through our own
high school,
Land Prices Almost Doubled.
i I'm going round from farm to farm l
found considerable objection to the un-
| io9-graded piG1n, and a decided senti-
nent in favor of changing to thu con-
solidated school plan. AS Mr.. Gray
nut it,
Our biggest object son to it Is that
| it splits up family OF children. Now.
| have five, children; ghree of them are
small and. go to one-room school,
and two go to the central school AL
| len Jewert. big farmer, has a boy
fourteen years old2 who goes to the
central school, on horseback, and a.
| girl of seven who. goes to a, one-room
school 1t would be better if they to-
went gether to a central school and
were transported"
I / asked Mr.. Gray thus question:
"Since the new school was built are the
young people happier aad better con-
teIted?"
He laughed Il shosrld say So. Why,
now we don't have to worry about them
| going to town. They get away to
track meecs and insellectuaf contests
| Ill QUIET ScIOOlS we SNtH oShI
team up 30 the State Agricultural Col
lege in saltwater and they won some
medals. In the contests in Chickasha
this month, with 400 contestants from
forty different school diStrirts, we won
several medals.
eff any big speaker come to Chick
asha we get him out here to speak to
our auditorium. And the musical en-
tertainment team from the city schools
come out here.
There's another big thing the new
school has done; 1t has raised the
. price of land in this district-almost
doubled it. l know of a number OF
farm transfers that have been made on
. account of this school. Land has ad-
vanced from an average of sixty dol
lars an acre, the price before the
oh Al h,,slt 10 oil