The coastland times. [volume] (Mnateo [i.e. Manteo], N.C.) 1947-1959, 1958-01-24
CRIMINAL CRUELTY OFTEN
FOLLOWS CONSOLIDATION

singular trait of the American
people is to go nuts over most any
kind Of a new fad, and though
some may not agree, they pretend
to, in the interest of policy.
There is some good in every
thing, and some bad in most
things, but the American people
will go haywire and hog-wild over
numerous things and work them
selves into frenzy of fondness
about them. OF some of these
things it were rank heresy to admit
that anything about them can be
in any way wrong or detrimental.
Take the case of school consolida-
ton. 1t really hit the American
people with the force of rock
and roll fad. It had weight behind
it. 1t was a wonderful thing for
the larger and more politically
powerful communities; here was a
glorious chance to enlarge ones
own community and its CONNER
cial and other advantages, regard
less of how many small commune
ties might be stripped of resources
and burdened with additional hard
ships.
1t meant the expenditure of a
lot of money, and it attracted the
courthouse politicians and others
who enjoy taxing other people and
spending their money. What a
glorious opportunity to throw out
lot of meaty bones to their Eyes
men" and poor relations. And con-
tractors, of course, some of them
like to see a lot of schoolhouses
built, regardless of how many
equally good, comparatively new
and useful buildings may be ADAM
Edoned to the weeds and the woods.
Like many other things, the
most frenetic and fanatic advo-
Gates of consolidation see nothing
but a brilliantly profitable side to
this picture. They insist, as others
may have told them, that it all
adds up to efficiency, lower oper-
ating costs, less expense to the
tax payers, greater educational,
athletic and cultural advantages
for all the children. It's a great
broadener, great leveller, great
Institution for Democracy, and
always of course, we are told, how
much money it will save the tax
payer.
Well, after more than half
century of meditation, we have
failed to see where anybody ever
saves the taxpayer anything. We
have failed to see where we have
more efficient schools. We have
seen however, where brilliant stu
dents and potentially great people
have been stuck in a nut while the
schools turned the wheels, and
tried to hold them down to the
gait of the most dumb and back
ward of the class. We have seen
many driven out of school by this
discouraging process.
The most dismal side of the
picture is never turned to the
public, and the consolidation IA
natics refuse to admit of and won't
show you the ashes and the skele-
tons in the wake of abandoned
schools and abandoned hopes. Now
mind you, we don't insist that all
of school consolidation is bad, and
there are numerous cases where
it is impractical to maintain big
school for mere handful of pu-
pills. 1t can be worth while in many
instances in a thinly populated
area, to bring all the older chill
dren together in one big high
school. 1t may be the only way
something really worth the ex-
pense can be done.
But it wrings my heart on these
cold mornings to drive past the
tiny tots waiting and shivering
beside the highways in the early
hours, for school bus to pick
them up, and drive them many
miles to distant school. Likely
as not, the bus will be driven by
"a rattle-brained boy who is the
pet of someone having influence
with the school board. Sometimes
he is deficient mentally, and lack
ing in maturity and severity
enough to keep order, and often
the smaller and weaker and more
sensitive children are subjected to
grove indignities,-cruel and de-
risive banter on the way to school.
Such children often suffer unjust
and inhuman punishment, - all
sacrifices to the supreme god
Consolidation" in SO many in
stances inspired by the selfishness
of a neighborhood with most poll
teal power.
think of the sacrifice and hard
ship imposed upon those children
who live farthest from the school.
| think of the injustice to the par
ents of those children who must
yield a more costly and BURDEN
some sacrifice, in order that their
children might have some of the
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