021 302 974 5 



Hollinger Corp. 
pH8.5 



LB 2861 

.13 — ^ ~ — — — - 

1904a UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS BULLETIN 

Copy 1 

, 2 DECEMBER 1, 1904 No. 3 

(Entered at Urbaaa, Illinois, as second-class matter.) 



Consolidation 

of 

Cou ntry So ho ols 



SECOND EDITION 



Transportation has been declared impossible on account of "bad 
roads," but the horses now engaged in carrying young men and 
women from Illinois farms to city high schools in all sorts of con= 
veyances are more than enough, if hitched double and attached to 
suitable vehicles, to carry all the children to a central school. 

Good country schools cannot be established within walking dis= 
tance of each other. 



RESOLUTIONS 



Whereas, The Illinois farmers' Institute realizes that there is 
very great need for further improvement in the country schools, and 

Whereas, The consolidation or centralization of country schools 
has been adopted to some extent in several other states, therefore 
be it 

Resolved, That the Agricultural College of the University of 
Illinois be requested to collect and publish in this State, exact in- 
formation relating to the methods, the difficulties, and the advan- 
tages of the consolidation of country schools, especially with refer- 
ence to the progress and present status of such consolidation where 
it has been adopted. 

Adopted by the Illinois Farmers' Institute in session at Bloom- 
ington, February, 1903. 



It 



NO SCHOOL THAT HAS TRIED IT HAS 
EVER GONE BACK TO THE OLD WAY 









A* 



TABLE OF CONTENTS. 



PAGE 

Preface to first Edition . . . , 2 

Preface to second Edition 3 

Situation in General 5 

Size and Cost of Country Schools 6 

Teachers available for Country Schools 7 

What is meant by Consolidation 9 

What has been done 10 

Superintendent Rankin's Report 21 

Cost of Transportation 32 

Is Transportation feasible 33 

Transportation already a fact in Illinois 34 

Cost of Consolidation 34 

Objections 35 

Advantages of Consolidation 36 

Disadvantages and Difficulties 37 

If Conditions were reversed 38 

Conclusions 4° 

The Country Child must have a Country School 43 

Conditions in Illinois 44 

Tuition paid by Farmers 44 

The First Consolidated School in Illinois 47 

Letters from Patrons ■. 52 

What is to be done 55 



PREFACE TO FIEST EDITION. 



Agreeable to the request contained in the resolutions 
adopted by the Illinois Farmers' Institute at the Bloomington 
meeting in February, 1903, the College of Agriculture pro- 
ceeded at once to gather reliable information. 

Letters were sent to all the states of the Union asking what 
had been done, if anything, and how it had succeeded. Opinions 
were collected both from professional educators and from farm- 
ers who had experienced the workings of the system, all from 
sources the most diverse. Aside from this, a trusted agent of 
the institution visited the region in Ohio where the system had 
been longest in use, with instructions to note all the conditions 
found both favorable and unfavorable. 

The investigation was begun and conducted without bias or 
previously formed impressions as to the merits or demerits, ad- 
vantages or disadvantages of this method of administering the 
school system. As the investigation proceeded, however, the 
conviction that is inevitable to anyone who really studies this 
question gradually forced itself upon the consciousness and, in 
spite of efforts to the contrary, the reader will detect its pres- 
ence in the mind of the writer at the time of putting the data in 
final form. 

It is therefore the more necessary to assure the reader that 
this conviction arose during and by virtue of this investigation 
and that it did not exist in advance ; indeed there was no op- 
portunity for pre-existing opinions because the writer had never 
before given the slightest attention to the details of the subject. 

E. Davenport, 
Dean, College of Agriculture, University of Illinois. 
Urbana, Illinois, January, 1904. 



PEE FACE TO SECOND EDITION. 



The unexpected calls for the first edition of this circular 
soon exhausted the supply and a second edition has become im- 
perative. 

In the meantime conditions have changed. Consolidation 
of Country Schools into larger units has passed the experimen- 
tal stage, and there is less need than formerly for extended ac- 
counts of "opinions." Accordingly much that was printed in 
the first edition is omitted from the second. 

In the further study of this subject in its applications to 
Illinois two facts have quite unexpectedly come to the surface : 

First that the farmers are in reality supporting a double 
school system, one at home by the process of taxation, the other 
in the nearest village in the form of "tuition," which tuition is 
generally more than enough to pay the salary of the superin- 
tendent of the entire city school system. 

The other surprising fact is that in spite of all the argu- 
ments as to the impossibility of transporting pupils over "bad 
roads" the facts are that they are being transported now in 
large numbers, and have been for years all over the state, often 
traveling as far as seven miles and back daily during a high 
school course. True it is being done at private expense and 
often for several members of the same family. But it is done, 
and many vehicles follow each other daily at all seasons and in 
all kinds of weather, over all the roads of the state leading to 
high schools, and it is well within the facts to state that with- 
out a doubt more horses are actually employed in Illinois today 
in transporting the older children to village high schools, and 
more miles are traveled than would be necessary to transport all 
the children to central schools if the horses were coupled to- 
gether and hitched to proper vehicles. 

And so it is that the farmer not only supports his own 
school system, but because it is insufficient he also helps to sup- 
port that of his city neighbors. Thus he supports a double sys- 
tem of schools, one at public expense and another at private 



cost; and the transportation that is inevitable under any sys- 
tem that zvill provide good schools for country children of high 
school age, he manages in the most costly and inconvenient 
manner that could be devised. 

The question of country high schools for country children 
is the largest issue before the farmers today. The conspicuous 
lack of these schools is the weakest spot in the agricultural de- 
velopment of the American people, and upon their solution of 
this matter largely depends the future of the agricultural 
masses. 
• What agriculture needs now more than any other thing is 
a system of schools that educates country people as successfully 
as city schools educate city people ; a system that trains for life 
and fits for college without destroying the home or taking the 
child out of the influence of the favorable conditions under 
which he was born. 

Good country schools cannot be established within walking 
distance of each other. Transportation is inherent in any ef- 
fective system and it is inevitable. It will surely go forward. 
It is only a question of time and manner. The largest element 
of doubt and danger now is as to what sort of schools we shall 
have after consolidation. 

Consolidated country schools do not mean annihilated coun- 
try schools with the children hauled away to the nearest city to 
be schooled on the wholesale plan. The thing that should come 
out of this is a real country school for country children, 
and whether it is located in a small village, at a crossing of the 
roads, or in some picturesque piece of woodland, it must 
breathe the atmosphere of country life; it must instill a love 
for country things, and it must teach in terms of a life that the 
country child understands. 

The chief concern now is that when consolidation comes, 
as it surely will, it may result in a system of real country 
schools doing both elementary and high school work for coun- 
try children, serving them acceptably until they shall be old 
enough to go to college, when, — and not before, — they may 
well sleep under another than a father's roof and eat at another 
than a father's table. 



THE SITUATION IN GENERAL. 



In pioneer times, when population was scattered and before 
men had commenced to gather much in cities, most of the 
schools were country schools. These were generally taught by 
men. The teacher was sometimes ignorant it is true, but more 
often the "dominie" was the local preacher and very frequently 
indeed he was a college student bringing the then learning of 
the world to the common school, where by personal contact, in- 
dividual influence and the enthusiasm of youth he became a 
veritable inspiration. In this way many a statesman, jurist, 
and journalist made his first impression on some country 
school, taught during vacation to eke out expenses. 

Now all this is changed. With the development of the times 
and the diversification of industries the proportion of the peo- 
ple living in cities has vastly increased, as it must and should, 
and at these centers of population schools have been established 
the like of which had no existence in pioneer times. These 
schools have been graded and developed almost to the extent 
of becoming small colleges; indeed in the west the city high 
school, which prepares for college as well as for life, has al- 
most completely prevented the coming in of the old fashioned 
academy. 

Meantime the country school has not developed. Speaking 
relatively, if not absolutely, it has gone backward, because the 
old-time "good teacher" has gone to the city and the old-time 
"good scholar" has followed him, often taking the family and 
their interests along with them never to return, all operating 
to sap the vitality of the country school, not only as to attend- 
ance but as to personal interest and financial support as well. 
Thinking men have long since discovered that if this emigra- 
tion to the cities for higher education is to continue, the coun- 
try as well as its schools will be sapped of its vitality, and this 
thought has taken form in the expression that "the country 
child is entitled to as good educational privileges as the city 

—2 



child, and this too without breaking up the family home," and 
that anything short of this is unfair to the child and unprofit- 
able to the community. 

Realizing the force and meaning of conditions such as these 
the attempt was made to discover to what extent they actually 
exist, what has been done for their amelioration and with what 
success if any. 

Size and Cost of Country Schools. 

In a special bulletin published by the Superintendent of Pub- 
lic Instruction of Michigan, in April, 1902, it appears that of 
the 6,452 districts of the state, fifty-one had two pupils or fewer 
and held no schools; that eighty-three schools of the southern 
peninsula had five pupils or fewer; that the average attend- 
ance of these schools was three ; that these eighty-three schools 
cost $13,636.00 or an average of $9.95 per pupil per month, 
or $99.50 each per year of ten months, though the actual num- 
ber taught averaged fewer than six. It also appears that 1,004 
schools have fifteen or fewer; that the average attendance of 
these schools was but eight; that the thousand schools cost 
$200,478.13 or an average of $199.67 each, and that the cost 
per pupil was $4.16 per month, or $41.60 per year_ of. ten 
months. The same report says that the average cost per pupil 
in the city schools of Michigan is never over $19.40 per year 
of ten months, high schools included, the average cost being 
much less. 

From this it appears that over a thousand country schools in 
Michigan are maintained at a cost per pupil more than double 
that of the most expensive city schools. In addition to this fact 
the Superintendent estimates that the counry people of Michi- 
gan pay out annually over a million dollars for tuition and other 
expenses of their non-resident pupils from the country seeking 
higher learning in the city schools. 

From the report of the Superintendent of Public Instruction 
of Indiana for 1900, as quoted in a special bulletin on Rural 
Schools, published by the "Township Trustees of Tippecanoe 
County," it appears that Indiana has 108 schools with an at- 
tendance of five pupils or fewer, ten of which have but one 
pupil; that 487 have between five and ten, and 1,253 between 



1 

ten and fifteen, or in all 1,848 with an attendance of fifteen or 
fewer. 

From the same source it appears that in 1879 the cost of 
city schools in Indiana was $7.48 per pupil, and of country 
schools it was $6.21 per pupil, but that in 1899, twenty years 
later, the cost of city schools had dropped to $7.07, while the 
cost of country schools of all sizes had risen to an average of 
$10.50, showing that the cost of elementary education in the 
country is over forty-eight percent higher than the cost of edu- 
cation in the city including the high school course. 

The Missouri Superintendent's report for 1902 shows that 
more than one-fourth of all the schools of that state have fewer 
than twenty pupils and that 575 have fewer than twelve. 

The Iowa Superintendent reports in 1901 that one-half the 
independent districts and three-fourths of the sub-districts of 
that state have an average daily attendance of less than twenty, 
and that 502 independent districts and 2,705 sub-districts have 
an attendance of less than ten. 

From this it appears that, largely due to the emigration of 
the more advanced pupils to the city schools, the country 
schools are growing not only smaller and less efficient but rela- 
tively more costly. On this point the Trustees of Tippecanoe 
county, Indiana, say, "These conditions have come upon us so 
gradually that they may have escaped our notice, or if our at- 
tention has been called to them there has seemed no remedy. 
There is but one remedy and that is to collect the pupils to- 
gether into larger groups by means of transportation." 

Teachers Available eor Country Schools. 

The inability of small, weak schools, such as have been de- 
scribed, to pay large wages is manifest ; but it is also well to 
realize the available supply of teachers for the country schools 
in general as they are today. In other words, "what are their 
chances of getting a 'good teacher' ?" 

On this point the Iowa report of 1901 says, "of the 21,034 
teachers licensed in 1900, 3,560 had no experience whatever in 
teaching, and 4,208 had taught less than one year." Thus 7,768 
or more than one-third were inexperienced, not to mention the 



large and unknown number of "experienced" but unsuccessful 
teachers. 

Iowa further reports that of the 21,034 licensed teachers, 
7,228 or over one-third hold third grade certificates, and of this 
number 6,167 or over six-sevenths were issued to females, 
"presumably young girls just out of school, many of them not 
having completed even the common school course." And the 
Superintendent adds, "This department has advised the county 
superintendents not to issue third grade certificates except 
where it is unavoidable in order to procure teachers to supply 
schools that otherwise would have to be closed for want of 
teachers. This policy has been universally followed by the 
county superintendents of Iowa. They report that they issue 
third grade certificates for the purpose of filling the schools." 
* * * "Many of them (the candidates) have little or noth- 
ing (in the way of schooling) beyond the district school which 
they propose to teach." 

The above is a fair sample of what runs through the reports 
from nearly all the states when this subject is touched upon, 
and they nearly all not only allude to it but treat it at length 
and with more evident concern than any other problem con- 
nected with the public schools. Moreover they all arrive at the 
same conclusion, namely, that the only remedy is fewer schools 
and larger ones, emphasizing the necessity of a less number of 
teachers at better wages, thereby securing not only better 
talent and training but also a better division of labor and bet- 
ter supervision. 

*Pay of country teachers contrasted with that of janitors of 

city school buildings : 

Salaries of School Janitors, City of Rockford. 
Name. Amount. Name. Amount. 

Lincoln $ 550.00 Henry Freeman $590.00 

Hall 590.00 Brown 550.00 

Kent 550.00 Montague 445.00 

Garrison 445.00 Church 550.00 

Kishwaukee 590.00 Wight 550.00 

Nelson 320.00 Marsh 320.00 

Blake 445.00 Haskell 320.00 

Ellis , 320.00 Turner 590.00 

High School 1,170.00 

*"The highest salary now paid a country school teacher in Winnebago county is 
$45 per month and only three or four teachers get that. The average wage is between 



Highest and Lowest Salary in Winnebago County 
1895— 1904: Per Month. 
Highest.Salary Paid Ant Teacher. Lowest Salary Paid Any Teacher 

Winisebago Co. Winnebago Co. 



year 


MALE 


FEMALE 


YEAR 


MALE 


FEMALE 






$50 




$25 


$20 


1896 


125 


50 


1896 


20 


18 


1897 


125 


50 
50 


1897 

1898 


23 

......... 22 


18 


1898 


Ill 


20 


1899 


100 

105 


55 
55 


1899 


25 


20 


1900 


1900 


25 


20 






50 


1901 


25 


20 


1902 




50 






20 


1903 


Ill 


55 


1903 


25 


20 


1904 


Ill 


55 


1904 


25 


20 



This points a moral if it does not adorn the tale. 

What is Meant by Consolidation. 

By consolidation of schools is meant the uniting of two, 
three or more small and weak schools into one that shall be 
large enough in point of members to be interesting and strong 
enough in the way of money to afford a comfortable building, 
two or more good teachers, and reasonable facilities for work. 
It also means that outlying territory with but few children shall 
be combined with a near-by school that is strong, rather than be 
organized into an independent but weak district. In its fullest 
sense it means the uniting of all the schools of a township into 
one or two so located as to be most accessible, though not neces- 
sarily at the geographic center. 

Consolidation either in full or in part means the transporta- 
tion of a portion of the pupils, and this is one of the problems. 
It is generally accomplished in covered wagons, artificially 
warmed, holding fifteen to twenty children and driven by re- 
liable men under contract and bonds as to regularity and good 
behavior. At first thought this would seem expensive, but ex- 
perience has shown that this is not the difficulty for it is cheaper 
to transport a few children than to establish a school for them. 
This is because a wagon is cheaper than a school house, horses 
cheaper than fuel, and because drivers cost less than school 
teachers. 

Consolidation also means, where small districts already ex- 

$30 and $35 for a school year of eight months. If a country teacher should receive $40 
per month for a school year of eight months, that would make a yearly wage of $320, 
the same yearly wage that the city of Rockford pays a janitor to take care of a four- 
room building." 



10 

ist, some changes in buildings. These changes are sometimes 
effected by moving together two or more of the little old build- 
ings, or by adding a portion to one, thus making a two or three- 
room house. In other instances new buildings are erected. All 
these ways are open. A makeshift seems often best at first until 
the plan is in full operation, when a permanent building seems 
certain to follow in good time. Where an expensive permanent 
building is erected at first and a graded school established the 
cost of this better school more than swallows up the saving 
from consolidation and the public mind is sometimes confused 
and even misled as to the real source of increased expense. 

What Has Been Done. 

From the various sources of information consulted it ap- 
years that consolidation commenced in Massachusetts under 
the law of 1869, and was first operative in Quincy in 1874, 
since which time "more than 65 percent of the towns (town- 
ships) have found it necessary or advantageous to close and 
consolidate some schools." 

In 1893 Superintendent Seymour Rockwell wrote, "For 
eighteen years we have had the best attendance from transported 
children ; no more sickness among them, and no accidents. The 
children like the plan exceedingly. We have saved the town 
(townships) at least $600.00 a year." 

From this and from independent centers the plan has spread 
until it is in operation to a greater or less extent in twenty 
states, not of a single section of the Union, but of all sections, 
notably in Massachusetts, Connecticut, New Hampshire, Ver- 
mont, Ohio, Indiana, Iowa, and Kansas and to some extent in 
Maine, Rhode Island, New York, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, 
Minnesota, North Dakota, South Dakota, Nebraska, Missouri, 
Georgia and Florida. The first consolidated school in Illinois 
opened at Seward, Winnebago county, February 1, 1904. 

Massachusetts reports that in over 65 percent of the towns 
(townships) consolidation in whole or in part is in operation, 
and that in the year 1901-2 the sum of $151,773.47 was ex- 
pended for the transportation of children. Some of this goes 
for hired drivers, some for street car fare, some to parents for 



11 

delivering their children, and some to patrons who convey not 
only their own children but those of their neighbors as well. 

Iowa reports that consolidation has been adopted in sixty- 
three districts of twenty-eight counties and transportation in 
eighty districts of thirty-five counties. 

As showing what has been done in Iowa and as a sample 
of what is being done in many states a brief extract* is added, 
giving particulars of the Consolidated School at Buffalo Cen- 
ter: 

"The central school is located only one mile from the western boun- 
dary line of the district, thus making it extremely difficult on account of 
the distance to transport the children from these two remote portions of 
the township. The two rural schools maintained by the board are con- 
sidered superior in many ways to the ordinary schools, since they are un- 
der the supervision of the principal of the central school, and are main- 
tained for the same length of time each year as the central school. 

"Contracts for the year 1900-1901 provide for the transportation of 
ninety-eight children. Six routes are laid out and one team is provided 
for each. 

"The greatest distance the children most remote from the central 
school on the different routes are conveyed as follows : Route 1, three 
and one-fourth miles ; Route 2, four and one-half miles ; Route 3, five 
and one-half miles ; Route 4, five and three-fourths miles ; Route 5, five 
and one-half miles; Route 6, six and one-fourth miles. The average dis- 
tance the children are conveyed on the longest route is about four miles. 

"What can be said of the roads? Comparatively speaking, this is one 
of the newer counties, and roads have not been so thoroughly graded and 
drained as in old settled sections ; consequently, the roads are not so good 
as in many parts of the state. 

"What length of time is required to convey children to and from the 
central school? The time required depends upon the condition of the 
roads. When very muddy, as was the case when the writer visited the 
district in 1900, the drivers began collecting the children from 7:15 a. m. 
to 8:15 a. m., according to the length of the route, and returned them to 
their homes from 4 145 p. m., to 5 -.4.5 p. m. 

"The compensation paid drivers is $30 per month, except on Route I, 
where only $25 are paid. For this amount they are required to furnish 
their own properly covered, strong, safe, suitable vehicles, subject to the 
approval of the board, with comfortable seats, and a safe, strong, quiet 
team, with proper harness, with which to convey and collect safely and 
comfortably all of the pupils of school age on the route, and to furnish 
warm, comfortable blankets or robes sufficient for the best protection and 
comfort for each and all of the pupils to and from the public school build- 
ing and their respective homes. They agree to collect all of the pupils on 
the route by driving to each and all of the homes where pupils reside each 
morning that school is in session in time to convey the pupils to school, 



*From State Superintendent's Report, 1901. 



18 

so as to arrive at the school building not earlier than 8 140 a. m. nor later 
than 8:45 a. m., and return the pupils to their homes, leaving the building 
at 4 :oo p. m., or later, as the board may determine. 

"They are required to personally drive and manage the team, and to 
refrain from the use of any profane or vulgar language within the hearing 
or presence of the pupils ; nor may they use tobacco in any form during 
the time they are conveying the children to and from school. They are 
not permitted to drive faster than a trot nor race with any team, and are 
required to keep order and report improper conduct on the part of pupils, 
to the principal or president of the board. 

"It is further provided between the driver and the board that one-half 
of the previous month's wages shall be retained to insure the faithful per- 
formance of the contract. 

"In 1894 the district township was composed of six sub-districts, and 
required six buildings, six teachers, six sets of apparatus — in fact all of 
the equipment necessary for one district was required by each of the others. 

"The secretary's report of that township for the year ending September, 
1894, (before consolidation) shows that during the year the schools were 
in session six months and the average daily attendance for the entire dis- 
trict township was ninety. 

"For the year ending September, 1900, (after consolidation) eight 
teachers were employed for nine months, and the average daily attendance 
was 29a. Estimating the average cost of tuition per month per pupil upon 
the total expenditures for school purposes, we find it to have been $5.03 in 
1894, under the plan of separate schools, while in 1900 (under consolida- 
tion) it was $2.31." 

Indiana reports 181 wagons transporting 2,599 children in 
fifty-one counties of the state, the largest number being in La- 
Grange County, where twenty wagons carry 300 children each 
day, and in Whitely County, where seventy-three wagons carry 
1,114 children. 

What has been done in Tippecanoe County is given here as 
examples of partial consolidation and as showing what can be 
gained by the first steps :* 

"Last year the pupils of district No. 13, Perry township, were con- 
veyed to district No. 2, at a cost of one dollar per day, saving about $200 
to the township. This attempt was successful during the year in nearly 
every feature. The union of the two schools gave an enrollment of 
twenty-seven pupils, about the minimum number for a good working 
school. 

"School No. 10, Washington Township, has been very small for some 
time, last year enrolling but eight pupils, The trustee, J. C. Eckhart, 
abandoned the school, the contract for transportation being let to the lowest 
bidder, under bond. The pupils of that district are transported to district 
No. 2 — the Buck Creek High School — at a cost of $1.25 per day, saving 
about $150 for the township. The distance is about four miles and patrons 
are well pleased with the service. 



*From Report Superintendent of Public Instruction for Indiana for 1900. 



15 



"School No. 3, in Shelby Township, was abandoned about the first of 
December. The enrollment was but six. This will save about $150. The 
pupils are easily accommodated in other schools." 

"School No. 5, Fairfield Township, which last year enrolled five pu- 
pils, two from this township, burned down during the term and was not 
rebuilt, since there were not pupils enough to sustain it. Last term this 
school was maintained at the rate of $120 per capita cost. The abandon- 
ment of this school saves about $450 to the township. 

"In the township where the seven village teachers enrolled 218 pupils 
and the six rural teachers eighty-four pupils, none of the rural schools 
are to exceed three miles from a village, these villages could easily accom- 
modate every pupil in the township,. Eight teachers could do the worjk 
formerly done by thirteen and no pupil would be transported over four 
miles. In the township where the six schools enrolled 148 pupils and the 
five, sixty-eight pupils, the five small schools are located not over three 
miles from one of the best two-roomed buildings in the county. Two 
teachers here could easily do the work formerly done by five and a sixth 
school near the building might be added. Four of the houses so aban- 
doned in this township are old buildings, which will soon have to be re- 
placed with new ones at a cost of several thousand dollars. Yet the work 
can be better done at the central building and the same money that gave 
the township between six and seven months' school would give it eight or 
nine months. In the township where the four schools, located not over 
three miles from a village, enrolled forty-five pupils, the village could ac- 
commodate three of them without an additional teacher." , 

The following tabular statements are from the report of 
H. S. Gilhams, Superintendent of Schools for LaGrange 
County, Indiana, and quoted from Kern's Year Book, p. 45-46, 
These data are three years later than the facts just quoted. 

Financial Statement Showing Saving erom Consolida- 
tion in LaGrange County, Indiana, 
School Year 1903- 1904. 



Townships 


Schools 
abandon'd 


Addition '1 
teachers 
at points . 

of consoli- 
dation 


Saving in 

No. of 
teachers 


In 
salaries 


In fuel 

and 
repairs 


Gross 
reduction 


Bloomfleld. . . 

Clay 

Greenfield . . . 

Lima 

Milford 
Springfield . . 
VanBuren. . . 


4 
4 
5 

5 
3 

7 
5 
5 




1 
1 



2 
2 

1 


4 
4 
4 
4 
3 
5 
3 
4 


$1374.40 
1374.40 
1374.40 
1374 40 
1030.80 
1718.00 
1030.80 
1374.40 


$300 
320 
300 
260 
240 
280 
240 
320 


$1674.40 
1694.40 
1674.40 
1634.40 
1270.80 
1998.00 
1270.80 
1694.40 


Totals. , . , 


38 


7 


31 


$10651.60 


$2260 


$12911.60 



17 



From the above deduct the following additional expense in- 
curred in transportation of 428 pupils in 29 hacks to 14 differ- 
ent schools. The difference, $6,734.74, is the net saving by 
consolidation. 



Townships 


Number 
of hacks 


No. of Pupils 
conveyed 


Cost of all trans- 
portat'n for year 


Net gains 


Bloomfield 


4 
4 
3 
3 
2 
6 
4 
3 


73 
46 
35 
51 
30 
117 
43 
33 


$1017.00 
712.08 
646.00 
517.50 
583.00 
1261.48 
873.00 
566.80 


$ 657.40 

982.32 

1028.40 

1116.90 

687.80 

736 5 9 


Clay 


Milf ord 


VanBuren 


397.80 
1127.60 


Totals 


29 


428 


$6176.86 


$6734 74 







From this it appears that the transportation of 428 children 
made possible the closing of 38 schools, a reduction of 24 teach- 
ers and a net saving of $6,734.74. 

Important facts as to the service, also from Superintendent 
Gilham's report, and Superintendent Kern's Year Book : 

1. The drivers carry watches and consult them while on the route. 

2. Each driver keeps the time of the consolidated school, generally 
standard. 

3. , The rate of speed while on the route averages five miles per hour 
for the year. 

4. The time of arrival varies from ten to fifteen minutes prior to the 
opening of the schools. 

5. The more remote pupils ride about five miles and 60 percent ride 
three miles or less. 

6. Children are kept comfortable by stoves, patent heaters, blankets and 
soap stones. 

7. The greatest advantage to the service is township ownership of hacks 
and the improvement of roads. 

8. The drivers exercise due responsibility in promptly and safely con- 
veying the children to school and returning them to their homes ; they also, 
by contract, prohibit questionable language, undue familiarity and boister- 
ous conduct in or about the hacks. 

9. Eighty-five (85) percent of the patrons have reported the consoli- 
dated school as their preference in comparison with the "old way." 

10. Decreased enumerations in eight of our eleven townships gave the 
system its initiative and the better instruction, and educational encourage- 
ment to the great majority of the conveyed pupils has strengthened the 
services of the schools and enhanced the local educational spirit. 

Ohio reports consolidation in operation in forty-five town- 
ships in twenty counties of the state and the Superintendent 



18 

adds, "I am satisfied there are many more though not reported. 
In my judgment centralization is a substantial solution of the 
vexed country school problem." Partly to show what has been 
done in Ohio, and partly for information on the general sub- 
ject the following clipping is given in full : 

^Centralization of Rural Schools, by C. G. Williams, member of the 
Board of Education, Gustavus, Trumbull County, Ohio. 

"Gustavus is a typical rural township of the Western Reserve cover- 
ing twenty-five square miles, with a little hamlet composed of eighteen 
dwelling houses, two churches, town hall, school building, one store, and 
finally a blacksmith shop at the center, and some eight hundred population 
scattered promiscuously over the township with a school enumeration of 
about two hundred and forty. 

DECREASE IN POPULATION. 

"In common with many rural communities there has been a falling off 
in population in recent years. In fact there are fewer people living in our 
township today than there were sixty years ago. No manufacturing, and 
nothing save agricultural and live stock interests. Less population and 
fewer children in our schools. The time came when it seemed impolitic 
to maintain our usual number of sub-district schools. Up to August '98, 
we had maintained nine sub-district schools as conveniently located as 
possible, with a free high school at the center of the township, which any 
pupil was at liberty to attend when he could pass the required examination. 
Some few of these sub-district schools were attended by twenty to twenty- 
five pupils ; others had an attendance of five to ten, and one school was kept 
up for several months for only two pupils. Since the above date we have 
been accommodating our school population in a five-room building located 
near the center of our township, to and from which every pupil living more 
than one-half mile from the center is conveyed at public expense, t 

NINE COVERED WAGONS. 

"Built expressly for this purpose with a view to comfort and health of 
occupants and owned by the route contractors, call at the home of every 
pupil in the morning, and return every pupil to his home after school. Our 
routes vary in length from two and one-half to five miles, and cost us from 
68c to $1.55 per day. These routes are let to the lowest responsible and sat- 
isfactory bidder. In the letting of routes the moral character of the con- 
tractor is taken into consideration and he is put under strict bond, not only 
to do the work, but is held responsible under the Superintendent of Schools 
for both the comfort and the moral condition and order in his wagon in 
transit. 



*From September number. 1902, of The Ohio Teacher. Quoted from Kern's "The 
Country School and the Country Child." 

tFor cut showing- route of travel, see Superintendent Rankin's report, p. 28. 



19 



CHEAP TRANSPORTATION. 

"To many people the price at which we are able to let our routes is a 
matter of surprise. It should be remembered that during the greater part 
of the year both trips can be made in four hours or less, and that during 
the balance of the year when more time is required, our contractors (usu- 
ally farmers with few acres who have to keep a team of horses anyhow) 
are not very busy upon their farms. We have never yet had any trouble 
in letting our routes, and of late we have had enough routes to supply all 
who would like them. 

PROVIDING FOR EMERGENCIES. 

"Before this system was put into operation some prospective patrons 
worried a little as to what might happen should a child be taken ill at 
school, in some instances a long way from home. Our Board Of Educa- 
tion has thought best to provide against that trouble by contracting with a 
man to take any pupil immediately to his home that the Superintendent 
thinks should for any reason go home. We have not as yet had to ex- 
pend over $3 any year for this purpose. It surely is a comfort to a parent 
to know his child will be brought home if occasion demands it. 

"Speaking of opposition it should be recorded that when the proposition 
came before our voters for indorsement four years ago at our annual spring 
election, it was defeated upon a tie vote. Three weeks thereafter the same, 
or a very similar proposition was submitted to our voters and, with practi- 
cally every vote in our township cast, centralization carried by a majority 
of only seventeen votes. It will be seen that public sentiment was pretty 
evenly divided and that the new system and the new school would have 
very many critics. 

THE REAL TEST. 

"It is a fair question to ask, how have these opponents been pleased? 
Perhaps as good evidence as I can bring to the readers of The Ohio 
Teacher, is the result of an investigation and canvass of our township made 
by a visiting committee from another county of the state in their efforts 
to determine how the new system was working. This visiting committee 
was composed of two members, one of whom was sent here as an oppon- 
ent, the other as a friend of centralization. Their canvass was made after 
our school had been in operation two years. This committee spent several 
days in our community visiting not only the school but many of the par- 
ents of the pupils at their homes, and particularly those people who resided 
farthest from the school. Their report to their own Board of Education 
(afterward published) shows seven out of fifty-four people interviewed to 
be yet opposed to centralization. But of the seven opposed to the system 
six were without children in attendance upon school. This was two years 
ago. I think public sentiment is even more in favor of the "new way" 
now than then. 

CENTRALIZATION IS HERE TO STAY. 

"As further evidence that centralization is here to stay attention should 
be called to the fact that while Gustavus was the first township in this 
county to adopt this system, since we have adopted it every township ad- 



20 

joining us have adopted it, and at the present time has in operation similar 
schools. Those who are nearest us seem to be most favorably impressed 
with its benefits. 

"As to the comparative expense of our public schools conducted in the 
old and new way: The last year in which we worked under the old sys- 
tem our expenses were as follows : Teachers, $2,400 ; other expenses, $555 ; 
total, $2955. 

"Under the new system for the year ending August, 1901 : Teachers, 
$1,320; hauling pupils, $1,755 ; other expenses $200; total, $3,275. 

"Deduct from this $75 received from foreign tuition (not received under 
old system) and we have an extra expense of $245 for the well supervised 
and graded central school as compared with the "hit-or-miss" sub-district 
way. For the year ending August, 1902, we employed an extra teacher 
at an expense of $240 more. With a larger daily attendance under centrali- 
zation the* per capita expense is about the same. Our taxable property is in 
the neighborhood of $370,000, and our tax rate for school purposes, 9 or 
10 mills on the dollar. 

ADVANTAGES OF GRADED SCHOOLS. 

"I need hardly take any of your space in considering the advantages 
of a good graded school as compared with the average sub-district school. 
Under a competent superintendent, with large numbers and consequently 
greater interest and enthusiasm, with better teachers, more satisfactory 
apparatus, more regular attendance, and absolutely no tardiness, it goes 
without saying that we have a school beyond all comparison with our 
former sub-district school. It costs a little more money in our case but 
we are getting more than value received for it, and when this is true the 
tax payer who has the interest of the public at heart is satisfied. 

OUR COURSE OF STUDY 

"is likely very similar to the ordinary village special district school, with 
the possible exception that we have more work along the line of nature 
study than is usually given. This is true of all grades. 

"Among the advantages not already mentioned I should not fail to 
include the fact that we are able to keep the older boys in school longer. 
Under the old system most of them dropped out before reaching the high 
school. There is no gap now to bridge over — no changing from an iso- 
lated sub-district school to a high school elsewhere." 

In the Province of Victoria, Australia, "158 schools were 
closed by the plan of consolidation and after deducting the cost 
of conveyance the saving amounted to $50,000 per annum. 
The Minister says that it is a marked success and that if one 
feature as to its working stands out more prominently than an- 
other it is the remarkable regularity in attendance of the chil- 
dren conveyed." 

A later report from Victoria is quoted in the Report of the 
Superintendent of Public Instruction for Iowa, for 1901, as 
follows : 



21 

"Under the system of conveyance 241 schools have been 
closed. The saving in closed schools amounts to about £14,170 
(over $70,000.00) per annum. The attendance is so regular 
and the system so popular that applications are constantly made 
for its extension." 

Superintendent Rankin's Report. 

• 

In order to secure information at first hand Mr. Fred H. 
Rankin, Superintendent of College Extension, was sent to those 
counties in the Western Reserve where consolidation has been 
longest tried and is in most complete operation. He visited 
schools and homes, rode in the wagons, talked with patrons, 
pupils, and drivers, and by every means at his disposal under- 
took to learn the exact condition of things. His report is 
printed in full : 

Professor Eugene Davenport, Dean, College of Agriculture, Urbana, III. 

Dear Sir: — The writer herewith makes brief report of a visit made in 
May, 1902, to Indiana and Ohio for the purpose of personally investigating 
the working of the centralized school system. 

Acting under direction of the College of Agriculture and having no 
bias or preconceived personal opinion it was the endeavor to look for exact 
conditions, and by just comparisons in townships where the system of 
centralized schools might be found in operation both alone, and in con- 
nection with other schools determine what had been gained or lost by 
consolidation. 

A stop was made at Indianapolis, Indiana, where State Superintendent 
Jones informed me that centralization of the district schools is going on 
in many parts of the state and that it was proving satisfactory in the main. 
He said, that while there had been some occasional surface disturbance 
there was on the other hand a steady, constant undercurrent carrying the 
sentiment of centralization into new communities. Transportation is a 
success. The township system prevails in this state and the township trus- 
tee has the power to close the school and transport children at public 
expense. 

Some forty counties in Indiana have begun the work of collecting 
pupils into larger groups by transporting them. In talking with a number 
of pupils of the schools and those who have observed the system through- 
out the state, the testimony is nearly unanimous that attendance is im- 
proved by the conveyance of pupils, and in the minds of the majority the 
many advantages outweigh some of the disadvantages which may be named. 
Over sixty percent of the towns and districts report the cost as less but 
the results as better after consolidation. About fifteen percent report the 
cost as being the same and ten percent that the system costs more, but the 
results are better. In the newer districts where the system was adopted 
about three-fourths of the patrons seem to approve of the plan and earn- 
estly advocate it. Some are in a measure indifferent and a few are opposed 



to it, although in those communities where it has been practiced the longest 
the opposition is the least. Professor W. C. Latta of the College of Agricul- 
ture at Lafayette, who is also State Superintendent of Farmers' Institutes, 
says, that while some disadvantages and objections are noted yet in general 
the success of the new plan, when tried, seems remarkable and decisive. 
Mr. John S. Boord, a prominent farmer of Fountain County, says, "Two 
years ago in Van Buren Township the trustees began the experiment. At 
first only three hacks were used at the Stone Bluff school. Last year sev- 
eral of the school houses were sold and more hacks added and this year it 
is the plan to close all the schools excepting at two buildings and transport 
the pupils there." These buildings cost about $8,000 and are fully up-to- 
date in every needed particular. The patrons like it after trying the plan 
and there is hardly a person who expresses opposition even though opposed 
to it before trying the experiment.' 

The tour of inspection next led to northern Ohio. Trumbull, Ash- 
tabula, Geauga, Lake and Portage counties comprise some of the finest 
portions of the Western Reserve and here is where consolidation of schools 
is in more complete operation than in any other section of the west. 

The question of centralization seems to be largely a campaign of educa- 
tion. Massachusetts adopted the idea and centralized schools have been in 
operation there for nearly forty years, and in Ohio I am told that the ques- 
tion was agitated some twenty years before it was adopted in a single case. 

From an interview with Honorable O. E. Bradfute, Cedarville, Ohio, 
former president of the State Farmers' Institutes, a close observing, schol- 
arly gentleman who has spent his life upon the farm and is now living 
upon one of the best stock farms in the state, I quote: "It was not an 
easy thing to bring about this idea of centralization of schools. There 
are many people in Ohio today who are afraid to tackle this question but 
I can say with confidence that we now have a nucleus, especially up in 
the Western Reserve, from which we can work, and the idea is fast spread- 
ing all over the state. We have established enough so that we know they 
(the schools) are bound to be a success. They have been established long 
enough for us to know something about it. We know they are a success 
from a financial standpoint and from the standpoint and opinion of the 
people who live in the communities where they have been in active opera- 
tion the longest. I can truthfully say that in Ohio we are beginning to re- 
gard the centralization as something like the measles — catching. I have 
saia to our people that there are four things that are going to benefit this 
country and I think these four things are just as applicable to Illinois as 
they are to Ohio conditions. These are the telephone, the daily mail, the 
electric car and the centralized school in the country, and when you have 
gotten these you have all the advantages of the city in the country and all 
the advantages of the country besides. No, I do not think that I can advo- 
cate too strongly the plan of the centralized schools." 

Centralization of schools does not necessarily mean that all the schools 
of a township must be combined into one school house located at the geo- 
graphical center of the townishp. Three or four districts may unite mak- 
ing a two-room school and there may be two or more of such schools in a 
township, or small schools may be centralized with an established graded 
school where the conditions are favorable. A complete centralization 
means the uniting of all the schools of a township into one central graded 



28 



school, or there may be the consolidation of schools of two or more town- 
ships just as now we have union district schools. In Ohio the township is 
the unit for school purposes and the schools are managed by a township 
board of nine to fourteen members, made up of one director from each of 
the sub-districts of the township. They have no county superintendent of 
schools but instead there is a township superintendent who is elected by 
the township board of trustees. 




King-sville Centralized School, October, 1900. Children going- home from School. 
Centralization of Schools in Ohio began here in R92. 



Centralization in Ohio originated in Kingsville, Ashtabula county, in 
1892, since which time a large number of townships throughout the 
Western Reserve have consolidated their schools and are transporting 
their pupils. In this part of Ohio we find the bulk of the centralized 
schools, not only those which have been longest in operation but also 
those which are in all stages of work, from the earliest organization to 
complete centralization. In some townships such as in Madison, Lake 
County, there are two or more centralized schools, while in others they are 
centralized about the villages. In a number of instances the writer visited 
different townships which were all embraced in one district and the chil- 
dren were brought to one centralized school. The Kingsville school bears 
all the marks of a thoroughly organized and efficient high school. There 
is a good library which has been increased by a number of volumes bought 
by the literary societies of the school. Twelve grades are taught and 
at the time of the visit there were seventy-four pupils in the high school. 
The superintendent is a graduate of Oberlin College and receives a salary 
of $1,200. A significant indication as to how this movement is regarded 
was the fact that a vote was taken during the present year by which two 
sub-districts which had not been included in the centralized school ex- 



24 

pressed their desire to take advantage of the better opportunities and come 
in as a part of the centralized district. The vote on the question of cen- 
tralization stood six to one in favor of the movement and the writer was 
assured by several who were conversant with the facts that almost in- 
variably those who were antagonistic to the movement were patrons who 
did not have children in the school. The two sub-districts cited above lay 
in remote corners of the township and were the last to vote whether they 
would abandon their schools and join the centralized school at Kingsville. 
The following written statement from Mr. Wm. M. Tyrrell, of Kingsville, 
Ohio, who was a member of the board of education, will give a clear 
understanding as to how he canvassed his district and the results obtained. 
He says: 

"Desiring to know the wishes of the parents of my district, I only vis- 
ited those who had children attending school, and found that with one ex- 
ception all wanted their children taken to the Kingsville high school. 

"The one exception had. a boy five years old and thought him too 
young to ride so far. 

"The opposition comes from those who have no children to educate, 
or those who care not as to their children's education. 

"The objections raised are of no value when compared with the ad- 
vantages derived from the centralization plan. 

"Having to start so early in the morning is one of the objections 
raised. But where it has been in operation for two years or more, noth- 
ing more is said about it. Another is, greater danger of contracting con- 
tagious diseases,. So far we have not suffered from that cause. Those who 
are backward about accepting advanced ideas have many objections that 
are not worthy of notice. 

"The advantages of centralization are many; among them has been 
found that the attendance has been more regular, very seldom are schol- 
ars absent ; much more interest is being taken and greater progress made. 
They have better literary advantages, better teachers, more competition in 
their work and in the end are far more accomplished than would have 
been possible had they attended the district school. I might add farther 
that it has been proven that the children have been more warm and com- 
fortable." 

Madison Township in Lake County gives an excellent presentation of 
what might be called partial centralization or the grouping together of 
three or four schools into one without attempting to bring all the schools 
of a township to the geographical center. It would be impracticable to do 
this owing to the shape of Madison Township, extending as it does along 
the shore of Lake Erie; it is nine miles long and five miles wide. At 
North Madison a building which had originally been used as a store had 
been purchased and fitted over for school purposes, and four district 
schools were centralized at this point. Three teachers were in charge 
and gave instruction to 112 pupils, including all the grades from the first 
to the eleventh. Pupils were brought to this school by vans from a dis- 
tance of four miles. The school was well organized. In the same town- 
ship the board decided to centralize two schools. The school houses were 
moved to a common point between the two and here the eight grades 
were divided into two groups which were given to the teachers who had 



25 



been teaching in the separate sub-districts. In Madison Township sig- 
nificant testimony was developed as to the effect of centralization in bring- 
ing out and securing the attendance of more pupils; for example, I was 
told of one of the abandoned schools which originally had but four pupils 
in attendance yet when wagons went over that route to transport the four 
children of this district to the centralized school, instead of four, eight 
pupils presented themselves and were in constant attendance. Again in 
the same township there was a case where the abandoned school had an 
attendance of only ten pupils, yet on the first morning when the conveyance 
made the round in that district eighteen children presented themselves to 
be transported to the centralized school. The superintendent of this school, 
Mr. John R. Adams, says, "The movement was at the beginning thor- 
oughly opposed, but now there is no obj ection evidenced and a proposition 
to go back to the old ways would not be entertained at all. In place of a 
six and seven months' school year, all of the schools of the township now 
have nine months' school." 




Centralized Country School Building", Green Township, Trumbull County Ohio, 

erected 1900. To this school are broug-ht all the children of the township 

and nine wagons are employed in the transportation. 

A still more striking example of what consolidation has accomplished 
in northwestern Ohio is found in the schools of Green township, Trumbull 
County. It will amply repay an interested enquirer to visit and investigate 
this place not only as to the general methods in rural school work but as 
an example of what may be done. It would almost make a convert of the 
most doubtful to the plan. The school building is a handsome brick 
structure, slate roofed, steam heated, with the most improved seats in all 
the rooms, musical instruments, library, etc. It is located in the exact 
geographical center of the township, which is a distinctly rural com- 
munity, with only the school building and a church. It is eleven miles 
from one railroad and six miles from another. The building was con- 
structed in 1900 at a cost of about $6,000. The first vote for organiza- 
tion stood 135 for and 50 against consolidation, but about two months 



26 

later when the second vote was taken to bond the township for $2,000 
additional, the vote at this time stood 75 for and 9 against, and three of 
those who voted against consolidation the last time told me they were 
forced to admit that the school was a success and they were now glad that 
it carried. To this building are brought all the children of the entire town- 
ship, numbering about 180, who are transported by eight wagons, the cost 
aggregating for the township but a trifle higher than under the old system. 

Here the writer saw pupils of all ages and sizes, from the little ones 
in the primary grade to the large boys and girls belonging to the upper 
classes, and it was the most interesting sight of the entire trip to see the 
wagons come in with the children promptly at 8:45 in the morning and 
leave with them in the afternoon. Everything moved with military pre- 
cision. There was no friction anywhere. The writer took a drive in one 
of these vans making the entire trip. The drivers had no complaint to 
make, were satisfied with what they were getting and in most cases were 
the parents of some of the school children. We made a special point to 
talk with many parents throughout the township and did not find any 
adverse criticism in this section. We were fortunate in being at this place 
the evening of the annual exhibition of the junior class, and the same vans 
which took the pupils home from school brought them all back again at 
7 130 in the evening to attend this entertainment. The program was a most 
creditable one and a number of the speakers referred with pride to the 
benefits which they were deriving from their centralized school. One 
could not help observing the interest and enthusiasm pervading this genu- 
ine rural school conducted on the comomn-sense basis, resulting in a most 
wholesome uplift to a country community. It was certainly a spectacle 
worth going a long way to see, and as we visited the school next morning 
the regular school work certainly reflected great credit upon the teachers, 
who seemed to have developed new ideas in teaching, evidently as a part 
of the new system, Not only this but we could see that the social and 
home life of the vicinity had been touched by the new order of things. 

The value of personal enthusiasm and a pride in school work was 
never more fully illustrated than in the school at Green township, for it 
must be remembered that this is wholly a rural township and this strictly 
a rural school with the children scattered over twenty-five square miles 
of territory. As one watched the wagons back up to the school house 
steps and thought of what it all meant one could not help being convinced 
that here was an advance step in the solution of the country school prob- 
lem, because this work was being done in the country and six miles from 
the nearest railroad. Four minutes from the time the bell was rung for 
dismissal the 180-odd children were all loaded into the vans and driven 
away. Order and precision of movement similar to that of a military 
training school was observable; no confusion, no noise or scurrying for 
precedence, but perfect order was maintained and every courtesy shown 
as the children took their seats in the van. If a child takes sick at the 
school he is sent home at public expense. This has occurred, I was told, 
four times in the past three years. As one of the parents said, "It is a 
great comfort to know that if occasion demanded it my children will be 
brought home." As to the character of the work done in this well graded 
six-room high school as compared with that of the nine scattering schools, 
there is no room for argument, there is absolutely no comparison possible. 



Two years ago the trustees of Nelson Township, Portage County, sent 
a committee to visit Gustavus and Green Township. This committee 
spent four days investigating the conditions found there. The committee 
was composed of representatives from both sides of the question, and in 
the course of this investigation a thorough canvass of the township was 
made for the purpose of getting public opinion on the subject, and a 
member of this committee told me that of fifty-six persons interviewed 
forty-five were in favor of the system, four were indifferent and seven 
against, and of the seven who were against the system six were without 
children in attendance at the school. These circumstances combined to 
make Green and Gustavus townships typical examples of successful co- 
operation. Courteous officials and an enthusiastic and magnetic class of 
thoroughly trained teachers working in an appreciative community could 
not but be successful. The advantages of an up-to-date and thoroughly 
conducted high school were in this rural community shared alike by all 
the children of the township. 

The school building at Gustavus is a large two-story frame building, 
erected in 1898 at a cost of $3,500, and here again is a school building 
standing at the exact center of a township which had formerly nine dis- 
tricts. Four teachers are employed in this school and nine wagons con- 
vey an average of 160 pupils for eight months in the year. Mr. Philo 
Gates, who for thirty years had been township treasurer, says that, upon 
the average, taxation has somewhat increased, yet the cost per capita is 
much less than it was formerly. When the organization was first voted 
upon it was carried with but seventeen majority, but now he knows of 
only two in the township who object to the centralization. Mr. Webb, a 
leading farmer, says that he has had children attending school under 
both systems and believes that six months under the central system is as 
good as nine months under the old district plan. The routes throughout 
this township were let to the lowest bidder, the successful bidder being 
required to give a bond for the fulfilling of his contract and also for the 
good conduct of himself and the care of the pupils he carries; further, he 
is required to provide comfortable and well-covered vans in which to 
carry the children, also furnishes blankets and robes and in cold weather 
soap-stones or oil stove heaters. The vans carry on an average, about 
twenty pupils each. The children step into these vans at the roadside right 
from their own gate and are set down upon the school house grounds. 
There is no tramping through the mud and snow.. The longest distance 
traveled by any van in either Green or Gustavus township is about six 
miles and the shortest route about three miles. The average cost per van 
is $1.10 per day. As a prominent farmer, Mr. Dick, said to me, "There 
are far better results to come when we remember that with the centralizing 
of our schools comes a regularly accredited school with all modern facili- 
ties for the advancement of our young people until our schools here in this 
rural community stand upon an equal footing with the high school of our 
towns." Mr. Lyons said, "The poor man who has heretofore only been able 
to send his children to the district school now has the pleasure of seeing 
them securing the best education that could be provided by the county." 
One of the strongest advocates of the system was a man who lived in 
sight of one of the original school houses which later was abandoned. He 
said, "I was utterly opposed to the system. I signed a petition against it 



28 



and circulated it with others. In fact, I went to Painesville and made 
application for an injunction to restrain the township trustees from mov- 
ing the old school house, but now I would not go back to the old way for 
anything." This man has two children in school at the present time. An- 
other man who formerly voted against the measure, said "You could not 
hire me to go back to the old system. I strongly opposed it but am now 
sending four children to school, and as I often remark to my wife, is it 
not nice that our children are not out in the storm today." This man said 
to me that the finest feature of the system is the transportation of the 
children. 




Diagram of Gustavus Township, Trumbull County, Ohio. 
Showing- Transportation Routes. 



Hon. C. G, Williams, a prominent farmer of Gustavus township, a 
worker in Ohio farmers' institutes and a frequent contributor to the agri- 
cultural papers, says in the Ohio Farmer, in answer to queries : "We 
pay our drivers from $1.00 to $1.50 per day according to the length of 
route. Our average is $1.28. In adjoining townships, all of which are 
centralized, I think the cost is a little more, perhaps $1.40 per day, The 
routes are from two and one-half to five miles. This is very cheap, but 
the facts remain that there are always more bidders than routes. You 
see the small farmer can make the trip in about four hours, and a good 
part of the year he has nothing else to do, and nothing perhaps for the 
team to do. It is so much extra money." In answer to the question, is 
it advisable to have more than one central school, he says : "That is a 



29 



local consideration, but with townships, such as ours, with a small hamlet 
near the center, most assuredly not. It takes numbers to make a good 
school, to give inspiration. Few, if any, of our townships have as many 
pupils as can be cared for, even under centralization. It would be folly 
to run two corps of teachers. As to expense, a careful going over of the 
books of our township clerk shows that we are paying something like 
$250 more per year under the new system than we did under the old. This 
is for the school year ending last August, as compared with the last year 
under the old system. This small sum, however, pays for two months more 
of high school than we formerly had. The per capita expense is no greater." 




; . v- ; f: 



■ \*t£-- 



Going- home from School, Gustavus Township, Trumbull County, Ohio. 



These wagons are fitted with curtains, lap robes and if necessary with 
oil stoves for severe weather. The longest route is five miles. 
The routes pay as follows : 

ROUTE. AMOUNT. MILES TRAVELED. 

$1.55 per day 5 miles 

98 per day 3 % miles 

69 per day. 2 V 2 miles 

1..50 per day 5 miles 

1.25 per day 3 % miles 

. . . . ■. 1.45 per day 4 V 2 miles 

1.40 per day 4 V2 miles 

1.48 per day 5 miles 

95 per day 3 Y 2 miles 



No. 
No. 
No. 
No. 
No. 
No. 
No. 
No. 
No. 



Average paid each driver $1.25 per day. Average distance traveled 
four miles. 

At Aurora, Portage County, the patrons took up the matter of central- 
izing about six years ago and made arrangements to convey the pupils of 
the eleven districts to these central schools. One of the trustees told me 
that after four years' preliminary trial the people have become satisfied 
with the question of permanency and two years ago there was erected 



30 

one central school building which accommodates the 120 pupils in attend- 
ance. Over two-thirds of these are conveyed in wagons. The average 
daily attendance is 95 percent of the enrollment as compared with only 
about 65 percent under the old sub-district plan. The township treas- 
urer told me that the aggregate cost of the eleven districts for the two 
years preceding the centralization was a little over $4,000 per annum for 
an eight months' school, while the cost of the centralized school has 
not exceeded $3,800 for gY 2 months' school. In answer to my question 
as to whether the patrons were satisfied he replied "We do not know of 
any one who wants to return to the old plan. Every one is satisfied." 

In Trumbull Township, Ashtabula County, one of the trustees told me 
that his tbwnship was centralized in 1899. Originally eight districts were 
reduced to one centrally located and employing three teachers. The ten 
grades now taught would be advanced next year to twelve. There was 
strong opposition at first and he himself was the principal opponent; but 
the school is successful, satisfaction is increasing, more interest is ap- 
parent on the part of both patrons and children, and other pupils who 
were attending other schools away from home are now attending the cen- 
tralized school. Taxes were increased about ten per cent. The increase 
was largely due to the condition of roads. I found here the most heavy 
clay roads on my trip, and I am told that they are very bad a portion of 
the year but the wagons were able to make the trip on schedule time. 

In another centralized township which I visited, there were originally 
three districts.- The roads were quite bad, but the driver of one of the 
vans, Mr. Montgomery, reported but one day missed during the year and 
that because of a heavy snow storm. The teacher, Miss Griswold, re- 
ported that but few of her pupils had been absent or tardy during the year. 
The three sub-districts had, previous to their centralization, an enrollment 
of twenty-one pupils or an average of just seven per school and the per 
capita cost was $45. There is in the one centralized school an enrollment 
of thirty-five with a per capita cost of $15.50. 

It should be borne in mind that in order to centralize a township it 
is not necessary to bring all the schools to the geographical center but 
they may be centralized in two or more places, and there may still remain 
in the township two or three schools which do not enter into the consoli- 
dated district. Some people get the idea that all children must be carried 
to the geographical center of the township regardless of conditions. This 
is not the case. During our visit to Ohio we saw townships which were 
entirely centralized and those which had but partial centralization. This 
matter is optional with the patrons of the township, as with the township 
as the unit all questions of rural school centralization are matters of local 
option. 

In a general way the peculiar conditions found in Ohio vary but little 
from the problems which exist in the school system of Illinois. Naturally 
one of the first considerations will be the condition of the roads for the 
transportation of the pupils to the central schools. I will simply say that 
after driving over one hundred miles the writer concluded that the average 
condition of Ohio roads, judging by the ruts and general roughness, even 
as late as the first of May, was not much ahead of that of Illinois. In fact 
the good roads problem in that state is just as far from solution as it is 



31 

with us, therefore, if the desirability and efficiency of the transportation 
problem depends on the question of roads, Ohio certainly has no great ad- 
vantage. After all the problem of transportation is not the first problem 
in centralization but the last. After spending ten days in Ohio, traveling 
from the Miami valley in the southwestern part of the state to the West- 
ern Reserve of the northeast and spending more time in looking up the 
objections to the centralized system than inquiring into its merits, I will 
say, that similar testimony to that which has been quoted could be con- 
tinued indefinitely. 

We thoroughly investigated a number of schools situated in different 
townships and counties and in some instances places where the old dis- 
trict school and the centralized rural school were found working side by 
side. In such instances as came under my observation the comparison 
was not at all favorable to the old system. While opposition to centrali- 
zation has in very many instances been active and determined, it was the 
opposition growing out of lack of correct information; the people were 
simply mistaken or misinformed. So those who at first bitterly opposed 
centralization of schools in most cases frankly acknowledged their mistake 
and were found to be the friends of the plan. We found instances of this 
kind in every place which we visited, for while there was decided opposi- 
tion to the plan at the start yet the successful operation of the system al- 
most always wins unanimous approval. 

The plan of centralization offers equal advantages to all the children 
of the township. It permits a better grading of the schools and classifi- 
cation of the pupils. It affords an opportunity for thorough work by add- 
ing more weeks of schooling and the addition of higher grades of study. 
Fewer but better and more capable teachers will be employed and retained, 
and besides it brings the stimulating influence of larger classes with the 
spirit of emulation incident thereto. Small schools can not have the vital- 
izing force that comes from larger numbers. Children who are trans- 
ported in comfortable wagons are not exposed to the rigors of inclement 
weather. Tardiness and absence are almost unknown. The parents be- 
come more deeply interested in the schools. It results in better school 
buildings, better sanitary conditions, better equipment, and all of this at a 
less aggregate expense than under the small district plan. 

While the centralization plan is not perfection, nor will it cure all the 
ills with which our educational system is affected, yet it is certainly an 
improvement over the old method and it has substantial advantages that 
will more than repay the expense and inconvenience incident to the reor- 
ganization. Better means of education, better training and stronger charac- 
ters — these possibilities must appeal to every public spirited citizen of any 
community. 

The farmers of Illinois are doing well in having a College of Agri- 
culture built up in connection with the State University, where their sons 
may have a chance for all the higher educational advantages, but how 
small a percent of our farm boys are able to avail themselves of this op- 
portunity. Let us not stop here but let the spirit which influences that 
work extend to every township in the way of an enriched course of study 
which may be taken up in the centralized township school, and as a re- 
sult, more boys and girls from the farm will be prepared to go to the 
State University and obtain the best results from the work they there take 



32 

up; besides to that large number of boys and girls for whom the district 
school is their only alma mater there will come the opportunity of getting 
from their own homes the best of high school training. If centralization is 
good for Ohio we want the privilege of applying it wherever conditions and 
environment will permit. It has been proved to be good for Ohio boys and 
girls, now why should not those of Illinois enjoy the same privileges? 
All of which is respectfully submitted. Yours truly, 

Fred H. Rankin. 

Cost of Transportation. 

One of the first questions connected with the free transpor- 
tation of children to centrally located schools serving half a 
township or more is the expense of gathering them from their 
homes in the morning and delivering them again at night. On 
this point full and seemingly accurate data were collected, and 
all agree that transportation is cheaper than schools, and that 
the first effect of transportation is to lessen expense. 

Iowa pays drivers from $25 to $30 per month, according to 
the route. This includes team, covered wagon, robes, etc. Fre- 
quently, if not generally, when the plan has been longest in 
operation the township owns the wagons, and a somewhat 
lower rate is paid for driver and team. There generally seems 
to be no difficulty in securing drivers, for no such difficulty is 
ever mentioned, indeed one of the objections commonly found 
is against letting the job to the lowest bidder. 

Speaking generally one team can transport all the children 
of an average school district (15 to 20). This man, team and 
wagon, therefore, at an expense of one dollar to one and one- 
half dollars per day, take the place of a school house, with its 
heating and repairs, and ofttimes of a school teacher as well. 
It is not surprising then, that it is cheaper to transport the 
children of a small school than to maintain a school for them. 

Superintendent Jones, of Indiana, after an exhaustive study 
of the matter of cost, says, "Any school with an enrollment of 
fewer than twenty pupils may be combined with a similar or 
larger school at no increased expense provided the distance be 
not too great and the roads permit of easy and rapid transit." 
And he adds, "In general it may be said that any school in 
which the daily per capita cost exceeds fifteen cents may be 
consolidated with other schools without increasing the ex- 
pense." 



33 

Vermont transports 7,651 children for $36,000 per term, 
or a little less than $4.71 apiece. 

Speaking very generally it costs about $1.50 per month 
for each child conveyed to and from school daily. 

Is Transportation Feasible? 

Next to the question of cost, the first objection generally 
offered is that it is not feasible because the "roads are often 
drifted in the winter and impassable from mud in the spring." 
But as it is aptly put by Superintendent Devine, of North Da- 
kota, this only raises the question whether it shall be the horses 
or the children that shall wade through. 

No one can study these questions, however, without becom- 
ing satisfied that the state of the roads has a significant bearing 
upon the case especially upon the cheapness of consolidation, 
just as it has always had upon the health and comfort of our 
children and will continue to have until either with or without 
consolidation little children and young girls will be no longer 
obliged to wade through snow and mud and sit all day with 
wet feet and clothing as thousands have been doing for years. 
This point, when raised, is not a new one peculiar to transpor- 
tation ; it only brings to light a condition that has always ex- 
isted and is as bad for children as for horses, and when the 
point is urged that there are "many days not fit for a horse to 
be taken out," it is difficult to Relieve that the full bearing of 
the remark can be appreciated or it would not be uttered. 

The fact is that many of the schools in operation, notably 
the one at Buffalo Center, Iowa, are surrounded only by mud 
roads. The same is true of many in Indiana and Ohio. This 
makes a seeming difficulty, but milk is transported to the fac- 
tories regularly and mail is delivered ; then why not children 
also? 

There is no question but consolidation of schools like rural 
delivery of mail goes naturally with better roads, and that 
both will hasten their coming ; but it is also true that both are 
entirely feasible under present conditions, and that hesitancy 
on this account is not only to deprive children of their school 
privileges but also to shirk upon them and their feet and legs a 
job we consider too hard for our horses. 



34 

Transportation Already a Fact in all Parts op Illinois. 

It is a singular fact and one that escaped notice until very 
recently that transportation has been long practiced in all parts 
of the country, and when men are showing, as they suppose, 
conclusively that transportation of children is impossible on 
account of "bad roads" and "stormy weather" they will find, 
if they look about, that it has been going on silently for years 
all about them. 

A good proportion of the young men and women in the 
village and small city high schools everywhere come from the 
surrounding country and a large share of them drive or ride 
to and from school every day. In one instance a family of 
four young men all graduated from the city high school driv- 
ing seven miles and back daily. This was over the "mud roads" 
of central Illinois. In this same small city the non-resident 
tuition has more than paid the superintendent's salary for the 
last thirty years. Superintendent Kern reports that the farm- 
ers of Winnebago couny alone have paid over $30,000 tuition 
in the city schools in the last ten years. 

In one city in central Illinois as many as seven vehicles 
come into town over a single road every day bringing children 
to school. In this instance the livery men were obliged to 
make additions to their stables "on account of the horses bring- 
ing children in to school." 

On the basis of facts like these it is folly to maintain that 
transportation is impossible. Transportation is a fact, — a well 
settled practice already, though it is done at private expense 
which is the most costly way imaginable. It is not too much 
to say that the horses now engaged in carrying young men 
and women to the village high school in all sorts of convey- 
ances, are fully enough if doubled up and attached to suitable 
vehicles to carry all the children of the same territory to a cen- 
tral school. Transportation is a fact. Shall we enjoy its full 
fruits in a rational system of country schools ? 

Cost op Consolidation. 
The total cost of consolidation as compared with separate 
schools is variously reported as "much less," "the same," or 
"it costs more but the schools are better." 



35 

These all represent correspondingly different degrees and 
kinds of consolidation. The first refers to the closing of a 
small school of but few pupils and transporting them, often in 
a body, to a neighboring school able to receive them with no 
addition to the teaching force. In this case transportation and 
a nominal tuition are the only outlay, and there is saved one 
teacher and the cost of maintaining and heating a school house. 

The second case refers to a moderate consolidation in which 
several schools are combined, and graded, and in which fewer 
but better teachers are employed — .better schools at no addi- 
tional expense. 

The third case refers to comparatively complete consolida- 
tion with a central building often costing $10,000.00 to $12,- 
000.00, with three to five teachers and doing one or two years 
of high school work. 

Stated briefly it means that consolidation will secure as 
good schools with much less outlay, or better schools with the 
same outlay, as the patrons may desire. It also means that it 
makes possible a far better school than can be provided other- 
wise for the country child unless he move to town, and it is 
the only known way of providing higher education for the 
country children within reach of their homes. 

Objections. 
Consolidation is generally bitterly opposed when first sug- 
gested. The principal objections are as follows : 

1. It will cost too much. 

2. The roads are not suitable. 

3. The roads and weather are often unfit to take out a 
team. 

4. It is better for the children to walk. 

5. It compels a cold lunch at school. 

6. It will reduce the value of farm lands in the neighbor- 
hood of abandoned school houses. 

7. There is sentiment against removing "The old school 
house." 

8. It will throw many teachers out of employment. 

9. It takes children too far from home. 

A close study of the facts shows that these objections are 
not sustained by experience. 



36 

Advantages of Consolidation. 

i. It is much cheaper for the same grade of school. 

2. At the same expense much better schools can be pro- 
vided, because fewer teachers being needed a better grade can 
be secured, a division of labor established, and at least some 
sort of supervision inaugurated. 

3. It makes possible a country school equal in every sense 
to the best city schools, yet within the reach of farm homes. 
No other system has been tried or even proposed that can ac- 
complish this or guarantee to the country child the same edu- 
cational advantages as are afforded the city child without tak- 
ing him out of his home and to the city; or what is the same 
thing, preserve intact the virility of country life. All this can 
be accomplished without even a small village as a center, for 
some of the best school have no connection with any town, but 
like country homes stand in the groves as a part of nature. 

4. The health of the children is better when conveyed in 
wagons and landed warm and dry than when sitting all day 
with wet feet and draggled clothing after tramping through 
all kinds of roads in all kinds of weather. 

5. Children are protected from the danger of those offences 
to decency and good morals, so common on the road going to 
and from school, and that are so well understood by everybody 
who has ever taught a country school. 

6. The number who will attend school is found to be lar- 
ger when children are conveyed ; the attendance is more regu- 
lar and tardiness is unknown. 

7. The health is noticeably better, especially as regards 
colds. 

8. The inspiration that comes with numbers puts life into 
the school that is impossible in classes of one or two each. It 
also militates against that self-consciousness due to lack of 
association so often noticeable in country children as it does 
against the domineering influence of one or two "big scholars" 
in a small school. 

9. The teachers feel and exhibit the effect of contact with 
other teachers, a condition in marked contrast with that of one 
working alone month after month with no companionship but 
that of children. 



87 

io. It makes possible the employment of at least one expe- 
rienced, well-educated, broad-minded teacher, under whose su- 
pervision even young and inexperienced teachers covering fewer 
things will do far better than when working alone trying to 
teach everything. 

ii. This makes possible the conduct of a school with the 
proper regard to the industries and professions of life, and it is 
the only way in which agriculture, nature study, and household 
science can ever be generally introduced into the country 
schools. 

12. It equalizes the cost of schooling, making it no more 
per capita for an outlying, thinly populated district than for 
any other. 

13. It increases property values as a whole for those who 
care to sell, and it broadens life for those who stay. 

14. It eliminates illiteracy on the one hand and on the 
other the false views of city life so commonly imbibed by 
school children, thus rationalizing the emigration from coun- 
try to city. 

15. It makes unnecessary the sending of young boys and 
girls away from home for high school privileges on the one 
hand, or the breaking up of homes on the other, in "going to 
town to educate the children." 

16. It makes unnecessary the present costly system of send- 
ing the young men and women at private expense to village 
high schools, thus supporting a double system of education for 
country children. 

Disadvantages. 

None. — The most searching inquiry has failed to dis- 
cover anything worthy of mention in this connection, except 
the possibility of children being taken ill at school. Inasmuch 
as the rules generally provide that such a child shall be imme- 
diately taken home in a comfortable conveyance, this seeming 
disadvantage is after all a substantial advantage over walking 
even a shorter distance. Indeed the amount of travel under 
consolidation is far less than might be supposed as the routes 
are seldom over four miles long. 



38 

DlEElCUI/TlES. 

There is no gainsaying the fact that three real difficulties at- 
tend consolidation, viz. : 

i. Bad roads, which though not unsurmountable are yet 
great obstacles ^to its best operation. In this is also involved all 
other traffic as well, particularly rural delivery of mails, and 
delivery of milk. Roads will improve and in the meantime 
mail and milk will be delivered. To say that children cannot 
be hauled is to throw upon them a burden we are not willing to 
put upon horses. And it is to ignore the facts, for they are car- 
ried successfully over all roads, never failing over two days in 
a single year. 

2. Bad drivers. — For obvious reasons this is a point always 
to be guarded. Few complaints have been reported, however, 
and from the fact that no difficulty seems to be experienced in 
securing drivers in abundance most of whom are parents and 
many of whom are mothers it is apparently an element easily 
controlled, and while it is a matter capable of much abuse it 
appears in practice to give little difficulty. Often the driving is 
done by the larger pupils, and no real difficulty appears at this 
point in actual practice. 

3. Prejudice in advance of trial. — This is generally strong, 
especially where the small district plan is already in operation, 
and a long list of objections is certain to be filed against the 
undertaking. These must be reckoned with in advance, though 
they disappear with trial, and no case is on record in zvhich the 
change has been made back again from consolidation to the 
small school. As might be expected, consolidation is most eas- 
ily and naturally affected in states where some sort of township 
organization exists, and least easily in those sections in which 
the local organization and community sentiment are strongest. 

If Conditions Were) Reversed. 

The greatest difficulty in consolidating these scattered and 
weakly schools lies in the fact that it is a "new thing." We 
grow accustomed or "hardened" to the disadvantages of a sys- 
tem long in use and come to look upon them as inherent in the 
case and altogether inevitable, but we have little patience with 
the difficulties of a new system, many of which are imaginary 



39 

and others of which will disappear with experience. And so it 
is that we bear the ills to which we have grown accustomed 
until they become intolerable, believing always that it is con- 
servatism, and not unthinking apathy that controls us. 

It throws light on a situation of this sort to reverse con- 
ditions. Suppose that consolidation had been the plan up to 
date, and that good graded schools doing high school work 
were established in the country everywhere to which children 
were transported regularly and landed warm and dry every 
day, requiring six to eight wagons for each school. 

Suppose then the proposition should come up to dissolve 
these schools ; to build eight houses in the township instead of 
one or two ; to hire eight teachers instead of three or four ; that 
each teacher should "try to teach everything;" that the chil- 
dren, even little girls, should walk through mud and slush and 
in zero weather even as far as two miles or go without educa- 
tion; that under the new system all high school work would 
of necessity be abandoned. What then would be thought of the 
present system if it came up as a new proposition for the con- 
sideration of sensible men? 

The arguments for such a change could not be many. It 
might sound well to advocate the putting of these horses and 
drivers to useful work, letting the children walk, but to build 
eight houses instead of one and to hire eight teachers instead 
of three or four, all that a half dozen drivers and teams may 
earn something in other ways would not seem economy. The 
schools would certainly suffer as would the health of the little 
children. Let him who has a lively imagination tell us what 
the mothers would say whose children had always been trans- 
ported warm and dry, when it should be seriously proposed that 
hereafter the little ones should wade while horses and mules 
spoiling for exercise stand in the barns and kick the boards off 
for sheer amusement or lack of exercise. 

It seems silly to draw this comparison, and yet it is some- 
times necessary to look through the other end of the telescope 
in order to see things in their true proportions. The stubborn 
fact is that the old-time district school was fitted to a condition 
of things that has long since passed away. It is an antiquated 
institution and its days of usefulness in most country districts 



40 

are practically over. It belongs with the scythe and the hand 
rake and is of the days when corn was planted by hand. // the 
consolidated system were the custom would we think of chang- 
ing to the present one? In seeking an answer to this question 
let it be remembered that no locality that has tried it has ever 
changed back to the old way. 

Conclusions. 

Whatever difference of opinion may exist, those who have 
studied it must agree upon the following points : 

1. That many country school districts are so small and 
weak that no school is conducted. 

2. That many others consist of but three or four pupils and 
the expense for elementary schooling, frequently rises to more 
than $100.00 per pupil, which is higher than the tuition for col- 
legiate instruction. 

3. That at least one-third of the country schools are too 
small to be even fairly successful. 

4. That when the school is of fair size, consisting of many 
classes of few each, with but one teacher to do the work, the 
time is frittered away in a large number of short recitations, 
often but five minutes each. 

5. That fully one-third of all the teachers have had less than 
one year's experience and never even saw a really good school. 

6. That the best teachers are taken for the graded schools, 
and that of those available for country schools, from fifty to 
seventy-five percent are "young girls" who have had no more 
training than is given in the school they are to attempt to teach. 

7. That when schools are established within walking dis- 
tances of each other, the above mentioned conditions are cer- 
tain to follow, and that the only way ever tried or even 
proposed by which these schools can be made effective is to 
combine them into small numbers with fewer and better teach- 
ers whose work can then be better divided and better supervised, 

8. That as conditions exist today little children walk long 
distances and suffer much discomfort and ill-health by reason 
of exposure to storms and from sitting all day with wet feet 
and damp clothing after wading snow drifts, slush, and mud 
on the way to school. This is especially true of young girls. 



41 

g. That the only humane way of putting children of all 
ages and conditions into school through all kinds of weather is 
to transport them in wagons that are covered and, when neces- 
sary, warmed. 

10. That consolidation and transportation tend greatly to 
lessen expense so that the same grade of schools can be had 
much cheaper, or a far better grade at the same expense, as pa- 
trons may desire, or, if they please, a full equivalent of the best 
city schools may be established and conducted at slightly 
greater cost than heretofore and at a much lower rate than in 
the city. 

ii. That as things are today without consolidation, country 
people not only pay more for elementary instruction alone than 
city schools cost, including the high school course, but, in addi- 
tion, farmers pay out vast sums for tuition and other expenses 
of their older children attending city schools for what is not 
offered at home. 

12. That though enormously expensive these schools are 
not effective, necessitating large additional outlay in sending 
the older children to the city schools at excessive cost and with 
much inconvenience because done entirely as private enterprise 
and at personal cost. 

13. That this condition often results in the whole family 
"moving to town to educate the children" to the damage of the 
school left behind, to the disadvantage of the business, at the 
expense of breaking up the old home and at the risk of giving 
the family false ideas of both city and country life. 

14. That the only proper way to educate a child up to and 
including the high school is to do it without disturbing his 
home or taking him out of it, and that the country child is 
entitled to as good an education as the city child and at no more 
risk or inconvenience to him or his family. 

15. That it is not necessary to consolidate about a village 
school, but that wherever it is done the result should be a coun- 
try and not a city school. 

16. That consolidation is the only way of securing really 
good country schools, and it is the only means of introducing 
the study of agriculture generally into the public schools. 

17. No one can avoid the conclusion that the objections of- 



42 

fered in advance of trial are mostly either fanciful or selfish; 
that they are not realized in practice ; that consolidation is the 
only plan tried or proposed by which the country child can se- 
cure such an education as modern conditions demand, and such 
as is already afforded the city child. 

1 8. It lessens the expense and equalizes the cost; it pro- 
tects the health and morals of the child and makes the intro- 
duction of agriculture and the other industries possible; it 
enhances the value of farm property as a whole ; it brightens and 
broadens country life; it preserves its virility unimpaired and 
rationalizes the movement toward population centers. Such 
difficulties as are found are trivial or transient, or both, and are 
such as would not stand in the way of any commercial enter- 
prise for a moment. 

19. Consolidation of country schools is the solution of the 
problem of agricultural education and it is the only complete 
solution that has been offered. 



APPENDIX— ILLINOIS CONDITIONS. 



The Country Child Must Have a Country School. 

Honorable Alfred Bayliss, superintendent of public instruc- 
tion for Illinois, in his 1900 report, pages 50 to 53, says : 

THE RURAL SCHOOLS. 

"In Illinois, as elsewhere, the country school is just now the chief 
object of solicitude. Students of education in all parts of the country- 
are lamenting its alleged decline and seeking to find and state the cause. 
The large communities are able to take care of themselves, and are quite 
generally doing it. In the country the terms are shorter. The teachers 
are not so well paid. Facilities are inadequate. The surroundings are 
depressing. Classification is difficult. Gradation is impossible. A teacher 
no sooner develops aptitude for her work than she is wanted in the nearest 
"graded" school. She goes, because she can get more dollars a month 
for more months in the year.. She goes because the large school has light, 
warmth, trees, books, pictures — an environment. She goes where she will 
have from eight to twelve classes a day instead of thirty or forty. She 
goes to place herself under the stimulating influences of comparison, com- 
petition, example, criticism, correction, and co-operation. She leaves a 
miscellaneous collection of boys and girls to go to an organized school. 
It is her plain duty to go — she thinks. 

"This is one view. There is another. Under the right conditions the 
country school has still some advantages, at least for the younger children, 
over its more highly organized city neighbor. The chief of these is the 
superior "timbre" — quality — of the pupils. They have better physical 
health, better nerves, and consequently more will power. They are more 
likely to have slept well and sufficiently the night before. More home re- 
sponsibilities induces more independence, manifesting itself in both thought 
and action. The mixed school favors the community spirit. The country 
school is "nearer to nature's heart." The city school has in the past been 
the victim of over organization. Cranks have sometimes appeared, who 
reasoned that because so much work might be done in eight years by the 
mythical "average pupil," that all pupils should do that much, and none 
should do more; that exactly one-eighth of it should be done annually, 
one-ninth of one-eighth of it monthly, one-fourth of that weekly, and pre- 
cisely one-fifth of one-fourth of one-ninth of one-eighth of the whole should 
be done each day, even if the victim of such procrustean madness had to 
take his books home and study half the evening. The country school has 
at least escaped that epidemic. Some of them, not many, are housed in 
well-lighted, well-warmed and ventilated little buildings. Some have a 
library, a museum of curiosities collected by the children themselves from 
all parts of the country by correspondence with other children, in exchange 



44 

for things found in their own neighborhood— sometimes even from other 
countries — some even have pictures, a workshop, a vegetable garden, a 
flower garden, trees and a live teacher. The country school that has all, 
or most of these things, and can maintain them, keeping the school open 
for eight or nine months a year, would better let well enough alone. They 
that are whole need not a physician. It is the weak districts that must be 
strengthened." 

Reduced to its lowest terms this means that the country 
school is the best school for the country child. But a good 
school is not necessarily a city school. What is needed now is a 
new kind of a school, — a well organized, well equipped, well 
manned and well conducted country school, with children 
enough to make it interesting ; taxable property enough to sup- 
port it; teachers enough to provide for division of labor, and 
with courses of study that abound with the spirit and the 
strength of country life. 

Conditions in Illinois. 

Conditions in Illinois are typical of the country school 
problem everywhere. They are not different in any essential 
particular. The feeling is universal among thinking men every- 
where that something must be done. The time will not be long 
deferred, because the course of action is plain and the results 
of trial uniformly satisfactory. This, like every other economic 
element of our rapidly developing civilization must be put upon 
a business basis, and the movement has already well begun in 
this state. 

Tuition Paid by Farmers. 

From investigations made since the first edition was printed 
the amounts paid out by farmers for tuition of the older chil- 
dren in city and village schools is enormous. Superintendent 
Kern reports that more than $30,000 has thus been paid out in 
Winnebago county alone in ten years as per the following 
schedule : 

* Amount of tuition paid by country people of Winnebago county to 
high schools for the ten years 1895-1904: 



*Extract from Year Book 1904, by Supt. O. J. Kern of Winnebago County. 



45 

These Statistics are Taken from Township Treasurer's Books. 

CHERRY 

YEAR ROCKEORD PECATONIGA DtTRAND ROCKTON WINNEBAGO ROSGOE VALLEY 

1895 $1,523.21 $300. 2a '$229.93 $18.00 $204.00 $33.10 $21.00 

1896 1,561.34 201.82 102.83 121.25 163 t5 13.50 

1897 1,500.0) 313.89 88 84 58 00 424.61 137.06 36.00 

1898 1,871.80 258.54 131.89 54.00 249.57 84.20 78.00 

1899 1,655.81 364.68 112.02 279.93 135.20 27.00 

1900 2.00927 346.00 232 01 54 40 245.62 116.30 

1901 2,429.01 346.00 216.50 33.20 185.00 62.10 61.00 

1902 2,633.88 346.00 238.25 82.80 215.20 108.50 18.00 

1903 .... 3,902.72 340.00 147.50 56 60 115.16 63X0 

1904; 2.742.50 444.55 171.50 68.00 64.75 129.20 36.00 

Totals. .$21, 829.31 $3,261.73 $1,671.27 $425.00 $2,105.09 $1,032.41 $291.00 

Grand total for ten years $30,615. 84 

"The above is not what the county superintendent says or thinks but 
what treasurers' books show. This $30,615.84 will build four such build- 
ings as the Seward Consolidated School building with 3.6 acres for a 
site for each building and enough left over to equip thirteen school 
wagons at a cost of $200 each. For the Seward building cost $6,000 and 
the site $1,000. This makes a total of $7,000. Multiply $7,000 by 4 and 
the result is $28,000. Subtract this amount from $30,615.84 — the amount of 
tuition the country people have paid for last ten years — and the remainder 
is $2,615.84. This will equip thirteen wajgons at a most of $200 each. 
* * * Are the Seward people wise in their day and generation? See 
an account of this school in another chapter. Read the letters from people 
living in that district. What would be the effect if four such schools could 
be located in the seven townships of Winnebago county in which the coun- 
try children have no high school privileges? And this for the amount of 
money expended by the country people for the last ten years as tuition to 
have a part of the children educated away from home. 

"What is the plain duty of the country people? The country child is 
entitled to just as good educational advantages as the most favored 
city child attending the American public school. To have better 
schools the country people must not cheapen the instruction for the 
country child, but more money must be spent in a more economical 

WAY." 

A superintendent of one of the city schools of Illinois has 
collected from the farmers in this way during his term of serv- 
ice covering thirty years, more than enough to pay his salary. 
It would not be too much to say of village and small city school 
system generally that the farmers pay the superintendent and 
transport their own children besides. This is a tremendous 
expense and it concentrates upon a few individuals. 

Farmers have been found who were schooling different 
members of the family in three different places at the same 
time, transporting all of them at their own expense and paying 
tuition — all in addition to paying taxes to keep up an inefficient 
school of the old sort in a "corner of a corn field./' 

If the country people of Michigan pay over a million dol- 
lars annually for high school privileges in addition to the cost 





■VHhhHHHHHH 



District 90. Abandoned 1903. Winnebago County, 111. 




District 91. Abandoned 1903. Winnebago County, 111. 




District 93. Abandoned 1903. Winnebago County, 111. 

The three schools abandoned for the first Consolidated 
School in Illinois. 



47 

of the country school system, what do the farmers of Illinois 
pay toward the support of city schools and what does it cost in 
horses, buggies and inconvenience to get the young people to 
the schools? The only alternative is consolidation or else to 
move to town at the sacrifice of business and the home, for a 
rented house is not a home. 

In this connection the following from Superintendent Kern 
is to the point : (Italics ours). 

*"The country child is entitled to just as good educational advantages as 
those enjoyed by the most favored city child attending the public school. 
It ought not to be necessary for the country people of Winnebago county 
to send their children away from home in order to get a good education. 
The last fifteen or twenty years have witnessed great advancement in the 
educational interests of the towns and cities. Large sums of money have 
been expended for material equipment in the way of better buildings, labor- 
atories, libraries, manual training, etc. Superintendents and teachers in 
cities have become more efficient and are better paid. A strong effort has 
been made to adjust the course of study to practical conditions of life. 
Business courses have been introduced into high school and the general pub- 
lic seems to manifest a deeper interest in the entire educational machinery. 
The growth of towns and cities has been phenomenal and the resources of 
the people have been taxed to the utmost, at times, to provide every child 
with the best educational advantages. 

"Many farmers feeling that the district school did not furnish sufficient 
training for their children have moved to the cities to be under the influ- 
ence of better schools. Some have complained that the city school has 
educated their children away from the farm. A moment's reflection is 
sufficient to show that the city school is for the city child with a course of 
study more suited for conditions in which the city child must earn a living. 
It is not expected that a high school in the city will teach country children 
about things relating to the farm. The city child, who after leaving school, 
works in a counting room, store, or factory does not need to know about 
the care and composition of soil; rotation of crops; breeding and selec- 
tions of animals and plants; feeding standards for stock, etc. But the 
country boy who remains on the farm should know about these things if 
he expects to be numbered among the successful farmers of his day. And 
the country school should help him along these lines as well as to teach 
him reading, arithmetic, etc." 

The First Consolidated School in Illinois. 

The first consolidated school in Illinois was organized in 
Winnebago county, and the school opened at the central build- 
ing February I, 1904. 

The first movement towards consolidation was in February, 
1899, when the citizens of Seward and vicinity invited O. J. 

*Year Book, 1904. 



48 



Kern, Superintendent of Schools of Winnebago county, to de- 
liver an address upon the subject "Township High Schools." 
This was with a view of organizing such a school at the village 




of Seward, which is a small station on the Illinois Central rail- 
road, fifteen miles from Rockford. This address was delivered 
February 22, 1899, the Superintendent taking the position that 
what was needed at Seward was not a township high school, 
but the consolidation of a number of the outlying small district 
schools. The idea was not well received at the time, only one 



49 

or two expressing assent to the position taken by the Superin- 
tendent. 

Sentiment grew, however, and in March, 1903, petitions 
looking toward consolidation were circulated in three districts, 
90, 91, and 93. In district 90, thirty-seven favored and twelve 
opposed the project; in district 91 fifteen favored and eleven 
opposed, and in district 93 twenty-one favored and five opposed. 

Thus was organized the first consolidated district, covering 
exactly one-third of the township, which is six miles square. It 
contains, therefore, twelve sections or 7,680 acres of land, with 
an assessed valuation of $146,315. As real estate is assessed 
at one-fifth cash value this indicates that the total property of 
this district, real and personal, is not far from a million dollars. 

A few days after organizing, by a vote of thirty-eight for 
and fifteen against, the people voted to bond the district for 
$7,000 for ten years' time at 4 percent, and to erect a modern 
school house large enough for present and prospective needs. A 
little later by a vote of forty-seven to one a site of 3.6 acres of 
land was purchased at a thousand dollars. Plans were drawn 
and contracts let for a $6,000 building. 

Accompanying cuts show the front elevation and the floor 
plans of this building, as well as exterior views of the three 
school houses abandoned. 

This new building contains four rooms, each capable of ac- 
commodating fifty pupils ; and in the basement are two large, 
well-lighted rooms intended for workshop and for household 
science, respectively. Over the furnace room in the first story 
are coat rooms, and in the second story, the laboratory and li- 
brary. The walls of the building are tastefully tinted, the black- 
boards are of slate, and the floors throughout of hard maple. 
It is in every way an up-to-date and beautiful building, heated 
by two furnaces and seemingly perfectly ventilated. It stands 
near one corner of the site of 3.6 acres, plans for the beautifying 
of which have been made by students of the University of Illi- 
nois under the direction of Professor J. C. Blair. 

This building was dedicated January 30, with appropriate 
exercises. School opened the Monday following, February 1, 
with an attendance of 103 pupils, 15 of whom were non-resi- 
dents who will pay tuition, leaving eighty-eight as repesenting 



66'- a'- 




DASmCNT PLAN 



65'- 8" 




riPDT HOOD PLAN 



51 




SECOND rLOOQ DLAN' 

the attendance from the three consolidated districts. It is a 
significant fact that the total registration in the three abandoned 
districts during the entire previous year was only seventy-nine, 
yet here on the first day upon the opening of the consolidated 
school eighty-eight young people presented themselves, a gain 
of nine the first day as compared with the total registration un- 
der the old plan. This school will do all the work heretofore 
attempted by the abandoned schools and two years' high school 
work in addition. 

Three small, weak schools quartered in old battered houses 
were here merged into a single school, well housed in an up-to- 
date modern building. Under the system of instruction it will 
guarantee the pupils the work not only of the grades, but that 
of a two years' high school, as well, all at a cost of less than 
$1.00 per acre of the land covered by the district. The ad- 
vantages to this community are evident; indeed they are so 
apparent in Winnebago county that already three other com- 
munities are moving in the same direction. 

More than to any one else credit is due to Superintendent 
Kern, not only for the achievement at Seward, but for the senti- 
ment of the county, which will proceed to organize still other 
similar schools. 



52 

Letters from Patrons.* 

Seward, III., Oct. 19, 1904. 
Mr. O. 7. Kern: 

Dear Sir: — In reply to your inquiry, as to how the people of the Con- 
solidated School district of Seward like the new plan of consolidation, I 
am pleased to say that it has proven better than its most sanguine sup- 
porters anticipated. 

It has increased the average daily attendance, stimulated friendly com- 
petition in both parents and children, given a better acquaintance among 
the children of the district, and raised the standard of health by the better 
hygienic surroundings. 

So far as I have been able to learn, I have not heard a word of com- 
plaint. Opposition has ceased and all parents and tax payers feel as though 
they were doing something to better the educational advantages of the 
country child. 

Seward people are glad to welcome visitors who desire to inspect .the 
new school. Yours truly, 

C. E. Martin, M, D. 

Seward, III., Oct. 27, 1904. 
Mr. O. J. Kern: 

Sir: — We wish to express our entire satisfaction with the Consolidated 
School in our town. In our opinion it is a very decided improvement over 
the old district school. With regard to the hygenic feature the school house 
is so constructed as to give the very best results as to heating, lighting and 
ventilating. 

Another feature which we think deserves special mention, is the com- 
petition which is aroused among the children who, being in the same grade, 
have a definite end for which to work, an aim in view, and every one 
strives to pass credibly to the next grade at the end of the year. In our 
Consolidated school every teacher has his own special grades to teach, and 
as the future of the child depends in a great measure on the beginning, it 
is a fact to be appreciated that the first years of our Consolidated school 
has such grand work for our little ones, as the earlier surroundings make a 
lasting impression on the minds of children. It can readily be seen the 
vast superiority over the old stuffy school room, of our commodious rooms, 
neatly kept with pictures and statues decorating the walls and everything 
that tends to elevate and instruct the youthful mind. 

Respectfully yours, 

Mr. and Mrs. Edward McDonald. 

Seward, III., Oct. 19, 1904. 
Mr. O. J. Kern: 

Dear Sir: — The Consolidated school of Seward, which you did so 
much to establish, is doing good work. The children take more interest 
in their school work than they did in the old district school system and the 
parents say they learn faster. 

We hear no complaint from those that live at a distance. 

Yours truly, 

W. J. Cleveland. 

♦After one year's trial. Quoted from Kern's Year Book, 1904. 



53 

Seward, III., Oct. 19, 1904. 
Mr. 0. J. Kern, County Superintendent: 

Dear Sir: — We are greatly pleased with our Consolidated school. A 
number of the scholars are from outside districts. 

"Competition," it is said, "is the life of trade." We have it in the num- 
ber of scholars and the rivalry and enthusiasm it creates. Parents and 
scholars take an interest in the work as it is an advance step in education. 
I believe the Consolidated school has come to stay. 

Yours truly, 

John W. Fry. 

Seward, III., Oct. 19, 1904. 
Mr. O. J. Kern: 

Dear Sir: — A few years ago when the subject "Consolidated School" 
was first broached, we fought rather shy of the subject. Little by little as 
the question was brought more plainly to our minds we began to get in- 
terested, and as objection after objection was argued away, we finally de- 
cided to build a school. 

As the good people of Seward never do anything by halves it was de- 
cided to build a modern, up-to-date school house. This decision was car- 
ried into effect, and we have today a beautiful building, one that we can 
point to with pride. 

We have a splendid corps of teachers, all zealous, untiring workers. 
The improvement in the children is something wonderful. We have just 
opened the fourth room as the other rooms were becoming crowded and 
more room was required. 

We all feel as though we owe Mr. Kern, our efficient superintendent, a 
debt of gratitude for his untiring zeal in thus getting us interested in this 
worthy cause. Verily, our new Consolidated school is a "thing of beauty 
and a joy forever." Yours truly, 

M. Markham. 

Seward, III., Oct. 28, 1904. 
Mr. O. J. Kern: 

Dear Sir : — The Consolidated school of our town that you worked so 
hard to build, is doing much better work than we ever expected it to do. 
It is giving general satisfaction and a number that were opposed to it at 
first are well pleased with it now and some say that they would not get 
along without it, regardless of cost. 

I do not think it costs as much per scholar to run our new school as it 
cost per scholar to run our old schools. We had about 70 scholars in our 
old schools. We have over 100 in our new school. 

I can say that I am very pleased with our school. I wish to thank you 
for the interest you have taken in "it. Yours, 

Geo. H. Smith. 

Financial Statement of Seward School. 

The Consolidated school has been in operation only 5 months of last 
school year, closing July 1, 1904. From figures taken from township 
treasurer's books, the following statements show cost under old and new 
plans : 





No. Pupils 


Av. Daily 


'1ST. 


Enrolled 


Attendance 




FOR YEAR 


FOR YEAR 


90 


28 


21 


91 


41 


23 


93 


20 


14 



Total Expen- 


Total on 


ditures for • 


Basis 


8 Months 


9 Months 


$372.80 


$419.40 


374.10 


420.86 


334.74 


376.58 



54 
Old Plan With School Year of 8 Months — No High School. 



Months 
Schools 



Totals, 89 58 $1,081.64 • $1,216.84 

Notice by above report taken from Township Treasurer's Books that 
average daily attendance for year is only 58 which is 65 per cent of the 
total enrollment of 89 in three district schools. 

New Plan With School Year of 9 Months — With High School. 

Expenditures and enrollment for 5 months, from February 1, 1904, to 
July 1, 1904. On November 7, 1904, a fourth teacher was added to give 
more time for all grades, especially High School Subjects. Teachers are 
paid a better yearly wage. Principal gets $75 per month while grade teach- 
ers get $40 per month. Under old district plan average yearly wage was 
$35 per month. 



Av. Daily Total Expen- Total Expendi 

Dist. ^k^t^™" 1 Attendance ditures tures on basis 

5 Months 5 Months of 9 Months 



Enrollment 
5 Months 
Consolidated 
No. 121 116 88 $842.50 $1,516.50 

Note- that average daily attendance was 88 of an enrollment of 116 or 
76 percent. This is low because of measles in school during months of 
February and March soon after school opened. 

The enrollment and daily attendance for October, 1904, was 104 and yi 
respectively. Thus the percent of attendance for that month was 87^. 

Table of Comparative Estimates on Basis of Nine Months. 



District 

ni O \ Vl 

8-8 93 


Enrollment 
For Year 


Average Daily 
Attendance 
For Year 


Cost per Pupil 
on 
Enrollment 


Cost per Pupil 
on Daily Av. 
Attendance 


28 
41 
20 


21 

23 

, 14 


$14.97 
10.65 
18.83 


$19.97 
18.29 
26.89 


mm \ 

Consliot.ated 
121 


(5 mos.) 
116 


(5 mos.) 

88 


13.07 


17.23 



Remember that the consolidated school has a high school course. 
The teachers are paid better wages. Yet notice the cost per pupil in 
last two columns of above table. The average daily attendance is a 
common unit to figure expense, that is, a day's work. See last column 
of above table. 

Building Tax on New House. 

But some opponents of Consolidation, doubtless want to know about 
the Enormous (?) tax to pay for the new building. Now the cost of new 
building with grounds of 3.6 acres should not count entirely against the 
new system. Besides, the first cost of a central building is much less than 
first cost of separate buildings. A good district school building, equipped 



55 

as it should be, will cost $1,200. On a basis of eight such schools to a 
township the total first cost is $9,600. The Seward building cost $6,000 and 
will hold all the children of Seward township. 

The cost of Seward building and grounds was $7,000 in bonds drawing 
four percent annual levies. That makes the annual payment of principal 
amount to $700 plus $280 interest first year, and interest decreasing each 
year, making a total of $980 for building tax. Suppose building tax was 
levied on land alone, leaving out personal property and railroad, the an- 
nual tax levy would be as follows : 

Cost per Acre Annually for Building Tax. 1 

District. No. of Sections. No. Acres. Annual Payment. Tax Per Acre. 
121 12 7,680 $980 12J$ cents 

It is no exaggeration to claim the new school has added twelve and 
one- half cents to value of each acre in the district. perhaps more 
than that. go out there and ask farmers with children to send to 
school about selling their farms and moving away. 



What is to be Done About It? 

Like all other intolerable situations this condition of things 
will go until the farmers themselves, who are the ones most in- 
terested, insist that a rational system of schooling shall be es- 
tablished for country children — a system that really educates 
in and by means of the life the children know, and that the sys- 
tem shall operate without breaking up the family or endanger- 
ing either the lives or the morals of children at tender ages. 

When the farmers insist upon this they can have it. Nobody 
has the right to deny it to them and they can have it any time 
they really want it. The lack of it is the greatest bar to the pro- 
gress of agricultural education now, and it is the most powerful 
deterrent influence in agricultural advancement. 

What is wanted now is not more agricultural colleges, nor 
more or easier short courses, but rather a good system of country 
secondary schools suited to the conditions and needs of country 
people, and in which both agriculture and household science 
shall be freely taught. 

Consolidation is not the end, but it is the natural and 
necessary prerequisite. It takes numbers and property to make 
a school. In the country population is not dense, therefore we 
must cover much territory. But horses, mules, and wagons 
will annihilate distance. They can do it for all the children as 



56 

they are doing it now for those whose parents are really alive to 
the conditions. 

It is coming. It is only a question of time and not a very 
long time either. Consolidation is the means to the end, and 
the end is an adequate system of schools for the children of the 
farm. 



There is a minimum below which a school cannot be a 
good school. That minimum for a mixed population of all 
ages is two teachers, two rooms, and thirty to forty children. 

The country is thinly populated and good schools can never 
be established within walking distances of each other. Any 
system that really serves: country people necessarily involves 
transportation. 

Farmers are now supporting a double system of schools,— 
one in the corner of the corn field, which is elementary, but 
which cost fifty percent more per pupil than the entire city sys- 
tem including the high school. The other is in the city at 
private expense, and the farmers^ tuition for high school in- 
struction more than pays the superintendent of the entire city 
system. 

'A Besides this the horses engaged in carrying young men and r 
women from the farm to the city high school in all kinds of con- 
veyances are more than enough, if properly "doubled up" and 
hitched to suitable vehicles, to; carry all the children to central 
schools. 

The farmers can never establish an effective system of coun- 
try schools until they transport children as well as meet other 
necessary expenses of their schools at public expense. 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 



021 302 974 5 



««The Country child is entitled to as "good an education as the city 
child."-^Kern. 




Going' home from school Winnebago County, 111., February 4, 1902. 
Mercury 12.degrees below zero and a stiff gale blowing. 



Consolidation of country schools is the solution of the problem of 
agricultural education, and it is the only complete solution that has 
been offered.