the problem by raising the standards
for teachers, desirable as this is; by the raising of salaries; or by
bettering the type of the little schoolhouse, are at best but temporary
makeshifts, and do not touch the root of the problem. The first and most
fundamental step is to eliminate the little shacks of houses that dot
our prairies every two miles along the country roads.

For not only is it impossible to supply adequate buildings so near
together, but it is even more impossible to find children enough to
constitute a real school in such small districts. There is no way of
securing a full head of interest and enthusiasm with from five to ten or
twelve pupils in a school. The classes are too small and the number of
children too limited to permit the organization of proper games and
plays, or a reasonable variety of association through mingling together.

Furthermore, it will never be possible to pay adequate salaries to the
teachers in these small schools. Nor will any ambitious and
well-prepared teacher be willing to remain in such a position, where he
is obliged to invest his time and influence with so few pupils, and
where all conditions are so adverse.

The chief barrier to the centralization of rural education has been
local prejudice and pride. In many cases a true sentimental value has
attached to "the little red schoolhouse." Its praises have been sung,
and orator and writer have expanded upon the glories of our common
schools, until it is no wonder that their pitiful inadequacy has been
overlooked by many of their patrons.

In other cases opposition has arisen to giving up the small local
school because of the selfish fear that the loss of the school would
lower the value of adjacent property. Still others have feared that
consolidation would mean higher school taxes, and have opposed it upon
this ground.

But whatever the causes of the opposition to consolidation, this
opposition must cease before the rural school can fulfill its function
and before the rural child can have educational opportunities even
approximating those given the town child. And until this is
accomplished, the exodus from the farm will continue and ought to
continue. Pride, prejudice, and penury must not be allowed to deprive
the farm boys and girls of their right to education and normal
development.

The movement toward consolidation of rural schools and transportation of
the children to a central school has already attained consi