they did not
so accurately fulfill an individual locale's needs. An illustration of
this was the rigid adherence to school attendance regulations at Herndon
High School. Whereas a neighborhood school would often allow a farm boy
or girl to be excused from classes during peak work periods of
harvesting or butchering, the new consolidated schools were less
flexible. In one case a student who persisted in helping his family was
continually kept behind and never did graduate. Like other "progressive"
movements, consolidation of rural schools advanced the quality of life
in only some areas. It made available more modern equipment and a wider
range of teachers and curriculum, but in social relations and community
benefit, the advantages were not so clearcut.[250]

* * * * *

[Illustration: The Home Economics and Future Farmer's Club of Floris
Vocational High School in the mid-1920s. Photo courtesy of Emma
Ellmore.]

The other main institutions which gave character and definition to the
Floris community were the churches. There were three places of worship
there in the 1920s and 1930s, all of them protestant. The old Frying Pan
Baptist Church had been a continuous congregation since the
mid-eighteenth century. They were the least social and most dogmatic in
their religious practice; members of the other churches used adjectives
such as "old school" or "hard-shell" to describe the Baptists. After the
turn of the century and during the Depression, the Baptist Church was
less regenerative than the others in Floris and most of the members were
older people.[251]

Less doctrinaire, the Floris Methodist Church and Floris Presbyterian
Church, were a more active part of the community. The church buildings,
with their large seating capacity, made natural auditoriums for farmers'
meetings, lectures and entertainments. The two churches cooperated in
sponsorship of an Epworth Youth League, which, though it held its Sunday
night meetings in the more centrally located Methodist Church, was
non-denominational in character. The Reverend Glenn Cooper reported in
1927 that "the Floris League, being an independent and a community
organization does not take up any denominational work, but is interested
in local charities and its own entertainment."[252] The Presbyterian and
Methodist churches also worked together in planning holiday programs and
avoided conflicts by considerately scheduling their important