ound for social interests.

The advantages of the rural school are thus summed up by Mabel
Carney,[23]--"For the complete and satisfying solution of the problem of
rural education and for the general reconstruction and redirection of
country life, the consolidated country school is the best agency thus
far devised." The reasons for this statement are summed up under seven
heads. In the first place, the consolidated school is a democratic,
public school, directly in the hands of the people who support it.
Secondly, it is at the door of farm houses and is wholly available, even
more available, when public transportation is provided, than the present
one-teacher school. Third, every child in the farm community is reached
by it. All children may attend because of the transportation facilities
afforded. Fourth, the cost of the school is reasonable. Fifth, it
accommodates all grades, including the high school. The country high
school, by excluding the younger children, denies modern educational
facilities to any except pupils of high school grade. Sixth, it
preserves a balanced course of study. While educating in terms of
farm-life experience, it does not force children prematurely into any
vocation, although it prepares them generally for all vocations. Lastly,
the consolidated school is the best social and educational center for
the rural community that has been thus far organized.

However just may be the judging of a tree by its fruit, the fruit of the
consolidation movement seems uniformly good. First, because the children
get to school; and second, because after they get there they are taught
something worth while.

When the schools of a district are consolidated, transportation must be
furnished for the students. Union Township, Montgomery County, Indiana,
covering one hundred and six square miles, has replaced thirty-seven
district schools with six consolidated schools. Some of the children are
brought as far as five miles in wagons, or on the interurban electric
cars. The wagon calls at stated hours, and the children must be ready.
Tardiness is therefore reduced, until one county reports ten hundred and
ninety-one cases of tardiness in its district schools (for 1910-11) and
ninety-two cases in consolidated schools, although in this county there
are more children in the consolidated than in the district schools.

Then, too, the children stay later in the consolidated schools. In
Montgomery County, Indiana, the chil