d, and the unwillingness of competent
men to serve, still further complicates the problem. In many a community
less earnest attention is given to the school which must train the boys
and girls for life than is given to the problem of breeding horses and
cattle.

In most rural communities the school building is still the little building
of the "box-car type," unattractive without and bare within, and as devoid
of practical utility in equipment as of aesthetic charm. Equipment is
less essential than personality, but to accomplish results with such a
handicap is heartbreaking work. Slowly the modern type of rural school is
making its appearance along the country-side; and by its sheer
attractiveness is winning back to the school something of local pride.

The great problem of what to teach, in order best to fit the pupils for a
satisfying and successful country life, is only beginning to be faced
frankly by many rural schools. In the past six years, however, the idea
has been slowly gaining attention that the country school does not need
the city curriculum, but requires a special program of its own. This
involves much more than the technical study of rudimentary agriculture,
but it must include that. By giving the reasons underlying the ordinary
processes of farming and introducing the boys to the elements of the
science as well as stimulating them to become proficient in the oldest of
the arts, the school is able to arouse a real ambition to remain in
country life and be a successful farmer on modern lines.

II. Modern Plans for School Improvement.

_Arguments for and Against Consolidation_

The centralization of country schools has been forced by the logic of
circumstances. "Suppose you start to a creamery with 100 pounds of milk,
and 45 pounds leak out on the way, could you make your business pay?" asks
Dr. J. W. Robertson, a Canadian leader. "And still, of every 100 children
in the elementary schools, 45 of them fall out by the way,--in other
words, the average attendance is but 55%. But the consolidated schools in
the five eastern provinces, with their gardens, manual training and
domestic economy, now bring 97 of 100 children to school every day, and
with no additional expense."

Consolidation is simply efficiency applied to the rural school situation.
Instead of perhaps eight separate schools, housed in badly ventilated and
insanitary buildings, with very poor equipment, there is one central
building, moder