n in construction and satisfactory in every detail. Instead
of eight teachers wasting time over six to fifteen pupils each, with no
enthusiasm, there are four teachers working splendidly in team-work, and a
fine school spirit, the pupils attending regularly, partly because they no
longer have to trudge two miles to school but are conveyed at public
expense and partly because they are more interested in a really effective
school. The saving of waste sometimes makes it possible to conduct such a
school at an actual reduction in expense over the district system, as is
the experience in South Carolina. The motive, however, is not economy but
to furnish the children better teaching and better facilities for
effective education.

While consolidation clearly spells greater efficiency, the plan is
obviously impossible under certain conditions and sometimes undesirable.
In a widely scattered country the small district school is the only
alternative to instruction at home, at least for children under high
school age. There is a reasonable limit to the distance to which pupils
should be carried. Opinions naturally will differ greatly in determining
this reasonable limit. Furthermore weather conditions greatly complicate
the problem, particularly where muddy roads are impassable or the northern
climate prescribes deep snow drifts which prohibit transportation. Of
course even the neighborhood school suffers under these conditions; but
the consolidated school in a large township would be obliged to close
during seasons of extreme weather.

[Illustration: Consolidated school at North Madison, Madison Township,
Lake County, Ohio. Eight conveyances filled with children may be seen
lined up in the foreground. (Courtesy of A. B. Graham, College of
Agriculture, Columbus, Ohio.)]

[Illustration: The John Swaney School, District 532, McNabb, Illinois.
Irwin A. Madden, Principal.]

Moral and social objections must also be faced in this connection.
Granting, as everyone must, the efficiency argument for the centralized
rural school, we must be careful that our teaching efficiency is not
gained at too high a cost. It is a rather serious thing for small children
to be far from home regularly through the day; and the usual viewpoint of
the mother easily wins our sympathy. We have less consideration for the
community pride which suffers when the district is abolished as a social
unit. But when we are reminded of the actual moral dangers to