he
city. In such an environment establish the farm child's school. Build it
good and large; equip it with all the working tools necessary to the
greatest measure of successful work. Add broad acres for beautiful grounds
and garden and experimental areas. _And surely the rural school problem
will then be in a fair way to solution._"[32]

_A Thoroughly Modern Rural School_

The finest type of the modern rural school seems to have been at last
reports the "John Swaney School" in Putnam County, Illinois, located in
the open country two miles from the small village of McNabb. This school
was reported to the Cleveland Convention of the National Education
Association, by a special committee on rural schools "as affording the
best illustration of public sentiment, private liberality and wise
organization combined, that the committee was able to find in any
consolidated district in the United States." In making this report Prof.
O. J. Kern said further, "The building stands near the north side of a
beautiful campus of twenty-four acres of timber pasture. This campus was
donated by Mr. John Swaney, who is a farmer of moderate circumstances, a
man who believes in better things for country children. His was a worthy
deed in behalf of a worthy cause and should prove a suggestion and an
inspiration to public spirited farmers in other communities. The
consolidated school is an illustration of the fundamental fact that if
country people want better schools in the country for country children,
they must spend more money for education and spend it in a better way.
There is no other way."

The building is an attractive brick building located among beautiful shade
trees. It contains four recitation rooms besides a large auditorium used
for lectures, concerts and basket-ball; two laboratories, two library and
office rooms, girls' play room, cloak room, and a room in the basement for
manual training which is well equipped. It has apparatus also for teaching
cooking and sewing. It is equipped with steam heat, running water by
air-pressure system, and a gasolene gas generator. The campus is ample for
agricultural work besides the football and baseball fields and tennis
courts and the home for the five resident teachers.

_A Rural High School Course of Study_

In the high school department of this consolidated school a well balanced
curriculum is followed, based upon the special needs of rural life, strong
in vocational courses, yet no