mily. The history of the "little red
schoolhouse" throws a glamour of romance about the district
headquarters, but in actual experience the district school has
outlived its usefulness. There is a strong movement to consolidate
district schools and at some conveniently central point, with
attractive and ample grounds, to build, equip, and man a school
adequate to the needs of the community. Experience shows that the
expense need be no greater, because better teachers can be secured for
a given expenditure when fewer are needed, and with a greater number
of scholars there may be a regular system of grading and classes large
enough to arouse enthusiasm and ambition. The district school operates
on the principle of division of labor in educational production, but
it does not enjoy the benefits of co-operation or combination for
efficiency, while the consolidated school secures these advantages and
at the same time a better division of labor through the grades. Rural
education needs reorganization.

131. =A Discouraging Environment.=--Too many a rural community, like
old China, has been facing the past. It has lacked courage and
ambition. The atmosphere has been one of gloom and discouragement.
This community temper appears in the social groups; it is felt in the
home, and it is present in the school. It has been typical of whole
sections of rural country. Dilapidated school buildings, plain and
unkempt in appearance and cheap in construction, have been set in the
midst of barren surroundings, unshaded by trees and unadorned with
shrubs, without walks or drives to the entrance, and without even a
flagpole as an evidence of patriotic enthusiasm. Inside the building
there is insufficient light and ventilation, and the old-fashioned
furniture is ill adapted to the needs of the pupils. The whole
structure is almost devoid of the conveniences and modern devices for
making school life either comfortable or worth while. In such an
environment there is none of the stimulus that the school should
furnish. The best pupil, who might respond quickly to stimulus, tends
to sink to the level of the meanest, the mental horizon, cramped at
home, is hardly broadened during school hours, and the main purpose
for the existence of the institution is not achieved.

READING REFERENCES

FISKE: _The Challenge of the Country_, pages 151-170.

FOGHT: _The American Rural School_, pages 154-253.

CARNEY: _Country Life and the Country Schoo