CONSOLIDATION OF RURAL SCHOOLS
Much has been said and written in regard to what is generally known as
the "consolidation of schools." Men and women interested in the cause of
popular education have come to feel that the rural schools throughout
the country are making little or no progress, and public attention has
therefore been turned to consolidation as one of the possible means of
improvement.
=The Process.=--As the name implies, the process is simply the bringing
together and the fusing of two or more schools into one. If two or more
communities, each having a small school of a few children, conclude that
their schools are becoming ineffective and that it would be advantageous
to unite, each may sell its own schoolhouse, and a new one may be built
large enough for all and more centrally located with regard to the whole
territory. They thus "consolidate" the schools of the several districts
and establish a single large one. In many portions of the country the
rural schools have, from various causes, grown smaller and smaller,
until they have ceased to be places of interest, of activity, and of
life. Now, a school, if it means anything, means a place where minds
are stimulated and awakened as well as where knowledge is communicated.
There can be but little stimulation in a school of only a few children.
The pupils feel it and so does the teacher. Life, activity, mental
aspiration are always found where large numbers of persons congregate.
For these reasons the idea of consolidating the small schools into
important centers, or units, is forcing itself upon the people of the
country. Where the schools are small and the roads are good, everything
favors the bringing of the children to a larger and more stimulating
social and educational center.
=When Not Necessary.=--It might happen, as it frequently does, that a
school is already sufficiently large, active, and enthusiastic to make
it inadvisable to give up its identity and become merged in the larger
consolidated school. If there are twenty or thirty children and an
efficient teacher we have the essential factors of a good school.
Furthermore, it is rather difficult to transport, for several miles, a
larger number than this.
=The District System.=--There are two different kinds of country school
organization. In some states, what is known as the district system is
the prevailing one. This means that a school district, more or less
irregular in shape and containing probably six to ten square miles, is
organized into a corporation for school purposes. The schoolhouse is
situated somewhere near the center of this district and is usually a
small, boxlike affair, often located in a desolate place without trees
or other attractive environment. This school may be under the
administration of a trustee or of a school board having the management
of the school in every respect. This board determines the length of
term; it hires and dismisses teachers, procures supplies and performs
all the functions authorized by law. It is a case where one school board
has the entire management of one small school.
[Illustration: A frame building and adequate conveyances]
[Illustration: A substantial and well-planned building]
[Caption for the above illustrations: TWO TYPES OF CONSOLIDATED SCHOOLS]
=The Township System.=--The other form of organization is what is known
as the township system. Here the several schools in one township are all
under the administration of one school board. There is not a school
board for each schoolhouse, as in the district system, but one school
board has charge of all the schools of the township. Under certain
conditions it has in its power the locating of schoolhouses within this
general district. The board hires the teachers for all the schools
within its jurisdiction, and in general manages all the schools in the
same manner as the board in the district system manages its one school.
=Consolidation Difficult in District System.=--The process of
consolidation is always difficult where the district system prevails.
Both custom and sentiment cause the people to hesitate or refuse to
abandon their established form of organization. If a community has been
incorporated for any purpose and has done business for some years, it is
always difficult to induce the people to make a change. They feel as if
they were abdicating government and responsibility. They hesitate to
merge themselves in a larger organization, and hence they advance many
objections to the consolidation of their schools. All this is but
natural. The several communities have been living apart educationally
and have been in a measure strangers. They have never had any occasion
to meet in conference, to exchange thought, and to do business together;
hence they fear and hesitate to take a leap in the dark, as they
conceive it, and to embark upon a course which they think they may
afterwards regret. Consolidation frequently fails because of false
apprehensions due to a lack of social organization.
=Easier in Township System.=--It is quite otherwise where the township
system exists. Here there are no separate corporations or organizations
controlling the various schools. The school board administers the
affairs of all the schools in the township. Hence there is no sentiment
in regard to the separate and distinct individuality of each school and
its patronage. There are no sub-districts or distinctly organized
communities; a whole township or two townships constitute one large
district and the schools are located at the most convenient points to
serve the children of the whole township. The people in such districts
have been accustomed to act together educationally as well as
politically, and to exchange thought on all such situations. Hence
consolidation, or the union of the several schools, is a comparatively
easy matter.
=Consolidation a Special Problem for Each District.=--It will, of
course, be seen at once that, in a school township where there are
several small and somewhat lifeless schools with only a few children in
each, it would be desirable for several reasons to bring together all
the children into one large and animated center. This process is a
specific local problem. Whether or not such consolidation is advisable
depends upon many conditions, among which are, (1) the size of the
former schools, (2) the unanimity of sentiment in the community, (3) the
location of roads and of residences, (4) the distance the pupils are to
be transported, and other local and special considerations. The people
of each district should get together and discuss these problems from
various points of view and decide for themselves whether or not they
shall adopt the plan and also the extent to which it shall be carried.
Much will depend upon the size of the schools and everything upon the
unanimity of sentiment in the community. If there is a large minority
against consolidation the wisdom of forcing it by a small majority is to
be questioned. It would be better to let the idea "work" a while longer.
=Disagreements on Transportation.=--The problem of transporting pupils
is always a puzzling one. Many details are involved in its solution and
it is upon details that communities usually disagree. Most enterprises
are wrecked by disagreements over small matters. Even among friends it
is the small details in mannerisms or conduct that become with time so
irritating that friendship is often strained. Details are usually small,
but their obtrusive, perpetual presence is likely to disturb one's
nerves. This is true in deliberative bodies of all kinds. Important
measures are often delayed or killed because their advocates and
opponents cannot "give and take" upon small points. Almost every great
measure passing successfully through legislative bodies and, in fact,
the settlement of many social problems embody a compromise on details.
Many good people forget that, while there should be unanimity in
essentials, there should be liberty in non-essentials, and charity in
all things. Many people lack the power of perspective in the discussion
and solution of problems; for them all facts are of the same magnitude.
Large things which they do not wish are minimized and small things are
magnified. A copper cent may be held so near the eye that it will
obscure the sun. Probably there has been no difficulty greater in the
process of consolidation than the problems involved in the details
concerning the transportation of pupils.
=Each Community Must Decide for Itself.=--The particular mode of
transportation must be determined by the conditions existing in each
community. In some places the consolidated school district provides one
or more busses, or, as they are sometimes called, "vans"; and these go
to the homes of the children each morning in time to arrive at the
schoolhouse before nine o'clock. Of course, in this case the pupils
living farthest from the school must rise and be ready earliest; they
are on the road for the greatest length of time. But this is one of the
minor discomforts which must be borne by those families and their
children. All cannot live near the school. Sometimes a different plan of
transportation is found to give better satisfaction. The parents may
prefer to bring their own children to school or to make definite
arrangements with nearby neighbors who bring theirs. There is no one way
which is the only way, and, in fact, several methods may be used in the
same district.
=The Distance to Be Transported.=--If pupils must be transported over
five or six miles, consolidation becomes a doubtful experiment. Of
course, the vehicles used should be comfortable and every care should be
taken of the children; but six miles over country roads and in all kinds
of weather means, probably, an hour and a quarter on the road both
morning and evening. It could, of course, be said in reply that six
miles in a comfortable wagon and an hour and a quarter on the road are
not nearly so bad as a mile and a quarter on foot at certain seasons of
the year.
=Responsible Driver.=--Another point upon which all parents should
insist is that the transportation of their children should be performed
by reliable and responsible drivers. This is important and most
necessary. Under such conditions there would be no danger of children
being drenched with rain in summer and exposed to cold in winter, for
the vehicles would be so constructed as to offer protection against
both. There would also be no danger of the large boys bullying and
browbeating the smaller children on the way, as is often done when they
walk to school over long and lonely roads; for all would be under the
care of a trustworthy driver until they were landed at the door of the
schoolhouse or the home.
=Cost of Consolidation.=--The cost of consolidation is always an
important consideration. Under the district system one district may be
wealthy and another poor, the former having scarcely any taxation and
the latter a high rate of taxation. It is usual that, in such cases, the
districts having a small rate of taxation are unwilling to consolidate
with others. This is one of the difficulties. Consolidation will bring
about uniformity of taxation in the whole territory affected. This is an
advantage in itself. If the old schoolhouses are in good condition there
will be somewhat of a loss in selling them and in building a large new
central building. This is another situation which always complicates the
problem. If the old buildings are worthless and if they must be replaced
in any event by new buildings, then the time is opportune for
considering consolidation.
Even after the reorganization is effected, and the new central building
located, the cost of education, all things considered, is not increased.
It is undoubtedly true that a larger amount of money may be needed to
maintain the consolidated school than to maintain all the various small
schools which have previously existed. But other factors must be taken
into account. The total amount of dollars and cents in the one situation
as compared with the total amount in the other does not tell the whole
story. For it has been found that, everywhere in the country, there is a
larger and better attendance of pupils in the consolidated school, that
more pupils go to school, that they attend more regularly, and that the
school terms are longer. Therefore the proper test of expense is the
cost of a day's schooling for each pupil, or the cost "per pupil per
day." Measured by this standard education in the consolidated school is
no more expensive than in the unconsolidated schools; indeed it is
usually less expensive. It is a good thing for society to give a day's
education to one child; then education pays as it goes, and the more
days' education it can offer, the better.
=More Life in the Consolidated School.=--No one can deny that in this
larger school there can be more life and activity of all kinds, and a
much finer school spirit than was possible in the smaller schools.
Education means stimulation and where a great many children are brought
together and properly organized and graded there is a more stimulating
atmosphere and environment.
=Some Grading Desirable.=--In these consolidated schools a reasonable
amount of grading can be secured. It may be true that in some of the
large cities an extreme degree of grading defeats education and the true
aim of organization, but certainly in consolidated rural schools no such
degree of refinement need be reached or feared. Grading can remain here
in the golden mean and will be beneficial to pupils and teachers alike.
The pupils thus graded will have more time for recitation and
instruction, and teachers will have more time to do efficient work. In
the one-room rural school one teacher usually has eight grades and often
more, and sometimes she is required to conduct thirty or forty different
recitations in a day. Under such conditions the lack of time prevents
the attainment of good results.
=Better Teachers.=--It is also true that, where a school is larger and
attains to more of a system, better teachers are sought and secured by
the authorities. As we have already said, the cities are able to bid
higher for the best trained teachers, so the country districts suffer in
the economic competition. But the consolidated school being organized,
equipped, and graded, and representing, as it does, a large community or
district, the tendency will be to secure as good teachers as possible.
This is helped along by the comparison and competition of teachers
working side by side within the walls of the same building. In such
schools, too, there is usually a principal, and he exercises the
function of selection and rejection in the choice of teachers. All this
conduces to the securing of good teachers in the consolidated center.
=Better Buildings and Inspection.=--Similar improvements are attained in
the building as a whole, in the individual rooms, and in the interior
equipment. Such buildings are usually planned by competent architects
and are more adequate in all their appointments. All things are subject
to inspection, both by the community and the authorities. It is natural
that such inspection and criticism will be satisfied only with the best;
and so the surroundings of pupils become much more favorable to their
mental, moral, and physical well-being than was possible in the isolated
one-room school building.
=Longer Terms.=--The same discussion, agitation, inspection, and
supervision will inevitably lead to longer terms of school. Whereas the
one-room schools usually average six and a half months of school per
year, the consolidated schools average over eight months. This is in
itself a most important gain.
=Regularity, Punctuality, and Attendance.=--The larger spirit and life
of the consolidated school induce greater punctuality and regularity of
attendance. When pupils are transported to school they are always on
time, and when they are members of a class where there is considerable
competition they attend school with great regularity. There are many
grown-up pupils in the district who would not go to the small schools,
but who will go to a larger school where they find their equals; and so
the school attendance is greatly increased. We have, then, the
advantages of greater punctuality, greater regularity, and more pupils
in attendance.
The school spirit is abroad in the consolidated school district; people
are thinking and talking school. It becomes the customary and
fashionable thing to send children to school.
=Better Supervision.=--There is also much better supervision in the
consolidated school; for, in addition to the supervision given by the
county superintendent or his assistants, there is also the supervision
of the principal, or head teacher. This is in itself no small factor in
the making of a good school. Good supervision always makes strongly for
efficiency.
=The School as a Social Center.=--Other effects than those above
mentioned will necessarily follow. The consolidated school can and
should become a social center. There should be an assembly room for
lectures, debates, literary and musical entertainments, and meetings of
all kinds. The lecture hall should be provided with a stage, and good
moving-picture exhibitions might be given occasionally. There, also, the
citizens may gather to hear public questions discussed. It could thus
become a civic and social center as well as an educational center. All
problems affecting the welfare of the community might be presented here;
the people could assemble to listen to the discussion of political and
other social and public questions, which are the subjects of thought
and of conversation in the neighborhood. This is real social and
educational life.
=Better Roads.=--Not only does consolidation tend to all the above
results but it does many other things incidentally. It leads to the
making of better roads; for where a community has to travel frequently
it will provide good roads. This is one of the crying needs of the day
throughout the country.
=Consolidation Coming Everywhere.=--Consolidation is now under way in
almost every state of the Union and wherever tried it has almost
invariably succeeded. In but very few places have rural communities
abandoned the educational, social, and civic center, and gone back to
their former state of isolation and deadly routine.
=The Married Teacher and Permanence.=--In order to make the consolidated
school a success, the policy will have to be adopted in America of
building, at or near the school, a residence for the teacher, and of
selecting as teacher a married man, who will make his home there among
the people whose children he is to teach. Such a teacher should be a
real community leader in every way, and his tenure of service should be
permanent. Grave and specific reasons only should effect his removal.
With single men and women it is impossible to secure the permanence of
tenure that is desirable and necessary to the educational and social
welfare of a school and a community. This has been demonstrated over and
over again, and foreign countries are far ahead of us in this respect.
Such a real leader and teacher will, it is true, command a high salary;
but a good home, permanence of position, a small tract of land for
garden and field purposes, and the coming policy everywhere of an
"insurance and retirement fund" would offer great inducements to strong
men to take up their abode and cast their lot in such educational and
community centers.