The day's work began at 12.30 and closed at 3.30. This would enable those in attendance to do their chores and other work before leaving for school. (e) Some extension work.-The Chatfield school has been especially successful in making its efforts at outward work felt in the home and community. No more striking illustration of this can be given than that the school was immediately instrumental in inducing the farmers of the community to erect the Chatfield Farmers' Cooperative Laundry, which is probably the first of its kind in the United States. Few things can mean more to the farm women, in reducing the amount of real drudgery, than such a labor-saving plant. The instructor of agriculture and his advanced students undertake to test corn and all kinds of grain for the community, making a nominal charge to cover actual expenses. "The corn testing alone," says Supt. Forney, "has many times more than paid the salary of the agricultural man." In the same way milk and cream are tested and soil analysis made. Then farmers' clubs and institutes are organized and maintained. One of the most popular innovations is the lecture courses at the rural schools, at which lantern slides and other illustrations are used. IV. CONSOLIDATION AND GENUINE COMMUNITY SCHOOLS. The public beginning to realize wastefulness under the old system.— The people in many parts of Minnesota are wide-awake to the great waste of the small school. They are beginning to realize that even where the one-teacher school is modern in architecture, is well kept, and in charge of a well-paid teacher, it can not fully meet the demands of modern country life. Even under the most favorable circumstances the school can not approximate the work that it should do— viz, prepare the boys and girls of the community for satisfied, wellrewarded living on the country soil. The fact is, in Minnesota as elsewhere, the one-teacher school does not offer rural children what they need to-day. On account of this, real interest in school work is poorly sustained, and the older pupils too often leave school long before completing the eighth grade. No thinking person would expect anything better than we are getting from the one-teacher school system. Such schools were very good as pioneer schools in pioneer communities, but as schools seeking to be of assistance at this time of real husbandry farming they are distinct failures. Association of schools has done much to correct these conditions in many parts of Minnesota. In others all the children of the com munity are being brought under one roof, in a centrally located, wellorganized school, comprising the usual eight years of elementary work, together with four years of cultural and industrial high-school work. Minnesota consolidated schools becoming effective community centers. Much of the Minnesota consolidation has been well done. This is fortunate. In some States, unfortunately, consolidation has meant only the merging of a number of small schools into a large one, and providing the new school with the traditional town school course of study. If consolidation is not done well, it had better not be done at all. And to be done well the new school's course of study, while offering the broadest general culture, must somehow be rooted to the soil, and its activities must reach beyond the four walls of the school into the entire school community to do the educational work of the whole people. In a number of the consolidated school communities which came under the investigator's notice in Minnesota, the country folk are getting at home many of the social-recreational attractions that they formerly sought in town. The schools are becoming social centers. In many places the assembly halls are used for regular country rallies of various kinds―here are held the extension lecture courses, the neighborhood social gatherings, the farmers' institutes, boys' and girls' clubs, mothers' meetings, and other meetings of similar nature. In this way the new schools are able to provide modern substitutes for many of the rural activities that disappeared with our transition from the household economy stage of farming to the present stage of exploitation and beginnings of husbandry farming. Consolidation easily attained because of liberal laws.-The Holmberg Act went into effect April 18, 1911. The new law makes it reasonably easy to effect consolidation by having eliminated the more or less prohibitive conditions formerly in use, and adding, instead, liberal State-aid inducements. Several States which have striven to consolidate their schools have failed on account of unreasonable laws; and others have been slow to act because they have had no State-aid features to offer as an inducement for change. The special features of the Minnesota law may be summarized as follows: 1. Twenty-five per cent of the resident freeholders only is required for petition to consolidate. Under the old law a majority was required. 2. When the election is called to vote on the proposition to consolidate, such election is held at one centrally located polling place, and a bare majority of all the votes cast is sufficient. Under the former act the districts voted separately, which made it vastly more difficult to get the requisite majority. 3. It sets certain high standards for teachers and school equipment that must be met before the new organization can be recognized by the State authorities or aid granted under the law. Thus: (a) The same high standards of preparation and fitness must be maintained for teachers in the consolidated schools as in the high and graded schools in villages and cities. (b) Principals of consolidated schools, in addition to the above requirements, must secure the special indorsement of the State superintendent of education as to fitness for the particular position sought. (c) Fully equipped departments must be maintained for instruction in agriculture, manual training, and domestic science. 4. It authorizes the State superintendent of education to establish and maintain strict requirements for building construction and equipment, and for transportation of pupils. 5. Finally, the law provides very liberal State aid as an inducement for rural communities to reorganize their schools according to the above-mentioned standards. State aid the great spur.-It is only just that State aid should be granted as a reward for aggressive educational enterprise, to stimulate a community to exert itself to build up the best kind of school. The liberal State aid offered for compliance with the conditions of the Holmberg law has acted as a wholesome stimulus, and made consolidation possible in many communities where this would otherwise have been impossible. The schools of the State are classified, for purposes of receiving aid, as A, B, and C. They must be in session at least eight months and be thoroughly organized. They must also have modern, sanitary schoolhouses and suitable equipment. The schools of class A must have at least four departments; those of class B at least three departments; and those of class C at least two. Pupils living more than 2 miles from the school are transported at public expense, or their board and lodging may be paid if this is found more economical and convenient. Schools under class A receive, annually, State aid amounting to $1,500; those of class B, $1,000; and class C, $750. In addition to the annual aid, a school in any of these classes may receive special aid in the construction of a modern building equal to 25 per cent of the cost of the building, provided that in no case shall any district receive more than $1,500 for this purpose. Degree of success in consolidation dependent on proper safeguarding. The Minnesota law very wisely charges the State superintendent of education with the great responsibility of formulating and enforcing the rules and regulations under which the schools may receive aid and recognition under classes A, B, and C. Many States have a larger number of consolidated schools than has Minnesota; but few, if any, have better consolidated schools. Says ex-Rural School Commissioner E. M. Phillips: The success of the movement will not lie alone nor chiefly in the number of consolidations accomplished, but rather in the degree of real improvement in rural schools secured through the application of the law. With this in view the State department has formulated a complete set of regulations for each of the three classes of schools, which are strictly enforced. They include preparation and special fitness of teachers; plans and specifications of buildings; building sites, water and drainage; school equipment; rules for conveyance of pupils; and course of study. These regulations are given in detail in the appendix. Progress in consolidation both rapid and substantial.-As was said above, the State had only 9 consolidated schools previous to 1909. In 1912 there were 69. In 1912-13 the number increased to 75; in 1913-14 to 83; and at the time of writing it is 116, with several groups of districts in the process of organizing. The statistics from 30 of these consolidated schools are given below, to convey to the reader some idea of the progress that is being made. It will be understood that the table represents only about one-fourth of all the consolidated schools in the State. Statistics of 30 consolidated schools, for the school year 1911-12. Expenditures for consolidated school buildings.. Total assessed valuation. . . . . Total number children enrolled.. Total number children transported.. Total cost of transportation. . . . Average cost per child per year for transportation. Average cost of schooling per child per year including transportation... Average length of transportation routes (longest distance any child rides .miles.. $200, 548 $5,483, 773 3, 906 932 $18, 414 $19.75 $35.65 $139, 252 $78, 900 $60, 352 41 Number of schools maintaining at least one year of high-school work.... 21 Total number of separate districts combined to form 30 consolidated schools... 141 |