reestablished. Write your state superintendent and ask if he has any record of a case of this kind.

4. How fully do you agree with what the late William T. Harris said about the consolidated school? With the other prominent educators who are quoted in this chapter? What do you understand by President Fairchild's statement that "the old-time country school has gone never to return"? Do you think this is true?

5. What is the first great advantage of consolidation? Explain what is meant by the terms "graded school," and "ungraded school." Discuss some of the advantages the graded school has over the ungraded school. Can you think of any advantage that the ungraded school has to offer over the graded school?

6. Would you prefer a class of ten, or a class of twenty pupils; of one, or five pupils? Do you think district teachers can have time properly to care for so many classes? What was the greatest number of classes you ever had? Do you feel that you did justice to yourself and your pupils with this number? How many minutes do you now have for each recitation? Is it enough time? How many classes do you now have? Do you have time to make thorough daily preparation for all the classes?

7. How many times a day do you hear your primary pupils? Compare a district teacher's daily program with a consolidated teacher's daily program. How do you arrange so as to be able to give the proper time to the subjects of agriculture and domestic science? Criticize your own daily program. Do you try to outline your work for the larger pupils? Try to find out how many of the best teachers you know depend wholly on the question and answer method. How often do you give written recitations? Do you find time to grade these papers carefully?

8. Why do consolidated schools keep more of the older children in school? Give reasons for the decline

of social advantages in the country.

Name three ways

in which consolidation may contribute to the social life of a community. Make comparisons of the cost of the three types of rural school.

CHAPTER XVI

THE CONSOLIDATED SCHOOL AND THE COMMUNITY

The rural community suffers from no greater danger than that of social monotony and stagnation. The nature of the work both in home and in field, the insistent and pressing toil during the greater part of the year, and the isolation of the farm all tend to an unvarying saineness of life and experience.

While solitude has its advantages, and while every person should have an opportunity to be alone with himDanger from soself some portion of the time, yet cial stagnation change, variety and a certain degree of excitement are also necessary. For unrelieved routine finally deadens and cripples. The mind needs the stimulus of change, the shock of contact with other minds, the invigorating influence that comes from new objects of thought and association with other people. Lacking these, there is an inevitable tendency on the one hand to settle into an attitude of indifference and indolencethe ruts of "fogyism"; or, on the other hand, to become dissatisfied and morose, impatient of one's surroundings, and rebellious against the fate that binds one to such conditions.

The rural community as it exists at present offers few opportunities for social mingling in general neighborhood groups. Going to spend the day in family visiting has declined. The old

Little meeting in social groups

time spelling schools, the debating societies and the singing schools are no longer a part of the activities of the district school. The country church, the common meetingplace for the community, has fallen largely into disuse. Even the telephone, the rural mail delivery and the parcel post, civilizing agencies as they are, have made possible still further isolation; for they run the errands for the family, who are thus enabled to cling still more closely to the work of the farm. The country people do not meet one another face to face, discuss matters of mutual interest, laugh, talk and enjoy a good time together as people need to do. Their lives have a tendency to become very serious, their mental horizon to narrow down, and their outlook on the world of values to become distorted. The country needs some central, organizing, vivifying force to unite members of the community in common interests, friendships and social activities. Something is required to create and maintain a community spirit, a mutual feeling of pride in neighborhood welfare and progress, and to entice away from the humdrum care and toil to the restoring influence of fun and jollity.

Social opportunities lacking for young people

Particularly is the rural community lacking in social opportunities for young people. The social impulses, the desire for comradeship, recreation, fun and amusement, are as deepseated and insistent in country boys and girls as in those who live in towns. Nor can these natural forces of human nature be any more safely ignored or repressed in the one case than in the other. Expression, and not repression, is the law of development; and where this law is disobeyed, whether in city or in country, rebellion and disaster are sure to follow.

The city is a constant lure to young people, promising

them what it can but in a small measure fulfil. Seen at a distance, and through the eyes of the magazine or novel Social lure of writer, the city possesses many attracthe city tions that are lacking in the country. Even the very dangers and pitfalls, so frequently pictured in lurid colors in the press or on the platform, often constitute a dare and a challenge to youth. For the adolescent demands adventure; he craves an opportunity to try his powers; he longs for variety and excitement, and will not be satisfied with the uneventful round of experience that constitutes the placid daily life of his parents. Nor are such impulses to be deprecated and frowned on; for they constitute the foundation for later achievement.

Failure to recognize these fundamental impulses in rural young people and to provide for their expression is one of the most fruitful causes for the dissatisfaction of our boys and girls with the life of the farm. They are impatient of its limitations, and resentful of its monotony and sameness. Hence they turn their backs on the career that lies nearest to them, the one they would most naturally be expected to choose, and seek occupations in the town or city, where there is already far too large a proportion of our population. Nor would there be justice in keeping boys and girls on the farm without an opportunity to develop the social side, of their natures, even were it possible to do so; for this is as much a part of education as the training of the intellect.

The want of social opportunity for young people in the country districts is also accompanied by grave moral dangers. Young people will seek one another's society; it is natural and right that they should. Boys have a

Moral dangers growing out of social stagnation