54 ANNUAL, REPOIIT OF THE Off. Doc. 



from |22.75 to |!12.25 for each of the lifty i)ui)ils, brought to the cen 

 tral school from the outlviner districts." The committee in its sum- 

 mnry says: "'One of the great hindrauces to the improvement of 

 the rural school, lies in its isolation, and its inability to furnish to 

 the pupil that stimulative intlnence which comes from contact with 

 others of his own age and advancement. The committee therefore 

 recommends collecting pupils from small schools into larger, and 

 paying from the public funds for their transportation, believing that 

 in this way better teachers can be provided, more rational methods 

 of instruction adopted, and at the same time the expense of the 

 schools can be materially lessened." 



These are some of the conclusions of this eminent committee, 

 whose report was read before, and accepted by, the National Edu- 

 cational Association of the United States. 



Two years ago this Department sent a qualified expert, to make 

 investigation into the working of the system of the consolidation of 

 schools and the transportation of scholars,- w'here it had been thor- 

 oughly tried, and his report, giving the conditions under which 

 these centralized schools were operated, and the service they are 

 rendering, shows that they are not only much more efficient from 

 the educational standpoint, which is of course the great purpose 

 in the establishment of any school, but are at the same time more 

 economical in expenditure than the isolated school. 



Mr. A. B. Graham, township superintendent, Springfield, O., writes 

 that in his State ''nearly forty townships are to-day solving the 

 country school problem by centralization, and the formation of 

 graded schools." He states that in "such a school the township 

 becomes a stronger unit for local government, than it can become 

 under a sj^stem of isolated schools. A boy or girl grows up a mem- 

 ber of the society of the township, instead of an acquaintance of a 

 few families." Dr. A. C. True, Director of the Office of Experiment 

 Stations, whites in the report of the Department of Agriculture for 

 1901, "The movement for the consolidation of small schools, has 

 already been in progress long enough to have demonstrated, that 

 when properly managed, it will produce excellent results; that in 

 eighteen States, transportation of pupils at public expense, is already 

 permitted by law." 



CENTRALIZATION OF RURAL, SCHOOLS IN PENNSYLVANIA. 



Pennsylvania, I am glad to be able to say, has enacted such a law. 

 It now remains for those who are interested to call attention to its 

 importance, and to strive to carry its provisions into effect. Some 

 progress has been made, although the act is not jet two years in 



