240 ANNUAL REPORT OF THE Off. Doc. 



vou will pardon this seeming digression from my subject, for I assure 

 you it has a more important bearing upon it. 



The consolidation of rural schools is a matter that should call 

 for more universal co-operation among the men and women of the 

 farm. No other question has larger meaning to the future of the 

 young folks than this. Shall the farm boy and girl be deprived of 

 the school advantages so freely offered their city brethren? This is 

 the question for you fathers and mothers to answer. There are, 

 however, honest differences of opinion in regard to nearly all public 

 measures. Our common school system began its great work amid 

 strenuous opposition from mistaken men, who little dreamed of the 

 great good to be accomplished through its instrumentality. They 

 saw not the wise policy kept in view by the supporters of the sys- 

 tem. But little by little the work of the system began to speak 

 for itself, and so it is with consolidation, it is speaking for itself. 

 It is past the experimental stage, and all true friends of education, 

 and of the country children, should stand together in a spirit of 

 liberality and broad-mindedness and do every thing possible with 

 an eye single to the best interests of the rural schools. This is an age 

 of progress. We cannot, we must not stand perfectly still, nor 

 should we rest until the rural schools of Pennsylvania are equal if 

 not better than any in the United States. And, friends, only by 

 consolidation, as I see it, can this be accomplished, for then our 

 schools will be graded and the children will pass up through the 

 primary, the intermediate and grammar grades, into the high school, 

 and to the curriculum of the rural schools of to-day, will be added 

 Nature study, domestic science, manual training, music, drawing, 

 etc. 



And what of the township high school? Not one of us, I fear 

 realize its importance, the untold benefit and advantages it would 

 bring to our boys and girls. Dr. Harris, whom I have already quoted, 

 in comparing the chances of a boy with only a common school educa- 

 tion, and the graduates of a high school, tell us, that the chances of 

 success of the one with a common school education, in round num- 

 bers, is one chance in 9,000, while the boy graduated from the high 

 school has one chance in 400, increasing his chances 22 times. Now 

 friends do we not want to give our children all the chances for suc- 

 cess possible? Are the children of the city to be given opportuni- 

 ties denied the children of the country? "Equal opportunities for 

 all, special privileges for none" should be our watchword in this 

 campaign for better rural schools. By consolidation, enough money 

 will be saved each township, according to reliable statistics, to al- 

 most, if not altogether meet the expenses of the high school. But 

 if another mill or two should be added to your school tax the first 



