FOURTH ANNUAL YEAR ROOK — PART I. 27 



it was entirely feasible to teach to rural children subjects which had 

 formerly been confined to college classes and the higher schools. We 

 made a canvass of the State and found that in the rural schools the aver- 

 age number of classes taught each day was twenty-seven, which gave an 

 average of about twelve minutes to the class. Out of that had to be 

 taken the time necessary to assign lessons, keep order, and assist schol- 

 ars in their work, and it didn't leave morei than about nine minutes to 

 each for class instruction. 



In the town and!, city schools where the teacher had an average of 

 only eight or nine classes, the time devoted to each was anywhere from 

 thirty to forty minutes. We showed to a demonstration that all talk 

 about improving the rural schools by introducing nature study while 

 such a system continued was wasted breath; that the system was defec- 

 tive; that it was impossible to add anything to the curriculum of studies 

 in the country schools unless there was first some change in this system. 



Then we began to talk about a remedy, the consolidation of the 

 rural schools. This was kept up for six or seven years, until the people 

 became thoroughly aroused and informed upon that subject. When this 

 was accomplished we went into) the State legislature and asked for the 

 enactment of a law that would permit the consolidation of the rural 

 schools into a single township school, and provide for the conveying of 

 the children from their homes to and from the central building. We 

 made an investigation of the work done elsewhere in centralizing schools, 

 and this was also preached over the State until the people saw that it too 

 was practicable. So when the Consolidation Act came before the legis- 

 lature there was comparatively little opposition to it, and now there is in 

 that State a law that permits each township to have a single central con- 

 solidated school, a school graded as in the city or town, to which every 

 child may be hauled that is not within walking distance. 



I give this example because it shows that in the course of a very 

 few years it is possible to unify public sentiment in the rural districts if 

 there is some directing power to take the initiative. No great change 

 in social or governmental affairs can be effected in this country until a 

 majority of the voters are agreed. Just as soon as the voting community 

 understands that the change is to their advantage, that soon, and no 

 sooner, we get it. 



There was another matter of public interest that was taken up in 

 that same State about the same time; the improvement of the public 

 roads. We had, upon actual count, something like thirteen hundred dif- 

 ferent road laws in that State. Some townships had one supervisor, and 

 some had fourteen. There was no unity of system; the legislature had 

 been trying to get together on the public road question for years. We 

 made up our minds that the time had come to go out into the\ country 

 and educate the people upon the road question. We prescribed that the 

 afternoon sessions of every institute held in the State should take up 

 the consideration of public roads. A campaign of about six years was 

 conducted over that State until the people had threshed out this question 

 and had come to a conclusion about it. There was no throttling of dis- 

 cussion ; opportunity was given to every man to tell what he had to say. 



