698 IOWA DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 
The heart of this speaker is with the rural child, and, because of her 
abiding faith in the simplicity and labor-blessed helpfulness of the average 
rural home, and the great need of its child remaining therein during his 
impressionable years, she pleads for the consolidation of the country 
schools. 
It is not to be denied that of late years the country school does not 
attract pupils very far beyond the primary classes. The boy who works 
summers dislikes to go to school winters because no other boy of his age 
is there. If he is pretty well along in arithmetic he is apt to have a 
companion or two in his classes. If he studies algebra or botany he is 
alone and half feels that the neighbors are begrudging him the class time 
for a first reader drill. This state of things has grown gradually, caused 
partially by more time-taking methods for the little folks, and greater 
ease, as wealth increased, of sending the older children to the small 
college. The bright Johnnie and Mary are ready for that small college 
in their early teens. In their own little school they can not advance as 
they are able, but must repeat and review, fettered by lack of apparatus, 
by short class time, by the lack of enthusiasm of numbers, by too much 
power of choosing their own curriculum, and perhaps, by an inefficient 
or uninterested teacher. 
The family is confronted by grave alternatives. They must break loose 
from their farmstead moorings and follow Johnnie and Mary to town, or 
send them away alone, or keep them at home awhile till they have lost 
some youth and interest with it. 
With a township center school provided with a wholesome, common 
sense graded course of study, they can go in the morning, pursue studies 
suitable to their age and ability, and be where they ought to be at night - 
in the unbroken family circle. 
The sending of our farm youth early away to school is one of the evils 
of country life. Free from their accustomed mode of living, so many 
have lost their health or contracted habits of idleness or expenditure 
beyond the family income, and, being away so much, seem not to be able 
to pick up again the farm life and its homely duties. 
The township school would be a social factor to a greater extent than 
the isolated small school of the present. The children of the whole town- 
ship being school comrades, will bring families into closer acquaintance, 
tending to keep the interest and attention away from the towns, more 
among the farming population. 
A baneful influence of the small school is the frequent change of 
teachers, each one having her own mode of proceedure, not remaining in 
power long enough to measure the caliber of her pupils. Her employment 
is often subject to the whim of some family who at the time has power, 
influenced possibly by a spoiled child dominating a weak parent. 
The central school should be able to do away with a few favorite 
patrons having things to their own notion. It could provide a continuity 
of mature, stable and efficient teachers adequate for the reSponsible posi- 
tion. At the same time its course of study should be carefully guarded 
against fadism or studies not calculated for the practical welfare of the 
rural youth. 
