700 IOWA DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 
The inevitable change has touched this pioneer legacy till its oft-times 
six to ten pupils speak for another forward step. If there is no "school 
house on every hilltop," there can be a school wagon taking the children 
therefrom to a school more in unison with our time. 
In a discussion, such as this paper is the opening, the object is to 
hold aloft for public view, to offer for public consideration a theme upon 
which the public needs information. For this reason the following speaker 
will take the negative side of this question, and, it is to be hoped, the 
educators present will not fail to handle both sides vigorously. 
In further consideration of the central school, I will dwell upon the 
topic of transportation. In preparation for presenting this paper, the 
writer talked with numerous farm mothers. Without a single exception 
they gave the reason of transportation for opposing the larger school. 
They all wanted the better advantages, the graded work, but getting the 
child to it was the terror. One mother was afraid the horses would run 
away, another was afraid the child would get wet before reaching the 
wagon corner, and take cold riding, but usually the fear is of the moral 
influence of the driver. In the number of parents approached was one 
father and he said it was all a "fool idea, perfectly impossible and gotten 
up by a few smart Alicks." I was bound to put this in, because this is 
woman's day, and to show how much more capable of unprejudiced reason- 
ing is the feminine mind than the masculine. 
It is my understanding that the driver is chosen by the school board, 
and must produce satisfactory evidence of character and ability to govern 
children. They are subject to his control and must be kept quiet and 
orderly en route. That the children are more safe from contaminating 
influence, than they often are in numbers by themselves in lonely lanes 
or crossing fields. If this is wrong, would ask the county superintendent 
to set us right in the matter. 
I once saw a picture of the closing of an Ohio central school. A row 
of comfortable covered wagons were backed up outside the fence, and 
the lines of children were coming toward the different vehicles in a 
methodical manner. There was nothing about the scene that looked as 
if the most timid mother need fear for the safety of her child. It would 
seem more difficult to manage the condition of the spring roads than to 
get a man capable of taking care of the children. 
The mistake in any school system is unpractical ideas. If Mary's 
make-up shows that she will be a common, every day woman, why load 
her with French grammars? Why stuff Johnnie about room at the "top" 
when he would only be hanging dizzily on if you boosted him there? 
Alas! for them both when they learn such roseate views of their 
destiny that they slight humble work looking for something beyond their 
compass. 
The education which does not create in the pupil a power and desire 
to do with all might whatever humble duty comes in life — that does not 
produce unshirking adaptability to circumstances — that education is a 
failure. 
