ELEVENTH ANNUAL YEAR BOOK-PART V 265 



I have the greatest admiration and respect for such county superin- 

 tendents as Miss Field and Mr. Benson, who, by their enthusiasm and 

 well directed efforts have inspired many of their teachers to put new 

 life and a new meaning into their work by connecting it with the farm 

 and the things about them in nature. But even the best of superin- 

 tendents and teachers can make but little progress under a system that 

 is weak and growing weaker from year to year. I refer to the present 

 sub-district system under which a majority of the rural schools of Iowa 

 are organized. We may as well face the fact squarely, that no matter 

 how well the old plan may have served in the past, and regardless of 

 how strongly we may be attached to the local control policy, the sub- 

 district unit, no longer meets the requirements of our modern educa- 

 tional needs. In one county in Iowa having 125 sub-districts, 37 of them 

 held no annual elections last March. This indifference alone is fatal 

 to efficient organization even if there were no other barriers in the way. 

 The sub-district plan must give way to a larger unit, of not less than 

 a township, where weak schools may be abandoned and others consoli- 

 dated when desired. General consolidation may not come about rapidly, 

 but the township or county unit plan would permit this to be accomplished 

 as fast as circumstances warranted and would leave it at the option of 

 the people concerned. 



The consolidated school is able to provide for the introduction of 

 agriculture and household economics on a satisfactory and efficient basis, 

 and such schools can have the service of specially trained teachers. A 

 school of that kind can be made a center of social life and community 

 interest in a way that can never be reached by a one-room, six-to-ten-pupil 

 school. It can do the work that it undertakes to do as efficiently as any 

 of the graded schools of the cities, and in addition it can have it gardens 

 and its laboratories, and access to the fields and live stock, and other 

 means of connecting up the school work with the life and problems of 

 the country. 



The city school is not necessarily better than the rural school. The 

 rural school has been a strong force in the creation of sturdy manhood 

 and womanhood and good citizenship. It is one of the institutions 

 that we have been proud of. It needs only to be reorganized and re- 

 directed to make it a greater factor than it has ever been. 



There is also an urgent need for a country high school, or more prop- 

 erly, an industrial high school. This may not of necessity be located 

 in the country, though for many reasons it would be desirable to have 

 it located there. Here again we may as well face the unpleasant fact 

 that the average high school has not served its purpose in the sense 

 of meeting present day demands. It has not only tended to direct the 

 country boy away from industrial life, but it has lost its grip on the city 

 boy to such an extent that graduating classes are often made up mainly 

 of girls. The city high school has not afforded a satisfactory connecting 

 link between the rural school and the college. Some form of country 

 high school must be evolved. It must serve the needs of the country boy 

 and girl. It must fit them for college if they want a college education, 



