THE TRAINING OF FARMERS 



schools is the consolidating of two or more 

 districts into one. No doubt it is often 

 necessary and advisable to consolidate 

 schools, but I warn my reader that it is 

 easy to carry this process too far. It 

 usually follows that when schools are con- 

 solidated, they begin to copy city- school 

 methods. I much doubt whether the meth- 

 ods of city schools are on the whole such as 

 will endure, even for cities ; and I am much 

 more in doubt whether they are best for 

 country schools. There is a value in the 

 simplicity, directness, democracy, and even 

 the smallness of the ' ' district school ' ' that 

 we cannot afford to give up lightly ; and it 

 is an institution of the community. The 

 sterility of the district school lies not so 

 much in its remoteness, separateness, and 

 smallness as in the lack of funds to enable 

 it to do the work of a school. The state 

 must come to the aid of the district school. 



The high-school 



In this discussion, I have chiefly had in 

 mind the school life below the high-school. 

 If the primary and intermediate teaching 

 156 



