4. Do you think consolidation of schools and the transportation of 

 pupils in school wagons feasible? 



5. Are the schools as they now are satisfactorily progressive? 



6. What would you suggest to improve them? 



The total number of public school patrons in the county was roughly 

 estimated as about 2,800, of which number 2,000 were patrons of white 

 schools and 800 of the colored. Both groups were included in the inves- 

 tigation. About 2,000 blanks were distributed and about 700 were 

 returned filled out. The investigators labor under no delusion as to 

 the efficacy of the questionaire method to finally exhaust any subject. 

 They appreciate thoroughly the danger of trusting too implicitly in the 

 accuracy and value of answers to set questions asked in this fashion. 

 Also, they realize that the number of blanks returned is hardly a suffi- 

 cient proportion of the whole number to form a safe basis for any final 

 conclusions. The answers, however, seem quite representative. They 

 came from all classes and conditions of people and represent all degrees 

 of education and general enlightenment. Moreover, though differing 

 widely from each other in many particulars and including many shades 

 and varieties of opinion, there are yet certain general lines of cleavage 

 running through them all. 



As a result, then, of the two lines of inquiry followed, certain conclu- 

 sions seem safely established. First let us consider the white schools. 

 It is apparent that on the whole the county is proud of its school system 

 and is satisfied that its present administration is making substantial 

 progress along the right lines. Fifteen per cent, of the patrons answering 

 would offer no criticisms at all, displaying a complacent satisfaction 

 which hardly argues for any great amount of thought or labor expended 

 in making themselves conversant with the school situation and the 

 problems which it involves. Sixty-five per cent, however, considered 

 the schools as satisfactorily progressive and gave good reasons for their 

 belief. In fact, a considerably larger proportion endorsed the school 

 administration, even while offering criticisms and suggestions for improve- 

 ment. 



In this connection a somewhat anomalous situation was brought to 

 light. The chief criticisms advanced were aimed, not so much at the 

 method of conducting particular schools or at any particular points 

 in the methods of supervision and general administration practiced 

 in the county, as at the whole principle involved in such a school system. 

 Implicitly and explicitly the principle of small, isolated, one-room 

 schools was attacked. Certain weaknesses inherent in such a system 

 were clearly indicated. Certain remedies fundamentally involving a 

 departure from such a system were advocated. Yet it was evidently 

 not often clear in the minds of the writers where the remedy for the 



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