THE ONLY CONSOLIDATED SCHOOL IN THE COUNTY 



in the country, provides just such a training as we have in mind and 

 couples with an extensive and varied service to the community as a 

 whole at a total cost per year of only $34 per pupil. The schools in 

 Montgomery County cost $40.55 per pupil. In the strictly rural schools 

 the cost is at least $30 and surely such a school as we have mentioned 

 would be worth $5 per pupil more. 



The question of consolidation is a point on which there needs to be 

 much agitation and a long process of public education. We use the 

 term "education" advisedly. At the present time the question is 

 entirely misapprehended by the great many who oppose it. Many 

 advance the argument that public transportation of school children 

 would never be satisfactory because attended by such grave moral 

 dangers to the children or because the children would be continually 

 taking cold waiting for the wagon. We would hardly consider these 

 difficulties, if they are difficulties, as being insurmountable. Further- 

 more, we do not think that what is involved in the query was clearly 

 understood by the man who answered by saying: "I did not know 

 that the schools had a wagon in them to transfer the pupils to the dif- 

 ferent rooms" or by the one who wrote "No, the children are away 

 from home too long as it is", or, again, by the man who declared that 

 he did "not think it right for the school children to hang on the wagons 

 passing along the road." 



Aside from such criticisms as these aimed fundamentally at the entire 

 "system" other interesting criticisms were made touching points more 

 easily dealt with. For example many asserted the chief weakness of 



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