Movement for Consolidated Schools 147 



should still be possible to develop enterprise 

 and responsibility at home. 



(2) The consolidating of schools. 



The arguments in favor of consolidation 

 of schools are many and important. By con- 

 solidation, stronger teaching units are secured ; 

 more money is available for the employing of 

 teachers and the providing of equipment ; 

 special subjects can be given adequate atten- 

 tion. The objections are many, and most of 

 those commonly urged are trivial and tem- 

 porary. The greatest difficulty in bringing 

 about the consolidation of schools is a deep- 

 seated prejudice against giving up the old 

 school. This prejudice is usually not expressed 

 in words. Often it is really unconscious to the 

 person himself. Yet I wonder whether right 

 here does not lie a fundamental and valid rea- 

 son against the uniform consolidation of rural 

 schools, — a feeling that when the school leaves 

 the locality something vital has gone out of 

 the neighborhood. Local pride has been 

 oflFended. Initiative has been removed one 



