350 RURAL SOCIOLOGY 



character of the curriculum and in the quality of teaching to 

 the best town and city schools. The rural high schools in such 

 communities are recognized by the colleges and universities, and 

 their graduates are accepted on the same terms as those from 

 urban schools. 



It may therefore be concluded that the policy of consolida- 

 tion ultimately commits to the introduction of rural high schools 

 as a part of the system. This is natural and right, since con- 

 solidation not only encourages the regularity of attendance that 

 allows completion of an elementary course preparatory to the 

 high school, but also provides the type of curriculum and teach- 

 ing necessary for such preparation. Further, the educational 

 standards of communities supporting consolidated schools de- 

 mand opportunities for high school education for their children. 



Certain regions, as in Illinois, have developed the township 

 system of high schools independent ly of consolidation. Many 

 of these township secondary schools are of high grade, fully the 

 equal of town and city schools; indeed, not a few of them are 

 conducted in some convenient town or city of the township and 

 are in effect not rural high schools at all. They offer the tra- 

 ditional high school course of study, are governed by the typical 

 urban high school spirit, which looks not toward farming but to 

 other lines of occupation, and are therefore not the type of sec- 

 ondary education most useful to rural communities. 



In other sections of the country, county high schools prevail, 

 the county supporting one secondary school open to all qualified 

 residents within the county. The county high school can be 

 approved only as a temporary expedient to supply secondary edu- 

 cation at a time when the economic ability is not equal to the 

 burden of supporting high schools available to every community. 

 In order to be wholly efficient, the high school must, like the ele- 

 mentary school, be brought to the door of those for whom it is 

 intended and must not require traveling half-way across a 

 county in order to obtain its advantages. Nor must it demand 

 that the pupil leave his home and enter the school as a boarding- 

 school. To be truly a school of the people the rural high school 

 must be connected with the rural elementary school, which is 

 equivalent to saying that it will become a part of the consolidated 

 school of the future. 



