352 RURAL SOCIOLOGY 



women teachers, laundry, kitchens, etc. It should be equipped 

 with a view to providing in the community a model of tasteful 

 and economical domestic furnishing and decoration. The rentals 

 and other charges should be so regulated as to provide for the 

 maintenance, insurance, repairs and renewals of equipment, but 

 not for a sinking-fund. The house should be regarded as a part 

 of the school plant and included in the regular bond issue for 

 construction. A privately owned manse in Illinois is netting 8 

 per cent, on an investment of $10,000. 



The manse has a bearing in several ways upon the educational 

 work of the school. Flowers and vegetable gardens are natural 

 features of school premises which are also residence quarters. 

 The domestic science work of the school can be connected in 

 valuable ways with the practical problems of manse management. 

 The cost accounting offers a capital example of bookkeeping. 

 The use of the school as a community center is widened and its 

 value enhanced. The school as an institution takes on a more 

 vital character in the eyes of the countryside. 



Most important of all is the effect upon the teacher. Com- 

 fortably heated, well-lighted quarters, comradeship with col- 

 leagues and at the same time personal privacy a satisfying, 

 cooperatively managed table, independence of the petty family 

 rivalries of a small community, a recognized institutional status, 

 combine to attract to the consolidated rural school manse teachers 

 of a type which will put the country school abreast of the modern 

 educational movement. It is futile to preach the gospel of sacri- 

 fice for the cause of rural education. There is no reason why 

 rural teachers should be called upon to sacrifice themselves. 

 They ought not to do it, and they will not do it. The school 

 manse is not a fad, nor a luxury ; it is a fundamental necessity. 



MOST states are now recognizing the necessity for making 

 some effort to promote agricultural stability through the schools. 



i Adapted from "Xew Schools for Old," pp. 252-259. Button, X. Y., 1919. 





