THE COUNTRY SCHOOL 371 



for us now to generalize the lesson. If the safety of democracy 

 in a time of great crisis is so clearly dependent upon a high level 

 of enlightened intelligence, we may be sure that the passing of 

 the crisis will not change this fundamental condition. 



The rural and village schools are by far the weakest links in 

 the educational chain. There is no way in which these links can 

 be strengthened save through expenditures vastly greater than 

 the local communities can supply. General state taxation has 

 already proved itself inadequate to a solution of the problem on 

 a national scale. The welfare of the nation itself is more inti- 

 mately bound up with the intelligence of that majority of its 

 children now enrolled in the rural and village schools than 

 with any other single factor. Federal cooperation in the sup- 

 port and development of rural education is clearly and un- 

 equivocally the only solution of the problem. 



THE CONSOLIDATED SCHOOL AS A COMMUNITY 

 CENTER x 



JOHN H. COOK 



THE consolidated school ministers to the educational needs of 

 a larger community than is served by the one-room school. A 

 minimum number of interested people are essential to an abid- 

 ing interest in a social community center. The number of 

 patrons in the sub-district school is below the minimum, while 

 the consolidated school may have sufficient numbers to main- 

 tain this interest. Many forms of community recreation and 

 activity are made possible by the support of this larger num- 

 ber. Among such activities may be mentioned lecture courses, 

 interscholastic contests, both athletic and intellectual, home- 

 talent plays, farmers' institutes and extension schools, and other 

 entertainments of various sorts. 



Talented leadership is indispensable to success in making an 

 institution a social or community center. There is a dearth of 

 leadership in the one-room school district unit, owing to small 

 numbers and the lack of interest of the natural leaders of the 



1 Adapted from Publications American Sociological Society, XI: 97-105, 

 1916. 



