large enough to accommodate the people for lectures and in- 

 tertainments. 



6. It does much to enlarge the spiritual horizon of 

 boys and girls who attend these schools. The fact that a large 

 number of children are enrolled is a great advantage, for it 

 makes it possible to create a school and community spirit. 



7. It will keep the money, which is now being spent away 

 from home for educational purposes, at home to develop local 

 schools. 



What Boys and Girls Think of Consolidation. Often in 

 our discussions of problems of rural education we lose sight 

 of the most fundamental question, how does the school ap- 

 pear to the country boy and the country girl. Useless it is to 

 talk of developing the one room schools when boys and girls 

 leave them at the fifth or even the fourth grade and when, af- 

 ter having attended for perhaps the full eight years they leave 

 the school. unable to spell, read, or write an ordinary letter. 

 One of the chief points in favor of consolidation is that school 

 makes an appeal to boys and girls. They are proud of their 

 schools, as may be seen from extracts from letters written by 

 the pupils enrolled in consolidated schools in Randolph county, 

 Indiana. Few counties in the United States have more rea- 

 son to be proud of their schools. Nowhere has consolidation 

 made more real progress, due to the untiring zeal of County 

 Superintendent Lee L. Driver of Winchester, Indiana. 



Extracts From the Letters on Consolidation: The boys 

 and girls of Randolph county were asked to express their opin- 

 ion of consolidation in letters to the author. Not one unfavor- 

 able reply was found in the many letters received. 



"The consolidated schools are the best thing a county can 

 have because in these schools the teachers have more time to 

 spend with the pupils", writes one high school pupil. "No 

 one who has not attended a consolidated high school can fully 

 grasp the advantages offered by such a school," writes another 

 Would that every one might read the touching statement of a 

 high school girl who says simply, "If it had not been for the^e 

 schools I would not have had a high school education." "The 



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