WHY NOT CONSOLIDATE ? 



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ANY small high schools in Illinois are wasting 

 money or failing to serve the community or both. 

 Per capita costs in some Illinois high schools last 

 year ran as high as $800 to $1000 per pupil. In 

 many small high schools the per pupil cost is two 

 to six times as high as in grade schools in the same com- 

 munities. The high school is getting too much and the 

 grade school not enough, or both. School men generally 

 recognize that a 20 per cent differential between the grade 

 school per capita cost and the high school per capita is justi- 

 fiable but not 200 to 600 per cent. 



Many people in downstate Illinois have failed to see 

 the duty of the high school to the pupils and the com- 

 munity. Park Ridge and Des Plaines, both rather wealthy 

 suburbs of Oiicago, with 14,000 and 11,000 population 

 respectively, recognized the responsibility of the high school 

 and pooled their resources to build in open country between 

 them one of the finest high schools in Illinois, the Maine 

 Township High School. Glen EUyn and Lombard, two 

 more fairly large suburbs, cooperated to establish the Glen- 

 bard High School, an excellent institution with a broad 

 range of educational opportunities for the youngsters. 



Many downstate communities with village centers of 

 350 to 1500 people and less wealth refuse to cooperate to 

 set up a larger high school. They worry about the larger 

 town outvoting the smaller town, and other trivialities, 

 while neglecting to face up to the question "What should 

 the high school provide in educational experiences and 

 opportunities for our boys and girls?" 



One high school in northern Illinois has 24 pupils, 

 four teachers who have a teaching load of four pupils per 

 teacher, and per capita costs last year of $1000, approxi- 

 mately. 



Another high school board insisted on building a high 

 school for 36 pupils. They had five teachers employed. 

 Such situations are a waste of the teachers' time and the 

 taxpayers' money. Worse than that, the limited courses 



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offered there fail to do the job. 



Southern Illinois, has, in the main, more pupils per 

 square mile and less money to waste than northern Illinois. 

 Therefore, limited high school programs are perhaps more 

 prevalent there than in northern Illinois. Pulaski county, 

 for example, has five high school districts, seven high 

 schools, two of them being for colored children, and no 

 vocational agriculture, vocational home economics or gen- 

 eral shop courses are taught in any of the high schools. 



The small high school does a poorer job of discharg- 

 ing its responsibility to the community than the small grade 

 school. 'The grade school's main job is to train the pupils 

 to enter high school. The high school's main job is to 

 train 20 per cent of the pupils to go to college and 80 per 

 cent of them to live and work in the community. 



What does the small high school provide? Mainly 

 it teaches mathematics, science, civics, history, econom- 

 ics, English, and a language, often Latin. These subjects 

 are fine for basic studies but they do little to fit boys and 

 girls into the work of the community. Agriculture, gen- 

 eral shop, home economics, business science, and a good 

 activity program are necessary to broaden the experience of 



the child that does not go to college. Also a vocational 

 guidance counselor is needed to acquaint rural boys with 

 the good and bad points about a profession or trade and 

 how to prepare to enter their chosen field of labor especially 

 since 50 per cent leave the farm. 



The logical answer is consolidation of small high 

 schools into larger administrative units. Here the trouble 

 begins. Opposition to high school consolidation comes 

 from several sources. 



Business men often associate the high school with the 

 maintenance of trade. They say, "We can't afford to lose our 



(Continued on page 21) 



L A. A. RECORD 



By JOHN K. COX, Director 



lAA Rural School RelotioiK ^1 ^ 



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