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By JOHN K. COX, Director 



lAA Rural School Relation! 



AN't' >in.ill liigli mIiooIs in Illinois .irc wastini: 

 money or tailing to serve the Lommuiiitv or both 

 Per capita costs in some Illinois high schools last 

 ^ \ear ran as high as Ssoo to SlOdO 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 coin 

 munities. The high school is getting too much and the 

 ijrade school not enough, or hoth. School men generalh 

 recognize that a 20 per lent ilitTerential het\\eeii the grade 

 school per capita cost .md the high school per capita is justi- 

 fiable but not 200 to 600 per cent 



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Many people in downstate Illinois have tailed to sec 

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

 munity. Park Ridge and Des Plaines, both rather uealthv 

 suburbs of (Chicago, with I). 000 and 11.000 population 

 respectively, recognized the responsibility ot the high school 

 .ind pooled their resources to buiKl in open lountn,- between 

 them one ot the hnest high schools in Illinois, the Maine 

 Township High School. Cilen lillvn .ini.\ Lombard, two 

 more tairlv large suburbs, cooperated to establish the Glen- 

 liard High School, .in excellent institution with a broad 

 range ot educational opportunities tor the Noungstcrs 



Many downstate communities with village centers of 

 SiO to 1^00 people and less wealth refuse to cooperate to 

 set up .1 larger high school. Ihcy worrv about the larger 

 town outvoting the smaller town, and other trivialities, 

 while neglecting to tace up to the cjuestion "What should 

 the high school provide in educational experiences and 

 opportunities tor our boys and girls?" 



One high school in northern Illinois has 2 t pupils, 

 four teachers who have a teaching load of four pupils per 

 teacher, and per capita costs last year of Si 000. approxi- 

 mately. 



Another high school board insisted on building a high 

 sch(H)l for s(-) pupils Thev had tive teachers employed. 

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

 taxpayers' mone\ Worse than th.it. the limited courses 



ottered there fail to do the )ob 



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

 scjuare 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, 

 tor example, has five high school districts, seven high 

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

 vocational .igriculture. vocational home economics or gen- 

 eral shop courses ,ire taught in any ot the high schools. 



The small high school does a poorer |ob ot discharg- 

 ing its respcjusibilit) 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 tlie pupils to go to college and so per 

 cent of them to live and work in the community. 



What does the small high school provide'-' Mainly 

 It te.uhes mathematics, science, civics. histor\. econom 

 ics. Hnglish. and a language, often Latin 'These subjects 

 ,ire line tor basic studies but they do little to tit K>\s and 

 i,'irls into the work ot the communitv. Agriculture, gen- 

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

 aiti\it\ program are necessar\' to broaden the experience of 



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

 guidance counselor is needed to accjuaint rural Ixjys with 

 the good and bad points about a profession or trade .md 

 how to prepare to enter their chosen tield of labor especialh 

 since "^O per cent lea\e the farm. 



The logical answer is consolidation ot small high 

 schools into larger administrative units. Here the trouble 

 begins. Opposition to high school consolidation comes 

 from several sources. 



Business men often .issociate the high school with the 

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



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I. A. A. RECORD 



