488 TEE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 



tion in the work of agriculture, domestic science or manual training 

 special aid is also given. A very few other states, among them Okla- 

 homa, New Jersey and South Carolina, make some small appropriations 

 to further consolidation. Mr. Hugh, 1 in commenting upon the above 

 methods of encouraging better schools says : 



Many of the advance movements in education have needed to be fostered 

 at first in some special way and why should this not be true of our rural schools? 

 There is no good reason from the standpoint of educational efficiency why our 

 system of prorating all the state education funds among the children is neces- 

 sarily the best. A judicious use of a part of this amount to encourage laudable 

 educational undertakings might secure much more valuable results. 



In this connection the "object lesson" consolidated schools built 

 and maintained in four provinces of Canada by Sir William McDonald 

 merit attention. Each school was equipped for manual training, house- 

 hold sciences, nature study and school gardening, and efficient teachers 

 were provided. For a period of three years all expenses above the cost 

 of maintaining the small schools which these larger ones supplanted 

 were paid by Sir "William. The results are encouraging. The average 

 daily attendance was estimated to be 55 per cent higher than that of 

 the former schools of the localities. The high school attendance in- 

 creased wonderfully. After the three years were up the people took over 

 the support of the schools. Moreover other schools were consolidated; 

 Nova Scotia, for example, made twenty-two effective schools out of fifty- 

 five poor ones. 



Another means of bettering schools which is probably more effective 

 than the offering of grants for attainment of certain fixed standards, is 

 that of giving outright from the state or county fund larger amounts to 

 the weaker districts instead of making an apportionment on a pro rata 

 basis. Opposition is still raised to such procedures on the ground that 

 some districts get more than they pay for, but we are fast coming to a 

 realization tbat there should be equality in educational opportunity and 

 that to strengthen the weak is of advantage to the strong as well. One 

 of the best discussions of the rural school problems and of the appalling 

 condition of a large number of Ohio's rural schools has recently been 

 held by the School Improvement Federation of that state. This body 

 in advocating equality of educational oportunity for all and is planning 

 a campaign to secure legislation which will make the county the imit 

 for taxation and which will create a state fund to be apportioned, not 

 according to school attendance, but according to the needs of districts. 



One of the great hindrances to progress in our rural schools is the 

 inefficient instruction prevailing there. Statistics show that only young, 

 untrained teachers or those who can not obtain positions elsewhere are 

 in the main the teachers of the one-room district schools. Consolidated 



i D. D. Hugh, < < The Consolidation of Eural Schools, ' » Bulletin State Teach- 

 ers College, Greeley, Colo. 



