Vol. LX XXI. 
Published Weekly by The Rural Publishing Co.. 
333 \Y. 30th 8t.. New York. Price One Dollar a Year. 
NEW YORK. DECEMBER 9. 1922 
Entered as Second-Class Matter. June 26. 1870. at the Post 
Office at New York. X. Y\, under the Act of March 3, 1873. 
No. 4720 
Both Sides of Consolidated School Question 
Ideal Conditions in New Jersey 
TEACHER’S VIEW.—I have no 
desire to enter into a controversy 
pro or con on tiie rural school sys¬ 
tem. but I do feel that the article 
written by Mr. B. L. Hathaway 
which appeared in The li. X.-Y.. on 
page IS:#, should be answered. Furthermore, since 
you stated in an editorial, published in the same 
issue, that you wished to give your readers a fair 
discussion of the question, without taking sides or 
influencing the debate, may I ask that you give mv 
remarks the same prominence given to Mr. Hatha 
way’s? 
CENTRALIZED BCII. DINES.— In 1915. the year 
I became supervising principal of the Woodstown- 
porting them long distances, often with a walk of a 
half-mile or more, to a town school. The fact is 
that many, many of the children re are transporting 
now leave hum? later than they did before we trans¬ 
ported them, and when they were compelled to walk 
a mile or even 2C» miles to school. One needs only 
to see and talk with our children to he assured that 
they are suffering no hardships from early rising. 
Before consolidation was effected in our district the 
pupils were obliged to walk through the rain, snow 
and mud to tin* little one-room school, or father had 
to leave his work and transport his own children. 
Now. in 87 per cent of the cases, the transportation 
bus passes the door and the pupil goes to school in 
an enclosed conveyance—wagon or auto bus—and is 
consolidated. The attendance is more regular, 
largely because the pupils are happier and like to 
come to school. 
OPPORTUNITIES FOR INSTRUCTION. — The 
opportunity for special instruction is greater in a 
consolidated school than in a district school. Courses 
in domestic science, manual training, physical train¬ 
ing. domestic art. printing, music, drawing, etc., are 
now offered in our school. In this way the pupils 
living in the rural district enjoy many of the same 
opportunities offered the pupils living in the city. 
Our building is located on a plot of ground contain¬ 
ing eight acres. The play-ground is equipped with 
see-saws, swings, slides and baskets for outdoor 
basketball. \Ve have a gymnasium in the basement 
Can't 1 oh Talk—and Tell Me All About HA' 
Pilcsgrove public schools, we had school in a dozen 
different buildings throughout the district. Since 
that time we have erected two new school buildings 
and remodeled a third, so that now we have school 
in three different buildings. The present building 
in Woodstown has taken the place of six one-room 
buildings, one four-room building and one six-rooui 
building. We entered the building in October. 1910. 
and today one would find very, very few parents 
and no children willing to return to the old one-room 
school. Our people know by practical experience 
the value of consolidation. 
HARDSHIPS OF TRAVEL.— Mr. Hathaway 
speaks of the “hardships for little children, 1 " drag¬ 
ging them out of bed early in the morning and trans- 
protected from the stormy weather. Furthermore, 
when the pupils arrived at the little district school 
—cold and wet many times—they were obliged to 
sit near the red-hot stove and “roast on one side 
and freeze on the other.” But what a contrast 
today! The building is equipped with an up-to-date, 
modern system of heating and ventilating; is well- 
lighted and more sanitary than the old type of 
buildings. 
REGULAR ATTENDANCE.—The pupils attend 
more regularly. The attendance in our school last 
year was 8.40 per cent higher than it was previous 
to consolidation, and one year it was 13 per cent 
higher in our consolidated school than it was the 
same year in a district school which had not been 
and an auditorium on the first floor with a seating 
capacity of .800. 
FINE EQUIPMENT.—The building is equipped 
with four pianos, seven vietrolas, a moving picture 
machine, four sets of scenery for the stage, shower 
baths, lockers, pictures, etc., all of which were pur¬ 
chased through the school and without any expense 
to the board of education. In view of the foregoing 
statements, will anyone ask why the percentage of 
attendance is higher than in the old district school, 
or why our pupils like to come to school? 
THE TEACHER’S SIDE.—In the graded system 
of schools a teacher in each grade has from six to 
10 recitations per day. and a teacher in a rural 
school with eight grades has from 20 to 32. and I 
