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About The gazette-times. (Heppner, Or.) 1912-1925 | View Entire Issue (Oct. 8, 1914)
HOME AND FARM MAGAZINE SECTION The Country School Once More Professor Joseph Schafer, Ph. D., Director of Extension Work $ and Professor of History in the University of Oregon at Eugene, J in a speeial article to the Farm Magazine, tells farmers why the $ old-time one-room school should S become a union two, three or $ four room school in a consoli- dated district. Taxes need not ? be increased by this operation, while school efficiency is. The Q school law of Oregon permits such consolidations. Dr. Schaf- ? $ er's artiele is of vital interest $ to farmers with families still to be educated. A second and con- $ eluding article will be run in the next issue of the Farm $ Magazine. Editor. " THE REASON WHY we are having such a determined, unabating agi tation of the rural school question becomes clear only when we take a large view of it. A reeent bulletin of the Bureau of Education presents these significant educational facts: (1) That 40 per cent of the children of school age in the United States are being taught in city and town school; (22 that 60 per cent are being taught in rural schools, so-called, and 36 per cent of all children are taught in country schools having one room and one teacher. Our problem is found in the last statement that more than one-third of all American children are still being "educated" in the one-room, one teacher school. This is so because of the limitations upon this type of school as an institution, and not because, within its proper scope, it has failed to justify itself. No one familiar with American pioneer history can fail to reverence the "district school" because of what it has meant to our people in the past. It was well adapted to eare for the needs of a people engaged almost exclusively in a simple, non scientific and almost primitive agricul ture a people who came only indirect ly in touch with those phases of busi ness life which were complex or with correspondingly intricate social or political affairs. It was easy to establish, for when ever a few families moved into some new valley or pushed out into a new area of the plains, they could have their school for at least a few months, thus keeping open the priceless oppor BORROW THIS CAR FOR A YEAR A full year'a use t practicall no cost perhaps you've never thought of It In this way before, bat It's a fact neTerthelees thai todaj yon can huj a re built Win ton and after using it for a full season aell it without a cent of de preciation. It's like borrowing a car from your friend for a year and return ing it to him after using it for 8C5 days. Every traded-in Winlon Sir many of them come to us in part payment on new models each year is given a thorough overhauling in the Winton shops and brought up to the regular Winton standard fine six-cylinder self cranking automobiles. These In turn are disposed of to our rapidly increased list of "used" car customers at exactly the price allowed for them when taken in exchange. In this way the buyer is able to pick up a Winton Six at about half the cost of the same car new and is fully protected by the com pany's guarantee that Iv will give the satisfaction for which Winton Sixes are famed. Let us send you today our latest complete bargain list THE WINTON MOTOR CAS CO. Portland, Oregon. Seattle, Wash. Spokane, Wash. tunity of learning to the boys and girls of the frontier households. Moreover this "district school" has been the scene of activity of thousands of men and women who are remembered by many more thousands as capable and devoted teachers, whose lives have been woven into the moral and intellectual woof of American socioty. One Boom an Anacronism. We all should honor the district school of the past, but so far as it still remains an institution of one room and one teacher it has become an an acronism in American life and must be changed to something different before the country school education of today can be made adequate to the social needs of children living in the country today. There is hardly need to argue the point. Everybody admits that farming both as a business and as a life is vastly different from pioneer eondi tions. The farmer, because land is high priced and margins of profit narrow, must be a man trained to close busi ness habits. Because science can aid in making his farm more productive or in preventing losses, he must be trained at least to apply scientific principles in his business. Because the farmer is today cosmo politan in his business and social rela tions, he must have the training neces sary to enable him to understand social and economic facts in all their varying forms as local, state, national and in ternational. Because he is a citizen dealing directly with the most vital and far-reaching problems problems, more over, which grow more and more com plex with the progressive intensifica tion of American life the farmer as a prop of the commonwealth and of so ciety, requires for his equipment an education no whit less thorough or less broad than that which today comes as a matter of course to the man en tering business life in the towns or cities. And .-. similar statement will hold for the women on the farm. j Adequate Education. Therefore, En education adequate to the needs of the present day farmer must differ from the old time district school education in range of subject Not the Cheapest -But the BEST VIM FLOUR Made In Oregon The Jobes Milling Co. St Johns.-Portland, Oregon Phone Main 17 M LIFE HEALTH ACCIDENT One Policy COM BINATION ONTRACT JJ matter, in the degree of perfection to which training is carried, and in its vocational aim. AH of this means, more and more specially trained teachers, more equipment, more years cf school. It means some opportunity for varia tion in the training given to the two sexes respectively. A school of two rooms and two teach ers a man who, among other subjects, can give boys the special training now required m agriculture and the me chanic arts, and a woman to teaeh girls the home-making arts with equipment proper to its work, is the least that any country dwelling parent should be sat isfied with. From this minimum, there should be as rapid an ascent as possi Lle to a school of from four to five teachers, equipped to care for pupils through the high school years. Of course, the chief obstacle in the way of getting such schools in places where they do not exist is the lack of money. Districts now are organized on the basis of furnishing support for a one-room, one-teacher school to be reached by the children from their homes, traveling on foot Frequently the valuation of the district property is only high enough to secure at a reason able rate of taxation the support re quired for one teacher; some districts ore too poor to do this without aid from the country. Consolidate Districts. If the schools were to be developed to a two-room basis, or something still more pretentious, the financial support would have to bo expanded correspond ingly. This would involve, usually, the enlargement of the district by union with other adjoining districts or the formation of what is called a "consoli dated district" for which the school law of Oregon provides already. The people are accustomed to the "district school" of one room and one teacher; the bulk of the present genera tion "went to school" in some "little red school house"; somebody, or sev eral persons in every district have prop erty near the school house and they fear that consolidation would affect wjiRLIiaimnMm Coffee That we ask you to give Gold Shield a trial, feeling that you will then insist on Gold Shield when buying coffee. SCHWABACHER BROS. & CO., Inc. Importer! and Roaaten of Coffee Seattle, Wash. Clin 1 r-- NSUSANCE CO. property values; others have no chil dren of school age and prefer to have things remain as they are; while some) of those having children are opposed to a change which would increase the dis tance these must travel to reach ' the school. Jealousy among the constitnent districts, the problem of transporta tion of pupils and a pervading fear of "new-fangledness" are other deter rents to the formation of new consoli dated districts out of several contiguous districts. But, if the new type of school is needed by our rural dwellers, then these various obstacles must be resolutely overcome, for the education of our chil dren in such a way as to afford a, rea sonable guaranty of success for them as high-class citizens, men and women, is the first and most pressing duty of the present adult generation. Wanted Badly. A Loiiisvillfl man tells of an incident at a Sunday school convention. In an swer to the roll call of the states re Dorts were verballv eiven by the vari ous state chairmen. When Texas was called a big man stepped into the aisle and in stentorian tones exclaimed: "We represent the imperial State of Texas. The first white woman born in Texas is still living she was born in Texas, tion of over 3,000,000." Whereupon a voice from the gallery eried out in elarion tones: "Send that woman to Idaho we need her." GOING EAST or COMING WEST We can Sate you Money Reduced rates on Household Good a, Plane, Aitomobilea, ele. Through consolidated ear insuring prompt delivery and orsfsj handling. Bates and Information famished on rsqnsti j Pacific Coast Forwarding Company 201 Wilcox Building. Portland Oregon WE ARE SO SURE OF THE QUALITY OF SMel. this Oonnon and mail tn In win on ror run inrormntion. Jf. . i obllffttloa lnenmd. Nam: ......... t .. 4 MC IMFMM AdaWil Ooetvatleu A Marwt Mrthda. i.(V(MakM Znaarsne flsttl VJ. HOME OFFICE SEATTLE, U. 8. X.
