the general support of those present. This indicates the attitude of the progressive and thinking farmers throughout the county. They are ready to have the ordinary branches of study supplemented by these special branches, but do not recognize the difficulties in securing instruction in these subjects as long as the school system contains so many isolated one-teacher schools.

All the defects in the schools which are mentioned by the patrons are inherent in a system of separate one-room schools. The condition is one which the school administration is helpless to remedy, unless public sentiment will support a sweeping policy of reconstruction and reform. The school administration is dependent upon the sentiment of the people, not only to furnish adequate funds but also for moral support. Both of these must be forthcoming in larger quantities before any fundamental reconstruction can take place.

There are two ways to remedy the conditions. One way would be to decrease the present number of schools, making each school at least a two-room, graded school, equipped with modern appliances; to increase the salaries paid teachers, thus attracting to these schools trained, efficient men and women; and in addition to provide specialists to teach the various branches of agriculture, domestic science, manual training, business, music, and drawing in each and every school.

The other way is to abolish as rapidly as possible the crossroads one-room school, with its one poorly paid teacher struggling to teach 30 or more pupils in seven or eight different grades, and to establish at convenient centers consolidated or centralized schools. Grades of high-school rank could be added to every such school, and teachers with special training for agriculture and domestic science be provided to teach those subjects now almost necessarily omitted from the curriculum. Public transportation could be provided for the pupils, thus doing away with irregular attendance on account of bad weather and poor roads. However, the people in those districts which suffer most under the present system are not yet ready to indorse the establishment of consolidated schools. The opinions among all the school patrons as expressed in the returns to the questionnaire were two to one against consolidation with public transportation of pupils.

It is not the purpose here to attempt to include a discussion of consolidation. A brief statement only will be given to point out that in a consolidated school it is quite possible to remedy the defects and meet the demands mentioned by the school patrons; to broaden the curriculum, increase the number of grades, and at the same time raise the standard of teaching efficiency. Several thousand consolidated schools in the United States testify to the success of the plan. The cost is not prohibitive, for the expense of such a school is but

little, if any, more than the expense of maintaining the schools which it displaces. The Baltimore County Agricultural High School, a consolidated school with a high-school department, provides training of the mind and couples with it an extensive and varied service to the community as a whole at a total cost per year of only $34 per pupil. The schools in Montgomery County cost $40.55 per pupil. In the strictly rural schools the cost is at least $30.

The question of consolidation is a point on which there needs to be much public education. The term "education" is used advisedly. At the present time, judging from the results of the inquiry, the term "consolidation" is entirely misunderstood by a great many who oppose it in Montgomery County. Many fear that public transportation of school children would never be satisfactory because attended by such grave moral dangers to the children or because they would be subjected to exposure while waiting for the wagon. These difficulties have not been found insurmountable where children are transported. As evidence that many did not understand what was involved in the query regarding their opinion of consolidation included in the inquiry a few answers might be quoted. One man replied: "I did not know that the schools had a wagon in them to transfer the pupils to the different rooms." Another wrote: "No; the children are away from home too long as it is." A third declared that he "did not think it right for the school children to hang on the wagons passing along the road."

Aside from these, other interesting criticisms were made touching points more easily dealt with. For example, many asserted the chief weakness of the schools to be in the lack of intelligent cooperation on the part of parents and trustees. They asserted that a teacher could not be expected to conduct a school to the entire satisfaction of a community unless she had such cooperation from the patrons and the board of trustees. Others pointed out defects in ventilation, or lighting, or sanitary conveniences, or expressed regret at the lack of proper playgrounds, recreational facilities, and attractive surroundings. These things they considered an important part of the school's equipment. Still others very properly advocated the elimination of politics from the school system. One wrote in language that deserves to become classic: "I respectfully suggest that the school secures a divorce from politics and sees to it that politics gets a life sentence at hard labor."

Others suggested a compulsory school-attendance law. A more uniform and careful grading of the schools to facilitate passage from one school to another in case of removal; some system of moral training; facilities for giving proper attention to deficient and backward children are all points deserving careful consideration.

1 Such a law has since been passed by the State legislature and becomes effective in Montgomery County in the fall of 1913.

The question as to whether the school could serve the community other than as an ordinary day school for children was asked in view of the possibility of making the school something of a neighborhood center, ministering to the community as a whole as well as dispensing elementary knowledge to its youth. Many of the answers anticipated this conception of the school's possible function. "Make it a social and civic center" was frequently suggested. "Make it a place where the school patrons may meet both formally and informally to discuss questions of mutual interest and import." Few of the schools are at present doing anything of this sort for their patrons, but this is a field possible of extensive development, which should add materially to the school's value to a community.

By the fifth question, "Are the schools as they are now operated satisfactorily progressive?" it was desired to learn if the people felt that the school administration has been making sufficiently substantial progress in adapting the schools to changing conditions and in keeping up with modern ideas of school administration, equipment, and teaching methods. Of course it was discovered that there are some who have no conception of progress, either of its nature or of its reason for being; who feel, as one expressed it, "that we have the same old arithmetic, a geography describing the same territories, and the same methods of spelling; why should the school be progressive?" Why, indeed! "The school is good enough as it is, so let it be." For the most part, however, the attitude of the patrons was that progress is necessary and that the schools have been making it to a satisfactory degress, and that, taking everything into account, they are doing all that can reasonably be expected of them.

Taking the county over, it is undoubtedly true that the patrons are not sufficiently impressed with their responsibility toward the school. It has already been remarked that the school provides the community, in its present state of organization, with its one great opportunity to act as a unit. In their religious life they are split up into denominations and factions; in their struggle for economic advancement they are working as individuals and not as a group. But the school is the property of the whole community and furnishes practically its only opportunity for concerted action. The people have, however, almost uniformly failed to grasp the full significance of this opportunity and have hampered the school administration, sometimes by their total indifference, sometimes by active criticism and opposition to progressive policies, and always by not giving them sufficient funds to carry out their plans. Several happy exceptions are to be recorded. The Sandy Spring school was recently remodeled and the Woodside school was built with a large amount of local help. These two schools especially are receiving the intelligent and able cooperation of their communities.

The situation as regards the attitude of the colored patrons is more simple. Little needs to be said, but that little may be said with emphasis. The same opinions were uniformly expressed by intelligent and ignorant alike, by preacher and layman, by teacher and patron. These all said in substance: "Give us a longer school term; give us better school buildings and equipment; pay our teachers more nearly adequate salaries; add to the curriculum courses in manual training and domestic science and extend the course of study through the eighth grade."

Three ways were suggested by which the schools might enter upon a larger service for the colored population. These were to conduct a night school for those who had been compelled to leave school early, to have classes in domestic science and industrial training out of school hours for any of the patrons who felt the need of instruction along those lines, and, lastly, to make of each school a social and civic center. As to the progressiveness of the schools, the opinion was about evenly divided.

In general, it must be said that the patrons of the negro schools display a most commendable interest in their welfare and progress. As we have said before, in several instances they are raising funds and keeping the schools open two months longer than they would be otherwise. In other respects they are for the most part ready to assist the teachers and respond gratefully to their influence.

Chapter IV.

GENERAL SUMMARY AND RECOMMENDATIONS.

In this discussion of the educational conditions attention has been called to what appear to be defects in the public-school system; in the buildings and equipment, in the management, or in the general policy of administration. A model county demands a model school system. The existing school system has been compared with the ideal. The comparison may create an impression that the schools of Montgomery County are not as adequate and efficient as the schools of the State as a whole. This is not true. Montgomery County schools compare very favorably with those of the other counties of Maryland. However, they, with the others, fall short of the ideal of the school system necessary if the country children are to receive equal educational opportunities with those of the best American cities.

Summing up conditions, the chief weaknesses noted are as follows: The preponderance of one-room schools and the absence of consolidation; defective methods of lighting, heating, ventilation, and of seating pupils; the lack of organizations for ruvils and of recreation facilities; the low proportion of children of school age enrolled or in regular attendance; the slight attention paid to the beautifying of the surroundings of the school buildings; and the absence from the curriculum of studies preparing for country life. Over against these weaknesses we must cite other and very important sources of strength: Direct and capable supervision; uniform grading; a sufficient number of buildings in good repair; a teaching force experienced, relatively stable, and efficient; a fair beginning of introducing into the curriculum those subjects most closely adapted to rural needs; and a number of high schools which in equipment and in the grade of work done are well above the average for similar communities.

In view of the facts brought to light by the study, several recommendations are offered:

Organization and supervision.-The management of the schools of Montgomery County, as in all Maryland counties, is centralized in the hands of one board of education. Such a system is known as the "county system" of organization and is probably the most efficient and economical of all systems for rural schools in the United States. Only four other States are so organized. Under this