Excerpt from Sixty-Eighth Annual Report of the Superintendent of Public Instruction of the State of Michigan: With Accompanying Documents for the Year 1904

The report of 1901 gave a full discussion of the use of the State Manual and Course of Study in our rural schools and presented the matter of the supply and training of rural school teachers. Since that time the legislature has passed a law providing for the county normal training class which we believe will be a large factor in solving our school problems.

In the report for the year 1902 the subjects of the consolidation of rural schools and manual training in the rural schools were presented, also, as the legislature had passed a law permitting the transportation of pupils to and from school, a clear statement was made of the proper procedure for school districts in the consideration of the subject of con solidation. This report calls attention to the fact that the rural school question had been thoroughly discussed in the meetings of the State and local granges and in the farmers' clubs, and Report for that while a great difference of opinion existed among the 1909 people they all agreed on one point, that the rural school could not be made too valuable and that its success rests upon the people of the various school districts of the State who have it in their power to select and arrange a course of study and to unite their dis tricts if they desire so to do.

The report of 1903 contained the discussion of the central ized rural school and showed that where centralization is Report for accomplished the rural high school will inevitably come with 1903 it. It will be admitted by all people that the children of the rural districts are entitled to as good an education as the children in the villages or cities. It will also be admitted that it is an injustice to require the advanced pupils who live in rural communities, if they desire to secure the benefits of the higher branches, to go away from home and pay tuition in city and village high schools in order to secure this privilege. This report pointed out the benefits to be de rived from the consolidation of two or more districts, and the establish ment of a school of two or three departments in the place of a single rural school. The report also gave an explicit statement of the Opera tion of the first consolidated district in Michigan, the same being the district including the village of Grand Blanc. It also pointed out that the rural school of the future must be the social center of the com munity and that in it the fundamental branches of education must be emphasized; that reading and writing are the two fundamental things to be learned, and that the other branches of education are based upon them. Statements from school districts and from individuals in Ohio and other states where the consolidated school is in operation were given showing that the system is there successful and is meeting the expectations of the people who have started the movement.

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