Excerpt from Bulletin of Information Regarding Consolidation of Rural Schools, 1908 The most pressing educational problem to-day is the rural school. Our University, State Agricultural College and Normal Schools have attained a degree of excellence and efficiency unparalleled in the history of our state. The denominational institutions, the high schools, and even the village schools, all report remarkable prosperity and increased activity. The great wave of prosperity that has made the past decade the most marvelous in the development of material resources has also found expression in the educational field. The state has recognized this and at the last session of the legislature nearly two million dollars were given to three state educational institutions. Every true friend of education rejoices because of this liberality, and because of the many evidences of increasing advantages to the youth of our state. These institutions, including the high schools and village schools, have reached a condition where their future prosperity is practically assured. They have acquired a momentum that is bound to carry them forward surely and efficiently. The people of this state are fully aware of the value and worth of the work being done by this type of schools; it is a most pleasing situation and one of which the people of Kansas may well be proud. However, there is a phase of our school work that has not felt this forward impulse. I refer particularly to the rural school. It is the deliberate judgment of many of our best educators and closest observers that no such progress as we have above described is to be found in the common or country school. While all eyes have been turned to the high school, to the college, and to the university, it is feared that the welfare of the rural school has been sadly overlooked. While there are undoubtedly many excellent schools in the country to-day, and while many most capable and experienced teachers are working therein and doing their best for the children under their charge, yet the fact remains that a large percent, of the teachers of this class are inexperienced, and many are most indifferently equipped. Much has been hoped, because of the marked increase of salaries in the rural schools in recent years, yet statistics do not indicate that with larger salaries have come better teachers. Again, the average age of teachers in rural schools is continually lessening. In one county in eight years the average age has decreased from twenty-three to twenty years. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.