There is much agitation nowadays in regard to consolidating the rural schools. Although present progress is slow, it seems comparatively certain that the one-teacher rural school is destined in time to become a thing of the past. However, there is no particular haste in the matter, provided some such plans as the foregoing be put into effect in case of the single school. Perhaps the sparsely settled district has the greatest justification for looking toward consolidation. It happens that there are thousands of small schools having an attendance of from five to ten pupils. In such an instance, it is practically impossible to do the best work, the children lacking the spur of rivalry and enthusiasm and the helpful lessons in social ethics offered only by the larger massing of the young at play. In many places, three or four rural districts are uniting in this movement, the general plan being that of constructing a central building with ample working space for all, and then transporting the children to and from the school. The scheme is working well as a rule. Among the great advantages is that of a possible grading of the school so that the teacher may have time for each subject and more opportunity for specialization. Perhaps the most serious and difficult part of the plan is that of providing a safe and suitable means of conveyance to and from the school. Some excellent patterns of school wagons are already on the market, while manufacturers are constantly at work improving them. So we may expect better results as time goes on. It has already been shown very satisfactorily that the conveyance, when in charge of a well-trained driver, furnishes improved moral and physical safeguards for the child. MORE HIGH SCHOOLS NEEDED Not only every county, but also every rural township, should have its well-equipped high school. It is a serious matter to send boys and girls in their middle teens away to college. Many lives are thus more or less ruined simply from too early loss of the personal restraints and influence of the parents. But with a first-class high school in easy reach the young people may at least return home for the Saturday-Sunday recess and thereby continue in the close councils of their parents. And then, the rightly-managed high school will bring the student into closer touch with the local rural problems that may not be possible in case of the distant institution. [Illustration: PLATE XV. FIGS. 17-21.--This magnificent consolidated school in Winnebago County, Illinois, was inspired by the excellent work of the well-known Superintendent O. J. Kern. The four little one-room buildings illustrated above gave way to it.]