n of the teacher. Children are often found pursuing studies in
three or four different grades at the same time. And even more often
they omit altogether certain fundamental studies because they or their
parents have a notion that these studies are unnecessary. Sometimes,
owing to the small number in attendance, or to the poor classification,
several grades are entirely lacking, or else they are maintained for
only one or two pupils. On the other hand, classes are often found
following each other at an interval of only a few weeks, thereby
multiplying classes until the teacher is frequently attempting the
impossible task of teaching twenty-five or thirty classes a day.
Children differing in age by five or six years, and possessing
corresponding degrees of ability, are often found reciting in the same
classes. That efficient work is impossible under these conditions is too
obvious to require discussion.

_The rural schools possess inadequate buildings and equipment._ The
average rural schoolhouse consists of one room, with perhaps a small
hallway. The building is constructed without reference to architectural
effect, resembling nothing so much as a large box with a roof on it. It
is barren and uninviting as to its interior. The walls are often of
lumber painted some dull color, and dingy through years of use. The
windows are frequently dirty, and covered only by worn and tattered
shades. There is usually no attempt to decorate the room with pictures,
or to relieve its ugliness and monotony in any way. The library consists
of a few dozens of volumes, not always supplied with a case for their
protection. Of apparatus there is almost none. The work of the farm is
done with efficient modern equipment, the work of the farmer's school
with inadequate and antiquated equipment.

While the length of the school year is increasing in the rural
districts, _the term is yet much shorter than in town and city schools_.
Many communities have not more than six months of school, and few more
than eight. This shortage is rendered all the more serious by the
irregular attendance of the rural school children. A considerable amount
of absence on the part of the younger ones is unavoidable under present
conditions when the distance is great and the weather bad. After all
allowance is made for this fact, however, there is still an immense
amount of unnecessary waste of time through non-attendance. Many rural
schools show an average attendance f