that every school shall be made a
social center, and as far as this is possible, it is most desirable.
What can be accomplished through the country school is well shown in the
work of Mrs. Marie Turner Harvey in the Porter School at Kirksville,
Missouri.[66] But the district school will, at best, be only the social
center of a neighborhood, and in many cases its district is too small
for successful play or social life. Furthermore, the average one-room
school is ill-adapted in architecture or equipment for social purposes.
The consolidated school or village high school may well be made a social
center as far as it is possible for it to so function and new schools
should be, and are being, constructed with this in view. The school
building and the school playground are naturally the best places for
centering the play activities of the children, especially where physical
training or play supervisors are employed by the schools. It is a
question, however, whether those over school age will use the school for
social purposes as freely as some other building, unless the general
policy and management of the use of the building for community purposes
is in the hands of a community organization formed for that purpose.

Where there is but one church in a community, which is practically a
community church, the church building or church house may be utilized as
a social center, and the erection of community buildings by such
churches is now being advocated. In some cases such a community building
attached to a church may be a means of meeting the need; but in other
communities affiliation with the church may not be advantageous. Where
there is more than one church, the churches may join in the operation of
a community building, but in that case all of the churches must be
included or it will not have the support of the whole community--it will
not be a real _community_ building.

Many grange buildings are now used but once in a fortnight or so for
grange meetings, and remain idle the rest of the time. May it not be
possible to devise some equitable and satisfactory arrangement whereby
they may be made available for the constant use of all the people as
community buildings and still reserve them to the grange for its use at
such times as it desires? The average rural community cannot afford to
tie up so much capital in buildings which are so infrequently used.

In any event, the auspices under which a community building is to be