2. Helping children discover and solve problems of real living such as:

Planning fun and recreation.

Selecting and buying toys, books, clothes, food, and in other ways learning to use

our economic system.

Learning to read, organize, and use information in books.

Learning to keep up with the times through radio, television, and newspapers.

Getting satisfaction through arts, handcrafts, and other creative activities.

3. Putting grades or classes together and combining subject matter in order to provide time for newer ways of learning.

We Think About Problems of Living Together

In order that you, the reader, may use this bulletin most effectively, we suggest that you, like Reba and Hazel, consider problems that seem important to you in your one- or two-teacher school. Make a list of them. If your list reads like the following, turn for ideas to the pages indicated in this bulletin. 1. Have I discovered what will give each child a sense of being loved, knowledge that he is doing things that the other children think important, a feeling that he is able to cope successfully with his problems? (See pages 17-18.)

2. Do the children and I organize each day's work in such a way as to have time for the things that count most for all of us? (See pages 7-9, 41-43.)

3. Are the boys and girls and I healthy, well-groomed, and suitably dressed? (See page 17.)

4. Is the schoolhouse spotlessly clean and sanitary and have we done all we can to make it attractive? (See pages 8-9, 33–35.)

5. Have we given ourselves all possible space and freedom for work in small groups? (See pages 5, 34.)

6. Am I studying and using the community outside of school as well as in school to help the children have richer and more worth-while lives? (See page 26.)

7. Do the pupils and I take some time at the end of the day to review our accomplishments, the things that have given us particular satisfaction, and the problems we want to take up next? (See pages 42, 43.)

Organizing the School

PROGRESS IN UNDERSTANDING children has brought new ideas about

organizing the curriculum, of one- and two-teacher schools. Once the curriculum was based on the knowledge a child was expected to accumulate in school. This knowledge was thought to be contained mostly in textbooks, which were divided into pages and chapters and apportioned among grades 1 to 8 for the children to learn a certain amount each year in reading, geography, and all the other subjects separately. Today the development of boys and girls, not the knowledge in books, is the first consideration in planning curriculums. Teachers now know more about ways in which children differ from one another. Boys and girls, for example, all have many different interests. No two children have exactly the same abilities and aptitudes. No two children learn at exactly the same rate or with the same rhythm. Every pupil has his own pattern of learning. Children's emotional characteristics and their relations with one another or their teacher affect their learning.

Both the curriculum and ways of learning have changed. Facts are no longer isolated from the activities of living, but are used to enrich them. Subject matter is more often interrelated, less often separated into different subjects. Knowledge to be learned for its own sake and single textbook assignments are on the way out. Passing out also, especially from one- and two-teacher schools, are the "recitations" in many single subjects. Instead, children are using their books and other materials to help them solve problems of living that they have out of school as well as in school. Changes of this kind naturally make a difference in the way one- and two-teacher schools are organized for learning.

Pupils Work in Flexible Groups

Considerations in organizing the school include the pupils, the problems and activities in which children wish to engage, and the need for long working periods and fewer classes.

Children's characteristics and needs

Some children work better together than others. It may be that they are friends. Perhaps they are interested in the same things generally. They may see more of one another outside of school and so feel comfortable in working together. At any rate, children's preference for one another is one consideration in organizing effective working groups.

Again three or four children may have a special interest in a certain aspect of a problem. A group of children who are all interested in the same activity can sometimes study better together than alone.

Children of different ages may be interested in the same problems. In a study of Argentina in grades 4 through 7 of a certain one-teacher school, a small group of children worked together to compare the gauchos of Argentina with the cowboys of the United States and to account for the likenesses and differences they discovered. Four of the group were fifth-grade boys. Two were fourth-grade girls, one a sixth-grade girl, and one a seventh-grade boy. First, the pupils made a list of questions to be looked up about Argentina. Children who read well were able to manage the harder questions. Three pupils had reading difficulties and were trying especially hard to improve. The teacher helped these children to find interesting easy books to read and report on to the class.

Together the boys and girls made a collection of books. Now and then a pupil reported on a book or chapter that he thought the rest of the children would want to read. Two reported on radio programs they had heard. Others brought appropriate pictures from Sunday supplements of newspapers to school. Some learned what Argentina produces and would be likely to exchange with the United States.

Aside from learning how to locate their own community on a map of the United States and getting a general idea of the continents, a number of the pupils had done little map work. The teacher helped them with further map study. They brought to school maps and travel folders showing trade and travel routes between different parts of the United States and Argentina. Schools are organized to meet pupils' needs. As needs change, new working groups are formed. Grade lines are disregarded when pupils are served better by cutting across grades. Whether they keep the terminology of "grades" or use the designation of "ages" or find a new way of describing differences, teachers in one- and two-teacher schools try to arrange for pupils to go from group to group at any time.

"I don't keep my pupils in the same grades for all their activities,” said a one-room school teacher interviewed for this bulletin. "Some of my so-called fourth-graders can do fifth-grade arithmetic. A few of my fifthgrade pupils can't do fifth-grade arithmetic as well; that is, they can do fifth-grade work, but they have to have easier problems than the advanced

children in the grade. So, part of the fourth-grade pupils work with the fifth grade; some with the higher group, some with the lower.

"It's the same way with my first-graders," she continued. "The little girls this year seem to get along better than the little boys. So my faster first-grade children are grouped with my slow second-graders; temporarily, that is. The more advanced second-grade children sometimes work with the slow third grade. I'd like it if they could go along according to their individual needs regardless of grade for three years at least."

Activities and problems

Some problems require only a few kinds of activities. A large group can work on such problems. Suppose the Junior Audubon Club, to which pupils of all grades belong, calls a general meeting to decide whether or not to celebrate Bird Day. The large group can take action. It is not necessary to form small groups.

Other problems and enterprises may require a variety of activities and several groups or committees to carry them out. Perhaps different children. need to learn certain skills before they can complete the tasks undertaken. Again, a handcraft, such as weaving, may require that the teacher give instruction to only a few pupils at a time. In such cases, arrangements are made for some pupils to carry on familiar activities independently while the teacher is helping a particular group to develop a technique or new skill. Problems or projects are often undertaken in which some children do art work, others make written reports, some do dramatizations, others develop bibliographies. In such cases, pupils arrange their chairs or desks so that groups can work on special projects and the teacher can go from group to

group.

Longer working periods

New rural curriculums are made up of life activities, projects, and problems of living related to school, home, and community, such as “Problems of Farming in Our Community," "Planning Our Expenditures." "How People We Know Make a Living," and "How Safe Is Our Farm Water Supply?" The work involved requires long periods, which are provided in several ways. Different subjects may be combined for information and help in solving one problem. This combining of subject matter saves separate class periods. Combining grades saves more periods. The modern teacher makes good use of the longer periods thus made possible. Frequently she helps the pupils to evaluate their progress. She guards against omission of important learning.

Fewer classes

When all pupils of a one-teacher school are working on the same problem or project, general meetings are often held. Then all grades do many things

together. In this way, one group takes the place of six, seven, or eight grades, depending on how many grades are in the school. Information from several subjects is usually drawn into the problem. The subjects do not have to be taught separately. Time is saved by thus eliminating many of the classes that would be required for separate grades and separate subjects. "We learn to write when we have something to write," explained one teacher, “and we learn to write better and more quickly than we would if we just practiced without any immediate use for what we write."

Using subject matter thus means more effective learning and more wholesome child development. It often means fewer classes than when information is broken into different subjects without regard for the ways children use it.

How Some Programs Are Organized

To get started on an organization that eliminates short classes, the teacher considers the progress the children may be able to make each year. Her curriculum guide may suggest goals or objectives and give brief overviews of subject matter. She may make a list of activities that she and the pupils think of together. These usually are everyday activities or problems in which the children are likely to engage at home or in school or community, such as improving the classroom, having a school newspaper, running a school store, or doing something to improve the community. She talks with the pupils about the list, and she and they together agree upon some things to be done first. They mention kinds of information needed. Provision is made for individuals to do what they like or need most. Usually one, two, or three major activities, one at a time, are all a teacher will tackle the first year.

Children

If interest in one of the activities is high, it is started at once. and teacher plan together as described on pages 36 and 37, with pupils of different ages taking responsibilities of which they are capable. As problems and difficulties arise, they are jotted down for attention. When boys and girls do not know facts they need or are not able to perform skills required, time is set aside for these to be taught, provided the children have had sufficient related experiences to be ready for the new learning. For example, when a fourth grade in a Georgia school took charge of a cooperative school store, they found that some knowledge of division was required. Because the pupils had not learned how to do division, a certain part of the business was put off until, with the teacher's help, the children could learn the division process. In this school, grouping was informal, and necessary skills were taught without regard for grade levels.

In some schools, grades are grouped before the program is planned. When a large activity or problem such as conservation of natural resources is undertaken, each group chooses a certain aspect of the activity. An example