THE RURAL SCHOOL COMMUNITY CENTER

BY L. J. HANIFAN, A.M.

State Supervisor of Rural Schools, Charleston, W. Va.

In the use of the phrase social capital I make no reference to the usual acceptation of the term capital, except in a figurative sense. I do not refer to real estate, or to personal property or to cold cash, but rather to that in life which tends to make these tangible substances count for most in the daily lives of a people, namely, goodwill, fellowship, mutual sympathy and social intercourse among a group of individuals and families who make up a social unit, the rural community, whose logical center is the school. In community building as in business organization and expansion there must be an accumulation of capital before constructive work can be done. In building up a large business enterprise of modern proportions, there must first be an accumulation of capital from a large number of individuals. When the financial resources of these several individuals have been brought together under effective organization and skilful management, they take the form of a business corporation whose purpose is to produce an article of consumption-steel, copper, bread, clothing or to provide personal conveniences-transportation, electricity, thoroughfares. The people benefit by having such products and conveniences available for their daily needs, while the capitalists benefit from the profits reserved to themselves as compensation for their services to society.

Now, we may easily pass from the business corporation over to the social corporation, the community, and find many points of similarity. The individual is helpless socially, if left entirely to himself. Even the association of the members of one's own family fails to satisfy that desire which every normal individual has of being with his fellows, of being a part of a larger group than the family. If he may come into contact with his neighbor, and they with other neighbors, there will be an accumulation of social capital, which may immediately satisfy his social needs and which may bear a social potentiality sufficient to the substantial improvement of living conditions in the whole community. The community as a whole will benefit by the coöperation of all its parts, while the individual will find in his associations the advantages of the help, the sympathy, and the fellowship of his neighbors. First, then, there must be an accumulation of community social capital. Such accumulation may be effected by means of public entertainments, "sociables," picnics and a variety of other community gatherings. When the people of a given community have become acquainted with one another and have formed a habit of coming together upon occasions for entertainment, social intercourse and personal enjoyment, that is, when sufficient social capital has been accumulated, then by skilful leadership this social capital may easily be directed towards the general improvement of the community wellbeing.

That there is today almost a total lack of such social capital in rural districts throughout the country need not be retold in this article. Everybody who has made either careful study or close observations of country life conditions knows that to be true. Of rural social surveys there have perhaps been a plenty for the present. The important question now is, "How may these conditions be made better?"

A STORY OF ACHIEVEMENT

The story which follows is a concrete example of how a rural community of West Virginia in a single year actually developed social capital and then used this capital in the general improvement of its recreational, intellectual, moral and economic conditions. The community under discussion is a rural school district of 33 square miles, which embraces fifteen school communities, or neighborhoods. Three of these school communities are villages having graded schools; the other twelve are strictly rural, having one-teacher schools. The total population of the whole district is 2,180, of whom 771 are of school age, 6-21 years. The school organization consisted of a board of education (three members and a secretary), a district supervisor and twenty-three teachers.

This district supervisor, Mr. Lloyd T. Tustin of Hundred, West Virginia, was a new man in the district, coming from an adjoining county. He came into the district two weeks before the date set by the board of education for the opening of the schools. He spent these two weeks going about the district, conferring with the local trustees, getting acquainted with the people, and having the schoolhouses put in order for the beginning of the school term. On the Saturday before the Monday on which the schools were to begin he held his first teachers' meeting. The board of education were present. At this first meeting definite plans were made for the year's work. Among the plans made the following are some that were carried through to successful conclusions:

(1) COMMUNITY SURVEY.-Each teacher made a survey of her school community, (a) to determine the physical and human resources of the people; (b) to learn the crop yield of the farms; and (c) to find what children in the community were not attending the schools and the reasons why they were not at school. These individual surveys were brought together and tabulated as a survey of the whole district. It was shown, for example, that of the 457 families 401 were taking at least one newspaper. One item of interest was the fact that there were in the district 331 dogs and 445 cats. These items were turned to very practical account as an argument with the people for a district high school, for it could be shown that if each dog and each cat cost their owners one cent a day for food, then the people were spending upon these animals an amount which, added to what the district may receive from the state as high school aid, would support a high school for their boys and girls. Of course, there was no disposition upon the part of anyone to have all the dogs and cats killed. The fact was merely used to emphasize the small cost of maintaining a local high school. While the high school has not yet been provided, there is very strong probability that it will be established soon.

(2) COMMUNITY CENTER MEETINGS. - This survey work proved to be of incalculable value to the teacher both in her regular school work and in her work for the community center. She was able to learn at first hand the home life of her pupils and she was able to become acquainted with their parents. Her work among the homes aroused the interest of the patrons of the school, for no teacher had ever shown so much interest in them before. When she announced that there would be a meeting at the schoolhouse for all the citizens, nearly all were interested and most of them

came.

In order to show just what the nature of this first meeting was, I submit below the program which was offered at one of the schools:

Song, led by the school choir.
Devotion.

Address, by the teacher.

Reading, by a pupil.

Current Events, by a pupil.

Essay, by a pupil.

Song, led by the school choir.

Reading, by a pupil.

Vocal Solo, by a local soloist.

Reading, by a pupil.

Debate.

Cornet solo, by a citizen.
Social half-hour.

Note that this first program was rendered almost wholly by the pupils. The teacher took occasion to speak of the work of the school and to show some of the possibilities of such meetings. The people enjoyed this program and expressed a desire for another meeting soon. The next program at this same schoolhouse was primarily for the older folks. It was entitled, "Ye Old Time School Days." These older citizens took great delight in relating the school experiences of their day, and the children were interested listeners. As time went on the weekly community center meeting was becoming more and more a feature of the regular community activities in fact the only coöperative activity of the community. In due time, when some social capital had been developed, these meetings occasionally took the form of discussions of problems of a constructive nature. The people discussed such subjects as:

Should West Virginia have a more effective compulsory attendance law?
Should there be a small tax on oil and gas for the support of schools and

roads?

Is it more profitable to grow hogs than to grow cattle in this community?
Do boys and girls have better opportunities in the city than in the country?

But entertainment and discussion alone will not hold the interest of a community indefinitely. A definite purpose common to all must become the reason of this coming together. Fortunately, the community under discussion soon passed through the stages of entertainment and discussion to the stage of action. The people themselves under the leadership of their supervisor and teachers began to look about them for something which they might do towards personal and community improvement. The social capital developed by means of the community center meetings was about to pay dividends.

(3) AGRICULTURAL FAIR AND SCHOOL EXHIBIT. -The first big meeting of the year was the agricultural fair and school exhibit, which brought together the people of the whole school district. The local community center meetings gave the supervisor and the teachers an opportunity to explain the purpose and the plans of this undertaking. In October, two months after the opening of the schools, this fair and exhibit was held at the most central schoolhouse in the district. The people came in large numbers. They brought baskets of food and had a community "spread." Prizes were awarded for the best products of the farm and the kitchen and for the best work exhibited by the schools. It was a great day to everyone present. It was the "pooling" of social capital developed in the local community centers, the first meeting of the people of the whole district ever held up to that time.

(4) COMMUNITY HISTORY. At each school the pupils of the classes in United States and State History wrote up the history of their local community-who the first settlers were and when they came, when the first church was built and when any others were built, when and where the first schoolhouse was built and important changes made in the schools since then, who had first introduced improved live stock, the silo, farm machinery and other items of local historical interest. This work, of course, was under the direction of the teachers. When the histories had been prepared, the children of each school gave a program entitled, "History Evening," when the community history was read by the pupils who had written it. This proved to be a very popular program, since most of the citizens or their ancestors were personally mentioned. It had a marked effect upon the pride of the people in their home community. After these programs had been rendered, the several histories of the local communities were compiled into a history of the whole school district.

(5) SCHOOL ATTENDANCE. It will be recalled that one object of the community survey was to determine what children were not attending the schools. While visiting the homes upon that occa