408 HISTORY OP SOUTHEAST MISSOURI schools. No other step in the history of the schools has exerted a greater influence for their uplift than the provision for super- vision. Along with this law providing for county superintendents, was passed a law known as the compulsory attendance law, re- quiring children between the ages of eight and fourteen to attend school, imless excused by reason of ill health or other necessities. This law, while defective in some ways, has undoubtedly exerted an influence favorable to more uniform attendance in the schools. As we have intimated, there is a feeling that we have outgrown the old form of organi- zation which makes the small district the unit of school work and certain provisions of amended school laws make it possible for dis- tricts to combine either for the support of an elementar.v and high school or simply for the purpose of supporting a central high school, the elementary schools in the district being retained as formerly. So far, this possibility of consolidating districts has not been made use of in Southeast Missouri; it seems, how- ever, that before long a number of districts will make use of this authority and unite for the support of better schools. One other thing in connection with the pub- lic school system that is worthy of note is the custom of graduating from the schools those students who complete eight years of common school work. It is believed that this graduation aids school attendance, and so far as it has been tried it bears out the promise which it made. In those counties where the graduating of eighth grade pupils is encour- aged and the exercises made interesting it becomes less and less difficult to keep the older students in the school. This movement seems to have been originated in Southeast JMissouri and this part of the state is keeping up with the rest of the state in this partic- ular matter. In 1910 there were graduated from the rural schools more than 1,000 pupils. It is a far cry from the old subscription schools of early territorial Missouri with their lack of equipment, short terms, inadequate courses of study and usually incompetent teachers giving the poorest and most meagre instruction to a handfvd of students, to the great educational system of Southeast Mis- souri as it is todaj'. In 1910, twenty counties in this part of the state kept in operation 1.305 schools, in which more than 90,000 pui^ils received instruction. These .schools were conducted for the most part in fairly good houses with rea.sonable amount of equip- ment and by teachers whose experience is something of a warrant for their ability to instruct. Once the possibilities of education were confined to the favored few whose wealth and social position enabled them to procure such education as the times afforded, but now the door of the schools has been opened to practically every child in this part of the state and he may procure, at the state's expen.se, not only a primary education but a good secondary education. Generous pro- vision has been made for giving academic and professional training. Many problems in education are yet unsolved and perhaps unsolvable, yet it is clearly evident that the progress in these matters in the one hun- dred years of school history has been little short of marvelous. What further develop- ments may be made it is not possible to pre- dict. There seems an evident determination, however, on the part of the people to pro- vide such a system of education as makes it possible for every child to be instructed not only in common schools but also in .secondary schools.
