forum have been climbing the hill of progress. An army is an idea in motion. The rural school is an idea at rest; it is Diogenes in a tub.

"Our little systems have their day;
They have their day, and cease to be."

Every revolution has a cause and the reason lies in the condition, and the cure may be effected by removing the cause that produces the condition, therefore

The Conditions. There are 134 rural schools in Wright county, nearly all are supplied with libraries, very few have good blackboards, and in many the seats are too large compared with the pupils; it may be said that the schoolhouses are a fair type of the rural school. Shall we look into the life of these schools? Mind you, that after years of noble work on the part of strong men, heroic women, and sometimes martyred children. Martyred, yes, and because of conditions that exist; the rural school is still the rural school-without the ox gad, thank God. With the courses of study, classification and gradation, better books, better teachers, with a salary that is less on the average than the man who drives the mules, and I rise to ask: Is it because the children are of less importance than the mules, or because the leader of the children can be hired for a less sum than the driver of the mules? You may float the flag over every schoolhouse, you may call it the "Temple of Science," and it is well; you may use language ornate and imagination fertile, the country school is the country school.

Thousands of parents all over peerless Iowa are sending their little ones to the rural school that they may have a better education than father and mother, that they may have a better chance in life. It is a work of love. Blessings on the fathers and the mothers; prayers for the children, and action, intense, heroic action by every one who dares to stand before the old schoolhouse and say, "I love you for the good that you have dene, but you have had your day.'

Look at the children trudging through snow, rain, through barbed wire fence to get around ponds, across fields any way to get to the school. Often in these schools there are thirty-five to forty pupils, while in others the average daily attendance is from one-half up. The first condition making too many classes, and individual work for one teacher under the most liberal classification almost impossible; the latter condition needs no argument to cause it to fall. All ages, all degrees of advancement are there. No trouble about the heating; for if a child finds that one side of his body is sizzling, if permitted he can turn the cold storage side toward the stove; no difficulty about the ventilation, because the windows may be so painted that the teacher cannot lower them from the top; there may be window lights out and then the windows may be opened below, and the door thrown open, when teacher and school may have some free oxygen to breathe, and if they do not die from the effects of the sudden chill, they have the choice of carbonic acid gas, foul odors, drowsiness and dullness; no need to be anxious if the stove smokes from whatever cause, the director will remove the cause next term, and while you cannot study while you are breathing carbonic oxide, you can pray that the school will close at four o'clock; no necessity about water, there is plenty a mile away and all you have to do is to go after it, and the outbuildings, what shall I call them? Verily, the rural school is still the rural school, and a decent respect for the plain truth needs no rhetoric to set it off.

Through the efforts of the teacher and the children, a few pictures of real art adorn the walls, and such walls! not always it is true, but often, and the floors! No danger about the microbe, it has plenty of room-and the child, there is the rub. Turn the facts as you will, even with a large hope, and what have you? The log cabin is gone, the whipping post is gone, Uncle Tom's cabin is no more, the flail and the sickle are forgotten, the spinning wheel and the candle are in the junk pile, the bleeding a man because he is dying for want of blood, that he may get well, has gone with all the rest and the rural school is passing to join its companions and to a rich reward for the good that it has done. Men point to certain constellations of great men and say: "These are the products of the common school," but that is not an evidence, it is the exception. A man falls sick and wants to be better, takes medicine, and if he succeeds in overcoming the effects of the medicine and the microbe he gets well. So men and women become great in spite of their early training.

Rural mail delivery is a fact; rural telephonic communication will be tomorrow; the transportation of pupils to a central school should be today. Some of us love the old because it is old, even barnacles anchor to a tub. Cobwebs keep out the light.

I would not take one tribute from the common school that it has justly won, for I wish to praise Cæsar and to bury him.

THE CURE.

The common school has served its day and in its place has come the central school. As the transportation of pupils to a central school is beyond the experimental, and from its fruitage we know that it has come to take the place of the old rural school.

Men say that we cannot take boys and girls from the home at 8 o'clock in the morning and bring them back at 5 o'clock in the evening. Why not? Does the child exist for the parent or the parent for the child?

Destroy township lines, county lines even, so far as school organization goes, and then the so-called remote corner districts will disappear.

Give to the state a liberal compulsory educational act that has been tested. Plant corn where the old school buildings now stand. Give every child an equal chance.

CHAPTER XII.

REPORTS FROM HIGHER INSTITUTIONS.

HIGHER INSTITUTIONS OF LEARNING.

The sketches of the educational institutions of the State were prepared in response to the following request:

To the President or Principal:

DEAR SIR,-In the forthcoming Biennial Report to be issued from this department this year, I desire to publish a statement from you regarding the institution over which you preside.

It seems to us fitting that at the opening of the twentieth century, a complete and just view of the origin, history, plans, courses of study, special methods, aims and objects, results achieved, and resources-educational, literary, financial and material-of the universities, colleges, normal schools, seminaries, academies, scientific and professional schools, and other leading institutions should be written and preserved for posterity through the reports of the department of public instruction.

A statement embodying the chief points above enumerated must not exceed 1,000 words, exclusive of statistical statement, owing to the number of institutions to be reported and the brief space that can be given to this historical review in the report.

I express the sincere hope that you will find the time to co-operate in this work, in order that we may convey to our immediate successors and also to future generations, a true and complete account of the educational work of the state.

Yours very sincerely,

August 6, 1901.

RICHARD C. BARRETT, Superintendent Public Instruction.

BUENA VISTA COLLEGE.

STORM LAKE, REV. E. E. REED, M. A., PRESIDENT.

The

Buena Vista College was organized by a joint commission of twelve members chosen by the Presbyteries of Sioux City and Fort Dodge. The commission met in Storm Lake, July 8, 1891, and completed the organization and incorporation of the college on July 9th-the following day. Synod of Iowa, in stated session at Boone, in October, 1891, unanimously adopted the college as its own, and elected the board of trustees to whom is intrusted the control of its property and the management of its interests.

The aim of Buena Vista College is to furnish the education that the age demands.

In seeking to do this it has not been the purpose of the management to lower the standards at a time when the trend is towards a more thorough education, but to give in every particular as good as the best. Classical education is fostered and encouraged as that which is tested and timehonored. To these, scientific and philosophical courses of instruction have been added.

Though the school has a college charter, it has not attempted to teach the full college course but has done thorough work as far as it goes. The last two years will be taught and regular college degrees conferred when sufficient endowment has been secured to afford thorough instruction for the complete course.

In addition to the academic and partial collegiate departments, commercial, normal, musical, and elocutionary departments have been maintained. Buena Vista College stands for Christian education in the full meaning of the term. Not that its purpose is to teach religion or theology, but all knowledge and truth is made to savor of that higher wisdom that is from above. Truth is valued for truth's sake. But it is made to assume its proper relation to Him who said, "I am the way, the truth, and the life." It is a denominational school. By this a Christian management is insured, and a wholesome moral and religious atmosphere will be preserved. not however a sectarian school. Students of all faiths are welcomed and their religious beliefs are not interfered with.

It is

Storm Lake, with its beautiful lake, and clean, wide, streets, with its bordering parks, and its Christian homes and churches, was chosen after patient and prayerful inquiry concerning many offered sites, as the location for Buena Vista College.

Storm Lake has three railroads giving good connections from all directions. The influences are helpful and temptation is removed from young people as far as it possibly could be.

The college is located in the west part of town on a beautiful elevation gently sloping to the lake.

The campus drains nicely and is well fitted for games and sports. Around and across it have been laid drives and walks, along both sides of which trees have been planted adding to the natural beauty of the grounds.

Buildings.-The main building is an elegant brick structure trimmed in cut stone. Its dimensions are 72 feet by 90 feet with three stories besides a high, roomy attic. It contains twelve recitation rooms, a chapel seating 300, a museum, a library and a reading room, and working room in connection with the laboratory. Two well lighted rooms in the basement furnish a home for the college press. Its cost exclusive of all furnishings was $25.000. The Miller-Stuart house is the president's home. It stands across the street from the college, is roomy, well planned, and substantially built. It was erected by a former president, but has since been purchased by the munificent gifts of the Rev. Wm. Miller of Des Moines, and Mrs. Lois G. Stuart of Audubon, and by them presented to the college.

The ladies' cottage and boys' hall are two large and well planned buildings owned by a friend of the college and used for dormitories by the students. It is the expectation that the college will come into possession of them in the course of time as it now has of the Miller-Stuart house.