Richmond enquirer. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1815-1867, 1841-12-09
MEMORIAL OF TIE CONVENTION,
4ss.mMtG az CiarksbRrg, Harrison County, Virginia
Sent Sh md on, 1871.

'Vt TN UNH s"s1 i&i''
TO rnr LEGISLATURE Oh ,viRGlSlA.
Your mcmorialists beg leave respectfully to repre-
sent the necessity Of adopting a system of Public Edu-
cation, which shaH fully dcrsiope all The mental taeut-
ties, physical energies, and moral and social affections.
ANY system Of education below thus standard will fall
short Of tue duty Of the Supreme Being requires at our
hands towards the children commits TO our care
for Divine Inspiration tells us thu. III is our duty TO
strain up our children in the way they should 60" and
when We lave performed this duty correctly, the same
inspiration assures us, that "wlcn they are old they
will not depart from it," In fixing the standard Of edu-
cation TINS high, we but e express the sentiment of every
patriotic, intelligent citizen. 1t is the duty of the Lee
gislature 10 make public provision for the accomplish
nrnt Of this high purpose.
Ina government like ours, where The supreme autho-
Tity, from which the laws emanaS, is not in q monarch,
or an aristoc .acy, but in the people, the proper exercise
of this sovereignty, and the drties which flow from it,
require that their minds should be 50 cultivated as 10
enable them TO think, compare and Judge correctly
The moral faculties and social affections require such
cultivation as shall Undue the piud with feelings Of
kindness and good will TO ali mankind-with love Of
our country and a reverence for law. The physical
system likewise requires to be 81 trained as TO pro-
duce sound, healthy constitutions. These three should
be constantly Kept in rie,c.
But ihe Legislature must he s5ully aware Of the feet,
that after all The aid heretofore given out of the Lite
rary Fund, many thousand children of our poorer citi-
zsns are growing up wi,hou! the slightest tincture Of
common learning. And this is not all, nor the chief
defect of our system of means for the education Of chill
dren in Virginia. Of the $4,000 poor children who,
last year, received aid from the Literary Fund, but q
small part, we apprchend, were much benefited BY the
public bounty. We deduce this inference from the
very small average quantity OF schooling afforded to
each Of these poor children. This average, al the pre-
sent allowance of four cents a day, is 81 days in the
year for eachI a space Of time too short to admit of CIV
ing effective instruction in the lowest elements Of a
useful education. Those children, whose quantity falls
below the average, could never, at this rate, to any
useful degree, acquire even the art Of reading. Such,
therefore, and we fenr there are many besides, who re-
ceive q little more schooling, must be added to the
multitude, who, through poverty, receive none of all;
and thousands more, perhaps, must be added, whose
parents, through avarice or ignorance, neglect 10 edu.
cate their children, who are growing up IN Ignorance
Of al! that constitutes the civilization Of the age, and
tha. qualities u people for self.goyernment.
"Nor DO the defects of our primary schools stop here.
Many thousands of these who, by any means, go a
longer time TO school, do still, we fear, come short Of
an available education. The fundamental branches oil
common learning, such as reading, writing and arith.
metic, become available sources of knowledge and uti-
lily, only when they become SOURCES Of pleasure, which
they never do until the scholar is well grounded in their
principles and expert in their practical application
But when We combine the effects of short and IRE gular
periods of schooling, end Of Negligent and unskiiful
teaching, We may reasonably accn:i.t for The fact that,
a great majority OF our youth who issue from our com.
mon schools, neither become, nor arc qualified to be-
come intelligent men and women."-T See Rockbridge
County Agricultural Society Memorial. Document
No. 30, of the session of lS40-41.
The present system leaves out Of view t,co of the alb
solutely essential parts of a proper education-the mo.
raj ard physical branches, without which no individual
can be fully fitted for usefulness, and the enjoy ment of
happiness.
Another defect in the present system will be found
in the distribution of the public funds for educational
purposes. "By the present system the Literary Fund
seems 10 be directed to The two extremes of our popn.
%lation, the Dsalihy and the INDECENT. To the reaaay,
in establishing the University and colleges, the ad'
vanluges of which ae almost exclusively enjoyed by
their sons. To the INDECENT, in distributing a part of
the Literary Fund to the Sc veral couuties tn be applied
exclusively to the aid Of the destitute. While the inter
mediate aud by far The largest aud most useful portion
of the community derive no diIeo, benefit from ihis