Lynchburg Virginian. [volume] (Lynchburg [Va.]) 1829-185?, 1851-11-03
From tie Bedto~d Sentinel.
General EducafiOn.-NO 4.

your apologies for the unwieldy mass Of
untutored minds you heve to drag, comes
the plea of inability, or the want fmcans
to establish and maintain good Common
Schools. Virginia not able TO educate
her people, This may be true of par
ticular sections and families. Let US see
what has been the prudence of your pol
icy 10 strengthen and fortify those weak
parts against the nioads of darkness.
Some forty years ago, You set apart a
fund for the education of the poor, and,
had you managed that fund with strict re-
ference to its original intent, the direct
and collateral benefits resulting from il
could hardly have failed, ere this, TO have
given to your State very different face
ly, it was perverted, and its impoliiic ap-
| plication, as | conceive il TO be, instead of
placing you in advance Of your neigh
bors, as was probably the design, has
thrown you century behind the times.
q would not be understood as waging
war upon any Of our literary institutions;
on the contrary, | wish to sec them all
flourish, but upon terms most advanta-
geous toall)
Had. the Literary Fund been skilfully
managed, 7 suppose, by this time, it must
have yielded an annual revenue of fifty
thousand dollars, in addition to that now
appropriated TO the benefit of common
schools. What mighty effects could have
been produced by this little sum in the
hands of skillful agents. Small things are
often powerful in their consequences
Fifty dollars is considerable item in the
support of good neighborhood school,
and fifty thousand make thousand fifties.
Suppose a thousand little communities,
embracing % square miles each, lack fif,
ty dollars, in the average, of being able
TO engage the services Of competent
teacher. and a prudent Commissioner
comes forward with this little reserve in
his hand, and judiciously combines it with
the strength ofthe neighborhood, the ben
efits Of the school are at once secured to
all. In this way, you might easily have
repulsed from your map 10000 square
miles of ignorance, had yourrepresenta-
tiyes come to the rescue at the proper
time. but " ingloriously they faltered and
fed" Like vacillating General, who
spends all his time in pompous retreat and
pretended preparation, they have busted
themselves upon few forts aud lavished
your means, in part, they say, for the pre-
paration of better teachers. Teachers
for whatl To go and teach for those
communities that have abundant means
to provide for themselves 7 O, no to
teach for those who lack fifty dollars Of
being able to support them. Will they
do it Can you make theml No SIR
They will, very prudently, in obe-
dlence TO the laws Of sclf-preservation
"sIope" from this cold bath-from this
little. dirty, disgraceful and ill-rc-
quilted work of developing the men.
tai and moral faculties of your embryo
citizens, and seek some other station OF
employment, where they can meet ycll
discerning eyes in some more favored ca
pacity, and stand an equal chance witt
other folks for respectabili'y and emolu
ment
Again, let us see how you concentrate
and make available your abundant pri
vate resources. Where you build school
houses at all, as if contention and failure
had dictated the plan, under the influence
ofsome deceptive self-interest or imagin.
ary private convenience, you place them
in large majority Of cases, where they
are certain to conflict with, and destroy
each other. Many enterprising citizens
are deferred. by bad example, from build.
ing comfortable school houses, merely to
be demolished, as they know they soon
will be, by the neighboring shanties O.
perversity or folly.
Many of you, alleging the want of q
good school near home, prematurely
send abroad your children, particularly
your girls, to seek mere smattering in
some higher institution; and this at an ex-
rense much more than sufficient, by joint
application, to ensure for your own, and
your neighbors children, grade of in-
struction much better adapted to theil
present wants and capacities. Present.
ly your lasses return, wonderfully starch
ed and ironcd indeed, though they
bring back very little scientific knowl
edge yet, they are little toowell done
up TO be elassed again with their neigh
bors' children, and their home associates
who cannot conveniently be favored with
such wonderful advantages, begin. also
to feel a little too good to take instruction
at a common school, and all seem satisfied
TO supply the deficiency with extreme
delicacy. CROSSROADS.