Arkansas true Democrat., 1858-09-22
TEE STATE OF ARKANSAS. Education and Reueion-

| commenced, and, with very few exceptions
 have been successful. One great drawback
 here, as every where else, is, that parents seek | the cheapest, instead of the best teachers The l old assertion, for 1t is not an argument, that | they can hire able bodied men to work in the
 sun for fifteen dollars month. and that to sit
 in a school house all day is not worth more. IS
 often used Those who assert this do not take
 into account the long years of preparation to fl l one for teacher,-the time and means spent which must be repaid. This false economy l has prod duced it's fruits. Where man of any ability is forced by circumstances to teach
 school, he soon throws up his occupation for one less irksome and more remunerative. The
 employers not being willing to give salary l sufficient to employ talented men content them | selves with some stroller, who teaches school five days in the week and sprees the other two. These men, barely able to read and write, are neither fit for mental or moral instructors; yet,
 to just such men, one-half the youth of our country schools are turned over.
 i We suppose that TO considerable neighbor- | hood in the State is without school of some kind, and very few of the county-seats are | without academies. We have several institu- | tons of learning, creditable to any State, among which are the Arkansas College. in
 Washington county, and others. We subjoin, l in a note, list of the prominent schools in the ! State, so far they have been presented to us.+ Doubtless, there are others, whose con- ductors did not think proper to furnish us with the information we asked for, in order to enable us to make complete list.
 | Several points, among them Monticello. in l Drew county, and Fayetteville, in Washington county, have been named as the Athens of Ar 1 kansas. Each of these beautiful places has a number of wealthy residents, rho have sought homes there for the sake of the schools, ard to
 enjoy the refined society to be found in the vil- lage and vicinity.
 Every year numbers of our youth are taken l to other States to receive an education. Not only are the Kentucky and Tennessee colleges and seminares patronized by Arkansians but the schools and colleges in Yankeedom come l in for share. Numbers of these pupils have relatives ill these States, with whom they board but there are at least two hu dred others whose
 board and tuition will average five hundred | dollars year each. Here then is a hundred | State, which might be expended at horne, and
 which, if spent here, would build up as good
 institutions. with libraries, apparatus and all the ! appliances of education, as they have esewhe
 S. Johns College, in this city, under he
 auspices of the Masonic fraternity, is rapidly
 approaching its completion. The building is
 now under way, and by winter, we presume,
 will be covered. This institution has one pro l posed feature which cannot be too strongly
 commented. It IS proposed to instruct num-
 Der of young men, who in return for the edu-
 cation received, are to be bound to teach others.
 Iu fact, so far as it can it is to be normal ! school for male teachers.
 | We lack one thing more in this State We
 need normal school for training female teach 1
 the trustees of the Little Rock High School | for Girls. We suggest to the trustees, the es-
 tablishment, in connection with that; of a
 school for teachers As 1t is, we are dependent l on the north, and when we receive teachers
 from there, their ideas, manners and habits are so different from ours, that schools are often
 broken up for want Of proper understanding | of and between the teacher and her pupils. | There are numbers of girls, poor it may be-
 whose friends would be willing to furnish them
 with means to attend one of these normal schools and fit themselves for teachers. Besides, we can afford to pay one of our own teachers
 more. The amount advanced to enable a teacher to come from Hartford or Boston would pay half years salar: of a good teacher By our list, it will be seen that we have a number of female schools, that would do credit to any State. One feature we do not admire, Is. their teaching too much. French, German, Italian Spanish, and other languages; music, painting, embroidery, all the ologes and sciences, are crowded in one That these languages and sciences can be mastered by females, do not deny, but that every girl can be proficient n all these, we dispute. It is teo often the case that girls who have completed a course of mineralogy, botany. chemistry aud astronomy, cannot, out Of school, distinguish between two minerals, classify the commopest plants, tell whether the soda she sees put in the biscuit s an alkal or an acid, or give the name and dis tance of any fixed star Girls who have gradu- ated in Latin and French cannot write no.e in English without having recourse to q diction- arv. Parents are tickled at the idea of their children studying these sci enoes, and take it for granted that it is proof of their advancement, when, in truth, it Is time thrown away We hope to see fewer attempts at display aud more real knowledge gained;- solid foundation laid, and then, when the means warrant it, to add these other studies.
 Our common school system is; so far an ad- mitted failure. The act dividing the school fund amoug the counties has not produced the happy results claimed for it, by those who urged its passage There has been divided among the several counties, about the sum of S2OO,0JO, and at least $2O0,O0O more is to be hereafter divided, if the system continues. To this fubd all monies arising from fines, forfetures' licenses, etc.. in the different counties are added. In some counties the school fund must be quite large say from twenty to thirty thousand dol lars. This money is generally loaned at inte- rest, but the frequent changes in the law, the transferring of the custody of the notes from one officer to another, and the incompetency of some of those intrusted with the management of the fund, have resulted in serious losses. In some counties the fund has been disspated, lost sight of and wasted. The plan is one of those that looks well on paper, but does not fulfill it's design when carried into practice. A system that will work we'll in Prussia, Scotland, New York or Massachusetts will fail in Ar