Semi-weekly standard. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1853-18??, 1859-05-28
COMMON: SCHOOLS.

COMMON SCHOOLS.
Orr1cE OF Sur. OF Coxxox Scuoc1s OF n. c.
May, 1859.
To tho Committees appointed to examine and pass
on the qualifications Of those wishinq to teach
Common Schools: .Serenh annual Letter of in-
attractions and s"ggestions r...
GExrLExEx Your official position is becoming
ono of the most important in North Carolina.
That you may understand the force of this asser-
ton and appreciate the OF your stu
alton would urge you to keep il mind the follow
ing facts: there are in the State at least two hun
,rcd andtwenty five thousand white children between
the ages Of six and twenty lone.
OF these, one hundred and fifty thousand, at the
lowest estimate receiving instruction in the Com
mon Schools and We may safely calculate that one
hundred and seventy-five thousand or seven-ninths
Of the rising generation WILL under God, owe more
less Of their mental and moral character to the
common School System.
Upon this system is annually expended nearly
three hundred thousand dollars ninety five per cent.
If which paid for teaching; and employs at least
twenty five hundred teachers all of whom come an
nually before you, and are, to great extent DEEPEN
dent on You fer their position and influence.
You have right and it is your duty critically to
examine into the moral and mental qualifications of
employed at the public expense without endorse
ment Of their character and fitness by you the grade
Of each is fixed by you, and all are required to pre-
sent themselves before you every year for examina
ton and approval This is a simple statement Of
some of the facts of your situation and surely it is
well calculated to impress you with sense of heavy
responsibility to God and to your country.
Whoever may enjoy the honors, and fill the high
places Of apparent power in that country its future
destiny under Providence, is to a great extent in
your hands and if our system continues to revove
in its present orbit the rooms where You conduct
your examinations may be considered as the true
halls of legislation, the cabinets where the policy of
the country is shaped for ages to come.
The principles that are to govern the world do not
always proceed from its high places; and men who
are unknown and unObscrved are often sowing, in
the fa0ws of time the seeds which are to ripen into
harvests of good or evil in the future.
You are certainly thus sowing; and no class Of
Of men in the State has more need of the help and
guidance of Him who is the Author and Giver Of
every good gift
The first and most essential qualification Of every
good Examining Committee is a true sense Of its
obligations, and an humble and sincere desire to he
guided, in their discharge, by the Spirit of God
He should be looked to as the Architect and Bull
der Of the House we would rear-and we should re-
gard ourselves IS under-laborers workers together
with Him. The older become the more am salts
fled that the man deceives himself who supposcs that
he can be patriot and phanthropist in the highest
sense Of the terms and yet be a disbelever in the
one living and true God Of whom, and from whom,
and to whom are all things ..
For, not to refer to other essential considerations,
it Is necessary 10 the character of such one to BE-
heve in the eternity and invincibility of Truth and
in world like ours it is impossible to have such
faith without belief in an eternal almighty SPACE
pervading and perfectly holy Deity from whom ali
truth and right proceed and who will maintain them
against oil apparent odds.
Such confidence is eminently becoming in those
who labor in the positions which you andI occupy
and with such views we can encourage ourselves un
der every difficulty, and be always enabled to know
that Whatever may be present appearances and cir
cunlsten e., We have true zeal for the honor a
God, our work shall not be in vain.
Let US, then, dedicate the Great House which ",
are building to His glory-let us look to Him as tn
Chief Architect and seek His guidance in our labor
and His fsyor IS our reward, and We have nothin,
to fear. ~ x
We can do al this-feeling personal dependenc
On God and asking His direction and blessing on al
cur official abors, without acting in such way q
to cause or countenance sectarian agitation in tn
schools; and as far as our direct religious inffuepc
m these concerned it must be exerted by example
BY precept and admonition, and by excluding immo,
IL and infdel teachers from them.
You cannot be too watchful in this respect an
would again, kindly, but earnestly, admonish vo
firmly to refuse certificates to all persons who do nc
furnish satisfactory evidences of good moral chara,
ter.
Its your right and your duty rrigidIly to cnfore
this rule without exceptions for any cause.
Il have gwen my views 20 fully, in former comm,
n'catiens, with regard tohe mental qualifications
teachers that it would be necessary to add but lit
now bot for the fact that the Examining commute,
Gaa nFAhahlv been ch.n~od ;,, :. ,.,-.L = .e go. =: