The Bedford gazette. [volume] (Bedford, Pa.) 1805-current, 1861-12-20
SCHOOL MATTERS.

SCHOOL MATTERS.
| The State Superintendent has decided that
II Teacher is not paid when his salary is due,
he can obtain judgement for it, and have exc
cution IN the mode pointed out by the school
law. II the non-payment was owing to no
'ault of ;he Directors the expenses of the suit
will be placed on the District; if due TO their
negligence, on the members OF the Board, in
/ divldually.
| County Superintendent is bound to make
out the Teachers certificate Immediately after
the close Of bis examination.
Children cannot be excluded from school be-
cause their parents have not paid :heir school
| tax.
A School Board has the right 10 direct a
Teacher to lock the door of The school room
| 10 or 10 minutes after the exact hour at which
tie exercises regularly commence, and not to
| admit scholars who come after that PERIOD
This plan is intsnded to insure more regularity
IN attendance, and promote the order and inter-
est of the schools.
The above are among the latest decisions Of
the State Superintendent.
Z" Ignorance and superstition, the ts,aafs
Which the teachers enlist to erterminate-tEoss
t,cin relics Of the dark..qges." S. S.-[Bed-
ford Gazette, Nov. 90.
Mr. Simon Syntax, who has written many
excellent suggestions on education, has certain
y, without his usual carefuIness, penned the
last line of The above paragraph. Has he, in
the balance Of justice, weighed what 'ethe dark
lion, according to thsir circumstances The art
of printing was then unknowu. How could
the people of s'the middle ages" do more than
they have done, viz tr2nscfIbe and hand down
to ug the ancient classics? You might as well
blame those ages for slow lOcomotion, as for a
want of general education. Neither steam pow
er nor printing was then discovered, and, there
lore, the charges of ignorance and superstition
fall poiatless at those times. Considering the
destruction OF the Roman Empire by the Bar
barians, IN the 9th century, the middle ages, or
as they are styled by thoughtlessness and folly,
the "dark ages" have done pretty well, in the
cause of knowledge and education. In what
ages, pray, were the Universities of Cambridge
and Oxford founded Of what age was Alfred,
the immortal author of trial by jury, and AL
cuin f'the propegatoF OF education," as one OF
Eugland's best historians styles him, s'from the
Gallo Alps 10 :he banks OF the Lore, the Rhine
aud the Eibe.''
Great as is our zeal for education and its re-
suit, useful knowledge, we should be generous
and truthful towards the past. AS we are soon,
in OUT town, to have meeting OF teachers, it
is to be hoped, that they will show respect TO
their proper mission, by due regard to what
has been done, in preceding remote times, IN
the important business of education. It is to
be expected, that from so respectable body of
public enlighteners, we will not hear any
school-boy defamation, but wise and whole
some views, on all important subjects which
they meet together 10 discuss. VERAX.
We freely insert the above communication in
our column. We are perfectly willing that all
sides shall be heard. When we penned the line
alluded to in the above, we had no intention of
detracting anything from the credit to which
any age is entitled for that which 1t has handed
down to posterlty for the "noole cause of edu-
cation, according to IFS circumstances"
When we spoke of ignorance and supersti-
ton as being twin relics of the dark ages, we
meant the latter in the general aceep,ation OF
the term by the civilized world. We claim no
nfallibility and if We have not weighed the
subject evenly IN the balance oi justice, We are
open TO conviction at all times
We have all confidence that the "body of
public enlighteners" which will soon meet In
tins place, will do ample justice to every age
for what il has done for the cause IN which liza
members are engaged.
We feel grateful for .he commencing allusion
which the writer makes TO our humble efforts
for the cause of education, and only hope that
We have merited 1t. As we are greatly in IA
vor of the dissemination OF truth, at all times
we hope that "Verar" will soon again favor our
column with his communications. SIS.