The Louisiana Democrat. [volume] (Alexandria, La.) 1845-1918, 1866-06-27
Southern Education.

.
The exclusion of the leading men of the
South from the arena of Federal politics
and legislation, the abusive tone and tenor
infused into radical papers which render
them unreadable and nnbearable to our
ipeOple, and the general and almost COM
plete isolation of the inhabitants of the
4 lately seeded States, will have the effect
of turning their minds teiaffairs strictly do
nestle. They are now made fully sensible
that they must look at home and that if
: they have anything to do they must get to
work and doit themselves
i The long war has left legacy of labor to
Southern PARENTS. While the destructive
fire storm Of ruin was sweeping over us in
successive surges the work of educating
the youth Of both sexes was almost entirely
suspended. Young men-mere boys-were
removed from home and school to the ar
my-often at the very age when alone the
solid and substantial parts of scholastic in.
struction can heimparted. Young men en-
gagged in teaching generally under thirty
years Of age) followed the common impulse,
left their school houses vacant strapped on
/ their knapsacks, and marched away to
fields where honor and chivalry beckoned.
A few of the aged or infirm remained, some
reluctantly, some resignedly as from sense
Of duty, some few in the poltroon spirit of
shirks and dodgers. But nineteenth TWEEN
|ty of all orr schools were broken up, and
liof those left in operation the attendance
was very SMALL owing 10 the fact that
young boys were kept at home to supply
| the places in the cornfelds of their fathers
and elder brothers who were bearing arms
on the Potomac, the Tennessee, the Cape
Fear, the Alabama, the Teche or the Ar
kansas. During the last two years Of the
i war not one in five of the children between
six and sixteen years of age had the bene-
fit Of instruction at school or at home.
Four-ffths Of our colleges and young ladies'
seminaries were suspended, and tho num-
Der of attendants at those still carried on
! was very small.
Southern parents ought now to address
themselves with industrious energy to the
work of repairing the neglect in education
which was caused and necessitatea by the
war. There are a great many ladies in the
South who had before the war the benefits
of very thorough teaching in all useful and
ornamental Observation-Disclosures of veal
thy citizens, who had received the benefits
OF the best schools of the continent, and
were surrounded by all the means Of intel
lectual improvement which wealth, liberal
| ly employed, could purchase. In gratitude
for the advantages thus enjoyed, and from
sense of duty towards their young broth
ers and sisters, we should be glad to see
these accomplished ladies deyOting their
time to the education of the young. They
are capable of the important task, and they |
would bring to it an honest and Affection
ate zeal worth more than all the mercena-
ry talent that can be imported from a dis
lance.
While no fear need be indulged as to the
influence OF young men and women from
distant places on the minds and hearts of !
Southern children, it would be much better
that, as far as practicable, the forming of
their mental habits, the shaping of their
thoughts and principles, the fixing of their
tastes and the moulding of their yetplastic
and docile minds, should be the work of
the noble young women Of the South, rath-
er than of hirelings who come among us
perfectly Indifferent as to whether they
teach whites or blacks, provided they are
paid for their labor. While we cannot see
hyena in every adventurous New e lgland
damsel who comes to the South to teach,
and while we do not expect to find nest
OF vipers in every Northern schoolbook
Which they import, recommend and use,
we would nevertheless infinitely prefer that
the work of teaching Southern children
should be given into the hands of our own
noble young women, mainly because we
wish to see these children grow up like
their predecessors, with the same elevation
of character, the same suavity of manner,
the same dignifed grace, the same tandor
and naturalness, and the same reverence
aud affection for their countrymen who
bled or labored together in support of
common cause. So far as the incubation
Of false sentiment. is concerned, we believe
there would be as little danger in employ
ing teachers from Boston as from Constan-
tinople. Southern children are not going
to forget the principles and traditions of
their fathers, nor will they ever learn to
believe the memory of those who sleep OH
a hundred battlefelds., Yet it would be
in all respects better and more fitting that
the rearing of Southern minds and the
training of Southern youth should be en-
trusted mainly to Southern teachers.
This work c. educating the young must
be carried on mainly in families aud gipll.
borhoods. The time is not suspicious for
building up academies, seminaries and col.
leges There is no money in the country
to spare for the erection, endowment and
support of such institutions. Mothers and
elder sisters mnstassume the labor OF teach
.ng, sowing seed that shall return to them
in manifold harvest. Let those to whom
mach was given in time of peculiar and
unparalleled prosperity now share their
richest dowry with the youth whose lot
is cast in land Of poverty. Let them re-
member the money that was lavished upon
them by the hands of admiIing parents
and try to impart to their young brothers
md sisters a part Of the great bounty that
las been bestowed upon them.-[N O.
crescent.
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