Wilmington journal. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1844-1895, 1866-10-18
Southern Teachers for the South.

There is no fact relating to the present
condition of the South, and having the
most important bearing upon our future,
more striking or gratifying than the gener-
al interest manifested on the subject of
popular reduction. At no time heretofore
have there been so many announcements OF
schools academies, and colleges through
the press of the South as at the present
moment. There may not be, In fact, a
greater number of these institutions, but
the advertisements of them are more nu-
merous. The almost universal interruption
suffered by these interests the last few years
has awakened a general and eager anxiety
for their restoration which is positive and
imperious. The same spirit is shared by
the freedmen at all our centres of popula-
ton to a certain degree, and will gradually
diffuse itself among the negroes to the re-
hottest districts. If the desire for knowl-
edge is not innate with him, it will be i'm
pressed upon them by artificial forces.
To improve and mould and render bene-
fetal this spirit, to direct its results, and to
make them effectual for good to the indi-
vidual and our city, requires Southern
teachers for the South. This is one OF the
primary and essential reforms in the future
educational system. The South has never
undertaken to make its own teachers, as a
for them, where they were made, like shoes,
boots, hats, &c, by the wholesale. They
are made for the purpose there, and are we'll
made. They cannot be decried or under
rated while so many of them have per-
formed so admirably for us. 1t is nonsense
to speak contemptuously of "Northern
schoolmasters and New England school
marms. while we are bound to confess their
excellence as instructors. Few schools of
the South have made reputation without
some of them being employed. They often
come to us with false or insufficient notions
of our people and institutions but despite
these objections, and because of their pro-
fciency as teachers, we have employed
them, and are continuing to do SO.
We pay them our money, and when they
behave themselves they give us value re-
ceived. The onl y reason why we have here
tofOre done SO is found in the fact that we
have not furnished our own teachers from
among our own people. Those who have
enjoyed the advantages of liberal mental
culture have refused to enter the school
room as teachers, preferring other pursuits
Besides there is Il difference between be-
ing scholar, an educated person, and be-
ing fitted for the rOcdtiOzs Of teaching. The
North has made teaching a specially in the
business of life The South has neglected
who has devoted himself to it from youth
to old age but these are exceptions to the
rule.
The changes recently wrought in our So
cial and domestic institutions, we trust,
will bring changes in this matter. The in
dications are that way at least, and they
ought to be encouraged General Lee left
the camp for the teachers desk, as jackson
had laid down the ferulo to take up the
sword General GUSTS Lee has just been
chosen to professorship in the University
of Georgia, which We hope he will accept,
while hundreds of Confederate officers and
soldiers of less general fame are tending
the fountains of learning at the country and
village schOOl-hOuScs in many places IN the
South. A noble, battle-scarred Mississippi
soldier is teaching colored school in that
State in the midst Of threats to tear down
the house and expel him from the country
while a young lady, raised in all the atllu
ence of Southern luxury and wealth, in the
same State, with less opposition, teaches a
primary school of her fathers late slaves. !
The widow and daughter of one of the great
est of American soldiers, Albert Sidney |
Johnston, are teaching in her home on the |
Pacific, while the widow and daughter of
the illustrious Christian hero General Polk !
is similarly engaged III our own State
Mrs General Ransom, of North Carolina, |
the opening of a female institute
in Wilmington. These are shining exam
pies, and should inspire imitation through
out the Southern States. Let the business
of teaching be pursued as vocation, and |
let the teachers prepare themselves for it |
as such and very soon there will be no Oc-
casion to bring teachert from other States, |
Or to hold up to the public the importance |
Of having Southern teachers for the South. !
NashrMe Union and american.