Baton Rouge tri-weekly gazette & comet. [volume] (Baton Rouge, La.) 1865-18??, 1866-08-16


East Baton Rouge:
| Gentlemen-Reeret.ing my inability tc
confer with yon all, personally, in refer
ence to the i'm portant cause entrusted to
my superintendence by generous consti-
tuency, beg leave to invite your earnest
attention to few practical consideration,
and suggestions, which deem it my duty
to submit to you. Allow me, however, to
gay, by way ofpreface, that, regarding you
from your better acquaintance with your
parish, as more com petent judges of sobat
system Of scltoot IS more practicable therein, i,
would have afforded me sincere satisfaction
and much necessary information to have
been furnished with the views. of your
President and other citizens. as requested
in my Circulars Of March 24.h and NAV
Both. --'-4-ss-
In the Circular of May Both, took the
liberty of suggesting-in consequence OF
| the altered circumstances of our State and
people that your parish, be divided anew
into Village School Districts" with spe-
cial reference to the convenience Of such
white children as are not attending private
schools, and as can be induced to be pres
emit, regularly, in such public or free
schools As you may cause to be opened for
their benefit.
propose, now, to show, that you, gen
| tlemen, and you alone have ample author
ity to establish such Village School Dis
tricts, and that, by prompt and harnoni-
Gus action on your part, o large proportion,
| if not all, of the white children in your
| parish, who for many months, and, in
| several instances, for several yeArs, have
been deprived of instruction, may be
brought at an early day, under the hu-
M izi NJ nj thu sobncl raox,
By Section 26 of the School Act, Of
March Is, 1855, you are expressly author
| lied to change at intervals of two years,
the boundaries of your School Districts,
or, il other terms, 10 divide off your parish,
anew, in the manner most convenient for
the population thereof. That this section
is not in tended to require subdivision of
the parish into numerous rural districts,
without reference to the practIcability Of
actually maintaining school in each, nor
TO give each district, as heretofore consti-
tuted, an inalaenable right to three Special
Directors and that by the term ''popula-
ton, i" is mean" simply edueable or school,
able Children" is made manifest by that
judicious provision of the preceding Sec
ZION 16, which expressly authorizes and di-
rects the Treasurer at the end of two
years, to re-dastribute the School fund of ana
dastract, an Whseh there has been no school,
Among [ALL] the districts of his parish, in
accordance with the number of children be-
tsOeen the ages Of sir and sixteen gears. Thee
two sections construed together, as they
should be, express a mandate, on the part
of our Legislators, that after the allowance
Of a reasonable time to each neighborhood
TO avail itself of portion of the School
fund for the education Of its youth, such
portion shall be Withdrawn, in default of
the actual establishment of school, and
given to other neighborhoods or commu-
mites, where it can be ore profitably en-
ployed. This view of the subject ia
strsngt hened by the fact, that Section % of
the same Act makes it incumbent on the
District Directors to provide school
house, procure furniture. supply fuel, and
raise money, if necessary, as essential pre-
lanainarie8 to the establishment If schools !; in
default OF which. your experience doubtless
justifies the presumption, that by the OPP
Grafton of Section &c. several rural districts
have heretofore forfeited or lost greater
part of the fund Originally apportioned to
them, or that where Section Is has not been
enforced, considerable portion Of the
fund has lain passive in the Treasurer's
hands, or been s0asted On abortive attempts
10 open rural schools.
L
of many prominent citizens of Louisiana,
and an i'm posing array of testimony from
other States, more densely depopulated
than ours, to show you the utility of even
Attempting TO establish schools in districts
exclusively rural or agricultural; but, now,
when our people have been 30 mpover-
ished by the war and it's attendant evils,
that the School fund raised by taxation
will not exceed fifty per cent. of what it
was ten years Lgo, it must be obvious to
you, that, for two or more years to come,
it will be impossible to maintain properly
organized, permanent schools-even for
''poor and neceesitous" children-the spe-
cial objects your care and benevolence-
0ith0ut radical change G1 the old systeas of
dastractSag gour parish.
With the object therefore, of rendering
our limited School fund activs1y useful. &C.
cording to the manifest intent of our State
contributions and legislators, | would re-
specially suggest, that, as soon as prac-
tlcable, prior to the 10th Septemb Der, your
parish be divided into as many School DIS
tricts as there are 76s0ns, Pallages, or dense
ssttiemsntS therein, in which at least forty
pupils can be assembled, daily. five times
a week, during at least eight consecutive
months, for instruction.; that distinct
name, as we'll as number, be given to each
district; that its boundaries be such that
the town, village, or settlement shall be in
about the centre; and that, for each dis
trict thus laid out, three energetic Direct
ors be appointed (under Section 25) }, to
hold the election required by Section 10,
or, if no election take place, to make the |
necessary preparations for opening CEN
trail Town or Village School, early in o.
tober, in conformity to Sections 81, %, %,
etc. 1t would also, think, be advisable |
to request two or more lady residents Of |
each town and village, to aid the Directors
in inspecting the female departments of
the schools, and in promoting the careful |
moral instruction Of the pupils of both
sexes. .-#
A division of the Parish, according to
this basis, will not preclude the Directors
from hereafter establishing minor or aug-
a2dary schools wherever actually needed in
their district; but it will enable them,
now, to use the Scho01 fund to advantage. in
maintaining one central, permanent 5nstatu-
tion. The judiciousness of decreasing the
number Of districts and, consequently. the
number of Directors, in your parish, is en-
HANGED by the consideration that but fen,
doubtless, 9 your citizens can nan qford to
denote their personal dttentaOn title 0rg0aiso-