The native Virginian. [volume] (Orange Court House, Va.) 1867-187?, 1868-12-25
EDUCATION,

of our State. Many are beginning to
think that we must have a commdti
school system, In spite of its SAVIOR III
agrarianism, of it's antagonism to the
principles of Free Trade, of its qiles-
tiOnable effects on the moral, as we'll as
the politicalweltarc Of our people, we are
driven towards it, as one of the inevita-
Bile consequences of our defeat. IT we
think. as most thinking Virginians
probably still do, that common schools
are not desirable, we must nevertheless
contemplate the fact that we are likely
to have them, whether we desire it or
not, and .bethink us how to make the
best of the system If it comes.
In our present strait our greatest
need seems to be to recover from our
poverty, to make wealth. and, question
general education as we may, regarding
othermatters, it certainly makes wealth.
The hands that use labor saving ma
chimes to advantage, that use material
without waste, that do double work by
adroit management, that accomplish all
the wonders that strike Southern eye
in the North, such hands are guided by
heads that have been to school ; and the
laboring classes cannot be taught ex-
cept in common schools. With such
hands and heads our own people have
to compete soon, we hope.
Meanwhile what gallant struggle
our boys, of the class thatwent to school
formerly, are making for an education,
in spite OF poverty The teachers say
there was never such general earnest
ness, never such general success.
We had, and we have, good schools in
Virginia, better than were, or are found
In any other state, we think; and this is
why we think so. Since the time when
that noble christian gentleman, Lewis
Coleman, and others such as he, adopt
ed the calling of teacher, and showed
that the best birth, the best talents, and
the best attachments in our state were
not too good to be devoted to that call
ing, it has been respected and esteemed
as it never was before, and as it is not
in any other state. And so, happily
for our poor afflicted state, for years
past, a large part of each graduating
class from each of our colleges, some oil
the best of those trained in all our
schools, have chosen to be teachers
Young men who in every other state
wonld reject such pursuit, whom the
Bar, the Pulpit, or the wider fields of
| commerce would attract, are attracted
by the honour, the confidence and the
remuneration which teachers here en :
Joy. The men of second-rate attain
ments, or worse. the unsuccessful law
yers and preachers, the men even worse
than these, SO scathingly depicted in
one of last years numbers of the
"Southern Review" cannot find work
as teachers in Virginia. And who can
| tell how far the character of the state
has been ennobled by the lessons, and
| by the examples of the class of men who
haze conducted the best schools in Vir-
ginia, during the last thirty years
better hands than hold it in any other
state? DIR. Sears tells us that the av
erage monthly pay of teachers even in
Massachusetts, is forty dollars. Some
reports on the. Americal school systems
prepared for the British government,
and lately published in theesRonnd Ia
blc," show that the average is far lower.
The persons who work for these wag-
es are not as good teachers nor as good
associates for boys as our Virginian
teachers. I.5
Massachusetts, would laugh as this, If
Massachusetts, read the Native Virgin
ian, but we know it is So Let us re-
joice in it, and cherish it, and let us
hope that the boys training, and to be
trained, by such men, well meet the try
ing times before them no less gallantly
and herolcally, oh may it be more sue
cessfully, than their fathers met the
fiery trial through which we have lately
passed.
iEp Speaking of the reports concern
ing a modification of the Stay Law in
this State and of the relations of debtor