The Charleston daily news. [volume] (Charleston, S.C.) 1865-1873, 1871-10-06
EDUCATIONAL REFORM.
THE IMPROVEMENT OF OUR SYSTEM
OF PUBLIC SCHOOLS.
The University of South oarolina-No. 3.

OF PUBLIC SCHOOLS.
The University of South Carolina-No' D.
The right to tax for educational purposes
having now been indicated, all citizens have
right 10 demand of the State government tnat
the money shall no longer be squandereo' as
heretofore, to no purpose. Tney nave a rish'
to demand that less be attempted and more be
performed; and that the really large and mu-
nihcent appropriation made for education snail
prove benefit to the people, ana not the prey
of incompetent teachers and Idle officials, as
during the last two years.
Let us begin at the head, the University OF
South Carolina. 1t is now pitiable mendi-
cant for students, instead of rejecting, With
impartial justice, every applicant for admission
incompetent or unprepared to enter its en-
closures, and thus lifting up the standard OF
education, and stimulating to their true mis-
sion the high schools of the State. 1t Is not an
honor now to be admitted into the classic
walls of Alma Mater-babies will be accepted,
If they come, and certificates Of merit can be
expected by children, In the most lavish pro-
alton, (having been lowered under the in
fuence Of the public men who carried the
State into the Charleston Democratic Conven-
>tion, which caused the split that defeated
Douglas, elected Lincoln and brought on the
war, and who, as cause or occasion, are re-
sponsible for most Of the mischiefs existingD
continues low and tends downward. At the
same time that the humanities are neglected,
the grand name of university is assumed, and
the institution processes to be able to turn out
frst-rate doctors and lawyers. Neglecting Its
true mission of directing and lifting up the
high schools and academies, and of laying the
bases of a liberal culture of young men as men,
and not for any special callicg, but for human
life and for all callings, it parades Its medical
school and its law-school before sceptical
public, and claims great consideration for not
doing what it ought to, do, and for doing what
1t ought not to have attempted. Political
causes, and the putting of colored men on the
board of trustees, and the fear of mixture
of races among its students, may have excited
some dstrust; but the South Carolina College,
In changing Its name, has changed Its nature;
it has departed from its legitimate mission,
proven unfaithtul 10 the educational require.
msnts of the State, been converted from
good college into the worst university in the
entire land, and this Is the chaef reason of Its
present most patent and signal failure. If 1t
can command no more confidence and draw
no more support than at present, would ii not
be good thing to rent out Its tenements and
professors houses, convert its recitation halls
into livery stables, and abandon the attempt
at higher State education altogether
The catalogue Of 1871 ls before me. The
long list Of medical graduates numbers four;
and their graduation cost themselves four
hundred dollars apiece, and the State, In the
shape OF salaries to the medical faculty, house
room, &C., over ten thousand dollars, or over
twenty five hundred dollars each. Have the
people looked at this thing fairly? Twelve
thousand dollars to graduate four young doc
tors; and how many liues 1t will, In the course
of time; also cost, the day Of judgment alone
can disclose. This same twelve thousand dol
lars, over fve-sixths of which was paid by the
State, could have educated, at medical institu-
tions with better apparatus and facilities for
dissection, observation, &C., twenty-four
young men, giving them five hundred each.
If We must pay for men to kill us scientifcal-
ly, let us show common sense about 1t. Let
the Legislature abolish the medical faculty OF
the university, or make it dependent upon
its tuition fees, and appropriate five thous-
and dollars to pay for the education Of the
young men in the killing art, at five hundred
dollars each, say in New York or Philadelphia,
andt will do exactly more than twice as
much as the medical faculty OF the South Caro-
lima University have done, at cost OF twelve
thousand dollars, during the last two years.
Aud why keep the professorshlp OF law? The
professor of history and political economy
should surely find it in his exact line to lecture
as much on constitutional and State lev es
, there Is any necessity for in scheme OF hoe-
raj education. These branches of study are
not needed at present in our highest institu-
ton. The very name of University, with its
shallow pretension, should be abandoned,
and the South Carolina College should
again address itself to the glorious
work of leading the education of the State.
Let FIVE trustees, and five only,be elected, and
lot politician o. colored man among them,
but such men as c. G. Memminger and George
S. Bryan, whose earnest zeal for the education
of our colored people is so well known that
the colored people will trust them. Let the
institution return for two years of the course
to prescribed and compulsory curriculum,
and bring up the public high schools and pri-
vate academies to its standard, and let the
4bior and senior classes alone pursue elective
studies. But this paper is already too long.
Beginning our examination at the head, we
find 1t, as we shall find the whole body OF the
State educational system, unsound and full of
wounds and bruises and putrefying sores.
FAIRFIELD.
THE TEXAS ELECTIONS.
JEFFERSON, TEXAS October 5.
The election Is progressing quietly. The
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