Knoxville weekly chronicle. [volume] (Knoxville, Tenn.) 1870-1875, 1873-10-29
FIELD AND FARM.
OUR PUBLIC SCHOOLS,

The people of the State have shown q
very encouraging and eommendable inter-
est in maintaining public schools. Public
sentiment induced the Legislature and
County Courts to make provision 10y taxa
ton for their establishment and mainten-
ence. But this is not the end of the work
the public must do in this great cause.
We learn from our very active and efficient
County Superintendent that in some parts
of the county there is great Indifference on
the part of parents as to the regularity
of their children's attendance at
school The directors in the various
districts have done their best to secure
competent teachers. The State is doing
its duty in gradually increasing the school
revenue so as to insure good schools most of
the year. But all this is of little avail
unless parents are made to appreciate the
importance ofthe advantages these schools
afford, and profit by them. We know
that in many States where the public
schools were first opened the same difficult
tn had to be met. There are some par
ents who actually need the services of
their children, and who, though fully APP
preciating the benefits of an education,
can not spare them to attend regularly.
There are Others again who do not
realize the value of knowledge, and
who, for uifling excuses, keep
their children at home. The former
class deserve sympathy, but the latter
class merit reproach. The first class are
sure to find some way to give their chill
dren school privileges, for the parent who
fully appreciates the necessity of education
will certainly give it to them in some way.
1t is more particularly to the latter class
that public sentiment should be direct
ed. The State is directly and deeply
interested in the education of the
young, and those who can and yet will
not send their children to school, where
they can prepare themselves to intelligent
ly discharge the duties of citizenship
when it devolves upon them, should be COM
PEELED either by force Of public sentiment
or by law to do it. The parent who will
fully and in defiance of free education, al
lows his children to grow up in ignorance
and vice is guilty of a crime against God |
and the State. BY his neglect of parental |
duty and of the obligation imposed upon
him by his citizenship in An enlightened
republic, he jeopardizes the moral and re
ligious character of the community in !
which be lives and the safety Of the State, |
which has given him unlimited personal |
rights and liberty and opportunities for |
happiness and prosperity uuequslled in any |
other government now in existence So |
long as we have good schools provided al /,
public expense, it is the boundeR duty of !
parents and citizens interested III good
government to see that children attend |
them. We have idle boys on our streets |
who have no excuse for not being in school.
They are growing up in Ignorance and
vice be criminals or paupers-a tax upon
the State. There are such boys in every
citv and town and school district in East
Tennessee If their parents or guardians,
by public talk and general condemnation
of their conduct, were made to feel that
their children were watched and their own
neglect talked about, they would soon
awaken to sense of duty. 4 little effort
on the part Of the friends of public schools
is now needed in this direction to render of
some public good the schools which the
Hberality of the State has provided.
Corn Cob Meal for Stock