Clarksville weekly chronicle. (Clarksville, Tenn.) 1873-1890, 1874-03-14
A FEW THOUGHTS FOR A THINKING
PEOPLE. al5

In presenting again few of the
many arguments that may be adduced
in favor of sustaining by financial aid
a system of public instruction, l have
no apology to offer, other than the deep
interest | feel in the cause of educa-
ton, and an earnest desire to have the
subject we'll understood by every
honest, thinking mind.
Private schools do not meet the ed
ucational demands of the people.
Through their instrumentality but a
limited portion of the children of the
people are educated. Children of
wealthy parentage have the chance at
least of obtaining liberal education.
Those of less wealthy parentage must
be content with but moiety of intel
lectual food; while the child of the
poor, but honest laborer, for the want
of means to pay the tuition fee, made
extravagantly high by the demand for
fashionable instruction, must groyel in
ignorance-the foster parent of vice
and crime.
In private schools, the teacher, how
ever competent he may be, cannot re-
sist the temptation to pander to the
wishes of over fond parents to have
their children advanced beyond their
true standard of attainment; while on
the other hand, the public school
teacher, made independent of popular
fayors, and untrammeled by parental
restrictions and the fear of loss of pat
ronage, can carry out freely and fear
lessly the true purposes for which he
is laboring-the molding of character
and the development of true manhood
and womanhood.
In private enterprises there is more
room for quackery than in public
schools. The aspirant for the position
of teacher comes recommended with
letters of introduction, references,
ETC., testimonials often signed hastily
by parties who know absolutely moth
ing of the qualifications of the appli-
cant, or who are biased by kindred ties
or other personal motives, and On these
recommendations alone he is employed,
having, perhaps, but the one qualifca-
tion-efrontery, which enables him
with the aid of the formidable testi-
monials he exhibits to secure and hold
his position to the sad injury of the
children hungering for intellectual
food.
But the applicant for a position in
the public schools, however we'll. re-
commended he may come, though gid
ed with collegiate honors, and though
he may bear ample testimonials of ex-
perience and skill in the art of teach
ing, must give evidence by rigid test
before competent examining board
that he has acquired a thorough knowl-
edge of the branches necessary to be
taught, and that he has carefully pre-
pared himself by labor and study to
teach those branches.
Learning should be the least qualif-
cation possessed by the teacher, and
that should be so thorough that, like
Socrates and Newton, he fully under
stands that he knows comparatively
nothing. He should possess an mex
haustible stock of patience, be tenn
perate, moral, truthful and industrious.
He should be sufficiently versed in
human nature to read and judge cor
rectly the character and capacity of
his students. He should not only be
proficient in the branches he teaches,
but he must possess the capacity TO
impart his information to others and
to render his subject interesting well
as instructive. He must also exercise
a magnetic influence over his pupils,
roofing out by force Of character and
example all that is evil, and ENGRAVING
all that is noble and good. Such quail
fcations in teacher cannot be judged
of by the unlettered and unskiIled
parent. He is forced to employ the
man who is to instruct his children on
the list Of recommendations he brings,
and doubtless often decides between
applicants on the comparative length
of their lists.
In private schools there is no con-
centrated co-workirg effort to the at
tainment of proficiency in the profess
ion; but on the contrary, the fierce
rivalries engendered, as is too often the
case, by conflicting interests lead them
to seek undue advantages and thus
preclude the mere possibility of union
for definite purpose. This is striking
ly exhibited by the reading rooms,
social halls, lyceums, &c, of those
cities where effective free school sys-
TENS are in operation, as contrasted
with the bar saloons and low places of
resort 10 cities where their genial in
fuences are not felt For ignorance,
intemperance and vice 60 band in hand.
The education Of the masses operates
by the irresistible laws oe progress to