Knoxville weekly chronicle. [volume] (Knoxville, Tenn.) 1870-1875, 1874-05-06
The schOOl-BoOk Question in Jefferson
County.

Official signature of my friend DR.. Ander-
son, on this subject. The Doctor recognizes
the question of uniformity of books in
our free schools y as the dgonv of the
hour" / am not disposed to question the
Doctors competency to pronounce upon
the existence of an dg0nyn in regard to
the NATTER for he sounded the first and
only discordant note that L heard. Those
who have taken any notice of the progress
OF this question the past few months, in
this county, will readily believe the Doc
tor has been sick, and some may even sus-
pect that he is not well yet, when they read
his version of the matter. The inference
by one unacquainted with the facts in the
case would certainly he about this: that
on the 9th of April few of the Board of
Directors met in cambridge, and, without
his knowledge or that of the people of the
county, enacted the farce of adopting a se-
ries of text books obnoxious to those for
whose use they Were designed. And the
inference would not be violent one, that
this "small number of the Board u took
advantage of his absence to impose
upon the good people and their
"helpless children" "series " of books
not only lacking in adaptation to
wants of the times, and our people and
children, especially; but series,u the
ty in the calamities of bankruptcy; and
all this too, while other books "in all re-
spects better adapted to the growth and
nature of cur free schools " were offered for
/" less than half the cost Of the series "
adopted,
Now, of course, the DIR. intended that no
such differences should be drawn from his
mode of presenting the case to the good
people to whom he so Obligingly tenders
his services. And while others might con-
strue the matter in light different from
that intended, /, being personal friend of
the DTS, and better acquainted with his
idiosyncracies, can readily understand just
what he meant. Some who have no chill
dren to suffer by the use of the "univer-
sity SERIES" and have not sustained the
relation to him that have, in time past,
may not feel as duly grateful to the DIR. for
the heroic exploit he accomplished in
recklessly throwing himself into the
breach and declaring the whole thing
null and void,i as / am in an attitude to
do. Some may even question his preroga-
tive in the matter, but 1 insist that
he had just as perfect a right to
veto " the action Of that Board as /,
or Dick Turpin," or tom Walker" or
any other important individual in the
county had. L suggest, moreover, that the
Doctor is animated by laudable desire "to
give the entire county chance to speak
out " in regard to the matter.
| do not insist on the Doctors answering
the following heterogeneous, but suggest
that an answer would indicate what
'chancen the county has enjoyed ito speak
out .: Were you apprised, Doctor, that
some two months antecedent to the 6th,of
April a committee of six, of which you
were honored with the craftsmanship, was
appointed by the Board of Education to
to select and recommend textbooks for
use in the public schools of Jefferson coun-
ty ? Were you present, "in the town of
cambridge" on the l4th of March, at a
meeting appointed for the Board of Edu-
cation to receive and consider the report of
said committee, and adopt "uniform
series of books " for use in the public
schools in the county,? Did you, at that
meeting, Uer6dHy report that you had con-
ferred with all the members of the COM
mittee except myself, and that they con-
Cured with you in recommending certain
books? Did you, at that meeting, Doctor,
suggest, owing to the small mum.
Der OF the Board present, the postpouement
of any action, in adopting books, to the
9Th of April, when the courts would be in
session, and fuller meeting of the Board
could likely be secured? Did YOU know
anything of this meeting, Dr.? Did YOU
send your son with instructions to the
Board to go on with the work of adoption
y
the Board accepted as amounting practi-
cally to this?
Again, L hear persOns-with kind of
y Yankee curiosity" of course-enquiring
how you, being in bed sick, became so far
apprised ofthe " discomfort in the county -
as to impell you, from a sense of duty"
TO issue an edict multiplying the action of
the Board on the 9th? Did the agent of
certain publishing company visit you at
your home between the Sth and 10th of
April? Had you been in correspondence
with this agent and the company he re.
presented, previous To the 9Th of April
Was he the most discontinued individual
you had seen? Did he complain of hav-
ing been disappointed in any way? I'll
the series of books he represented had
been adopted on the 9Th, do you think YOU
would have felt it your duty" to pro-
claim . the whole thing null and void?"
Dld that agent represent "series "
consisting of lone speller, two
small readers added to the Testament with
Psalms, two small arithmetics, one gram
mar and one geography
There is no question with me as to the
Doctors being a good mathematician. 1
my tuition in that curious branch
Of science from him. Tbs Doctor always
exhibited an amazing adfoitness in making
- crooked figures "tell their story re-
straight" But never duly APP
preciated his skill in this respect. I'll I |
his effort at computing the cost
Of" one set ofthe University series of school |
books All the romantic capers [ had |
ever seen cut by figures, under the skillful
of some curious calculator
danced into my mind and passed into total
eclipse, before the "ansWern the Doctor |
- got " to his problem, Sl6.36. The Doctor |
mas been Superintendent of the Public |