The Cecil Whig. [volume] (Elkton, Md.) 1841-current, 1874-03-21
THE SCHOOL REPORT.

We published last week and also repub.
lish this week the Report of the Public
Schools of the county for the school yeal
ending with the Summer term, September,
1878. The Report should have been pub.
lished at an earlier day, but has been with,
held by unavoidable delays. The Report
gives very gratifying exhibit of the pub.
lie school system of the county, but there
is still much room for improvement, espe.
cially in the matter of teaching, or com
mon report does the schools and their teach
ers great injustice. The total number oil
school houses in the county are n. Out
of 101 teachers, only % of them are males,
who are all, however, distinguished as
" Principals. The training of the rising
generation, by this showing, is largely in
the hands of females, Oh whom very
be hoped that they fully realize the situa.
ton.
1t is gratifying to find that the spirit OF
public education has grown upon the Board
of School Commissioners, and that they
have imbibed its great principles to large
extent, while directing the details of the
business of the public schools. The great
need of universal education has developed
itself in the minds of the Board, to what
extent is evinced in their action of placing
the colored schools on the same footing
with the white schools.
When the small per cent of attendance
of pupils at school is considered, the friends
Of universal education will have cause fol
apprehension, and the advocates of com
pulsory attendance at school have strong
confirmation of their belief that the State
should see that the children attend school,
after the expense has been incurred in pro-
viding buildings and teachers. Out OF
1884 white children and 219 colored chill
dren of tie age to attend school, an aver
age attendance of only 2,l13 whites and
rs cololed is shown. This is deplorabl
More than half the children of proper age
wasting their precious days of youth i'll
idleness, while their parents have offered
4
desire for education Of their children does
not exist among what is Familiarity termed
the laboiing class, that used to, when an
education was not so easily at:ainable.
OF the ten studies (or nine, if spelling and
reading are considered synonymous, which
they may properly be- in common school
course such as the State of Maryland can
aspire to at present, Algebra and Philoso-
ply might profitably be dropped, or sub
stituted by Drawing, which is one of the
most useful branches of knowledge for
every mechanic and farmer. Algebra is
seldom ever thought of in the ordinary
business Of life; while those who possess a
taste for philosophical studies will find
time to pursue them after the years for a
public education have been passed. We
might pursue this subject much further
but our space will not allow, and we have
only room for one word on the most i'm
por;ant subject connected with our Public
Schools, which is the incubus of debt that
weighs it down, which is withheld from
the Report, for what cause we are not able
to say, but the interest paid on the debt is
given as 81, go 70. This heavy sum ex-
pended in interest would more than suffice
to build first Class school house every
year, and be Il permanent gain to the coun.
ty. We believe the debt is about $4,000
and it is the poorest economy to keep such
a debt hanging over the Board with an
annual interest which will soon double the
principal. Far better for the tax payers to
have sum levied that would pay off this
debt. Better than for them to pay inter-