Delaware tribune. [volume] (Wilmington, Del.) 1867-1877, 1874-09-17
A New school Law Needed.
Contributed for the Commercial.

Contributed for the Comwerciall
''Zeno,' in his first article on educational sub
jects, gives quite deplorable view of school
matters in Delaware, but he does not tell the
whole Truth. From the tenor Of. his remarks
one would infer that he does not know the actin
Al condition of the schools, in Sussex county at
least. The law obliges us to raise thirty dollars
per district, before drawing the State funds
and great many districts just raise that
amount and no more. The superintendent of
State funds to each district IN Sussex county is
generally Il little over sixty dollars. This year,
it is sixty-two dollars and lightweight cents.
Put that to thirty dollars the sum required for
each district to raise by taxation or voluntary
contribution. and we have the liberal sum OF
ninety-two dollars and eighty-eight cents for
the school year. Taking thirty dollars per month
az the average OF our teachers wages, lady
teachers generally receive twenty, and gentle
men teachers sometimes forty,) and We have
enough funds for three months, putting Incl
dentals at the lowest possible figure. True,
some districts raise az high As two hundred dol
lars per year, but they are the exception, not
the rule. The average time OF school is certain
ly not more than five months.
Many have wondered how it is that Sussex
county receives less per district than Now Cas-
tie and Kent counties. One reason deserves
mention. Some thirty-fye years ago We built a
court house. Five thousand dollars Of the school
fund. derived from the sale of tho
State lands,) we're taken. whether
rightly Or not, for this purpose, and has
never been replaced We thus lose three hun.
bred dollars yearly. 1t is to he hoped that our
Levy Court AT its next meeting will attend to
this matter, and have the amount replaced. A
part of the members were in favor of ordering it
paid at the la-t meeting, hut they were in the
minority
NJ to h"oks We have all varieties No differ
ence how poor II text book may be, some copies
OF 1t will ind their way down here. We have
some good ones, to be sure but often the yarie-
ty Of them eompels teachers to have three or
ioar CLASSES where they would rather have
nut one, OF readers we have San
derh, Sargents and McGuffey's; Of seoers-
phies, Mitchelrs, Wsren's, Corneils, Monteith's
Ne, Grammar, arithmetics and spoilers are
hardly 80 much diversified but the rule with
them as with the others is to get whatever kind
the country merchant may happen to have
Our school buildings are generally small
(about 1sS2!,) and poorly furnished with school
apparatus. There is not one school room in ten
That has respectable black board. Comfortable
seate, desks, teachers platforms and geographi-
cal charts are almost unknown. The writer At
Tended public school in Sussex county from
1857 to 1870, aud for seats we had benches made
oil pine slabs without backs They have been
since substituted by others with backs perfectly
upright and seats exactly level, compelling thei,
occupants to preserve an apgularity by no mean,
pleasant or elae to slip forward and make hal
circle with the spinal column
There il quite difference between the Nc.
quirements Of the children OF Sussex comfy
Delaware, and those Of adjoining counties OF Ma
ryland Take Wicomico for instance. TIL,
examination Of teachers improvement OF scbo,
buildings, together with the length Of the schoo
year, Is compared with ours, has placed he
children far ahead of ours Of the same age a,
tile road TO knowledge l knew one worthy cit
izen who moved from Sussex to Wicomico, be
cause he had large family OF children ant
could not think it right to debar them Of eluca.
tional privileges.
Some Of our citizens think that new law
could be framed which would need but few ottic,
cors in addition to the Levy Court. They ssy
two examiners for each county would BIO puai
Gent, and that the amount needed To run eight
or ten months school in each district should be
added to the county tax and collected with it, in
s stead Of each district eyyinE and collecting its
tainly should not daily longer, but should make
more adequate provision for schools than 10 now
afforded. PLAIN gpxAKYr
DE1xAa- Del, August 1874.