The New Orleans bulletin. [volume] (New Orleans [La.]) 1874-1876, 1874-05-07
THE PUBLIC SCHOOLS.

The more we reflect upon the system OF
mixed schools which was inangurated here
/ by the sanetimonioas and hypocritical Par
son Conway. and which is being persistentlt
i followed up by his successor. (colored by
name and uature) Brown, the more thor
oughly are we satisfied that it is pernieious,
and shonld be troWned down by everg eiti-
zen who has the permanent welfare OF both
! races at heart In a. able article on the CO.
education Of the races, which we published
Sunday last from Scribner's Magazine, the
writer says:
1t is well known that the promiscuous
association of moral as we'll as social grades
Of children constitutes the most objection
able feature in the public school idea, and
school boards are compelled to shape their
districts, particularly in cities, so as to sep
arate the fonler classes as far as practicable
from the more decent; but even under the
best arrangements it has been found impOs
sible to make the public school system any
where acceptable to all the people i'll any
community.
LII the late slave States difficulties of this
sort are peculiarly troublesome because Of
the influence of slavery in creating wide
social differences. which at best disneline
an Influential part of the Southern people to
support any general school system. If to
this be added we'll founded moral objec-
tions, to say nothing of physical peculiari
ties the attempt to mix the races, which
| might otherwise be considered vain and
/ foolish, should be regarded as base and
malicious
This is the we'll settled conviction of a
Northern man who has given the subject
/ L
are simply irrefutable. In referring to the
attempt 10 mix the schools at the North, he
relates, that in both New York and Boston,
it is barely tolerated and those schools
large classes of the people.
He declares that the aversion which the
whites feel for intimate association With
the blacks is not simply matter of preju-
dice of pride OF of taste, but the fact that
the blacks, as a class, move on a far lower
moral plane furnishes the great moral rea-
son which should prevent coedueation ev-
erywhere that negroes are numerous. In
kindness to an amable people !" he IRE
Trains from giving revolving details"
After summing up the matter very ably,
lie asserts, that this much the negroes may
justly clain--and that is enough--that the
public schools provided for them shall be
e4Hai in all respects to those provided for
the whites" We are entirely of his opinion
that equal schools are enough and it is
all that the white people of the South should
submit to. They have too long maintained
silence and exercised forbearance i'll this
matter, aud the time has arrived when they
should demand a separation OF the races in
schools or withdraw their children and re-
fuse to pay the tax which is levied for school
purposes.
We know that many persons who now
pay this tax have Withdrawn their children
from the schools by reason of negro children
having been forced into them, but there are
still many who are ignorant of the extent
to which the ANAL gamation has been carried
The influences which are exerted over the
children and teachers of our public schools
are Of the very worst character, and, aside
from the question of the mixture of blacks
and whites, should caHse parents to reflect
seriously upon permitting their children to
be subjected to them.
The School Board, for the most part, is
composed of violent and yindetive pariisans
who, with some few notable exceptions.
have neither mental nor social qualifications
for their positions, and 1t is evident that
under their rule, we have nothing to expect
but amalgamation and deterioration.
We seriously advise the white people to
ponder upon this question, for we believe
that home instruction or no instruction, for
the time being, were better than the main
tenance of a system which cannot but be |
productive of evil to tie community at
large.