Clarksville weekly chronicle. (Clarksville, Tenn.) 1873-1890, 1877-09-01

see the prosperous, well-ordered
State that it is.
The exercises of the afternoon
commenced with Prof. YarrelI's
practical essay on,the advantages of
public schools well considered
and well written paper.
Next in order was the well digest
ed paper of Prof. Legare on Female
Education, which was grounded on
the assumption that the female char
acter was not inferior to the male,
but diverse from it and required di-
verse training. Some discussion
arose between the reader and Mr..
Broadhurst on the subject of the CO.
education of males and females,
which was advocated by the latter
gentleman, but opposed by Prof.
Legare.
Lastly, on Friday night it was APP
pointed for DIR. Shearer, President
of the South Western Presbyterian
University, to deliver an address on
+" The Relation of Higher and Lower
Schools" The President apologized
for the absence of any special pre-
paration in his address, on the plea
of having been engaged in superin-
tending the building operations at
the University. OF course the apol-
ogy is accepted with regret, for, if a
little time had been taken for pre-
ViOus thought, we cannot help think
ing that the whole address would
have been cOuched in a different
spirit. AS it was, an expression
throughout Of a feeling Of injury
and even ingratitude attributed
to the people of GAINESVILLE and
of the State, pervaded the whole
address which we were for some
time at a loss to assign to its
true source, nor are we certain
yet that we carried away a precise
conception of the exact bearing of
of these complaints. But the chief
grievance seems to have been the
institution of Normal Schools in the
State. DIR. Shearer seems to have
considered that this step was trench
ing on the just claims Of the South
Western University, together with
tho fOY7r O+bay 1oDO 4iOnoI ooI
leges in the State which $50 we I'M
derstOOd him) ought to have been
depended upon for furnishing teach
ers to the public schools. If we
have mistated the scope of the adj
dress, we hold ourselves always
amenable to correction but if this
is the position of our worthy presi-
dent we must express our entire dis
sent from it. Hon. Leon TrOus-
dale, the State Superintendent, suf-
ficiently answered it by showing
that, even if these institutions were
the best adapted to the purpose in
view so far as they go, yet that their
graduates are entirely inadequate
in number for the purpose, since the
the number of teachers required in
the State is 5000, while the whole
number Of the graduates turned out
by all five of the colleges collective
ly is but little over 100 per annum.
This relieves us of the necessity of
discussing the question whether the
graduates of these institutions would
be the men best adapted to the du-
ties of teachers in the common
schOOls-We think not.
Mr.. TrOusdale closed the cOnven-
ton with a Observation-Disclosures
ment Of the hospitality of the citi-
zens of GAINESVILLE and of the inter-
est manifested by them in the sub
jects discussed. We are quite sure
that we are justified in reciprocating
these acknowledgements on the part
of our citizens and in thanking the
highly intellectual gentlemen who
have honored us with a visit for the
entertainment and instruction they
have afforded us.