Clarksville weekly chronicle. (Clarksville, Tenn.) 1873-1890, 1878-06-22
Education Id Earnest.

in the city schools. Believing tina
no topic of local interest is so wei
deserving the close attention of tn,
public, and therefore so fit a subiec
of examination by the public journ
ais, we have made it our duty t
acquaint ourselves by every means
in oEr power with the working Of
the system in detail. We have
pleasure in adding that our efforts to
do so have been seconded by the
freest possible admission to the
schools and the promptest and most
courteous proffer of the means OF
observation and criticism. The Su-
perintendent and teachers have all
manifested a willingness, nay, a de
sire for publicity which could only
arise from the feeling that genuine
work was going on and that there
was nothing that needed conceal
ment from the public eye. We
have repeatedly visited the differ
ent schools without previous notice,
and witnessed the regular school
routine and always been invited to
examine the scholars after that rou-
tine was over, an invitation of which
we freely awaited ourselves. Nor
has this been all. The examina-
tiOns Of the three superior grades
have been in writing. We have
schedule now before Us of the grade
of merit of every scholar, furnished
us by Prof. Brooks, some of the de-
tails of which we will now enter
! upon.
The whole numberof marks given
for each examination paper, four or
five of which were furnished to each
scholar is 100, suppOsing the whole
paper to have been answered with
out defect. The rule is that if less
than G5 marks are attained in the
examination, that scholar fails to be
advanced to higher grade the next
session. In the seventh grade (the
highest class at present in the schooD
only one scholar failed to win his
advancement, and the average
number of marks is TAI. We give
the names of the four scholars who
attained the highest averages I: Geo.
Gilbert, S94; Abraham Shyer, SO;
Jesse Pickering, SOL, and Amanda
Shacklefor1, 80. On separate studies
some of these obtained higher num-
bers than these, going in two cases
as 80 and 90. But il will be said all
this proves nothing unless we know
exactly how these marks were at
tanned, exactly what questions
were asked and exactly what an
swers were given. This is precisely
the way in which we stated the
question to Prof. Brooks, and he
said, "YOu shall be satisfied if you |
will takethe trouble" Unanswered |
that we considered it our duty to |
satisfy ourselves and we were will |
ling to take any amount of trouble |
that might be necessary in order to |
do so. He then handed over to us all |
the questions that had been pro-
pounded to the scholars of the two
higher grades and the answers given
to them by some eight or ten of the
scholars who attained the highest |
marks, with the request that we
would examine them critically and |
determine for ourselves whether
the merits assigned had been duly
earned. We spent a whole after
noon in examining these papers
The questions were close
and eXacting- may say severe.
In arithmetic this was especially
the case many of the examples, we
are free to acknowledge, we should
have had difficulty in solving our
selves without calling in the aid of
algebra Not only could we not
find any defects for which the due
had failed to be made,
but in some of the.papers which OBJ
tanned 90 and % marks we were I'M
able to see why they did not receive
the whole hundred. All the schOi-
ars who passed this grade will form
the nucleus of the high school next
session. Before going to the next
class we will mention that the two
scholars who obtained the highest
marks in this class were the two
youngest boys in it, George Gilbert
and Alb. Shyer, being neither of
them much over fourteen years of
age also that Miss Amanda Shack
leford, the only girl in this class,
obtained two advances of grade in
one year.
Coming now to the sixth grade,
we find the class to be nearly double
the former in numbers, the seventh
nine scholars and this
seventeen. Only two Of this class
failed to pass to their higher grade
through obtaining less than 60
and the average of marks
through the class is 72I. One thing
should be noticed, however, that
five scholars in this class are girls,
and that the average marks of these
five are SOL, considerably higher
than the average of the boys in
either class. As in the higher class
we will now give the numbers at
tanned for all who obtained eighty
marks and upwards: Tandy Smith,
90 Bette Rudolph, 81 J. Martin,
IS; Charles Beaumont, 50; Mary
So; s. Elliot, 81. From
this it will appear that though the
average of marks is a trifle lower
than in the seventh grade, two
scholars in this class obtained higher
than any in the seventh
Tandy Smith accordingly is the
brag scholar of the school.