Clarksville weekly chronicle. (Clarksville, Tenn.) 1873-1890, 1879-08-30
Objections 20 the schooI board.

the Office of superintendent of the
Public Schools and one of the
teachers desks with two gentlemen
from Nashville instead OF employ
ing persons already living in Clarks
vile.
Now, before answering Vidocq':
complaint, we will remark that il
seems a strange way of discussing 9
matter in which GAINESVILLE alone is
concerned to carry ones complaint
to Nashville, where people are not
interested. The columns of either
of the GAINESVILLE Journals are always
open for the discussion of matters OF
public interest, and we can answer
for this journal that Vidoeq's strict
ures would have been readily printed
and respectfully considered if offered
for our columns.
Here is the point where we first
and most completely diverge from
Vidocq He says, at seems strange
THAI O1dThSNlAlG Cctl
furnish man with sufficient mod
icum of brains to fill the petty place
of Superintendent Of a free school. :"
1t is quite certain that Vidocq and
ourselves will never come to an
agreement when he starts with the
assumption that the superintend-
ency of public schools is a petty
/ place. We believe it to be the most
important public office to fill in the
city, the Office on which the we'll
being of the community depends
more than any other. Starting,
therefore, so far apart, it is evident
that we shall never come together,
and we continue this paper, not for
the purpose of converting Vidocq,
but of informing the public.
We will say, then, that the Board
of Education did do exactly what
VidOcq speaks of when they COM
menced organizing the public
schools; they did employ persons
already engaged in teaching in the
city and county, with the earnest
wish that they might be found COM
petent, and that if any such. have
been dropped, it was not without
fair trial of their competency. W.
will add to this that the Board de-
sires nothing more earnestly than
that the desks in its public schools
may be filled with ladies and gen
tlemen raised in GAINESVILLE; but,
that this may be, they must be
trained in the public school system.
Mere scholarship, be it ever so good,
is not by itself a qualification; the
methods of teaching, of discipline
and of the general conduct of school
business, as now practised in the
public schools, constitute speciality
which can only be acquired by
special training, and when the Board
had to fill the two positions in ques-
tiOn they considered it to be neces-
sary to ascertain that this training
had been acquired as the very first
qualification for appointment. Even
scholarship was made second to
this.
That our GAINESVILLE boys and
girls should get this training we
deem to be very desirable. Much
of it is attainable in the public
schools as now organized, and there
is a valuable though much neglected
institution in the State wherein the
training can be perfected in the best
possible manner; we speak of the
State Normal College at Nashville.
Whenever our own young people
become so qualified we shall deem
it most fortunate that the desks in
our public schools can be filled from
their ranks; but till this be the case,
the Board of Education has only
one course before it, and that is to
procure the most efficient corps of
teachers which the means at their
disposal enables them to employ,
whether they come from GAINESVILLE
or Nashville, or elsewhere. Their
first duty is to the scholars the
teachers come only second. These
latter will have every possible at
tention paid to their interests con-
sistent with the weIl-being of the
former.
As to the public dissatisfaction
with the Board, we believe it to
exist simply in the imagination of
Vidocq. He has evidentlya private
grievance in the matter, and has
been confding it TO the sympathetic
bosom of a friend or two, and he
has taken their tears of cOmmisera-
ton as Il demonstration of public
sentiment. The Board knows of
no Opposition" to do away with,
and, if it did, would not alter its
course. Whenever the time comes
to elect new members, men can
vote for candidates of their own
way of thinking, and then, if the
public desires it, every person who
wishes can get a place in the schools
for himself, or for "his sisters and
his cousins and his aunts" from an
accommodating Board, irrespective
of the interests of the scholars.
Whenever the public desires such
Board, the present incumbeRts
will cheerfully give way to make
room for it. but. till then, will adj
here to their present principles of
action.
City improvements.
Building is still actively prOsecu-
ted i'm GAINESVILLE. AIr. Hall has
completed the brick work of his