Staunton vindicator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1860-1896, 1880-09-10

Major 81. has done more than any other
one man to introduce into our schools the |
thorough study of English, together with !
Elocution and the Natural sciences, and to
revolutionize and improve the course and
method of educating young men-ln this |
section, where, In the case of every young
"hopeful," who sets out for an education,
the old plan, was persisted In of putting
him at Latin and Greek, when, perhaps
ten years of age and wholly ignorant of his
own language, as well as of arithmetic and
other things indispensable to useful edu-
cation, on the long exploded principle that
Elf boy is going to study Latin, it is not
worth while for him to study English, and
if he ever expects to pursue the higher
mathematics, he needn't trouble himself
with arithmetic" and where, therefore,
confined to Latin and Greek and perhaps
algebra, to the exclusion of other studies
Of practical utility, he was kept at it from
years end to years end, without even the
beneficial result of expanding and training
the youthful mind to as great degree as
has since be found to follow the study of
some other things of more practical
value to the pupil in after life. May not
this account, to some extent, for the great
want Of practicalness, ingenuity, inven-
tiveness. business capacity, in word, of
success in life that has attended SO many
of our ''fnely educated" gentlemen for a
generation or two back?
This ssold plan,'' it is to be regretted, is
not even yet wholly done away with in all
parts of our country. But the sensible
teaching and efforts in this direction Of SO
eminent an educator as Prof. T. Price,
backed now by some of his distinguished
associates at the University of Virginia
and others, may be expected soon to have
the effect of putting entirely behind us,
here in Virginia at least, all such absurd
| and pernicious notions.
| Three years ago
CAPT, 81. L. HOOVER,
an able and experienced teacher, organized
here 1.-THE Hoover High SCHOOL, for boys.
in which the pupils, who are uniformed
and drilled with arms, have the advantage
! of all the opportunities afforded in our best
classical schools. This school-requ
the services of two. or more assistants-is
well patronized by both town and country
and very successfully and ably conducted.
| MIR. SAMUEL Fl. COLEMAN,
a fine scholar and experienced teacher, who
for number of years conducted the
Brooksville Academy in Maryland, has
also opened here ''Select School" for
boys, which has been in successful opera
tion for one year.
THE CITY HIGH SCHOOL.
And finally, to complete the notice of
the present facilities for male education in
Staunton. in connection with the two last
schools alluded to, must be mentioned the
high school department of the City Public
Schools. This is under the immediate
charge of Mr.. VIM. A. Bowles, a good
scholar and accomplished teacher, whose
peculiar fitness for school-room work is
here afforded fair play by the graded sys-
tenn, which excludes from his room all pri-
mary and grammar scholars and brings
before him for tutorage those and those
only, who having completed the lower
branches Including geography, grammar,
arithmetic &C., are we'll prepared to appro-
pirate the instruction here given.
In this, therefore, and the two schools
just before mentioned, Staunton surely
possesses very superior advantages for the
higher education of young men; advanta-
ges in fact, SO superior that although less
extensively known. they nevertheless emit
tie our "City of the Hills to be regarded
as 'scentre of education" for males, no
less than her famous seminaries of learn
| ing justly claim for her that distinction as
respects the education of the other sex.
| THE SUMMARIES.
1t is essentially, ho viewer, her famous
female schools which, for more than
twenty years, have made Staunton justly
celebrated throughout the land as a great
| educational centre of the South. To
these, young ladies come annually in large
numbers, not only from all parts of the
South, but from many States of the North
and West; and, pars pass@, with the ad-
vance of years and the increase of num-
bers have been the improved facilities for
study. And to-day the continued pros
perity of these institutions, their COM
| modious and elegant buildings, the extent
and thoroughness of their course of in
struction and the soundness of their
| methods, together with the social and re-
ligious influences that surround them en-
inently entitle Staunton to be recognized
as a female educational centre for the
whole country.
These schools are UNCONVENTIONAL; but,
with the wholesome, liberal spirit of their
management and the catholicity of their
religious influences, they cannot be said
to be sectarian, and besides the educa-
tional advantages they afford their benefi-
cence in other respects can scarcely be
over-estimated. 9FsF
Those who, by their ageor circum-
stances of migration. have been in places
and among communities which are as ill
provided with the means of education as
we were at the beginning of this century
and are now living in Staunton, in the
munificence IF her public schools and the
numbers and excellence of her private
seats of learning for both sexes, are in cir
cumstances fairly to contemplate the in
fiuence OF these upon a people; how far
reaching and inter-penetrating how it
pervades all classes, ranks, and gradations
OF society; how they exert moral, intellec-
tual, social, and even physical and by
gienic influences; how they have formed,
as it were, grand moral police, for pro-
phylactic purposes, for the conservation of
good morals and the prevention of vice