The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1881-03-24
Poor Paw, Poor Teach.

Mn. ED1roR: The Columbia Register,
under the above heading, has the following: !:
"Pay for good teachers and you'll get
three months salary to support them for
twelve months in the year, and what right
has reasonable being to expect first class
services 2"
This is all very true and it is sound doc
trine to preach, but the State is, year by
year, drifting farther and farther from ii.
The services of competent teachers cannot
be secured without sufficient pay for their
services. Neither can one afford to teach
three months in the year and "wait for
something to turn up, during the remain
ing nine months. Under these circum-
stances no reasonable being can crpect first
class services. In fact, I do not see how this
reasonable being can expect services Of any kind.
Still this is the case, and you can hear
grumbling on every side at the condition of
our educational interests. Where lies the
blame? In the teachers? No. The gov
ernment Of the State? Yes. And through
this government the people? Yes. The
government pretends to take the education
of the children to itself, but am sorry to
saw it, but still it is true, the laws of cur
State on this subject are farce. These laws
cover much ground, but no provision OF
them is properly enforced, save the election
and maintenance of the State Superinten-
dant of EDUCATION and the County School
Commissioners, and perhaps few other
minor provisions. Money is required to
run the schools of the State, and laws on
the subject, not backed with money, are
perfectly useless. The. people pretend to
look to the State under these laws to edu-
cate their children, and they step behind
them and think themselves safe. This is
why the teachers are not paid living
salary, and why our schools throughout the
State do not run on an average eXceeclng
three months out of the year. The State
can't pay and the people won't pay, still
these reasonable persons appear to expect
first class services. Our public school sys-
tenn, as it now stands, is doing untold in
Jury to the educational interests of the
State. The Superintendent OF Education
may make long reports to the Legislature i;
the newspaper men may write knowing ana
eloquent articles on education, but these 90
not educate the children Of the State. The
report of the Superintendent may show
that so many thousand white and colored
children have attended the schools during
the year, but this does not add one dollar to
the amount appropriated by the State for
educational purposes, but the more IN at-
tendance the shorter term the schools run.
This is not helping the cause at all, and the
teacher is lust as near starvation as ever.
A.s,ao,, -. +1,o ,,,,b1;c f,OSo orn aybenSta1
our schools vanish like fogs before the
morning sun. The patrons, though the
same thing happens every year, are exceed
inely surprised that the money has given
out, but most gracefully refuse to supple
ment the public funds with their private
funds, and their children are turned loose to
run at large for at least nine months, and
the Door teacher must make the best posi-
BILE shift he can for living. The State
suffers by this, the teacher suffers and the
children suffer, but those that suffer the
most are the children. No State can secure
the services of first class teachers under
these circumstances, and, since this IS the
case, it becomes encumbent upon the State
to take the education of her children under
its charge and see that they are properly
educated. A State has the right to 40 this,
not because rich man owes an education
70 the children of his less fortunate neigh
Dor; not that the State owes an education
to any of her citizens but that her own IN
terests demandit. If State can dig canals,
arm and equip soldiers anc ships of war to
protect herself from foreign or domestic ell
emies, she certainly has the power to pro-
tect herself against the greatest of all ene-
mies-ig,.orancc.
The stumbling block in the way OF our
educational interests is our free school sys-
tenn, so called. 1t has been tried fora NUM-
| Der of years, and has proved fuilure-a
complete failures it fails to meet the ends
for which it was intended. If the people OF
| the State would take the public money i'll
the light of an aid coming from the State as
stimulus to the educating of the children
of the State, and supplement, this aid will
their private funds, then much good woulc
be accomplished. No reasonable person
can fail to see that these reasonable people o.
our State wholly fail to look at the matter
in this light. Only two remedies prescn
themselves to me at present. One is, tt
abolish our free school system and let tint
| people take the matter entirely into thell
own hands. The other is, for the State II