The weekly Union times. [volume] (Union C.H., South Carolina) 1871-1894, 1881-02-18
For tho Times.
"a man mus. serve his turn q. every trade,

Fur tho Times.
IA man must serve his turn ut every trade,
Save ceusure- critics ready made"
Commissioner Townsend will not find his
birth bed Of roses. The family Of fault-fnd-
ers is very extensive one and as various as ex-
tensive. There is nothing about which people |
know so much and agree SO little as how to con-
duct o school or how to locate o school house |
never knew o neighborhood, however peaceful |
it may have been formerly, that didn't flare up
on tho location Of a school house or the election
of teacher. Everybody expects to b. satisfied
and everybody is disappointed, and don't ex-
actly know why it is 80.
Some of the best schools that have ever been |
in this County were kept in log schoolhouses
or country churches and presided over by such
scholars and teachers rs Kingsborough, Thurher,
Clowney, John Leland Kennedy, Watson, Cros-
by, O. Donnel, Williams, Saye, James, Jones and
many others. There is more in the teacher
than in the sohoohouse, and however impor-
tant it may be to have o comfortable house the
teacher is, or should be, the first consideration.
People must be brought up TO the conception
| Of what On education is worth before they can
be induced to invest their money in education.
The great fault among our Southern people
is that they always set their pegs too high
They begin on grand scale aud when the mon
ey gives out they get out of heart and give up
in disgust. How many school houses, how
/ 1..,S,.-x.s.s; 1s--.a. cyunty stuud an nishe ell
The first duty is to get good teachers A good
teacher will build up school AMI school house.
while q poor teacher will undermine both in n
very short time.
And talking about good teachers brings up
| the question, "what makes n good teacher ?''
1t i not mere learning. nor discipline nor moral
| character, nor charity. nor sympathy nor n
| q knowledge Of human child nature, but all Of
| these The teacher should understand the wants
| Of his patrons, the character and capacity of his
| pupils, the home influences which surround
them, and their peculiar temperaments. This is
hard bill to fill, il must be admitted, but it is
nevertheless true. However that may be it is very
| important that in common schools we should
have teachers competent to teach the element
ary branches, e., spelling, reading, writing and
the common rules of arithmetic. properly-and
when we say properly we mean carefully II
spelling and pronunciation is carelessly taught
in the common school. it will stick to a man NIL
| through college. To the end of his life he
will be fighting against It, SO with readi6g-
How few persons can be found, even among the
educated, ESQ chlled) who can read intclligi-
bly,. During the war, when in times of great
excitement a newspaper was received, contain
ing thrilling details from the seat of war, there
could not be found man in the crowd who
would not bunder over its dispatches Reading
is among the fine arts-a good reader is a pub
ii" H!.c":.ug in community. And so, we might
add, with arithmetic. If boy is not taught
the principles of nun bers his learning will be
Of little use to him in after life lie may
b!under through Pike, Davies, Sanders and a
dozen others, and know very little about it. 1.
is too much the custom in schools to push the
pupils forwaid-often done by the teacher, in
order to tighten his labors, by classifying them
often done to tickle the parents ambition by
the rapid progress of the child. This is all de-
t-iA-aty 1ovvuuuuurr,4.<1s
Mr. Townsend will find it no easy matte. to
give satisfaction. What may please one neigh
borhood will not suit another. There are some
fpeope who never will be pleased their happi-
ness consists in finding fault with others and in
making themselves discontentcd with any stu
alton. Leave them to their idols and
GO AHEAD.
trial nock,oo of 90 81 Acx 0ps,,o,sr,