Juniata sentinel and Republican. [volume] (Mifflintown, Juniata County, Pa.) 1873-1955, 1881-06-22

for that is what they are IN point OF
size and style of architecture and
grandeur. The State holds mort
gage ON the institutions for four
hundred and twenty-five thousand
dollars for money advanced. The
setting up of these institutions have
had a depressing influence upon
the academies and private schools
We all thought it pretty big busi-
ness for the State of Pennsylvania to
60 into, to build up eleven colleges.
We all thought it big thing to have
the men and women there together
to teach them to be teachers for the
children in the common schools for
Won know that when teacher grad
mates at one of the Normal Schools
it is considered that he has the inside
track for an appointment to teach
wherever he may ask for q school
1t is intended so to be- The teach
ers are taught to teach. But we had
a hearty laugh over the burlesque on
the whole business that the row at
Nillersville puts upon it. Old Andy
would have called it a farce. You
know that Old Hickory was a great
disciplinarian that when he had a
rule he stuck to it. but he generally
had common sense rules. If you
could conjure up Old Andy out of his
grave and get him to speak on the
question, he would pronounce-the
system of teaching that puts men
and women together in a school as
students, and then prohibits them
from speaking to each other on the
pavement, or on school grounds, or
anywhere else about the school prem
ises, excepting in the presence of
teachers, or in the parlor of the insti-
tute-a farce. He would go for an
institution of that kind harder than
he went for Johnny Bull, harder than
he went for John c. Calhoun and the
nullifers in South Carolina In 1882.
His common sense would not allow
him to think of putting men and
women in a school and then forbid
them to speak to each other when
they CHANGED to meet upon the side
walk of the grounds about the school
buildings. If the sexes cannot be
trusted to speak to each other out
side of the school house, they should
not be brought together in one insti-
tuition. 1 guess Old Andy would say,
if the men and women cannot be kept
within the limit of proper conduct
without such rules, it is tie strongest
of arguments against the organiza
ton Of schools for the attendance of
both men and women. If the men
and women students may not stop to
converse with each other but for the
period of a minute. why are they put
into one school? If they cannot be-
have themselves, there should be no
co-education. To say that there is
danger of generalization if such per-
mission to speak to each other is
given, is to proclaim against the union
of the sexes in one institution for ed
ucational purposes. Ii such rigid
rules must be enforced to preserve
the character of the pupils, the soon-
er the present Normal School co ed
ucational system is abolished the bet
ter; the sooner the school for the
women teachers are removed from
the men the better. While such
rules exist it were best, Old Andy
would say, to enforce them but to
enforce such an inconsistent system
is blister upon the morals of the
better class of people. 1t is a bis
ter upon all profession of good, for
it raises the suspicion against the
character of every man and woman
that attends such an institution. Who
would want to attend place where
the management would cast suspi-
cion on one for stopping to talk to
woman, or cast suspicion on wo-
man for stopping to speak to man.
There is no gallantry, no virtue, no
honor in the system of rules that
bars a man and a woman, acquain-
tances, from speaking to each other,
anywhere under proper circum-
stances. The textbook training may
be thorough in such co-education
schools, but what kind of teachers
will they be that have been taught to
suspect every man and woman that
stops to speak to each other as guilty
of conspiring for some improper pur-
pose! What kind of a state of So
ciety will sucb teaching produce in a
few generations Old Andy taught
that a man or woman can go where
soever they please, and that the
man or woman that, without Just
cause, attempts 10 discount their
character, is worse than a thief,
and should be got rid of by society as
soon as possible in some open way :;
and now we have Normal Schools
that indirectly discount the character
of men and women, acquaintances,
when they stop to speak to each
other. Such teaching will drive so
ciety to the habits of the French
people, where hbertinism walks so
bold -facedly abroad that womankind
may not venture out alone on the
highway without being subject to in
suit, and single women are not al
lowed in society without some pro-
tector. Old Hickory taught higher
state of society than that he taught
the perfect safety of womankind any
where and under all circumstances :;
he taught that woman is safe any
where, and that the man that dares
to take her at a disadvantage may
have justice meted out to him in the
thrust of the dagger, or De struck
down by the bludgeon in the hands
of such person that she in her de
fenceless condition might call to her
aid.
/ am going to begin haymaking on
Monday, and after the hay is up will
come grain cutting. so good night