The farmer and mechanic. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1877-1885, 1882-04-05
For the Farmer and Mechanic.
NEWRERN March %

1
honestly, supposes me to have taken il
my letter on Public Schools, will not
hope consider me impertinent in asking
her to read my letter and her reply to il
| consecutively, and [ am sure after doing
SO she will see she has done me some in
justice in her statement of my views
and her comments on them.
| have not the paper in which my
article appeared and am too far from
your Office to get one without delay sc
must quote from memory-but fee
sure she will find first, that did not
ask to turn your guns against the public
schools of North Carolina, but on the p, es
ent management of them, and next that
so far from ignoring such time honored
institutions as she gives list of, that
| was In reality speaking IN their favor,
and simply did not mention them by
name, because, with others equally de
serving, they are, as she says, too nu-
merous to mention."
Last June when attending the Press
Convention at Winston, visited the
Salem Academy and devoted at least a
column in the O,phon's Friend, which
| was then editing, to its merits; [ also
spoke in the same paper of Mr.. Hob
good school in Oxford, where | was
then spending a month. Happening
to have been in Goldsboro a few weeks
ago, Mrs. Chapman s school was the first
that entered my mind when l spoke OF
private schools, and SO, as you Gay,
mentioned it without claiming exclu-
sive advantages for 1t or making refec
tiops on other boarding schools"
Next, | am accused of making a
wholesale charge fincompetency agalns,
public school teachers" which is de-
cided mistake. l simply said for the sal
ary pded we could not get our best meI
and women to devote themselves tC
teaching, while it was an inducement to
incompetents.
don't know what salaries are paio
teachers in Raleigh, but here in Craven
county $40 mouth Is The ye1y htghes
sum paid first Class teachers CouiI
that sum, or double that, obtain such j
tea ,her as Nj jor Eipg ham, for instance
Next | am represented as advising
the rich to send their daughters away
to boarding schools but Saying nothing
to those without the means OF doing SO.
This charge takes my breath away. fol
really supposed my whole letter wa,
in favor of those who are not rich enough
to send their daughters off. think
said, that the rich, however unwilling
to do SO, were obliged to send their
daughters off, leaving it to be Inferred
there was nothing left for the man o.
moderate meals but the public school,
which had crowded to the wall the good
Home School. think also I said that
every State ought, not only to have free
schools. but compel parents to have their
children taught reading, writing and
arithmetic. [ thought l was advoca
ling the cause of the young ladies who
cannot Dig" and are, to their honor
be it said, ashamed to beg in asking
either better pay for them in the pub
lie schools, or protection against its upas
shade which prevents them IRON
obtaining fair wages for their work
in private schools.
Last week | suggested to Miss Bel
of Harker's Island, who keeps a free
school for forty FIVE children at her own
cost, that she apply for help to the
school commissioners of Carteret county,
aud her reply was, the amount allowed
each child for schooling in that county
was about forty cents a year. In Craver
we do little better and allow something
over dollar year for each child
Now, public schools, where they pro
fess to give good education on such 6
pi,tance as this, are simply shams anC
[ repeat, crowd ont our good private
schools and give us nothing worth hav
| lug In their place.
As my youngest child has already cas-
more than one vote, L have no persona
or pecuniary interest in either, our pub
lie or cur private schools beyond tina
which AL North Carolipians ought t,
take in them. But have no he>ita
ton in saying t!lat if eur public, graded
schools are the nurseries in which ou
working classes are to be trained TO
skilled labor then it is the duty, no
oGly of our newspapers, but our pubic
men Lot to let the matter rest till ta'
is laid which will yield fund large
enough to purchase the best materia
tor sustaining those schools.
Ii is not going to be giUea, to us, W.
must either lay for it individually, il
school fees for our children, or collec
lively in taxes to sustain our public
schools.
My opponent admits 'it,is deplora
bic tact that there are many incompe-
tent teachers in our schools, and think
this will be the case as long as teach
ing is tie oay by which a yourg lad
can earn her living in North Carolina.
Yet she says teachers are submitted t
rigid examination. Are our publ
schools to be regarded as places wher
young ladies, who cannot earn livin