Morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven [Conn.]) 1848-1894, 1882-02-22
Education i'm NIrRinIa

To the Editor Of the Journal AND CoEzIER=
The prevailing revival of educational in
terests in the South cannot fail to attract at
tention in New England Harvard and Yale
will be concerned as resorts for students from
southern schools, and the New England col
leges will also be looked to for teeSTe-e-TraS-
ready Prof. Hitchcock, of Dartmouth, has re-
ceived call to fill an important chair in
Virginia school. This is only sign of what
is to be. The establishment of coiored nor
NAL schools in the South VIII create demand
which educated colored msn of the North
and East may be. in part, expected to meet.
The reorganization of the State institutions
of Virginia will, most likely, afford new open
ings, which teachers of the North might enter
with much acceptance.
In looking over the obituary record of Yale
for 1881 I find the names of many northern
men who spent more or less time as teachers
and tutors in the South after their gradua-
ton. 1t will suffice my purpose to mention
William Chauncy Fowler and Timothy
Dwight Porter, who each spent year travel
ing in Virginia after their graduation at the
college. This shows what was the manner
in ante-bellum days. Yale men finished
of, " so to speak, with a tutorage In the land
of sunshine and flowers. And now, with
the revival of letters in the South, we may
reasonably expect graduates of the northern
and eastern universities to move South to
fill positions of honor and usefulness as of
yore. Yale and Harvard will be fortunate If
their representatives gain early footbold
at the leading schools in Virginia and other
southern States. The graduates of the Shelf
field Scientific School can find an inviting
field in Virginia In q recent letter to the
Richmond (Va) Dispatch the good work
which the Sheffield School is doing has been
referred to- There is hardly State in the
Union with better outlook in the general
line of. scientific work.
Just here let me turn aside to speak of the
opening which the press affords The name
of founder of the JOURNAL AND CoURIKR, In
the Yale record before me, suggests that col
lege men have relation to the public press.
There are, to be sure, about fifty more peri
odicals published in Virginia than in Connec-
ticut; hence the Old Dominion" does not
need founders in journalism. She does,
however, afford rich field for fair minded,
public spirited college men of journalistic
turn who may have capital to invest. The
1876 periodicals of Virginia all need more cap
ital, both of the intellect and the baser
sort. Lack of pen and horsepower keeps
the leading papers of the State down 70 8 low
average circulation of G,000 copies.
There are six hundred thousand negroes in
Virginia, and nearly five million more in the
rest of the South. in especial need of higher
social and intellectual development. The
public press is worth as much as the public
schools in this general educational work One
can hardly er-estimate the real services of
earnest and able journalists. Such public
teachers can find work and plenty of it if
they are disposed to take deep and person
al interest in the general advancement of the
negro race In the South. But they must be
among them to reach their hearts.
The day has come when the people of NIr-
ginia have begun to appreciate the great
value of free schools and a free press What
ehangel Only century ego the then
Governor, Sir William Berke1y, speaking for
the people. thanked God that there were no
free schools and no printing in Virginia; be
hoped there would be none for q hundred
years" That time is up! Now Virginia is
repeating his added prayer, GOD keep as
from both" with negative inserted to suit
the changed sentiment. The prayer to-day
is God keep US not from free schools and
free press. A new era has indeed davned-
The time is surely not far distant when Viz
ginia may be recognized, by others than her
own people, as one of the leading educational
centers of our free republic. And it may be
as the late Col Forney, of Philadelphia has
said that the time Is coming when students
will go from the North to the South, as well
as from the South to the North, to complete
their undergraduate training. There are
some very interesting features about the ed
ucational system in Virginia lin striking
contrast with the system in Connecticut-)
President Eliot in the second issue of Our
Continent, speaks of the elective system Of
the University of Virginia 1t would be weIl
if Mr.. Jefferson's idea was generally and def
initely understood In fact, the people of
the North and South need fair and full rep
resentation of the strength and weaknesses Of
their distinctive institutions The South is
learning in many ways, from the North, and
it is possible for the North to learn little
from the South. b.