Clarksville weekly chronicle. (Clarksville, Tenn.) 1873-1890, 1883-03-24
PUBLIC SCHOOLS.
A Card from superintendent
Containing Pertinent SuR-
RektiOnS.

| Containing Pertinent Sug-
| gestiOns.
Teachers of public and private
schools, school directors, and friends
of popular free school education,
are earnestly requested to meet at
Clarksville on Saturday, 14th of
April, 1888, at 10 O'Clock, for the
purpose of organizing a Teachers
Institute. We need improvement
in the kind of teaching. Our teach
ers must know better h0,o. to teach
the rudimentary branches. The
instruction principally will be
"Methods of Teaching" The
character of the instruction will be
elementary, and confined to the
branches required by the school
law to be taught in the public
schools. Public schools constitute
part of the polity of our State and
national governments; and are not
the result of charitable principles,
but are founded upon virtue, intel
ligence and patriotism, and must
be maintained. Ignorance is pro-
ducer of great crime, which can
never be eradicated except by the
education of the masses. The pub
lie school is the most economical of
all schools, and by it only can the
masses be educated. Much of the
opposition to our public school sys-
tenn is attributable to the remiss-
ness of the officers of its administra-
ton. Some opposition, however,
arises from an insufficiency of mon
ey. We need better tax on prop
erty. Several counties in our State
levy a tax of 80 cents on property,
and many of them levy 25- cents,
and 15 cents is not enough for Mont
gomery county. Give us plenty of
money and we can run our schools
long sessions. Plenty of money will
attract the best teaching talent, and
drive out the drones that consume
the fund and impede the progress
where the fund is small. Plenty of
money will make the system so
good that the rich and poor alike
will elect it; all cla1nor against il
until its influence will be felt in the
most desolate and waste places of
our county. The city of Clarksville
pays her Superintendent of Schools
81 200 year, and her teachers from
$50 to $50 per month, and is educat-
ing her children at = cost of $1.25 |
per month per pupil. Her school
buildings, apparatus, furniture and
fixtures, and the character of the
instruction given, are perhaps Sec
ond to none in our State; rejecting
great credit upon the officers of the
of her schools and |
the profession of teaching.
After our institute shall have |
been organized, / desire it to ap-
point or elect committee on text
books, consisting of nine of the best
of our county, to select
from the various school books now
in use a series of textbooks to be
used exclusively in our public
schools for period of five years
said committee to recommend said
series to the directors of Montgom-
cry county for their adoption. Uni
formity of textbooks is indispensa-
BILE to the success of our public
schools.
1 wish to call the attention of
school directors and teachers to the
fact that under the school law, as
they are required to re-
port on all school matters from the
1st of July, 1882, instead of the 1st
of September, as heretofore required
by law. [ have received but one
teachers abstract since / came into
Office, and as this school year closes
with the 30th of June, 1888, l hope
teachers will be prompt, as well as
in making the reports re-
quired by law. If my predecessor
in Office ever had a list of the school
dirictors he failed to return same to
me. The clerks of the various dis
tricts of the county are, therefore, re-
quested to send me list of the di-
rectors of their districts, together
with their addresses. My postoffice
is Clarksville, and my
officein town at the Bank of Clarks-
vile. Directors are earnestly re-
quested to confer with me as to
teachers, and I will be pleased to
have them present at the time of
examination of applicants, which
will be in CIarksville the 1st Satur-
day, and at my home this 81 Satur-
day in every month. Directors
needing blank enumeration reports,
registers, ETC., will please
notify me by postal.
Teachers of public schools, and
persons expecting to teach, will be
required to attend teachers irsti-
tutes, which will probably be held
at various places in the county, and
nothing but good and lawful ex-
cuse will be taken. Teachers must
evidence zeal in their work or be
driven from the profession.
J. MILLER,
County Supt. Schools.
Clarksville, March II, 1888.
The Arkansas Democrat, publish