The Donaldsonville chief. [volume] (Donaldsonville, La.) 1871-current, 1883-05-05
OUR SCHOOL SYSTEM.
Public Schools shonld Restrain Open Ten
Months in the Year.
DoNAJDsoNyIILE April a. 1888

Months in the Year.
DoNALDsoNvILLE, April 80, 1883.
EDITOR CHIEF:
Schools to be useful should be kept for at
least ten months in the year. A lad taken
from his amusements and placed in a school,
is uneasy with the loss of his enjoy me nts, is
restless from the restraint he experiences.
and feels the bench and the book punish
ment from which he is most anxious to es-
cape. Weeks will pass away before hs
understands his position and feels at ease in
his employment. The teacher is also en-
barrassed with his ignorance of the acquire
ments Of his scholar, the nature and extent
of his studies, the disposition of his pupils,
and time is required to classify them in a
manner suitable to their habits and learn
ing. Before he has made arrangements
satisfactory to himself, one-fourth of the
period for which has engaged is gone and
his school has made no progress. At the
end of three, four or five months, the
scholars are dismissed to their former enter
taiuments, of which they partake with relish
heightened by long abstinence, and large
part of the little they have learned is soon
forgotten. Some months of recreation pass
away, the school opens and the pupil is
brought back to his bench and book, to
undergo the same uneasiness of body and
mind, the same sensation ofpunishment and
with almost equal ignorance of learning.
Thus pass away the years which should be
devoted to study, the period when impress
sons are more readily made on the mind
and when knowledge is stored away for
future usefulness and the lad himself thrown
out on the world, incapable Of relishing the
enjoyment of learning, of seeking, in the
many new paths now openi to the citizen, a
road to independence, chained down to the
narrow circle allotted to the uninstructed,
and finding in physical enjoyments miser-
able solace for unimproveda youth. To add
to the evils Of short terms, the schools are
kept open during that season of the year
which is generally unhealthy, and the young
scholar rarely finds himself in condition to
partake of their doubtful benefits.
Another objection to the process OF closing
the schools at the end Of FIVE months, arises
from the difficulties experienced under such
circumstances of obtaining q competent
teacher. A man who has made himself
adequate to the task Of Instruction and is
ready to adopt it as his employment, will
not be willing to engage for a small portion
of the year, and seek mother resources a
precarious support when the term of his
service is expired Sucha teacher will for
sake the country school and find refuge
from a system that deniessa maintenance i'll
the villages and towns where better terms
are obtain ed. The consequence necessari-
ly is, that teachers, in no way qualified by
habits, disposition or learning, whose regu-
lar employment is suspended for a time, and
who are willing to profit by the opportunity
to maintain themselves through that time,
arc engaged in the difficult duty of rational
and moral instruction Such instances are
frequently the cause of serious dissatisfac-
ton among parents and directors. A teacher
should himself be Taught. lie should be
educated for the profession of teacher, with
at least as great care as is req uired in any
other trade, occupation, or profession. He
should not only be acquainted with English
education and the best mode of imparting
instruction to the pupil, but he should be
disciplined in sound morals, in correct
habits, and in the control of his own pas
sions, before his instruction to the scholar
can be useful. While such results can not
be speedily cffectcd-it might be deemed by
some hopeless-it should be a stan dard, to
| which close approximation might be made
highly desirable to every friend of educa-
| tion.
| Parents who are forced by their condition
| to employ the energies of their children in
laborous duties, and who, while anxious 70,
their education, feel the necessity of thei,
support, should remember that ten months
of consecutive application to learning will
afford opportunity for requirements which
could not be obtained in many years under
existing customs. One year of constant
attention to study would open to the scho
| lar an unknown world in which, wlIateve,
his employmcnts, he would undesgnedly
| wander to gather flowers now so profusely
scattered along his pathway, and woult
spare to the helpless parent a large part O
his viyacity for useful practical duties.
| The salaries or teachers should receive
public attention.
| A system for the support of education
| which relies on prices so inadequate to the
| object, is not only defect tive, but can no
continue, unless change is effected i'll this
| important particular. When the field fol
many enterprises in this yet " new world
is daily extending; when developments in
| arts and sciences call for the employment o
skill and learning; while the spinning
jenny, the workshop, and the mines yielt
| competence to the laborer; while along tllt
internal improvements of the State the toll
| house. the water station and the lock fur
nsh "a more profitable reward, it can not be
expected that teachers, capable OF the task,
will be found willing to undertake, for such
disproportionate recompense, the difficult
duty of the education of youth. In
country where the pen is more potent thai
the sw0rd it soon understands its worth ant
must be purchased at its value. e..
Baron Nordenskjold considers that vas
regions covered with perpetual ice are {
physical impossibility on our globe south o
| the eishtietl degree of north latitude. Hi
proposed exploration OF the interior 0
Greenland is expected to give evidence con
tirnirg this view.
Jack Thomas and Horace Williams, col