The Columbian. [volume] (Bloomsburg, Pa.) 1866-1910, 1884-01-25
EDUCATIONAL NOTES.

may experience abundant success.
There is a divinity associated with
teaching which should make the indif
ferent quake and the earnest put forth
their best energies and talent.
Our work should lie near our hearts.
1t should be interviewer with our
secret life and all our plans and eff
forts
Will not this justify us in address
ing you few words at the opening of
this educational coumn-a feature new
TO Columbia county's educational in
terests. AS we await items of local
interest, from the pens of earnest CO.
workers in all parts of our county, let
us take a retrospective view of the year
just ended.
In the main, peace has prevailed
among the leading nations of the earth.
Only in remote quarters OF the globe,
inhabited by semi. barbarous races,
have there been bostilities In South
Africa, in the White Nile country, the
French with the Hovas in Madagascar,
and the Tonquinese on the Chinese
frontier. Peace and tranquility have
furnished gain to commercial and in-
dustrial enterprises generally. The iu-
portaut interests of education have
been steadily advancing. This is seen
in the full attendance at the education
al associations throughout our country;
also, in the public sentiment that has
been awakened to overcome the litter
acy of the land. 1t is strongly advo-
Gated to place the American public
school in position of still greater in
fluence and power in all sections of our
Union, as the surest safeguard against
ignorance and vice in the republic.
President Arthur renews the sugges-
ton for national aid to education, in
his message to Congress. Every mes
sage and inaugural of the last four Pre-
sidents has contained the same recon-
mendation. Reports from Argentine
say, "That the government is about to
issue four million national dollars to
advance public instruction in the pro-
vinces, and for the building of three
hundred schools" She asks for teach
ers from the Normal Training Schools
of our United States to fill those posi-
tions. New Mexico, "The Great South, -
Alaska are all asking for universal
awakening to their great educational
needs.
We certainly have deep interest in
the welfare of those distant fields of
labor and future development but we
say, let such men as Joseph Cook, DR..
Sheldon Jackson, Wendell Phillips,
General S. G. Armstrong, Capt. r. II.
Pratt go forward with their indomi-
table will-power and they will bring
favorable results. We wish them God
speed in every effort.
Our own dear Commonwealth,
Pennsylvania, cannot help but progress
with such men at her van as Dr. Hig-
bee, whose scholastic abilities canno;
be questioned, and Hon Henry Houck
his invaluable aid, together with the
able corps of Normal School instruc-
tors who labor with so much zeal to
advance our common good besides
the energetic, faithful County Superin-
tendents throughout our State.
While our sympathies are aroused in
the interest of all mankind, we yet feel
a keener sense in the advancement OF
educational affairs here in Columbia
county than we can feel for places.more
remote.
Our worthy County Superintendent
has raised the standard of the teacher
so that the effect cannot but be seen by
those competent of judging. This i'm
provement has produced renovation al
along the line, except in those places
that are not independent of politica
strife and partisan spirit. Permit 6
quotation from Governor Robson.
message. "The great damage to the
interests of the public schools, to be
apprehended to-day, is the lowering in
telligence of the school boards in oul
cities and larger towns. There is op
portunity for cheap and designing mel
to occupy positions of trust and inhu
ence but the antidote for even tha
evil is the superintendent. We neeC
more thorough, intelligent supervision
in the small country towns" Apply
this system to our own county schools
generally, and the results will soon b'
seen better Principals, better buildings
more thorough instruction, fuller atten
dance of pupils,
If our thinking people grow in th
interest they have recently shown t.
our dearest interest the welfare o
the children then the corps of ins,ruc
tors, who are employed to promote tn
general good, will be those who posses
such broad and liberal views that the,
can be all things to all men. Whe
our people So decide, then partisan
views, relationship, financial embarrass
ment will have nothing to do in tn
appointing of teachers, and thus tn
number of teachers TO be pitied woul
soon be reduced to a small rem
nant.
Goethe says, "All theorizng ind
Gates defect or stagnation of produC
tive power" Hence, we will not thee
rize upon the character of the teache
to be employed; for paternal interest
should be such that only they of tn
greatest moral worth should be en-
ployed to be the advisors of their chile
req.
When all are as assiduous in thei
care of children's minds, bodies, au
souls as they are of home adornmen
field cultivation, political preferences
fine turnouts and favorte pastimC
then, and only then, can we hay
schools in which the proper kind an
degree of work can be done.
If our good people wish to stagnat
the educational interests of the con
munity speak indifferently of teacher
never visit the schools, delight to te
stories of bad deeds perpetrated in tn
= good old time long ago. Parents, kee
your children free from prejudice.
Teachers, preserve the purity, SAINT
of boys and girls as they enter upo
active life through the schools, for the
: create the root-growth that will tell i
after years.
Yours, in the cause,
AMELIA ARMSTRONG.