Southern standard. (McMinnville, Tenn.) 1879-current, 1884-12-06
Greatness Achieved Through Educa.
tion.
Louisville Trade Gazette.

Louisville Trade Gazette.
The South is now in q state which
may be compared to that of a boy who
is out for his first quail shooting. He
is all eagerness and excitement, full of
nerve and confidence, and yet if he
does not observe certain rules and keep
his excitement under proper control,
he is very certain to bag but few birds,
and nearly as certain to injure himself
or of some his companions.
The South is in a condition of
this kind, because she is just having
her first taste of progress, which she
finds so good that she is all eagerness
to take hold Of all there is in sight and
to urge schemes for the production of
more. Her appetite is insatiate. In
this condition she finds herself facing
the problem of educating her young
men and women, and with a reckless
extravaganza, a relic of the old times,
readily undertakes the grandest
schemes. The zeal which prompts this
is certainly commendable, and shows
that she recognizes the necessity Of
that education which must be the
basis of her future prosperity. But i'll
her zeal she must not forget that the
cause of popular education is of recent
growth, and is itself comparatively
crude. By this we mean the education
of the masses at the public expense,
and not so-called higher education Of
fered and seldom furnished in the
academies" and Constitutes"
1t is a question not easily answered
as to what is the best method or course
of instruction for common schools, but
that system which thoroughly grounds
the pupil. in the elementary branches
within a reasonable time may be assumed
to be the best. We have underscored
the reference to time, because there is
an evident intention in some localities
to make the course in some of the pub.
lie schools almost collegiate course.
We have in mind one town in which
the different grades from the primary
to the last graduating exercises in the
high school occupy about twenty years
a most ridiculous perversion of the idea
of popular education, never contem-
plated or dreamed of by the originators
of the plan of popular education at
public cost.
We believe in the necessity for public
school training, but we think it should
embrace physical training as well, and
not embrace those higher branches
which really belong to the academy.
1t is the duty of the State to provide
enough schooling for its youth to pre-
vent illiteracy with its attendant evils,
and it is to the profit of the State that
its youth emerge from these schools
with clear heads and strong bodies so
that they are so far fitted, to become
self>sustaining and not an additional
burden.
We do not say that too much atten-
ton is given to higher branches-ex-
cept in a few localities, generally cities
but that they should be separated.
held apart, when only those who had
passed through the common schools
with some peculiar honors should be
admitted without the payment of fee
which would relieve the taxpayers of
a portion of the burden for their main.
tenance. Then those who had children
in the schools whose assistance was
needed to assist in providing for the
family wants could withdraw them
with the assurance that they were ia.
miliar with the fundamental knowl,
edge sufficient for the ordinary affairs
of life.
1t might be desirable, perhaps would
be, to have schools of technology, in
which pupils possessing the necessary
qualifications of knowledge and deport'
ment might follow to completion a
course of their choosing
This strikes us as a feasible plan,
and one which will produce a class Of
citizens who are competent to enter our
busy marts, either as producers OF
handlers, with a confident feeling of in
divldual ability which, of itself, goes a