The clarion. [volume] (Jackson, Miss.) 1883-1888, 1885-11-18
STATE EDUCATION.

4
otto citizen of the State, and his opinions
are entitled to thoughtful and respect
full consideration. Il
The opening of the Girls College at
Columbus, we assume, suggested TO
Justice the publication of his views
on higher education as duty of the
State, though he says that he does not
wish to be understood as finding fault
with the friends and advocates of that
institution. However that may be, it is
useless to disguise the fact that his
criticisms, if wellfounded, apply with
more force to this than to the other
institutions refer ed to; because it is the I
only one, except the Normal school at
Holly Springs, established and supported |
altogether by State appropriations. The
money paid to the University at Oxford |
is the interest, at an exceedingly lowrate, |
on debt due that institution; Alcorn
College, and the A. & u. College at
Starkville, were established in compli-
ance with conditions attached to a
donation by the general government;
and the Tugaloo school is supported
mainly by foreign religious corpora
ton.
educational purposes should be applied
so as to do the greatest good to the
greatest number may be granted, but it
does not follow that the State should
only foster schools for teaching the
rudiments of an education. The argu-
ment which justifes public education
to limited extent is good to sustain the
most advanced public education. 1t
may be said that while this is so, schools
for higher education should follow after
those teaching the rudiments, and should
not be established until the latter shall
have been perfected and made accessible
to ala proposition which proceeds on
the hypothesis that the money appropri-
ated to our Colleges would do greater
good to greater number if devoted to
, the common schools. This is scarcely
demonstrable. Indeed, there are many
persons who believe that more would be
accomplished for the State if the money
annually spent on the common schools
should be used in the establishment of
schools more limited in number but
better in quality. Tee most pointed
objection to the present common school
system in Mississippi, is that the capital
is too small for the extent of the bust
ness. Would the appropriation of a
sum equal to the appropriations, made to
the University at Oxford, the A. & NJ
College, the Girls College, Alcorn
University and Tugaloo University,
result in such an improvement to the
system as would justify withdrawal of
appropriations from those institutions?
We think not. The religious society
which controls Tugaloo University fur
nishes al unanswerable argument to the
criticisms OF Justice" 1t desires to do
the greatest good to the greatest number,
and with that object has established
first-class schools in several of the South
ern States. 1t does not dissipate its
funds in an attempt to educate all. That
would be useless. But it pursues plan
which produces coed results that may
be seen and felt.
OF the children who are offered the
advantages of an education at public
expense, but few appreciate them.
These few yearn for something higher
and better than the "three RS"
badly taught. Shall the State that
encourages them to seek, deny them the
means of finding? Many intelligent
persons believe that boys and girls who
are made OF the proper stuff will educate
themselves rather than go without an
education. This they can do in the
rudimentary branches with comparative
ease; but when they have learned to
read, write and cipher, shall there be no
fount at which they can slake their
thirst for greater knowledge?
The Girls College is an experiment
1t was established with view mainly to
teach. useful professions. The arguments
for and against it have all been heard,
and the people of the State have, with
great unanimity, decided to try the ex-
pertinent. We believe that the princi-
pie on which it was founded is sound,
and that wisdom in conforming the
details of its management to its pro-
fessed objects is alone necessary to make
it fruitful in blessings to the State.
+ Whether the boarding pupils there
would be educated in the absence of
State aid for the usual and necessary
duties of life, is, with all respect to
Justice, poor argument against the
efforts of the friends of the institution
to provide other than the usual channels
of usefulness for the young women of
the State, and to fit them for higher and
nobler achievements than are involved
in "the usual and necessary duties of
life" The fact that the College has
| three hundred pupils, many of whom
pay enough to acquire an education
fitting them for the usual and necessary
duties -of life" elsewhere, shows that
there are some features about the Col
lege which distinguish it from other
schools, and that these features have the
endorsement of the parents and
guardians of the young women of the
State.
The public educational system of Mis-
sissippi is faulty in the extreme mainly,
we think, for lack of money 1t may be
safely criticised. The man who will
suggesta remedy for its present evils will
i'm mortalize himself But it cannot be
improved by attacking the higher
schools, which are by far the better part
of the system.
We find in the Vicksburg Post some