The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1886-10-07
TEA6HE'R E'Rs'GoLUMN
J. q. CLINKsCALEs, EDITOR.


J. G. CLINKSCALES, EDITOR.
1For Teachers Column Anderson InteHigencer.]
A STATE NORMAL COLLEGE FOR WHITE
PEOPLE.
Col. John G. Czinkscales, County School
Commissioner, anderson, S. c.:
DEAR SIR have read with much
interest your article on Normal Institutes
State and County. There is much
force in what you say. The money spent
in supporting the State Normal Institutes
would do more good spent in supporting
County Institutes. The instruction in
the latter would reach more teachers, and
would help many teachers who are un-
able to meet the expense of attending
the State Institute. The law should re-
quire County Institutes held in every
county, and should require teachers to
attend. THE schoo! law of Mississippi
requires botb.) But should not each
county support it's own Institutes? AS
the law stands each County Board OF
Examiners may appropriate t'Oo hundred
dollars of the school fund for this pur-
pose. This seems hardly fair. This sum
is nearly eight per cent of the proceeds
of the two mill tax of Chesterfield, while
it is not quite one and a half per cent. of
this fund in Spartanburg County. The
Institute fund should be certain per
centage of the county school fund.
From two per cent. to fue per cent. would
be safe limits. Let the law require each
County Board to have Institutes, and to
appropriate for their support such per
centage of the school fund Of the county,
not less than t,oo nor more than Jfue per
cent. therereof, as in the Boards judg'
ment may be necessary for this purpose.
Institutes are not enough. They are
for the benefit of teachers who have not
had, and who can not have, the advan-
tages of Normal College. We need
Normal College for our ohite teachers.
We must have an Institution where our
young men and young ladies can study
pedagogies. quote from the last Annu-
al Report of the United States Commits
sioner of Education, Article South Caro-.
| lima, topic estate Normal Training"
latter mentioning the two State Normal
Institutes, one for white, the other for
colored teachers, the Commissioner says,)
cat ClaAin University, Orangeburg, one
of the three institutions that 60 to form
the University of South Carolina, the
three-year normal course for colored
students, noticed in former reports, was
continued, with an attendance of one
hundred pupils in both 1928, and
18S3-'84. There were FIVE other normal
schools and departments reporting in
1S89-'S4. The normal department OF
Schofield Normal and Industrial School,
Aiken; the Avery Normal Institute,
Charleston, sustained by the American
Missionary Association congregational
the normal department of Bramard Uni.
versity, Chester, sustained by the Pres
byterian Board of Missions for Freed
men; the normal department of Allen
University, Columbia African Methodist
Episcopal); and Fairfield Normal 1nsti-
tute, Winnsboro, the last sustained by
the Presbyterian Board of Missions for
Freedmen. All these schools are for the
training of colored teachers of either sex,
with courses of three and four years,
For their statistics see table III. of the
appendix" These statistics show there
are fue hundred and sirty-nine co1ored
teachers being trained in these institutes.
Not a word is said about training white
teacher in the Report. Iquote from the
catalogue of the South Carolina College
(1SS4'S5): "Appreciating the want of
facilities in South Carolina for systematic
normal instruction, the Trustees have
provided course of half year three
lectures a week. in the Theory and
Practice of Teaching as laid down by
Pestalozzi, Foebel, and the leading edu-
Gators of the present day. Instruction
will be impaired by lecture and text.
book, and an attempt will be made to
adopt it to the practical need of the
school room." This department is
kind of annex to the department of
History and Political Science, under the
charge of Prof. R. Means Davis. There
were four students in the End year, none
in the first year, of this "shorter course
for teachers" There are four aohites, .fve
hundred and sirty-nine negroes, IN South
Carolina studying pedagogies under cape.
rienced teachers. Our State must in self
defense establish q normal school for
white teachers. The Constitution says:
"Within five years after the first
regular session of the General Assembly,
following the adoption of this Constitu-
ton, it shall bl.he duty of the General
Assembly to p.Svide for the establish.
ment and suppoN of State Normal
School, which shan5be open to all persons
who may wish to bacome teachers. A
negro of either sex, who may wish to
become teacher, can attend the Normal
department of Clafin University, Or.
angeburg."
Let the next Legislature make pro.
vision for such privileges for our white
young men and women. The money
used to sustain the State Institutes
would go far towards supporting a State
Normal College. Normal training might
be given in Normal School Department
| of the South Carolina College, but that
Institution is not open to girls, and the
ladies, over half the (white) free school
teachers of the State, would be excluded.
Our farmer friends seem dissatisfied with
the Agricultural Department of the
College at Columbia. They think
separate institution somewhere else
would do more good. A State Normal
College, located at some other point
would be worth more than a pedagogical
department of the South Carolina Col