Southern standard. (McMinnville, Tenn.) 1879-current, 1886-09-18
To the Teachers OF Our Schools.
To the Standard.

A vast responsibility rests upon
you. Many of you are occupying
poor and inconvenient houses, and
your pupils are not well supplied
with suitable books. You must be
industrious, and, by some of your
own ingenious arrangements, try to
surmount the difficulties which you
have to encounter. People expect
their children to learn to write, yet
many school-houses in Warren coun-
ty have no writing desks, and pu-
pill has to write by holding his copy
book on his lap,
Here is little of my experience.
On Monday morning, l announce in
my school, that, on Friday, all who
can write, will be required to write
a short sketch about the country
where the school-house is located, or
something about the people of the sur
rounding country, or about some visit
which they have made or intend to
make. have asked them to write
in such a manner that their manu-
script will be suitable for publication
in the New Era or STANDARD.
When Friday came, and the writing
should commence, nearly one half
of the pupils who can write, make
this pitiful excuse, ~ have neither
pen, ink nor paper"
! Teachers, with their moderate sala-
ries, cannot afford to furnish these
articles, therefore, they must urge
parents to keep their children well
supplied with these things that
are indispensably necessary to success.
The practice of writing short sketches
and short letters must be commenced
early in life. In former article, /
stated that if pupils grow up to be
men and women, before they learn
to write, it is very difficult to induce
them to write even a short letter, as
they are afraid that some person will
laugh at their mistakes. In order to
encourage your pupils to write, try to
teach some of the simplest forms of
Bookkeeping. Let each one have a
book made of eight sheets of foolscap
|. paper, well covered with strong pa
per. Each pupil will need a rule,
, fourteen inches in length, bottle OF
red ink, bottle Of black ink, lot OF
good steel pens and good pen-hold-
err. By encouraging your pupils to
keep a few plain and simple accounts,
you can lead them into the practice Of
3 writing short manuscripts.
Nearly all treatises on book-keep.
: ing give four forms for keeping
books. The first and second forms
: are adapted to the wants of farmers
+ mechanics, physicians, and to mer
s chants whose business is not extern
4 sive; that is, to those merchants who
: do not have more than about l5(
: customers. BY the first and the sec
t ond form, only one book is required
r and each customers name is on {
s page by itself. The teacher, withou
r any text book, can give to his pupils
V a general idea of the manner in which
V books are kept. He can suppose tina
t John Brown is farmer and Charlie
e Smith is ashoe-maker. During ever.
r week for three months, Brown send
o to Smith various articles, such a
y corn, flour, meal, meat, butter, wood
g ETC., and Smith furnishes Brown witt
e boots, shoes, also mends boots, shoe
e and harness for him. Let the girl
y keep books for Smith and thee boy
!. for Brown. After they have record
ed the transactions for two months
. and they can do this in one week, lie
r an examination be made and see
;, their accounts agree. This accOun
VI can be kept on two pages, and it
generally called the ''first form" G
- accounts. The next lesson will be t
l. keep a similar account on one page
- called the "second form" of accounts
= In connection with these two les
j. sons, forms of notes, receipts and OF
" ders should be taught.
r The third form of accounts is Gale
n "single entry" and is well adapte
,e to the wants of retail merchants.
n The fourth form of accounts is cal
he ed "double entry" and is well adapt
if ed to the wants of wholesale an
commission merchants.
Too much Importance cannot be al
tached to some exercise of this kline
The teachers of our country school
,e should always remember that thei
a pupils are the sons and daughters {
~ the working class who cannot "spar
III thuir GONG from tho farn1O hut q fn,