The Newberry herald and news. (Newberry, S.C.) 1884-1903, 1888-10-04
THE SCHOOL BOOK QUESTION.

The matter of school books is a bur-
den to parents, vexation to teachers,
and hindrance to pupils. If a teach
er takes new school, he is likely to
find a choice variety of English Gram
mars, ranging from Lindley Murray
down to Whitney's Essentials, and the
same impartiality and indifference is
displayed in selecting from the large
number of Histories, Biographies,
Arithnletics and Readers, ancient and
modern, good, bad and Indifferent,
which are candidates for public favor.
If pupil goes to a new school he
finds the favorites which he has here
tofore thumbed so familiarly, or the
well-worn volumes, which have de-
!. cended to him from his father and
elder brother, utterly useless, or treated
with contempt.
If a parent sends to new teacher,
he has his soul harrassed and his
pocket depleted by the demand for new
books, when perhaps the purchases
which he made only h few months
ago, with so much reluctance and men
tai agony, are hardly thumb-m arked
or dog-eared, by the not too ardent at
tentions Of his hopeful offspring.
All this the State Board of Exami-
ners proposes to remedy.
Section 996 of the General Statutes,
gives to the State Board power "to pre-
scribe and to enforce as far as practica-
BILE the use of uniform series of text
books in the free public schools"
throughout the State.
Whether the recent resolutions ofthe
State Board on the text book question
are in conformity to this power, we will
not stop to enquire, and while we do
not see the consistence Of the resolu-
tions with their preamble, still we be-
lieve that what they intend to accom-
plish is all that is necessary or desira-
bic. The resolutions provide for a
uniform series of the text books within
each county to be fixed by each County
Board. Thus no publishing house has
a State monopoly, and most of the
worry and expense entailed by a
variety of text books is removed. A
pupil can go from one school to an
other in the same county without
having to buy new books, and books
once purchased by a family, can pass
from one child to another, as long as
they will hold together.
The number of children who annually
move from one county to another, and
who may on this account find change
of books necessary, is so small in pro-
portion to the whole school population
that they may be disregarded. The
series of books selected in each county
must 60 into use by the fall of 1889,
and cannot be changed without appli-
cation to the State Board for period
Of five years.
The County Board Of Examiners for
Newberry fixed upon series of books
for use in the schools Of the county on
the 26th of September last, which List
will be found in this issue, together
with the resolutions of the State Board
under which the County Board acted.
We would advise all teachers and
parents buying books this fall to con-
form to this list, as by so doing they
will have two years instead of one to
make any changes which may be
necessary.
The Newberry Teachers Association
anticipated the action of the State
Board by two years; having as long
ago as that, adopted series of text
books, which they recommended for
general use in the county. In this list
the County Board have made but
single change, putting Barnes's History
Series in place of Swinton's. 1t will
therefore likely be found that the list Of
books adopted by the County Board
are in pretty general use throughout
the county.