Southern standard. (McMinnville, Tenn.) 1879-current, 1891-03-07
ed or else be knocked into them with

a maui!
Now judging that they could not
longer defer the matter, the Board
of Education looked around them Tor
a model, and after much study of the
subject, after working on the course
six weeks and meeting twice each
week during that period, they adopt
ed the Nashville course, and the sys.
tenn of grading and promotion which
have been employed there for thirty
years, and which have made the
public schools of Nashville the glory
of every TennesSean and the admira-
ton of every Southern city. There
was certainly no experiment in that.
Nearly every city school in Tennes~
see has chosen the. same model;
schools far smaller than ours; schools
much larger; public schools of all
sizes and conditions, have been, and
are today successfully operated under
it.
Having decided then to adopt the
Nashville system of grading, it be-
came necessary to remodel the course
of study; and the Board copied the
Nashville course almost Uer6dtin1.
This was no experiment, as the same
course has been in existence there
and elsewhere for well nigh thirty
years.
But to carry out this plan it became
necessary to change certain text
books, and invariably when book
was changed the book in use in the
Nashville schools was taken. 1t so
happened that in every case the book
taken was a cheaper book than the
book discarded.
Now in the whole Primary and
Grammar School courses as they eX-
listed previous to the session of 1889
80, only three books were changed
They were as follows:
SwintOn's Spoilers in place of Nc
Guffey's, Hyde's Grammar in place
Knox Heath; Anderson's U. S. His
tory in place of Barnes.
The readers, Biographies, arithme
tics and other cOmmOn-schOOl books
now in use, have been in use since
the origin of the schools. OF theneV
books taken, most of which belong
to the High School course, hardly
any two of them are published by
the same firm. l have heard NJ
complaints about the High Schoo
books-the pupils buying then
would have been compelled to bu!
equally costly books had no change
been made, as only three pupils hav,
up to now finished the old course.
ERECTION OF NEW BUILDINGS.
There can be no doubt but tn
time has come when the white chill
dren of this town can be no longer Sdy
dined.
; have packed over three hundred
J pupils into the two small building
we have-packed them on desk.seat
! and chairs and boXes-packed then
to our sore discomfort and unavoid
} able confusiOn-packed them to tn
5 injury of their health and the detri
, ment of their progress-packed then
amid good.natured protests and il
: natured grumbling-pack -packe
till flesh and blood can stand n
S more.
t / have notified fourteen pupils frOr
J. the country, expecting to apply fc
J, admission, that we could not tax
e them; we must take the town chi
: dren; but we can't take another sol
: for at least 3 month.
If The schools are suffering for tw
new buildings, one for the white
a one for the colored. No addition
can be safely made to the Hig
School building. We have even no
e too little land, too little light, and tC
l. little air; besides l do not believe Il
n building is strong enough or valuab
h enough to justify any additions.
n seek to enlarge it would be a penn
l, wise, pound-foolish policy that won
2, prove a useless expenditure of none
o and a futile remedy for the evil tn
10 stares us in the face. In less thu
r, three years we should be again wan
l. ing more room. The only remeC
ID is to build another house and bl
more ground, and our corporate a
/, thorities must give us relief. l a
IS peal to the city council-I appeal
h the citizens of this town. appeal
x ever human being in McMinnvil
t. with a dollar, baby, a vote, or