The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1896-12-06
SUNDAY,
GROWING SENTIMENT FOR BET
TER PUBIC SCHOOLS.

Our friend, I,r Bassett gives some ex-
.cellent reasons for increasing the terms
of our public schools. There has not
been a month during the sixteen years
that this writer has been in the newspa-
per business that he has not emphasized
the need of better public schools, and
sought to arouse pubic sentiment to the
Importance of longer terms and better
teachers. 1t is gratifying to find the
sentiment growing, not only among the
masses, but among the scholars aus
teachers as we'll Education must 90
: from the top down as we'll as from the
bottom up. The chief hope in arousing
public sentiment to the need of better
schools is in the leaders of education.
They must 60 out among the people and
stir them up to demand more tax, for it
as idle to talk about better schools without
more money e.pay the cost.
Most of the college presidents and pro-
fessors have been instrumental in helping
to bring about the present educational re-
vivaL 1t is due more largely, however,
to the campaign made throughout tn"
State By President 44cIver, Of the State
Normal School at Greensboro. aud Presi-
dent Alderman, Of the State University,
than to any other two teachers in the
State, when they went into every county
to hold Teachers Institutes. They did
not feel thst their work was done when
they Instructed tie teachers, and they
spoke, with hearts aflame with love Of
little children. burning words Of entreaty
to their parents to work Cor better public
schools No two men in the State haze
enjoyed equal advantages Of bringing the
question home to the people as Messrs.
McIyer and Alderman. No two mea
could have done better.
This paper will support every effort
made by the next Legislature to increase
the efficiency Of the public schools, and
to advance every educational interest in
the State. Every step should be forward,
and no backward step should be taken.
Under the heading Democracy in
Education" the New York Tribune re-
Gently contained the following editorial
which bears upon the relation Of public
schools to. higher education:
DIR. asaokensie, the headmaster OF
LaWrenceville school, made in his presi-
Dental address at last weeks conven-
ton Of the Association of Colleges and
Preparatory schools and exceptionally
effective presentation Of an important
aud, in such circumstances, somewhat
novel subject. at conferences of those
engaged in the work of higher education
the immediate interests of such higher
education are chiefly considered. Re
quirements for admission to colleges, the
comparative value OF the classics, the
retention of Greek in the compulsory
curriculum, and host of similar topics
have been discussed since time out Of
mind. No doubt these matters are i'm
portant; but they have no monopoly OF
Importance. DR.. Mackensie, speaking
with ripeness of scholarship and long
familiarity with the highest grades of
intellectual culture, wisely turned his +
lines of thought in another direction, and
discussed authoritatiVely the relations
between the higher education and the
primary, and the duties of those enjoying
the former to those seeking the latter. /
Not often in our time has an equally |
suggestive and instructive utterance
been made
For, after all, the common schools !
are the most important Of all. They |
might not be able to exist in the best (
efficiency without the academies and
colleges Indeed, that very fact formed
u strong part OF DR. Mackensies train
Of argument. But then the academies
and colleges could not exist ut all with
out some form Of common schools. And
while in theory all, and in practice, nearly
all children attend the common schools
only FIVE in a hundred reach the high
schools and academies, and only one in
a hundred enters college The majority
in this country must Tule, there can be
no oligarchy Of intellect. Wherefore
nothing can be more Obvious than the
imperative necessity Oh making the com
mon schools, which are the only schools
Of more than nine-tenths OF the people.
as perfect rs possible That they are
not so is most painfully Obvious, as Or.
Mackenzie conclusigely POINTED out 1t
is true they save the people from actual
illiteracy. But there is a vast difference
between not being illiterate and being
intelligent. The common school teaches
how to read and to write and to cipher,
but even those things not always well.
How large a proportion. Of people edu-