Middletown transcript., 1897-01-30
AN ARTICLE FOB THE NEW CONSTITUTION.
EDUCATION.


EDUCATION.
SECTION /. A general diffusion of know
ledge and intelligence being essential to the
preservation of the rights and liberties OF
the people the General Assembly shall pro-
vide for the maintenance and support of
thorough and efficient system OF public
schools wherein all the children Of this
commonwealth may be educated, and shall
appropriate at least one hundred and fifty
thousand dollars each year for that pur-
pose.
SECTION 2. Neither the State nor any
subdivision thereof shall use its property
or credit or any public money, or author
ize or permit either to be used, directly or
indirectly, in aid or maintenance, other
than for examination or inspection, of any
school or institution of learning wholly or
in part under the control or direction OF
any rel igious denomination, or in which
any denominational tenet or doctrine is
taught.
SECTION 8. All moneys received by the
State from school taxes, state appropria-
tions, incomes from stocks or bonds, and
all other moneys received for school pur-
poses, shall be inviolably used for the sup
port and maintenance of the public schools
of this State; and the General Assembly
shall provide that if, through neglect,
misappropriation,o or any other contingency,
any portion of said school funds shall be
lost, the State shall replace such portion so
lost or misappropriated.
SECTION 4. A person of literary and
scientific attainments shall be appointed
superintendent of public instruction for a
term of four years by the Governor and
confirmed by the General Assembly, i'm
mediately after the adoption of this con-
stitution. 1t shall be his duty to make an
annual report of the progress of the public
schools, and to perform such other duties
as may be prescribed by law. He shall re-
ceive compensation not less than that of
the Attorney General. and shall not be re-
moved from Office until the expiration Of
bis term except by impeachment.
SECTION 5. The General Assembly shall
provide for system of public schools by
which free school shall be kept up and
supported in each district at least seven
months of z6 school days Each IN every
year, after the first year in which school
has been established; and every able-bodied
child in the State between the age of seven
years and fourteen years shall be pupil in
the public schools or some other approved
school for at least eighty days in each
school year.
SECTION g. The public school system
shall include elementary and high schools,
and State College and such evening
schools, normal schools, technical schools,
and kindergartens, as may be estab-
lished by the General Assembly, or by
municipal or distinct authority; but the en-
tire revenue derived from the state fund,
and the state school taxes, shall be applied
exclusively to the support of elementary
and high schools and the State College.
SECTION z. The Governor, Superinten-
dent of Public Instruction, the Chancellor,
the President of Delaware College and the
Superintendent of the Wilmington Public
Schools shall constitute the State Board of
Education. They shall have the power to
apportion any State school fund it is de-
cided to raise, they shall decide on the
branches to be taught in the elementary
schools, and shall have the power to pre-
scribe the minimum Of efficiency to which
the schools of the State must attain; and
said State Board shall perform such other
duties as may be prescribed by law.
SECTION 8. Women twenty-one years of
age and upwards shall be eligible to any
Office of control or management under the
school laws of this State.
The Educational article which appeared
ia this column some weeks ago was dis
eussed at the New Century Club, on the
evening Of January the 21st. 1t has since
undergone slight revision. 1t is given
now as it is likely to be pres ented to the
committee on education of the Constitu-
tional Convention.
The subject is SO important that teachers
ought to study the article well. Should it,
or similar one, be adopted by the Con-
stitutional Convention, feel that educa-
ton will take on new life in Delaware.
Our school histories give very little con-
cerning the Mound Builders; perhaps, be-
cause we know so little about those ancient
people. However, it is impossible to read
of the mounds and the Notifications of the
Aborigines of America without speculating
as to the origin and habits of Americas
first people.
The following paper may not be histori-
cally correct but those parts which appear
to the reader to be mere speculations may
be given little thought.
THE MOUND BUILDERS.
That some parts of America were once
inhabited by people possessing greater
degree Of intellige nee than the Indians
found here by Columbus is not to be dis
puted. but who they were, is question
buried in the deepest mystery.
Whence came the Aboriginesof America?
has long been question for theory and
speculation with scientific men; although
it is now generally conceded that the In
dians at least came from ASIA The fact is,
If the oceans and continents were the same
then as now. they never came from Egypt
as some archaeologists or rather theorists
have tried to prove.
No one will say that Behring Strait is
too wide to haYe made it impossible for the
Mongolians to cross over; or that the Alen-
tian Islands might not have served them
as stepping stones from one continent to the
other. Even Cathay has a story which
claims that one of her renowned naviga-
tors discovered our Pacific coast about the
year 375 B. c.
Not only do geographical conditions
make the theory plausible, that these people
came from the continent of Asia, but prob
ble,since the locations of the tribes most ad
Yanced in civilization, were in the western
part Of the New World. The (Tncas) Of Peru
knew nothing Of the eastern parts of South