The age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1897-1902, 1899-12-17

Inc annual meeting or the southern bau-
| eational association will be held in Mem
phis. December 27-2s. This convention OF
southern educators will prove. of unusual
| interest, not only to those engaged direct
! ly in the conduct and management of
| southern schools, but also to students OF
| the souths industrial and political pro-
| gress.
The president of the association, DR..
| Junius Jordan of the University of Arkan-
sas, has charge of the program. Dr. Jor-
dan Is broad gauged, brainy man, whose
outlook is national, but who loves the south
with rare tenderness and whose service in
the educational field has already shown
his devotion to southern interests. While
| DR.. Jordan is primarily a teacher, he is
much more than that term usually signi-
fies; he is an educator. and as every true
| educator must be, he is in close touch with
the industrial, commercial and political de-
velopment of the south well as an ar
dent advocate of educational progress and
reform.
Under the direction of DR.. Jordan, the
| Memphis meeting will mean much more
than a gathering of teachers to consider
| schoolroom methods 1t will bring into
view all the factors entering into the prob
1
| agencies. Such meeting as this cannot
fail to engage the attention of the political
| economists and advocates of social reforms,
as well as that of those engaged in the i'm
| mediate work of education.
Must be Studied Apart
| Education as a factor in southern pro-
| gress and development cannot be studied
apart from the other instrumentalities with
/ ,iaI
it is so largely dependent.
Our civilization is complex, and the con-
ditions of our educational progress must
| be found in the proper adjus tment and sue
cessful operation of the varied agencies
| which contribute to the prosperity and
| happiness of the people. Illustrations of
| this proposition are not hard to discover.
| When the people feel the strngency of the
| money market and suffer under a wide
| spread financial depression, the disastrous
| effect upon the schools is direct and i'm
| mediate The school tax is reduced and
/ the usual school revenues fail to material
| ize. The natural results are the reduction
| of teachers salaries and the withdrawal
| of the needed school supplies and equip
| ment Any depression in the industrial and
| agricultural lines at once makes itself
| manifest by the reduction of school attend
ance, and the diminution of educational in
| terest and zeal.
When the civil administra tion of a state
| or community is in the hands of selfish and
| INSCRIPTIONS men, all interests are apt to
| suffer. Educational progress is always sub
| ordinated to political expediency. In like
| manner the moral sentiment of the people
| Is swayed by the corrupt practices of self
seeking politicians and demagogues. Cor
| rupt political morals react upon the school,
the family and the individual, and arbi-
| trary codes of ethics recognized in prac-
| which commend
| of reason or the sanction of conscience.
Requires Cooperation
True educational progress, therefore, re-
quires the cooperation of a great many
| factors too often ignored by teachers in
| their educational conferences.
While the educators of the south in con-
yention at Memphis will deal with the
subject of education In it's larger and broad
err aspects, they will not ignore those
special problems in which teachers and the
friends of southern schools are Immediate
ly interested. The south has educational
problems that are peculiar to this section,
and which the National Educational ASSOC
citation cannot yet appreciate, much less
contribute to their solution. This fact alone
justifes the existence of the Southern Ed
cational association. It's immediate work
must be the consideration of questions in
volving conditions which are peculiar to the
south. The solution of these questions re-
quires not only a knowledge of the south's
present status, but also her past history,
her peculiar institutions and her social and
political traditions. 1t does not follow by
any means that the Southern Educational
association is consequently provincial and
narrow in the spirit of its work and the
scope of its operations While 1t is cosmo-
politan in its outlook and national in its
patriotism, it must concentrate its breadth
of learning, catholicity of spirit and patri-
otism upon the educational development of
| the south.
Problems Requiring Attention
Among the many problems requiring the
attention of the association the following
may be mentioned as the most urgent:
First-School revenues, their collection
and distribution.
Until recent years, the majority of the
southern states raised the bulk of the rev.
| enues devoted to the maintenance OF pub
lie schools by direct appropria ton from the
| state treasury. This was distributed on
| the basis of the number of educabe youth.
| In nearly all of the states of the south to-
| day, local taxation for schools is author
| lied and practiced, as a source of revenue
| additional to the misrepresentation, 1t is
found that when the schools depend solely
upon funds appropriated from the state a
| large, that the people are not stimula ted
| to self-help they depend too often entirely
upon this source and the schools languish
| through the indifference of the people to
| local support. Many questions of practical
interest arise in this connection If school
moneys are raised by both methods, by
| which should the larger sum be raised?
Should the distribution of the state funds
| be conditional upon self-help in the several
| communities? What should be the basis
| for the distribution of state funds, the
, census enumeration, or the average daily
attendance? Would the latter method in
| crease the benefit to the community and