The Daily Ardmoreite. [volume] (Ardmore, Okla.) 1893-current, 1899-08-31
ABOUT PUBLIC SCHOOLS.
What Our School Board Has Done-Fu
ture Outlook Bright.

From the time the city OF Ard
more voted in favor of public
schools and elected board of di-
rectors, frequent conversations
with the several members of this
body, their purposes, and the work
they have laid out and SO far ac-
complished, has been learned.
Without funds, without any
thing in the way of buildings, fur
niture Or apparatus, contending
with the tangled and unknown In
depreciation of the mixed legal pro
visions of the Curtis Bill, Atoka
Treaty and Arkansas Statutes,
they have proceeded carefully, eau
tiously and economically to fill the
trust committed to them. AS they
best could they ascertained the
scholastic population, made esti
mates of the monthly cost of pub
lie schools, of the number of teach
ers and buildings needed, held in
terviews with the city council and
at length obtained as liberal a pro-
vision as the city fathers could
give under existing circumstances.
Then came the selection of a
superintendent, and the choice
made was a good one, as Prof. j.
r. Hendrix is fully competent for
the place and an untiring worker.
Next was the securing Of suita-
BILE buildings, properly located,
and day after day this problem has
engrossed their attention until
they, almost despalring of success,
fearing that it would be necessary
to issue bonds and erect school
houses, have at last just succeeded
in getting good houses.
The King and Duston buildings
! in the first ward, the Dunlap in the
second ward. a four room building
being erected by private parties in
the third ward, and erecting a two
room building on the lot donated
by Mr.. Rolf, and the transfer by
the citizens of the old school house
to the Ardmore city school district
in the fourth ward. This gives
seventeen school rooms, each capa-
ble of seating comfortably from SO
to 60 pupils. Also. building In
East ArdmOre known as the col
ored Masonic hall, and a colored
church in north Ardmore, for use
of the colored children.
The committee of examiners ex-
amined 20 white and six colored
applicants, of whom Is white and
two colOred, passed creditable
examination. SO far an excellent
corps of teachers, II white and two
colored, have been elected without
assignment of place or stipulation
of salary.
This matter will be attended to
very shortly.
A good course of text books has
been provided and are now on
hand.
The board has also contracted
for nine hundred first class single
desks, which will arrive about the
10Th of September, and the schools
will open on Monday. September
25.
They have adopted a finely graded
course of study covering IL years,
equal to that of any city of its size
in any state. Also. a system of
rules and regulations for the gov
ernment of teachers and pupils,
and system of bylaws for the
government of the board of direct
ors. This course of study, rules
and bylaws will shortly be pub
lished in pamphlet form.
1t was early determined to or
ganize a system of schools that
would be in line with the most ad-
vanced thought of educators, and
that the foundation should be solid
and substantial, more with an eye
to the future than the present.
A system of thorough graded
instruction that would fit its grad
yates for any college or technical
school, or, If their school days
must end with the public school,
that they would have practical
education fitting them for business
life, and, having truly learned to
read, and having acquired a taste
for good authors, would have the
open sesame to all literature, and,
indeed, to any science they might
wish to pursue.
That not only should mental
training be considered, but that
first in thought should be the soul
that wonderful moral nature with
which man is endowed, so thai
from the first day of entrance into
the first grade to the last day Of
the last term of the high schoo
morals and manners should bt
taupht at every ODDOrtuDitV auC