The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1901-12-01

urreS was valued at $40. Now look at
the Educational Report of North Caro-
lima for 1S9S-'99 and you will find the
average valuation for over one half of the
counties In the State Is less than $40;
and this valuation is as high as the con-
science OF man will permit it to CO. too;
for it is human nature to present to the
world the very best showing. Then half
the public schools in North Carolina are
in worse condition than the one l have
described and the above is not an imagi-
nary house by any means. This was the
condition of the school buildings in Clar-
endon county. Now as to the schools
On the first Monday in November Miss
May opened school as soon as the boys
could build the fire, and the girls sweep
the floor. The census gave district No
] of Round Knob township SO white chill
dren Of school age; and when Miss May
was elected some unkird citizen spoke
out. saying that she was too young and
inexperienced to teach so many. The
quick reply was, that no one expected
all those children to CO. That was the
situation. mo one expected them all to
CO." Consequently not half of them knew
that school would open on that date. A
large percent had heard it, but on account
of the immense amount of work on hand,
they had forgotten the date and were
unprepared mo one expected them all
to co. You could look at the school
house. it's size, and its accommodation
and read the same reply. You could look
at the appropriation, the supervision, and
examine all the efforts made for better
education and read the same reply. Yet
of OBJ, oh :
ers' Institutes, and teachers assemblies,
where speakers from abroad were expect
ed to mourn with us over the extreme
depth of our ignorance, when papers
were read proving beyond shadow of
doubt that Education is the saliva
tion of the Home and State when sta
tistics were summed up showing that
about 81 per cent of our population can
neither read nor write, when excitement
runs so high that you feel that every
man. woman and child who does not sell
all and give to education is worse than
an infidel-at the same time the very
school house, the very teachers en-
ployed, the amount of money expended,
all go to show that mo one expected
them all to CO.
Notwithstanding these hindrances. dis
tlICt W. VI lNOuu0 IAnOO wv hohlP
opened school on the first Monday in No
vember with IS pupils out of the So in
the district. This opening. too. as the
register shows was above the average.
During the next two weeks the number
increased to thirty. BY the middle of the
term cit was a four months school) the
number had crawled up to forty. By
the end of the third month the enroll
sri hio1 waf or ma l rncyi CT or
ing sixty-fiva in ALL Still the'f average
attendance for this month was about
thirty-fve; and for the last month it did
not reacn thirty. Now to a casual obser-
yer it would seem that about thirty pupils
attended school for four months. Here
our figures are deceptive: for It is to
be remember that only eighteen entered
the first day and not half of these stayed
till the close. Then changing the aver
age from thirty children, to the average
length of term, the register shows that
the total enrolment attended school only
six weeks. The Legislature says we are
giving the children term of four months,
or sixteen weeks, when in reality they
are going, on an average, only six weeks.
and this too in the county where the rec
ords show a four months school, Not
Ndil the CouulieS SHON SuGu IeCoiu dS
this though.
The causes for such irregular attend
ance are: First, the school room is not
an attractive place; second, the surround
ings are not interesting nor inviting and
lastly, the teacher is incompetent and
a failure with no help from her superin-
tendent to improve her situation.
When Miss May opened school she had
nothing new or interesting for the chill
dren. All she did was to call them up
and let them tell her what their parents
had taught them the night before and
then assign them another lesson for their
parents to teach. Why, if the parents had
only reasoned little they could have
taken ''s4,~ time the following day and
have heard the lessons themselves, and
then secured the assistance of their chill
dren in their work and thus saved an ex-
hibition of this farce that is sometimes
called teaching. Miss May did not even
possess the faculty of classifying her
school Here is her program for the day:
First class: Beginning algebra.
Second class: Higher arithmetic (no
divisions).
{ Third class: Common school arithmetic.
Fourth class: Beginning fractions.
Fifth class. Beginning multiplication Ca
few in lonk divisional
Sixth Glass; Addition Ga few in sub
traction)
Seventh class: Beginning to write num-
bers.
Recess: Fifteen minutes.
First class Beginning Latin grammar.