The Clarksburg telegram. [volume] (Clarksburg, W. Va.) 1874-1926, 1902-04-11
a CIlARIzsBURG. W. VA. APRIL n. 1902
.lAIERgsIINa RElllNlscENcEs

INTERESTING REellNlSC EMcES
I0IlOne q the Leading Edasa.crs oi
The County.
JAxKs N. DAVID IN W. VA. SCHOOL.
JOURNAL.
NY first examination was 10 1858, ia
Pennsylvania. Ihad never heard ot
Pestaloxxi or Frobel. Ihad read some
Of Horace Mann speeches. It was q
hot August morning when We arrived
at the school building The door q
the house was open, and the sheep and
pigs that ran at large Oh the common
were shading In the building. After
driving them ont and sweeping the
room the county superintendent ar
rived and make some emphatic re-
marln on the care Of school property.
He organized the class consisting Of
three men and one lady. The exami-
nation was entirely oral. The mo-
ment one would hesitate In answering
the experiments would say, "Quick,
quick, quick, quick Next The
sentence for paTsins was:
"For modes or Faith, let graceless
biRots fight,
His can't be wrong whose life i In
the right.
Ihavc my certificate yet, as 1 was
only seventeen years old and did not
teach on it; the grade OF the certificate
Is lnimportant.
Ny first examination in West Vir-
ginia was In 1885. | rode forty-four
miles on horseback and reached the
home OF the superintendent at sun
down, After supper l gave the SUI
perintendent a a letter ofintroducticn
from Rev. J. NJ. Purinton. 1 was in
formed that must pass The examine
tion that night as the superintendent
must leave In the morning. SO he.
took me to his room and without
light, he and alone. He asked ques.
tions and / answered promptly, and II
was no superficial examination. About
one O'clock next morning, having
quizzed me in writing about space,
straight lines, curves and ovals, he
said he would like to have me write
some and suggested that he bring In q
candle replied that SO far as was.
concerned, it made no difference, II
he would furnish Ink, pe1 and paper, I
would write and rather preferred he
should examine and gfade it without .
light BE suggested that he needed
a lightin order to I'LL upmy certificate.
The candle was brought in and 4 OBJ
tanned No. certificate, and the next
morning / secured a school at 5000
a month, and at the close OF the school
the trustees gave me acertiticate that
It wastaught TO their entire satisfac-
tiop.n Now this might be ambiguous,
but as they employed me for the next
winter at an increased length OF term,
| felt that in thejroplnion was fairly;
successful.
My fitst examination In the state OF
Illinois was in 1868. had been as
sistinR man In gathering corn when
he proposed / teach the winter term
OF school. expressed doubt as to my
ability to obtain certificate. The
only way to ascertain was to try, 50 /
posted on TO the county seat 10 miles
away to see the nperlntendent. |
found him In his vineyard laying down
grape-yiues for winterlng. He told
me to 10 to his ONCE and would dpd
some printed questions on the, wall,
and for me to write the answers and
when he got done he would come In.
found some simple problems in
arithmetic and questions In grammar
and photography. / prepared the
answers and when he came in he gave
me an oral examinatlonin geography,
particularly physical geography. He
soon found could tell him more
about tides, ocean currents, island
trends and mountain systems than he
knew and he said 1--WE will quit, " and
wrote out No. certificate good for
two years. But he had his revenge,
for when he visited my school and 4
was pronouncinR for class, column
OF difficult words from webster's Ele-
mentary Spelling Book. he began ask
ing me the meaning Of the words, but
when he came TO ''crcwel' and
s.tewel, !" / failed. and he shut his eyes
and apparently dozed on TO sleep and
said nothing
But learned alesson. / was giving
out sound without sense, words with
out knowledge.
My Hrst examination inLewtS conn-
sty, w. Va, was many years ago. The
superintendent said, II have just got q
new unabridged dictionary and
handing It 10 me, asked me e. pro-
nounce from 1t several columns OF
Scriptureproper names. ! remember
how i hanover "Amarlah,n "A phlah, 4
.sAzariah,n aBediah. y sSerebiah,''
until drawing . long breath I said
.iah." ,0h, = says the perintendent
IL you are tired you can quit. In
,rlrY,n,et1c ne gave me RavsR Third