The progressive farmer. [volume] (Winston, N.C.) 1886-1904, 1902-09-02
CAPT. WHITE ON RURAL GRADED
SCHOOLS.
Cor. of The Progressive Farmer.

Cor. of The Progressive Farmer.
There seems to be a great awaken
ing in common school education.
1t was with great pleasure hat I a
few weeks ago attended a meeting held
at Cross Roads, Pleasant Grove Town
ship, Alamance County, conducted by
Prof. Alderman and Drs. w. S. and
D. A. Long. Many good things were
said, but I could not agree with them
upon all points. I deem it impracti-
cable at this time to form rural graded
schools in many places because the
population is too sparse; the people
too poor, and the roads too bad. The
very young and the very poor are
mostly benefited by public schools. It
is a well known fact to all educated
people that the early period of a
ehild's education is the most impor-
tant. The Rev. DR.. Alexander Wilson
one day remarked to me that if he had
a child to send to school he would pre-
fer the best teacher in it's primary ed
ucation and if there had to be an in
ferior teacher he would prefer it in
the latter stages; that bad habits of
study and pronunciation formed in
early life were very difficult to correct.
But very few districts could afford
- o-o~lo- 4u-o 40nohA-e on1 &c - rroo
done the small children would be I'M
der the most inexperienced teacher
Superior teachers cannot be employed
for a small sum of money. Children
from six to eight years cannot attend
school when the distance is from two
to two and a half miles. Hundreds
of people now are living in i'll health
from attending in early life over bad
sloppy roads and sitting with wet feet
in a school room without an oppor-
tunity of drying their feet. Some
years ago a girl fourteen years old
was drying her feet by the stove IN
one of CIR school-houses. Her teach
er told he1 to sit down. She did not
readily comply and replied to the
teacher, "My mother told me to dry
my feet" The teacher considered
this impertinence and punished her.
A few months ago I spent a night
with friends. In speaking of the
death of a Lovely and highly educated
daughter the mother informed me
that her daughter died from the i'll
effects of sitting all day with damp
feet in a school room with no oppor-
tunity of drying them. Some time
ago I sent a small boy to a school to
a young lady who had sixty pupils,
mostly small children. She is a kind,
| Christian lady. The school house is
a comfortable one, but heated by a
stove. 1t is well furnished with
desks. The boys desk was distant
from the stove with a broken pane of
glass in the window at his right hand.
He often complained of pains in his
neck and head.
In early life I attended the first free
school established in our neighbor-
hood. This district contained thirty
six square miles. The average attend
ance was about eighty pupils. Fifteen
or twenty of them would play truant
and be down under the hill playing
ball all afternoon and would not be
missed by the teacher at all. Little
benefit was derived from free schools
till very recent years. As I have had
considerable experience in teaching,
I will give it as my opinion that rural
graded schools are impracticable in
the most of the counties in North
Carolina. B. F. WHITE.
Alamance Co., N. O.