The Montgomery advertiser., 1902-08-07
Education in the South.
New York Times.

4NcW 1OTh llHeS
 The slight tendency to criticism-it could not be called pposition-manifest- ed in the South toward the work of the Southern Education Board appears pretty
 much to have disappeared. What there
 was of it was due, we think, mainly to
 misunderstanding or failure to under stand, the purpose and methods of the Board. This has been dspelled, as the work has proceeded and the organization has begun to show direct activity. Prob
 ably the most effective influence in this
 direction was provided at the great Sum-
 mer School of the South, held in Knox vile. Tenn. Some HOO teachers and
 school officers, from every State in the South, were assembled there, and the plans of the Southern Education Board were fully explained and acutely dis cussed by Southern men. The result was
 that "declaration of principles was unanimously adopted. in perfect har-
 mony with the principles of the Board
 and including the following statement: We express our hearty appreciation of the noble work of the Southern and Gen
 eral Education Boards, which by their
 earnest sympathy and generous means
 have made possible this great Summer
 School of the South and fin numerous oth- CT ways are strengthening the patriotic
 efforts of the Southern people to improve their educational conditions"
 The essential feature of the policy con
 tained in this declaration is thus ex- | pressed:
 We must recognize conditions and | frankly face them. We therefore declare | ourselves in favor of public school sys- | tenn. State supported and State directed, | In which every child may have the open | door of opportunity"
 What little indication of disapproval | there was in the South rose from the | interpretation of this clause. The req | soning that was used seems to have been something like this: The open door of | opportunity is to be flor every achild." m, aaly and 1xy1n1 to a1i md | the next step will be to mixed schools, and so to social equality. Of course the | interpretation is strained, It is the ODin- | ion of these Southern teachers that all children should have the opportunity for schooling and not at all necessarily for schooling in the same classes. The school i ing an any case is to be State supported and State directed" and it is not to he supposed that the State governments will | fail to respect the sentiment of the people 1 in a matter of this sort. The view of the teachers is that all that Is dangerous in | the colored race is made more dangerous | by ignorance. incapacity for work, idle ness, superstition and want of self-re- spect. This danger may be reduced by | schooling which includes training in | work and tends to the building up of | character. However if the people of any district do not feel with the teach CTS, there is no intention and there could be no power to compel them to act against their own sentiment
 An interesting point in the declaration of the Southern teachers was the fol lowing which might with advantage be | studied in many a Northern community:
 "Teaching should be a profession, and not a stepping-stone to something else We therefore stand for the highest train ing of teachers and urge the school au' | th0rities of every State to encoura ge those who wish to make the educating of children life profession. We call upon the people to banish forever politics and nepotism from the public schools and | to establish system in which. from the | humhIest teacher to the office of State | Superintendent. merit shall be the touch. l stone"