The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1902-01-12

superintendent Glenn, or GeoTsIa
says:
Every modern system of education is
framed on the theory that child S
education must be so conducted as 10
develop it and equip for the life it is TO
lead when school days are over. About
80 per cent of the children of Georgia
live in the country; a vast majority OF
them will spend their lives upon the
farms. Agriculture has come TO be a
science. While our children are learn
ing to read and to write and TO cipher,
they can just as well learn the elemen-
tary principles of agriculture. These
elementary principles are embodied in
courses of study that any child can
grasp, known as nature studies. These
nature studies are being introduced in
the school systems of all the States.
Together with these nature studies ele-
mentary manual training is also being
embodied in course of study
1t seems very reasonable that those
who must make their homes in the
country should have a knowledge of
the growth of plants and animals, that
they should know more of the soil; that
they should know how TO beautify their
homes; but this knowledge will never
come from the dilapidated 16x32 school
house situated in the edge of the woods.
This must come from~a practical demon
stration, from teachers who do more
than grind out few dry questions.
The next subject for consideration is
manual training; that the minds of the
youths may be employed in mastering
the use of tools and in the study of
modern machinery. Such tools and such
machinery as will save labor on the
farm and make the farmer independent
of 1.-The labor question" This would
doubtless side-track few lads who, hav
ing learned TO speak Patrick Henry's
Give me Liberty, or give me Death,
threads a golden path through the legal
profession into politics 1t is the proper
thing to aspire to greatness; but the
average young man who goes to college
can not in his sophomore stage give
birth to an idea unless the legal profess
sion is a necessary adjunct. This is
especially true of boys from the coun-
try; and before their diplomas are
signed they are seeking employment as
insurance men, school teachers or book
agents. Today if a young man conf
pIetes even the high school course In
the country, he does not know any
more about\the profession he is to follow
than if he had never been to school. He
knows less about farming than the
poor boy who stayed at home and
worked; and it is this poorer boy who
becomes the farmer, the other goes to
town and seeks employment. The
whole trend of education for twenty
five or thirty years has been away
from the farm.
The elementary subjects, such as read
ing, writing and arithmetic should receive
the greatest attention; nor should his
tory and literature be neglected. But the
great subject under consideration should
be to train the children for the lives
they are to lead. This will never be
done ir our present system of public
schools, because competent teachers can
not be secured. To put textbook of
agriculture, animal industry, gardening,
and fruit growing in the hands of the
average public school teacher would cause
the children to flee from such an occu-
ration as tfisg would from the wrath to
come. 1t is impossible 10 get the best
teachers in the country according TO the
l.
ship would combine into one township
graded school, the same money that 1t
takes to run the schools four months
would increase the term to hive and half
or six months with corps of fine teach
ers, and a surplus fund for conveying
all the children 10 school who live over
two miles from school. Here under the
guidance OF the principal and the super
.sv,fnV IcrN
these subjects could receive proper atten-
ton. Here four or five hundred children
would come together under the influence
Of fine strong. cultured teachers, while
at present, they come together in groups
of about fifty-each under teachers from
their own COMMUNICATIVE are OF the
lest people; but who can not equal the
uplifting strength of fine teachers.
Should Latin or French be taught?
Prof Booker Washington in his auto
biography tells OF negroes, whom he has
observed sitting on dirt floor III a
wretched, filthy howell, reading Greek.
Here is culture for you. There is
strange incongruity somewhere. Two hua-
dred and fifty years ago Milton suggested
that-the moral classes be taught prac-
teal agriculture instead OF Latin ana
Greek Now this was at time when
Latin was the court language. The GUS
tom today is in our deplorable situation,
as soon as the boy or girl has entered
svntax of Horrys Higher Grammar to
put him in Latin; for, they say, how
can a child understand English unless
he knows some Latin? The student may
actually read little Caesar; but by
this time he or she drops out of school.
Now, here is your picture. Take your
buggy and drive through the country
and see for yourself. If it is in THE
summer time you will see this same
girl hoeing cotton or working in to-
! bacco. If it is in the fall you will soc
this identical girl picking cotton or
grading tobacco. She studied Latin
read Cesar. When she was in school,
possibly she could read little of
Moliere in the original Why did she
study these texts? They We're culture
studies and helped her considerably
with her English; but it doesn't require
very much English to hoe cotton and
grade tobacco. Did her training help
her to make her own clothes or to trim
her own hats? or does she have to pick
COTTON and hire these things done? Does