The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1902-06-13

beget strength. The strongest, the most
powerful, the most cultured, the most
| tactful, the most travelled, the most in
1luential citizen of any commonwealth or
city ought to be the leading teacher of
| that commonwealth or city. The school
teacher is the seed corn of civilization,
and none but the best and strongest is
good enough to USE
What does it cost to educate a child,
and what is he worth after being edu-
Gated? Our first thought is the money
| that 1T costs; and that is always con-
| siderable and usually calls for sacrifice
on the part of some one. The second
item is the expense of nerve and en-
thusiasm and spirit on the part of the
real teacher. The wear and tear on a
mothers life and nerve while she is car
ing for her little child is hardly a severer
drain upon her than the drain upon a
real school teacher as she undertakes
! to guide the intellectual and spiritual
path of that same little child developing
in the period of youth. l would almost
prefer that my children should not go
to school at all than that they should
| come in daily contact with ambitionless,
mediocre, wooden teachers.
THE third and largest item of ex-
pense in the cost of education is the
drudgery that the individual who is be-
| ing educated must undergo in order to
! become a strong and useful member of
society. Not one child in a hundred
of those who have the opportunity is
willing to go through this toll and drudg-
| cry; nor can it be ascertained without an
effort for the education of all which one
of the hundred will be willing to under
go it, Those who are willing to do the
drudgery belong to no particular class
of society. Upon these, the select few.
who are willing to go through the grind.
who have ambition and unquenchable de-
| sire to know something to do something
and to be somebody, upon this select
few depends the progress of the world.
1T ought to be the highest ambition
! OF those of us who have power, by rea-
son of our education or wealth or social
or political position. to use that power
to give a chance in life to all little
children, and especially to that masterful
class
81 believe that the present hard condi-
| tions as to our school houses can be
remcdied best by women l believe that
the most practical service that women
can give to their State today is to band
| themselves together and declare that
every child shall have an opportunity to
spend at least few years in a good pub
lie school house with inspiring surround
1ngs and with an effective teacher. 1t
| Will not cost as much to do this as any
one of the many wars of the past hun
| dred years mas cost the State of North
Carolina. Are we willing for the chill
dren of North Carolina and the other
Southern States to grow to manhood and
womanhood without having half the edu-
! cational opportunity that the children of
every other section of this country have?
What business have we to rush to an is
land in the sea, spending hundreds of
millions of dollars to free the inhabitants
OF Cuba, and establish compulsory educa-
ton among them, while our own chill
dren are starving for intellectual food?
Women of North Carolina, you have
built nearly every church in this State
You have heated and lighted these
churches and cushioned the seats, and
carpeted the floors, and adorned the
walls, so that you may go there and
comfortably worship God for one or two
> hours 4 week. You and others similarly
situated have provided for the children of
this commonwealth school houses with
out carpets, without ornaments, without
cushioned seats, without towers. and ex-
}pect your children to be trained for citi-
zenship, in spite of the discomfort, SOM
berness, poor light, bad ventilation and
feeble leadership.
Fellow teachers and fellow citizens
)who are not teachers.
! ut is shame to you and to me if we
| fail to do what we can to remedy the
| hard conditions of ignorance illiteracy,
weakness and poverty around us. The
| only way to do this is to teach people
to labor with intelligence ana effective
ress. Industrial education is necessary,
but industrial education includes at least
| the ability to read and write the English
| language accurately. We have hardly be-
gun the ABCs of industrial education.
do not believe that any man or woman
is properly educated who has never done
manual labor, and who does not have
a common trade by which he or she could
| earn living. With the new opportunities
| of education coming to women, there is
a greater demand for an outlet for their
activity 1t is to the interest of all of
| us that their great tact enthusiasm and
power should not exhaust itself upon
| chimerical schemes or foolish crusadcs as
has often been the case in the past with
men and women of the noblest impulses
| The Women's clubs of every kind in the
South ought to bend their energies for
the next five or ten years towards the
solving of the problem of illiteracy among
| our people. If you will declare your
purpose and determination to abolish il
| literacy in the South, it's days are num-
bered, ard without your active help and
| cooperation, / do not think that legisla-
tors, governors, or superintendent will
| be able to accomplish the task.
'The time has come for work. The bat
tie is on and the people of North Caro-
lima are going to educate their children
at whatever cost. There is no doubt about
the final outcome of the issue. If each
| teacher here at this great meeting de-
| termines that right shall win in five
years, five years it will be- But it is
not enough for a few teachers to under
take the struggle A few men and women
| cannot win the fight, nor can a divided
profession win it; but a union of the in
| fluences represented here tonight pro-
claiming any truth for the upbuilding of
North Carolina is a guarantee Of vic
tOrV