The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1902-06-04
INFLUENCE OF THE HIGH SCHOOL.
this Great Work of Education Was
the Academy Ike Alamo the Torch of Learning.

people. The inspiration to this work,
and whatever enthusiasm there may have
been in our State, came from these meL
who stood so faithfully at their work,poor-
ly remunerated, often poorly appreciated,
but nevertheless, for the cause of educa-
tion and for the young men and the
young women of the State they have
stood firm at the post of duty; and still
to this day fully ninety per cent. of the
public school teachers of the State re-
ceive their education at some similar
academy situated somewhere in the con-
fines of each county-some academy
which is quietly and silently gathering
together the young men and the young
women of the community and the ada
cent communities and without ostenta-
ton inspiring them with the love of
learning and the love for their fellow
men. Meanwhile they have prepared the
thousands of young men who have sup
piled the demands of our growing bust
ness and have filled the colleges and our
splendid State University, and have
made it possible for them to do the
magnificent work which they have car
ried on; and while l have a higher re-
gard for those institutions and for the
splendid State Normal College. l realize
that all of these put together would
scarcely fill the demand for five per cent.
of our public school teachers of the
State 1t was the late Chief Justice
Merrimon who said in 1878: THAT the
work of the high schools was doing more
for the State of North Carolina than all
the other educational institutions COM
bined," and while that may not be trHe
IA G /
suaded that they are yet doing a work
that the State can ill afford to lose. OF
course, there are academies, some of them
far more ambitious than others; some
with longer record of excellent work
done-a life and work upon which the
State at large looks with increasing
pride and gratitude, and others of more
scope and purpose, nevertheless. the his
who shall for a moment hesitate to give
careful study to the least pretentious
of these modest academies would make
dire failure in recording in full all the
forces that have made it possible for
us to have the present educational re-
vival which is in progress.
Indeed. those who think that this edu-
eational movement, as Walter Page
calls it, is something of extrancous and
Of sudden unexpected growth and who
do not look back for the seeds which
for thirty-five years the academies have
been planting in the hearts of their stu
dents would fail to find the secret of
the remarkable harvest which / trust we
are Ihoht to reap. Just as in the clear
ing of the fields, far from the confines
of civilization and in the midst of
forest at once the grasses and vegeta-
ton spring up and we are led to wonder
what where the sources of the seeds from
which they sprang and at the wonderful
variety of plant life, so as we have clear
ed away the prejudice and all those
things which have hindered the educa-
tional growth of the State until we
could let in the sun light of heaven there
is now springing up the luxuriant prom
Use of the rich harvest from the seeds
which have long lain dormant. but
nevertheless. sown and scattered here
by our academies.
Let us not ignore any of the forces
which are making up our educational
| life, the graded schools of our cities, the
modest academies upon hill-tops in the
country, the little red school house by
the wayside, the great colleges planted
by the churches, the great university at
the head of all, the work of the lawyers,
the preachers, the teachers, all OF these
combined, give promise and potency
for great future growth that shall re-
deem the Old North State from its bur-
ltn of illiteracy.