Atlanta semi-weekly journal. (Atlanta, Ga.) 1898-1920, 1902-11-24
Primitive Schools of Georgia Reviewed.


the child, and punishment was very
sure. Sometimes the little fellow was
whacked on the shoulders, sometimes
his bare legs caught the rod and some
times, in aggravated cases, a stout
boy took the culprit on his back and
carried him around the room, and his
teacher had a fair chance at him.
Sometimes he was tapped on the head
by the teachers knuckles, and some
times his iunkempt hair was pulled
very vigorously. In. some way or other
his derelictions received their just re-
ward. The. str1cter the discipline, the
higher the estimate in which the
teacher was held by the parents. Ev-
erything In the school was awfully dig
nifled and the master was the auto
crat from whose decrses there was no
appeal.
The barring out of the master as 1t
was called in England, was called the
turning out OF the teacher In Geor-
gia. 1t was the great event OF the
year in the old field schools. The
graphic sketch OF the Turn Out" in
Judge Longstreets Georgia Scenes,
was an accurate account of one which
the Judge had doubtless seen. The
scholars some OF whom were grown,
came early 10 the uCHOOl house anu
took possession. They barred the
windows, fastened the door. and were
ready for an. attack, The teacher
was not disposed to surrender without
a struggle. He refused to capitulate.
He demanded, 4 Immediate submission,
but the scholars held the fort. He
broke IN: they. tackled him, and at last
he surrendered and gave the treat.
which was, alas, sometimes, gallon Of
brandy and sometimes q holiday and
was released. 81
Writing when steel pens were un-
known and paper was very scarce,
was a rare art, Few country boys
learned to write well and few coun-
try girls learned to write at all. A
grammar, a geography. a philosophy,
were never heard of. The cost of the
books of one third grade school In At
lanta would have supplied the entire
school OF 80 boys and girls in the
first OF the century. There would
have been needed 50 spelling books and
1--WE Rrithmetics and ten Testaments,
for all of them, and the whole outfit
would have cost less than S.. There
was no provision made for those who
could not pay tuition. The school
was a subscription school and the so
cents q month had to be paid, but
could be paid in work on the teachers
farm, or with bushel OF corn, or with
ten pounds of pork, or by splitting 300
rails, but it had to be paid. These old
field schools were the beginning
schools OF many who afterward went
to DR.. Waddell or Mr.. Springer, and
learned the classics, but they were
the only schools ever attended by
many a man who became the leading
planter in his county, and who went
to. the 'legislatur." as he called 1t,
whom he chose.
There are many of The Journal
readers who find in this description OF
old field schools a picture Of schools
such as they have known in the last
twenty years. -,.
When the state began to make APP
preparations to education some coun-
ties received twice as much from the
state treasury as they paid into it In
taxes and II was a bonanza and many
an old squire, who ruled his does
trick" but could not read got the
'scubc" for his "darter." who "could
read and rite and cfphur," q better
day has dawnOd and perhaps my old
friend, Professor Glenn, would have
been more popular IL he had been
less relentless in his fight against the
ineficiency of teachers. Despite all
the nuH1lc OI lnOSo
schools of our fathers, and though
they were far from being up to our
modern ideas, there came out Of them a
body of men who feared God and
wrought righteousness, and who rever-
enced both the laws Of God and man.
The people were poor, for rich people
don't settle on frontiers. High schools
were few and far apart. The settlers
were scattered, they had come from
the frontiers Of North Carolina and
Virginia, where they had had few adj
vantages, to Georgia, where they had
nothing They had fought the British
and tories and Indians. They had no
chance to secure mental training and
did not secure an education from
books, but one of these sturdy boys,
who wrestled and ran races, and
climbed trees, and hunted possums and
coons, and studied Dillworth's speller,
the Young reader and Smythe's arith-
nnetic by tallow candle light and light
wood fires, was worth a thousand Of
these modern, cigarette smoking, beer
drinking, theatre-going dudes, who
descended from these worthy people,
Is anxious now to deny that he came
from any other than ducal parentage,
and had ever any connection with
anybody who signed his name,
his
JohnxSmith
mark