The Washburn times. [volume] (Washburn, Wis.) 1896-1976, 1903-02-19
A USEFUL SOUTHERN SCHOOL.
Something About the Georgia Stats
Normal School. i

Eleven years ago, it became appar.
ent to the educational leaders in Geor-
gia that without large number OF
trained teachers, the millions of dollars
Invested by the state for the develop
ment Of her common school system
would yield but a meager income in
mental development.
In answer to this demand for bet
ter equipped teachers, the state nor
NAL school of Georgia was chartered
by the general assembly of the state,
in 1891. This charter carried with it
no appropriation, but the university Of
Georgia gave an old building, few
acres of land, and $1,000 year. DR..
J. L. M. Curry allotted to the new in
stitution $500 year from the Peabody
fund, and the citizens Of Clarke county
generously equipped the school-rooms
with plain lesks and the dormitoryl
with comfortable cots. Three years
later, the state made small appropri-
alton, and the institution opened it's
first regular session of nine months.
At that time, the one building on the
premises served for class rooms and
dormitory, and for several years the
dOrmitory space was so limited that
y,
room. and in one instance three girls
were obliged to occupy the bathroom,
one of them actually sleeping on
cot placed over the bathtub. The state
normal school has travelled far from it's
humble beginning A decade more
will make it, beyond doubt one of the
largest, strongest and most useful edu-
cational institutions in the South.
Tod with c1Iff nj ont
number of buildings, it is doing work
that would reflect credit on older and
larger institutions. Within the past
year. a library of 5000 volumes has
been provided by the earnest personal
work of it's president, Eugene G. Bran
son, the faculty and students. de-
partment of domestic arts and sciences
has been established by George Foster
Peabody, and a cooking school has
been fitted up by Robert G. Ogden. The
department of psychology has been
equipped with the very best apparatus,
and the show shop has ben converted
into a departm ent where the students
make numerous useful articles from
materials that usually go to waste.
Although 242 of the COS students at
the state normal school this year came
with diplomas from leading education
al institutions in Georgia, the great
majority is composed of young men
and young women whose opportunities
have been very limited. They are rep
resentative of that class of citizens
whose financial condition is straitened.
Their ancestors fought at Cowpenst
and Kings mountain and Yorktown;
at Monterey and Buena Vista and
Chapultepec; at Shiloh and Murfrees-
boro and Chickamauga, at Chancellors-
vile and Gettysburg and the Wilder
ness. The devastation of war, the
dismante1ing of homes, the impoverish-
ment of their fathers, left them prob
lem hard of solution. Their lots in
life have not been gentle. They have
not reposed on downy beds of case.
They have never known ought else
than hard, unremitting toll, either Of
mind or body. They have helped re-
build the waste places, repair the shat
tered fortunes, exc out the family in
come, and keep alive the spirit Of I'M
conquerable perseverance that has
made Georgia a veritable empire
Success.