Clarke courier. [volume] (Berryville, Va.) 1869-1997, 1904-08-10
Cooperative Education Commission.

4 public meeting of educators
was held at the University of Nir-
ginia, on Tuesday, July 26, under
the auspices of the Cooperative
Education Commission. The themes
discussed were: \ Nine-MOnths
Term, a High School Within
Reasonable Distance of Every
Child, Proper School Supervision,
School Libraries, Local Taxation.
etc. There were many able adj
dresses. and an impetus was given
10 the great work of improving our
country schools. This educator
was requested to prepare a short
paper on the subject of a High
School Within a Reasonable Dis
lance of Every Child, and, at the
risk of being accused of playing on
one string, it Is given below:
! was requested 10 contribute a
ten-minutes' talk to the discussion
of this subject, but that / may be
sure | have some proportion in my
remarks, | have thought it better
10 write out certain things which
seem TO me important, that | may
not omit them for lack of time.
Some things / am obliged simply
To state as facts, and | believe they
will be accepted by this audience
without extended argument.
The development of the native
powers of children should be duty
and a JOY to parents. But any
training beyond the grammar
school has been denied to
most of our children. In few COM
munities in Virginia. outside of
large towns and cities, can high
school training he obtained. 1t
requires the expenditure of several
hundred dollars for each child
under present conditions. Where
there Is one girl or boy in aneigh-
borhOod who can arrange to 90
from home to get this training,
there are twenty-five or thirty who
ought To have it. but cannot 90
away from home TO Obtainit. More
over, many of those who can go
are too immature to leave home.
but are obliged to do so or to stop
school altogether The statistics
from the three largest schools in
the State are in point as a sad
proof: At Blacksburg 272 out OF
6l2 students, at Farmville 800 out
of 400 students and at Blackstone
225 out of 335 students are doino
purely high-school work ut a cost
of from $3.50 to $500. But not only
does the expense of attendance pre-
vent the great mass of our children
from obtaining any high-school
training at all, but there is another
result. Not thirty per cent of the
students at these three schools con-
tinue the course of study to 9radu-
alton. Why Z Many are so poorly
prepared that they become dis
couraged and drop out during or
after the first year. But the greater
number cannot meet the expense
necessary for a three or four-year
course, and often are not able to
finish even the high-school grades.
and so are obliged to stop Just
when they are ready to appreciate
the opportunities before them.
With both of these large classes
the results are so unsatisfactory
that higher education is largely
discredited by them, and by their
friends. And if it shall happen that
they are able to persevere end 70
continue To the end of the course.
it frequently happens that they are
burdened by a debt which it re-
quires several years to pay.
A high school within a reasonable
distance of every child would pro-
duce the following results: Cd 1t
would have a tonic effect upon the
primary and grammar schools OF
the country. Thousands of parents
who have no hope of ever sending
their children away to boarding
school, and who therefore fire.
quently withdraw them from school
before they complete even the
grammar grades, would be stimu-
lated to send them through this
neighborhood high school, and the