The Bamberg herald. [volume] (Bamberg, S.C.) 1891-1972, 1904-08-25
SOUTH CAROLINA COLLEGE.
Scholarships for Men Teachers.

Scholarships for Men Teachers.
Eighty-two scholarships for men teach
ers! That is one of the fruits of the edu-
cational craftsmanship of the last legis-
lature. This legislature at its first session
in 1908 established in the South Carolina
College forty.one normal scholarships,
and at it's next session doubled the mum.
Der of these scholarships, making two
from each county. This was to provide
a new class, but as not all the holdovers
will return there will doubtless be as ma
nv as sixty new scholarships awarded this
summer, one in every county and two to
a county in many instances. Any yperson
interested should write to Prof. Benjamin
Sloan or Prof. Patterson Wardlaw, Co.
lumbia, s. G.
Each of these scholarships pays $40 in
money toward living expenses, and ex-
empts the holder from a fee of $18, which
is exacted of all other students, and also
exempts from the tuition fee of $4O,
which, however, is remitted to any stu.
dent who makes proof of inability to pay
it. It admits a man entirely free and
paws about half of his board. This mu-
nifcence of the State is designed primari.
" to provide better teachers for the coun-
try schools, but incidentally it aids poor
but worthy young men to obtain a
college education and fit themselves for
higher things in life. In order that the
scholarships shall so to this class of
Young men and not be gobbled up by
young fellows who could get to college
without the scholarships, the awards are
not made solely with reference to the
marks made on the examination, and
men nineteen years of age and over are
given the preference. This gives an op-
portunity to the country young man,
whose technical preparation may be far
less than that of the fifteen-year-oldg grad
uate of town graded school: but whose
maturity and earnestness are guaranty
that when given an opportunity to study
in college he will pull through and make
a man of himself. Preference is still fur.
ther given to young men who have taught
school. 1t is often the case that young
man in the country, although with poor
preparation, attempts to teach the neigh.
borhood school. For his own sake and
for the sake of the schools he ought to
be given q better education before he
becomes settled in life of inferior
work. Hence the special effort of the
authorities of the South Carolina col
lege is to induce young men teachers who
are Ill prepared for their work to stop
now and 60 to college while they can.
The scholarship men last year were of
the average age of % 1-3 years, and the
Oldest was SO. 1t is hoped that such
young men, having already developed
some taste for teaching, and going to col
lege with definite purpose, will adhere
to teaching as their profession. If the
benefciaries of these scholarships were
differently selected, a larger proportion
of them would do as college men so often
do, turn their backs on the country for
ever and become professional men in
towns and cities. But where they have
previously committed themselves to pub
lie school work, and then stop and 60 to
college with the ideal of fitting themselves
for better work in that line, there is
strong probability that for the most part
they will return to country schoolteach-
ing-a result which will richly repay the
State for its liberal policy in providing
for their training as teachers.
Each year better salaries are being paid
in the country schools, and for several
years there have been in several counties
country schools which college.bred men
of high reputation are proud to teach.
The simplicity, freedom and beauty Of
country life, and the growing advantages,
with telephones, mail deliveries, and libra
ries, have peculiar charms for the scholar
and the thinker. The present indications
are that within this decade country school.
teaching in South Carolina-so long held
in disrepute-will be recognized as a
choice profession. Already six to nine
hundred dollars a year, with little ex-
pense for living, is not an infrequent sal
ary. Professor Wardlaw's men readily
find desirable places, and the demand for
such men increases each year.
The course of study is specially de-
signed to improve the public schools.
Last wear it included besides the usual
subjects, special instruction in pedagog-
les, physics, nature study, and drawing,
and the course for next year has been en-
larged and improved and will include
sight singing. The students had the
benefit of observation and practice under
a critic teacher, and next session will
practice teaching in the Columbia public
schools, having the benefit of the super
vision and criticisms of Columbia's best
teachers.
The better to impress the school spirit
and arouse the young men to sense OF
the dignity and magnitude Of their pro-
fession, there will be series Of lectures
by leading school superintendents and
principals. Thus this body OF young
teachers will combine theory and practice
in their studies, and every two or three
weeks will be stimulated by special
message from some notable educator
fresh from daily contact with the practi.
cal problems of the schoolroom.
It is thus that the college is seeking to
execute the wise plan of the legislature
for improving the common schools of the
State and raising the standard of citizen
ship. Assembling within her walls and
at the seat of the State government an
nually eighty-two young men teachers
from the forty-one counties of the State,
Inspiring and broadening them by contact
with students from all sections of the
State and all spheres of life, strengthen