The Union times. [volume] (Union, S.C.) 1894-1918, 1904-09-23
SCHOOL BOOKS.

1t still remains mystery to US,
why the State Board of Education Of
South Carolina and some other
Southern States persist in adopting
the textbooks that they do, when it
has been discussed and plainly shown
that these books are written by the
rank partisan Northern men and
women. The continued use of
Barnes history in the schools Of the |
South, when it has been pointed out |
by those who know, that the accounts
Of the various battles of the Civil |
War were incorrect, and further that
| every account therein contained OF
the causes of the war are misleading.
The ability and generalship have
been credited to the officers of the
Northern armies. Mr.. Waddy
Thompson, son of Ex-Gov. Hugh
Thompson, of South Carolina, has
written history of the United States,
which has been criticised by the lead
ing journals of the North all agreeing
that this history is the best and most
impartial and non-partisan history
vet written OF the war between the
states and it's causes. Mr.. Thompson
says in his preface to this history:
"The chief event in American history
is the war between the states. Its
causes having their beginning before
the formation of the Union, exerted
q strong influence upon the early
stages of the country's development.
Its consequences are Of the greatest
;, Importance. Now when such his.
torians as Mr.. Thompson, and one who
is conceded by the otherwise partisan
Northern newspapers, regards tht
events Of the Civil War between th'
> states as the "chief event in Ameri
can history" it is we'll that our chill
y dren be taught the truth as contained
- such incorrect statements as are con
tanned in Barnes. In Maury's geog
raphy we find this statement as q fac
~ given to the school children, tha
y. Liberia is an independent republic
populated by the enancipated ne
groes of America" as much as to sa,
:. that prior to the emancipation of tn
y negro in the United States, Lberi
had no population, or rather was no
i inhabited.
All Of the readers used in tn
schools with few exceptions, con
tain narratives having for their objec
the poisoning of the Southern child
=, mind, as to the real attitude Of tn
!. H9Ith ,toYards the South upon sociu
bias the mind of the child in favor @
, the North, in considering the attitud
Of the two sections. Thus the chill
is lead to believe that the South i
wrong and in fact has ever been /
the wrong. Therefore in the stud
and reading of such text books, tn
children of the South will never kno,
the truth of the struggle on the par
- Of the South for her rights guarantee
under the provisions of the Constitu
tion when ratified by each and ever
sovereign state. A text book upo
a., sssh!sat .Gsssaases to be text boo
+ proper when the aith0f fnJects Int,
It's pages the partisan principles O
the writer. The works on physiology
= taught in the schools are but tn,
writings Of temperance fanatics. w.
! do not object to the child being
taught and deeply impressed with the
truth Of the effect alcohol has noon
the human system, but when the
writer so far forgets the real object OF
the treatise as to drift into protract.
ed temperance lecture, the aim and
object of the book is thus obscured
and it Is no longer scientific work
on physiology.
The foregoing is characteristic of
nearly all Of the school books, except
OF course mathematics. english lite
rature, and the languages The latin
text books sxe very different now and
the manner Of teaching latin is also
different. The old way of teaching
latin was the child must first m aster
the grammar, become perfectly ia
miliar with the different parts of
speech, case endings, derivations,
copjugations, declinations, mood,