The Montgomery advertiser., 1904-03-14

1 far as possible they should be trained n the Science of pedagogy. { We require that all other professional men shall be pro- essionaIly trained-iaw- I yers, doctors and what not. Why not l teachers aisof:
 l For Herod's $ murdering the innocents is nothing to be compared to the murder I ing of the minds and hearts of our cliil- dren by incompetent teachers. And let | your teachers De devoted for life to that work. Above all, let them be of com manding personality: for they may have all eise and without this, utterly fall. 4 To get the sevices of such men and wo- men requires that we dignify the profes- sion by adequate compensation. Indeed, every community should tax itself. suf- ficientIy to make ample provision for all its, children. We have put our money into business enterprises, street improve rnents and every other sort of material endeavor; let us now put 1t more and more into the maturing of men and women. Not less business but more culture. tE
 Of course.s you can have no school without pupils. Large as our schools are, tie higher grades are pitifulsy small. Where are our boys that the boys high school numbers so few? They are loafing on our streets, learning Immortality and moving hellward with lightning speed. They are in business all too soon. Where are our girls? But you say. why all this talk about education? Is 1t worth while to devote so much of our children's Iives to mere preparation? paragraph writ ten by Dr. W ". Smith of Virginia will suggest the answer:
 With view to determining what ef- feet education of the various grades has had on success in life, eff0rt was made e~ Anf- 4t.. .F and women of more than local note in the United States.
 According to the best estimate we can make from the latest census returns. there are in the United States 4o.7s2.0o7 persons over q years old. These are d. vided educationaliy as follows:
 Class l. without school training. 4,6s2. :, ssi
 Class ?, with only common school train ing, a2,s ,951
 Class 3, with common and hisA school training. 2.165,S7.
 Glass f. with college or higher educa- ton added 1.07I.20l.
 Now, the question is. how many of the 7,s52 distinguished citizens of the United States on the who's who list, came from each of these classes:
 The 4,6S2,49S of class 1. furnished 31.
 The 32,S62. .gO1 of class 2, furnished sos.
 The 2,i66,357 of class 3, furnished 1,245.
 The 1.0T1, ,2O1 of class 1, furnished 5,76S.
 It thus appears;
 First. That an uneducated child las one chance in 15O,000 of attaining distinc- tion as g factor in the progress of the age.
 Second. That common school educa- tion will increase his chance nearly four times.
 srhtea ash.s 2 A,.... .I..., ..-,..,... U, increase the chances of the common school boy twenty-three times, giving him eighty-seven times the chance of the un- educated. ss
 Fourth That college education iri- creases the chance Of the high-scilool boy nine times. giving him 219 times the chance of the antrained.
 Of the 7,S52 ''notabies" spoken of above. 4,s10 proved to be full college graduates ''
 Our schools should be under public scrutiny. Every citizen should make 1t his business to know as far as possible what our schools are doing. Make it impossible for them to fan Into the hands of any clique. Put only our wisest and best people in charge
 They should be in touch with our homes. Teachers should visit the home of every child in their classes that they may know the conditions fin which the child Is living. The old method of boarding around was not without it's
 Personal sympathy between teacher and pupil is all important, and anything that contributes to this result is helm ful The parents should visit the schools so as to appreciate the regulations under which their children work They should by all means support the teacher in mat ters of discipline, presunling that he is right till fha tes
 And finally a religious atmosphere should pervade every school. I apprc- ciate the difficulties here The Aneri- can doctrine is that the State cannot teach religion; and yet in the last anaIy- sis, she has more right to teach religion than anything else, more right to teach religion than mathematics, for which makes the better citizen. to be able to calculate accounts or lead men to God? She has more right to teach religion than history. Which is better to know, the route the human race has travelled. or the God that has led it on? She has more right to teach religion than gram mar. for which Is better for the State, good English or clean morals?
 Tt Is after all the atmosphere in inc school that nourishes or blights the re- ligious life. Better tS send your child into coid-storage room to be frozen to death than into an atmosphere where de- Votion to the things you hold dearest will be permanently chilled. , Therefore, whatever else may be done in your. schools. see to it that the atmos- phere is vibrant with religious devotion and aspiration.
 Schools in which these principles are wrought out, and these schools alone, will help to bring us to the realization of the new heaven and the new earth held out before the vision of John as the ideal of our hopes and the good of our efforts."