Macon beacon. [volume] (Macon, Miss.) 1859-1995, 1904-07-30

sence from home, made necessary by
this sorrow, my work has suffered
because Of my inability to get at the
exchanges, and my distance from the
Offices in the capitol.
| am at my desk again this week,
however. and will henceforth give my
best efforts to this work-a work that
should be very close to the heart Of
every loyal Mississippi man and wo-
man. KATE M. POWER.
Ere this letter will have reached our
readers the School Bulletin will be in
circulation in Mississippi, and we are
confident that Its bright pages will,
in all truth, fill long felt want" rae
Bulletin Is a large four-page (six col
umns to the page) paper. which State
Supt. Whitfield issues from his Office
quarterly. II Is brlm full Of practical
information concerning school mat
ters, and brings forth arguments In
favor Of better state Of things, edu'
cationally, that only chief justice
need attempt to meet. The teachers
need just such plain talk aSthey will
get in the Bulletin, and "the people
need not only these many columns
overnowing with good things, but they
need even more, an interest in the
betterment of our schools, and through
| them our children, and through them
| our State and our nation--that will
make them eager to read every word
in its four pages, and willing to do
their part toward bringing education
| in Mississippi UP to the high stand
ard set for 1t by the noble men who,
in schools, colleges and State Offices,
are giving their best efforts to its ac.
| compllshment. The Bulletin Is as full
Of good things as one of our fine
homeraised pecans is full of richest
meat, so | am literally embarrassed
with riches" from which to choose.
But we are anxious to emphasize sew
eral excellent points made by the
superintendent at recent school
commencement in Copiah county,
hence quote first, from that address.
In discussing the supreme duty of the
hour he said:
1--WE live in a different age from
that in which our fathers lived. Life
was simpler in those days Then it
was the simplest of tools, the OK cart
and the water mill; now 1t Is the
most complex of machinery, II is the
age of steam and electricity; then al
most everything was done with the
| hand now almost all the work in pro-
gressive communities Is done by ma
chinery; then very little attention was
paid TO training the people for the
great industrial combat; now the pro-
sressive communities of the earth vie
with each other In the opportunities
given for training the people for their
work; then muscle and Drawn were
almost everything, now brute force
hardly counts for anything, training
ig everything. My friends, unless you
give your boys infinitely better train
ing than your fathers had, you can.
not expect them to do one-tenth as
we'll"
How many times do the brave
women (for the teaching force Is made
Up largely of women) have their ef.
forts met with just such discouraging
remarks as "Well got my schooln'
thout ever studyin' bout no Anna
Liza, and | don't want no such fool
ishness in the chillen's heads; just set
EN- to parsin' in the good old yellow
back grammar and they'll know all
the language they needs to know,
etc.
Particularly, do The parents in some
sections of the city, as well as the
country, object to the modern methods
Of teaching beginners and | have
known OF numerous instances recently
in which parents have taken their lit
tic ones from school and employed u
teacher, or attempted themselves to
teach the children their "A B Cs"
Until was a guest last year in a
neighborhood where five rural teach.
ers live, ! had no conception Of the
difficulties under which they labor. All
of these young women are splendid
teachers are well educated and filed
with love for their work, but, without
exception, they are sadly discouraged,
and for just the reasons given by Mr..
Whitfield And 1t would seem, at a
glance, useless for the teachers Of
some Of our schools to spend so much
time and money at our splendid nor
mails, when they know, from sad ex'
perience, that their patrons will not
tolerate any "n1wfangled" notions,
and that a teacher who ttempts any
thing beyond "readin', 'ritin' and 'rith.
metic' Will find herself out Of job
at next election time.
This Is deplorable, for the children
are alert for everything new and inter
esting. For instance, made talk
recently in one of our river counties
on the subject Of improving the school
grounds and buildings. | had with
me sketches and views from different
! States OF rural schools before and
after" the enthusiasm of the children,
under wise direction, had worked
| transformations beautiful to behold.
1t was delightful to speak to the eager
children and to note the pleased ex-
pectancy as we passed from one idea
tc another. Their eyes danced as IN
visions they saw their dreary yard
changed to a scene Of beauty, and
their fingers fairly quivered with the
desire to get to work. spoke in a
typical rural school house and 1t made
my heart ache to think of the long,
dreary days spent in this enlarged
goods box" with no earthly thing,
save sense Of duty, to lend attrac-
ton TO the long days work. After !
had spoken we came out on the sun
baked, shadeless yard (for an "old
field" had been deemed good enough
for the school house in section
where glorious forest monarchs
aboupd), and the children, of their
own accord, went ioyously at the task
OF planning their improvement. 1t
was beautiful to see them, and my
heart rejoiced that my first "speech"
had brought forth such good fruit
Alas! in a few brief seconds, was
to learn why the dear, hard.working
itttla taachar had saamad On lacking