Oxford eagle. (Oxford, Lafayette Co., Miss.) 1876-current, 1904-07-28
EDUCATIONAL BUREAU
Under Direction of KATE MARKHAM POWER

GOrk-hardened nanuS ana toirotut
shoulders at an age when he should
have been growing straight and strong
and happy, said to me. with pride. y
can plow up every bit of this land
myself, of evenin's, and me and George
! Ca neighbor) can fetch the fertilizer
in the cart and work 1t in ourselves
+ l quickly grasped his hard, little hand
and thanked him Ito his intense con-
fusion) and to the children, as to me,
l am sure there came a breath OF
sweetest odors and flash of glowing
colors, as we saw, through Hopes
clear glasses, our beautiful school
grounds But. alas, for our visions
aud dreams. The little lad had
scarce finished speaking when his
father, good, but an ignorant man,
laid his heavy hand on the rounding
little shoulder and in a voice big
enough to frighten most of us, said:
60 slow. boy, if there's any time
/ lynn round loose evenin's you can
take your plow up IN that hill patch
and get move on you. They's plow'
in enough In the fields for my boys
to do. 'thout this sort O foolishness."
The patient little teacher glanced
at me then, and | understood at last
why she had seemes Indifferent And
the willing little lad-my heart ached
for him, and tried to make my
fingers pressure on the dropping
shoulders tell him how gladly would
have helped him, if might to '.plow
that hill patch
| wonder IL parents realize how 1t
hurts when child's hopes and dreams
are bruised by the hand that God
meant to be, of all, the greatest, ten
derest one!
But to return to the point from
which l am prone to wander. The
man who considered Improvement of
house and grounds 'foolishness' Is
trustee of the school, and Is, with the
aid OF four little sous under IA. max
ing each year fine crops. And his ex-
ample is considered good, so all the
other patrons do as he does, and the
faithful teacher must sit In an empty
room whenever good day for work
(and they are so many comes around.
At the best, her school is run only
few months, because the big" CD
children are put in the crop and the
little ones can't go alone. This is
cruel hardship to children and teacher
alike. The children's brains suffer
and the teachers purse, since they
are paid in some counties according
to the average daily attendance. And
this, by the way, seems strange law.
The teachers do their best, but only
the majesty of the law, rigidly en-
forced by busy "truant officer" will
ever force some parents to take their
! children out of the crop" and put
them in the school.
This average business makes me
think of a queer state of affairs on
the place of relative Of mine In
, Jefferson county. There is a school
for white children on one side of this
place and it keeps the little teacher
on the rack all the time 10 make
Ter average" / know her to be one
of the best teachers in the State, and
pupils never flags. Both patrons and
pupils love and appreciate her, but
more than once she has failed to
make her average" and her small
salary, therefore, grows smaller. Her
pupils 'shave to work." and frequently
cut of the twenty-five enrolled fifteen
will be absent.
On the other side of this big plan
tation is negro school, with an en-
rollment of close on to ninety. And
that teacher never loses cent
of his salary because he doesn't make
his average" His daily roll shows
an average attendance of eighty.
And they are the laborers who make
the cotton and corn of our State. The
difference lies in this, as Mr.. Whitfield
says, we must give our children better
tools with which to labor than we
ever mad This fact most of our white
people seem to ignore. But 1t is
beaten in the brain (and seems to
spring up in the heart) of every negro
Parent, by preacher and teacher alike,
until they think they are committing
an objectionable sin by keeping "ary
chile way frum school," | must con-
fess that this close attendance does not
seem of advantage to some of them,
even remotely, but it is the desire on
/ the part of the parents of which we
speak. Would that the superior race
mad half the reverence for "schoolin
. that animates the breast Of the riidest
darky.
There would then be no need for
Bulletins" or Educational Bureaus"
J and Mississippi would grow into
paradise for teachers.
| Memory recalls just here political
Tor, to be correct, a politic) friends
|. advice about "treading on my read
J ers' toes" but moments thought re-
assures me, for know beyond. be-
| yond all question, that parents and
patrons of the class am here be-
waiiing will not take time from the
grass in the crops just now to read
about what Parker is saying or the
latest discovery OF clIarbon or the boil
weevil, even. SO anything about
"schoolin' " is safe from their eyes.
! But yau, kind friends, who chance to
be their neighbors-won't you help
their children and the children Of gen.
erations yet unborn by striving con-
tinualiy to make better the schools OK
Mississippi. so that our young men
and women may have the best Of tools
!, with which to do Lies work, and may
! understand the use of the most deli
!, cate and intricate of them? You can
do this great work at so little cost
| to you, but it will, like the bread
: upon the waters return after many
days, with countless blessings in its
D wake.
: PATIENT feel dopey all the time.
: don't know watts de matter wii me.
|, noctor-Is your occupation seder.
!, tary2 Patient don't ketch ortes