The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1905-08-13

| he lived and the environments and
| conditions by which he was surround
| ed If he were alive today he would
be as green as a gourd, and as unfit
ted for teacher as if he had never
heard of a school, Times have
changed and conditions are altogether
different from what they were sixty
five years ago; and in nothing have
there been more radical changes than
in the school teaching business.
am not sure those changes have been
improvements, every time; on the con-
trary | think that in some things the
old-time school was better than that
of the present day. However, / am not
in school now, as then, and see things
at a distance, so to speak; therefore,
my conclusions may be Incorrect; but,
as | see things, there is as mitch 20
condemn in the schools of today, TAX
ing into consideration the times and
conditions. as there were in the old
time schools, when advantages were
SO few. In the olden time, when a
school opened, the teacher was fire.
quently confronted with the fact, that
he had pupils older than himself who
were beginners in the spelling BOOK;
young men who were as rough and as
tough as savages but, who expected to
get an dedication in thirty days, or
less. The question was a grave one,
how to manage such pupils. They
resented the idea of being classed with
the little fellows who were learning the
alphabet or spelling with two letters.
OF course they did.
Another difficulty with which the
old-time teacher had to contend was
the diversity of books. The schools of
my earliest recollection taught almost
everything Any book that happened
to be in a family, from the New Tesla
ment to Robinson Crusoe, would do,
in the estimation of the parents, for a
reading book; while all the spelling
books, that were extant, would be
brought in with the message: Daddy
says he can't buy any new books SO
long as these old ones will last" SO,
the teacher, by the time he had heard
all the spelling and reading lessons
had just about boxed the compass, in
the matter of books, and the subjects
of which they treated
AS many up-to-d date teachers as we
have today, / don't call to mind a
single one, as we'll prepared as he or
she may be, who could have taught
an old-time school, The old-time
teacher, as l think of him now, was
genius, sui generis. His talents and
kind which adapted him to the times
and the conditions of the era in vhicH
he lived and labored
One Of the Oldest as well as one of
the most successful teachers in North
Carolina, Ct refer of course, to Prof.
M. S. Davis, President of the Louis
burg Female College,, placed in my
hands the other day pamphlet on the
EARLY Educational Life in Middle
Georgia. in which there are many
things said of the old-time teacher l
1HnI fn m
few extracts, however must suffice.
The writer says:
"To an aged man the old-field school
master of his childhood, as he now
recalls him, seems to have been
somewhat a myth. at least relic of
long past decadent race, never exist
ing except in few individuals unlike
any others of humanamold, appearing
during periods in rural communities,
bringing in a red-spotted bandanna
handkerchief his household goods, and
in his tall. whitish- furred, long eX-
perienced hat a sheet of foolscap, on
which was set down what he called his
school articles" A rather reticent
man was he, to begin with, generally
serious, sometimes even sad-looking
as if he had been a seeker of things
occult and was not content with the
results of his quest. Within some
with the same bandanna and har
noiseless as he had come, he vent MS
way. Generally he was unmarried or
what was not SO very far different
followed by a wife unique looking as
himself, if possible some nearer a
blank, who had never had the heart
to increase the family any further.
after his departure came on an
other. who might be larger or might
I,a 10Th no fo q M
might be browner. who might be more
pronounced in manner and speech,
and might be less, but who had the
distinctive marks that were worn by
no other people under the sun.
"Now the idea that a nativeborn
citizen, competent to instruct child
rem, would have been content to un-
dertake such a work was not enter
tanned. Somehow. keeping a school
was regarded as at the bottom on the
list of vocations, fit only for those who
were not qualified for any other: who,
if thus qualified, would never think o
thus degrading themselves, and who
in view of the poverty of repute at
tending this last resort for the eX-
ercise of manly endeaVor, deemed II
well to go away from the places that
knew them, and set up among strang-
ers"
The same writer, speaking or the
old time school houses, says:
hottest jewellers to the early opening
"a place was selected on the edge
of a wood and a field turned out tC
fallow, sufficiently central, hard by
spring of purest fresh water, log
house was put up, say 80 by rs feet,
with one door and a couple of win
the unceiled walls, and the session be-
dows and shelves, with benches along
gan. Most families breakfasted about
sunrise, and a brisk walk of three
quarters of an hour brought even re-
The one who happened to reach the
school house first on winter mornings
kindled the fire. This was before the
date of lucifer matches. In winter
half burned logs were so disposed
beneath ashes, on the huge fire-places,
as to preserve fire through the night,
which was quickly rekindled by the
aid of pine knots always on hand. To
provide against failure, the master
and some of the larger boys carried Il
small piece of rotten wood-punk-
obtained from a decayed oak, which,
being held under a fiintstoTe which
when struck with a steel blade of a
pocket knife, produced sparks. ignit-