The leader., 1905-05-06

county taxation; yet in each instance
it has proved to be untrue. Our ex-
perience has proved this to be true,
that the longer the school term the
better the average attendance
"This is not strange when you think
Just for moment. longer school
term means better school senti-
ment, which results in having better
schoolhouses and teachers. Educa-
ton is thus dignifed by the people,
and each parent makes greater sac
rifice to send their children to school.
Teachers who work in their profess
sion for from seven to eight months
a year can afford to spend more on
preparation for their work than they
could when they taught for only four
or FIVE months year and had to sup
port themselves for twelve months
on a few months salaries.
LET us look on it from the stand
point of child. When boy sees
that his parents are so Indifferent and
place so low an estimate on the value
of an education as to be unwilling to
pay small tax to improve education-
al conditions, that they are satisfied
with the Indifferent teachers that us
ually teach the short term schools
the long term counties usually draw
! the best teachers of the short term
counties-he gets the idea that the
school is not of much Importance:
the consequence is, that he has not
much faith in the school as an i'm
portant factor in his life, and as one
cannot get more out of a thing than
he has faith in it, he takes very little
| interest in school, staying at home
| for the most trivial reasons. He
starts to school and goes for few
months when the school is out, he is
| out of the school for about two-thirds
| of the year, comes in contact with
| things that do not raise his Ideals or
stimulate his ambition, gathers a
head full of rubbish which displaces
practically all the information he got
during the short school term. When
!, he returns to school he finds a differ
ent teacher, but of about the same
/ grade, is started about the same place
in his book. Going to school this way
| is not business. There is no hope in
| it. But when there is a school taught
/ by a competent teacher, which is
| long enough for him to finish a set of
books in one year, he soon finds out
| that the school is necessity for his
/ proper preparation for life, he is
made to feel the thrill of progress,
ambition is born, he has had soul
awakening.
The school is the States greatest
institution set aside and devoted to
| the grand work of training her chill
dren, and it matters not how superior
| their natural endowment may be, the
character of training which they re-
ceive cannot be any better than are
| the schools 1t is in the common
schools that~the basis of this work
must be done, for the great number
of children it cannot be done else
where. 1T is in the plain school of
the people that child is revealed to
himself and is made conscious of the
/ power with which God has endowed
him; it is there that he will learn the
lesson of human responsibility, and the
i obligation resting on him to use his
powers intelligently for his own good,
! for the good of society, and for the
honor of God. For this reason the
common school is the richest jewel
that glitters in the diadem of ma
tons glory
The school is but a mockery which
fails to impress upon its pupils the
great truth that their endowments
are the talents which God has com
mitted to them. and that their first
duty is to develop them to the utmost,
and that failure to do SO is the
greatest sin that can be committed.
Parents, what did God give you
these beautiful children for? Did He
give them to you that they might be
| your slaves? Do you regard your
children just as you do your beasts of
burden? When your final accounting
time shsll have come, what matters
it if You may have few dollars,
saved up, about which your children
in all probability will contend in the
courts and brothers and sisters be es-
tranged from each other? Or did He
give them to you to satisfy their ev-
cry animal appetite, that they might
eat, sleep, drink, breathe, die, and be
forgotten just as the insects of yes
terday? Certainly God gave you
these beautiful children for higher
purposes than these. What does our
experience and observation teach us
/ that a child might be2 Let us, as did
| the Savior on one occasion, take a lit
tie child and place it in our midst;
what can this pure work of God be-
come? We know that if we deal with
it as God would have us, if we make it
obedient to authority at home. aud
send it to a school where the teacher
understands those laws that must be
observed in the process of develop
ment of the child, and keep it away
from the communicating things of life,
! the result is a useful, productive, God
fearing citizen; but If we let 1t grow
up like colt on the waste, pay no at
tention to it at home. but permit it to
come in contact with everything low
and vile, do not provide for its proper
education, pay no attention to what it
thinks about or what it does. and
give it no systematic training, ii. will,
as effect follows cause. become a
slothful, vicious mana shame to its
parents. an expense to the State and
a dishonor to God.
1T is not claimed that our schools,
as organized and conducted. are
equipped to do this work, even to the
extent to which they go. We can
never hope for our schools to do their.
great work until thinking Mississippi
takes hold Of the question, until the
school is dignified in the eyes of all
Just as long as a great part Of our
people subordinate the school to ev-
cry other convenience, just so long
will our people do the worlds drudg
cry. If we all agree that the train
ing Of the people is condition prec-
edent 10 the proper development of
Il the State. and that the common
school is the place for the beginning
of this training, then does it not fol-
low that ii practice the school should
be firstg Should We not be more
careful about sending our children to
school regularly. in providing better
sehoolhouses. to secure stronger
teachers have longer terms, and in
general, subordinate other things to
fhp schaaI2 We send our children to