Lawrence democrat. (Lawrenceburg, Tenn.) 1884-1925, 1905-05-12
Make Attractive
The School Conditions, and the
Children will attend.

My earliest Recollection is that /
did not like to go to school. In my
eighth year my parents moved to an
other state, and there | liked to go
10 school, but do not remember why
in either case. After long observation
and experience as a teacher assert that
all children mentally sound like to go
school and love to learn. This may
seen paradoxical in view of the fact that
SO many do not attend school at all, and
that so many rural schols run down to
almost nothing before the close of term.
The children are not to blame. They
would be there but for conditions they
eau not control. | desire to call atten-
ton to some of these.
Some parents fail to send on the plea
that as they have made their way sue
ce.sfully in the world with out educa-
ton the children can do the same, and
10 doubt they honestly think SO. But
they forget that their descendants are to
face vastly different conditions, and tn at
the keen competition for the prizes of
life,in the future will be among educa-
ted people in which the uneducated will
be thrust aside to become the servants
of these more fortunate. The parents
who in these days fail to give their chill
dren at least common school education
condemn them to condition of servi-
tude but little better than that of the
slaves prior to the Civil War. When
the large majority were without learn
ing they could get along in competition
with each other. We surely need a
compulsory school law to rescue tn ese
unfortunate children from the evils that
threaten them and the state through
them.
But why should our rural schools fail
TO maintain full attendance? The an.
swer can be found in the time many OF
them begin their terms, and in the
farm labor that takes out so MANY pu'
pills after the terms begin, thus breaking
into the course of study, and making
it impossible to keep up with those who
can attend continuously Also an answer
can be found in cold schoolhouses, seats
that are instruments of torture, poor
desks or none at all, total lack of nee.
essary apparatus and teachers who
merely put in their time to get the mon
ey. While these conditions exist mos
pupils will stay out of school as muck a
possible, and we need not be surprised
chat the schools run down. When we
make our schools what they ought tC
be all the children not forcibly detained
will attend. School life should be made
happy in every possible way. The
schoolhouse should be neat, home-lik,
attractive, and absolutely comfortable
in all respects. 1t should have til,
necessary apparatus for successful schoo
work, for it needs appropriate furniture
as much as does the home. 1t shoulC
be place for culture and refinemen
where youth and children taught and re
quired to be ladies and gentleman. /
should he the centre of good influenc,
for the entire community, and the spe
cial care of all who have the general
good at heart. The public school,
ought to be what the pupils can lool
back to in after life with real pleasur,
~ cared for and conducted as to han!
pleasant pictures in the chambers o
memory for the pleasing contemplation
of old age. / plead for the comfor
and happiness of children in school, ant
when these are secured, and we have
compulsory school law for thoughtles
aud careless parents our schools vii
fill up and acc, mpli,h the vcik in
tended.
In my next want to call attention
TO the influence of environments, tn
time when rural schools should begil
things needed in the schoelroom. AM
Taa. "A =. s.h,cls should accomplish