The Grenada sentinel. [volume] (Grenada, Miss.) 1868-1955, 1905-05-06
BY III. E. BLAKESLEE, Jackson.

double the months of school without
losing him from the farm, but he
would get better schooling each
month, as one month of a long term
is much better than one month of a
short term. Then. again, longer serv-
ice each year would procure a better
teacher.
Agricultural people should. nor
than any other people, have a Long
school term. If they educate their
children it must be when they are
young and during this time when they
are not of material service on the
farm they should have just as much
and Just as good a school as possible.
eff the. children of Mississippi could
have the advantage of good schools
for full terms only for the time that
they are too young for regular farm
work they could get the foundations
of a good education, they could be
pointed to higher service to the State
and to God.
at is the universal experience Of
those who have been engaged in the
effort 70 get longer terms, that one ar
gument that the opponents OF better
schools always make, is that if the
children do not go regularly to a short
term that they will go less regularly
to a longer term.
"This argument has been made in
each of the forty counties that have
heightened their school terms by
/ county taxation; yet in each instance
it has proved to be untrue. Dur eX-
perience has proved this to be true.
that the longer the school term t1e
better the average attendance.
"This is not strange when you think
lust for a moment. a longer school
term means a better school sentl-
ment. which results in having better
| schoolhOuses and teachers. Educa-
ton is thus dignifed by the people,
and each parent makes greater sac
rifce to send their children to school.
Teachers who work in their PROBES
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 a year and had to sup
port themselves for twelve months
on a few months salaries.
Let us look on it from the stand
D)inI III a GIilIu- w ltCI q w. 49,
that his parents are so Indifferent and
place so low an estimate on the value
of an education as to be unwilling 10
pay a 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 a few
months when the school is out, he is
cut 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 q 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 a necessity for his
proper preparation for life, he is
made to feel the thrill of progress,
ambition is born, he has had a 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. It is in the common
schools that the basis Of this work
must De done, for the great number
of children it cannot be done else
where. It is in the plain school OF
the people that a 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 numdn RESPONSIBILITY anu ILS
obligation resting on him to use his
powers i~ntelligently for his W good
for the good of society, and for the
honor of God. For this reason tbs
common school is the richest jewel
that glitters in the diadem of a 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 deve'op them to the utmost
, and that a failure to do SO is the
l greatest sin that can pc committed.
:. parents, what did God give yor
these beautiful children for? Did He
/ give them to you that they might be
your slaves? Do you regard your
r children just as you do your beasts o.
i burden? When your final accounting
D time shall have come, what matters
it if you may have a few dollars
t saved up, about which your children
in all probability will contend in th'
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