Lexington gazette. [volume] (Lexington, Va.) 1871-1962, 1906-12-05
VIRGINIA'S SCHOOLS
Notable Gathering of Educators
at Charlottesville


Virginia universities and academic
colleges, the Superintendent OF
Public Instruction of the States OF
North Carolina, South Carolina,
Tennessee, Georgia, Alabama and
Virginia and the professors of
secondary education in the same
States. the United States Commits
sioner Of Education, the secretary
Of the General Education Board
and other invited guests assembled
at the University of Virginia last
Friday n morning.
The gathering inaugurated one
of the most interesting educations ]
conferences held in the South for
many years. 1t is an attempt OF
those engaged in higher education
to aid in properly relating the
secondary schools above that rank.
The conference wab called by
President Alderman, of the Uni
versity of Virginia, with u view to
bringing together on the subject
the directors in the South.
The organizers of the movement
point to what they term a gap be-
tween the colleges and the elemen
tary schools in many instances,
which they say forms an obstacle
to a complete education.
DIR. Alderman, in opening the
conference outlined the pims Of the
gathering, which he said was epoch
making in the educational world:
He said, in part:
"The common thought about ed
ucation in the public mind divides
the whole process into four parts
elementary, secondary, collegi-
ate and professional-consuming
come 25 years of human life. Thee
subdivisions are somewhat arbitrary
and superficial, hIndering the mind
from possessing the illuminat-
ing thought of the oneness of the
whole process, but they seem to be
necessary and perhaps the best
artificial divisions that can be
made.
al believe the following state
ments of fact are true:
"The weakest part of our educa.
tional system lies in the realm OF
seconday education. OF the $780,
1876 pupils of high schools are in
Virginia, only five of every hun
dred were studying high school
subjects in the high schools last
year.
Between the elementary schools
and the colleges of Virginia there
existed until this year a gap i'm
perfectly bridged by SO public
schools doing more or less high
school work, 43 private academies
and several collegiate preparatory
departments.
"These conform to no well-recog-
nized and well-understood stand
ards and are under no unified con-
troll. IL goes without saying that
most of them are in the hands Of
men of devotion and scholarship
and high character and detern in
ed purpo sc. An intelligent and
rapid growth in co-ordinating and
unifying these schools is now 60
ing on In Virginia under the direc-
ton of the State Board of Eduea-
tion and through the efforts ofsthe
examiners, the local school officers
and others, and this is doubtless
true Of other States here represent
ed.
lover thres-fourths of our peo
pie, ard this applies to the whole
South as well as to Virginia, are
not provided with secondary edu-
cation. This means that there is
no open road to our brightest youth
to the highest places in education.
There is no mandatory legislation
in the South on the subject, and
not a great desl in the Union. In
1906, out of 278 students admitted
to the college of the University Of
Virginia, SO students were prepar-
ed ut free public schools.
''We are here today, think,
primarily, to cansider methods of
establishing and improving secon-
Diary schools in the Southern
States. perceive the following
necessary things to be done:
San extension of State activity
and State control in education to
the point of the establishment Of a
complete system of public high
schools.
"Organized effort to multiply
these high schools la town and
country, and especially in the
country, and to so develop them
that they will be neither blind
feeders to the colleges nor cul de
secs for bright elementary school.
boys. but independent educational
forms, with independent purposes
and independent functions, and
yet, properly related in their
curricula ard social purposes to
the schools above and the schools
below"