The Birmingham age-herald., 1906-04-13

1 rightly adHancedi VIII secure the sviu
 ton of many serious problems. ihere-
 fore, I am glad to give nearly one-half
 of my revenue for school maintenance.
 Thirty cents on the one hundred dollars l out of a sixty-fve cent levy, to the pup 1 lie schools is fine recommendation, ana is all that should be expected or de | manded for maintenance alone. If there l is a surplus in the state treasury, let
 some of it be used to strengthen the
 weak places in our school system, for l we must remember that maintenance is snot the only essential. l believe Alabama l as a state, is doing more now than most
 states, but she should do it, for she Is 1 fast becoming the leading state In this,
 the grandest of nations.
 1 "I am delighted to note that major ity of the counties of the state have
 voted the 10 cents tax, and that many l country schools are being run seven
 months in the year. Why not arrange
 for any community. so desiring to add the | other two months by amending the con- i stitution so as to allow a district tax of
 not oyer five mills by a three-ffths vote. l Then you have an ideal system. Through
 the state fund the strong county help l ing the weak; through the county fund. i the strong district helping the weak, and i then each district helping itself by vot i ing district tax and hence increasing a home interest in the school.
 Then we should urge through a legis- l lative committee from this body the next
 legislature to give us the right to vote on an amendment allowing q district l to tax itself Also an amendment to
 make the poll tax eompulsory-it is now I voluntary, for many men who have no l property, but many children are unjust i and unpatriotic enough to leave it un- ] paid when they know it IS direct aid to 1 the schools. Then too. we can help in 1 crease the fund by arousing the public ] conscience in regard to the under valu- alton of property. Why, if property were l given in at even one-half its value, our 1 school fund would be largely increased. 1 Let us take a hand In this matter and l see that the taxes of the state are in- 1 creased to something near what they
 should be. Unity of action along this l line will make 1t entirely fair to every 1 section of the state. We are citizens and , should not shrk any responsibility. nor hesitate to undertake any task that will better the circumstances of the com munity or state.
 Elementary Course of Study.
 'In many ne-teacher schools you often find a course of study from the first grade up into college work being attempt
 ed Think of it; one teacher being ex- pected to do all that work, and show l splendid results. Solomon, with all his
 wisdom. would have made monumental
 failure in such an undertaking It cannot l be done to any advantage and should be done away with by the passage of a law establishing a definite uniform elementary 1 course of study. l am convinced that | this as much as anything else would strengthen our educational advantages. | This should be a seven-year course, di- 1 vided Into fourteen divisions of four and l l..,1F Eg.l.. l ploy only third grade teachers should have no studies above the fourth year, and schools employing only third and second grade teachers should include in their course nothing above the seventh year. And only first grade teachers
 should be employed in the high schools. Communities should be encouraged to arr
 range for at least seven grades with not less than two teachers; this should be done even at the expense of transportation to a central school. I could designate course of study for the seven years in one-half years divisions but for lack of time will refrain at this tine. Re- alizing that you all are acquainted with the contents of the first seven years of school work. I will say, however, that graded courses in music, drawing and
 manual training should became q part of such 0 course, not to weaken. but to add l to and strengthen the work in the more common branches. Our normal schools
 should be required to give strong courses l in these now essentials When pupils i have finished the seventh grade they should be admitted into the high school
 there to find well arranged practical
 course of study, one that will equip them
 well for the responsible duties Of oitizen-
 ship, for we must remember that a very large majority never go 10 college. l am not urging an argument against college attendance, far from it. Were it pos
 sible l would have all take college work but we have to face conditions and plan
 to improve them; rather iet the college course be arranged to meet the course below
 High Schools.
 One crying need today is a system of excellent secondary schools for our state
 We need and must have at least one strong, well equipped high school in each county In trying to be economical we are often very extravagant We could show finer results from the use of the educational fund by securing from the next legislature a special fund of $50, O00 a year to encourage high school work We could arrange a system of junior and senior high schools, one with three years course reaching to freshman year. and one with a four years course lead ing to sophomore entrance.
 q am firmly convinced that the legisla- ture could do no one thing that would help the state as a whole more than to 1 make such an appropriatioa. A plan could be devised to distribute the money according to attendance and work. Such schools should be centrally .9eated, with dormltory convenienees and work of vari- ous kinds enough to furnish many de- | serNing boys part of their axpenses Better Eousas
 we ought to see that forward step could be taken by a plan that would encourage communities to construct com fortable, well arranged and well-supplied houses. This in itself would enhance the
 value of property, cause better roads to be built, and cause immigration of desirable class to set in. Then let us urge the authorities to furnish the state su- perintendent S25,000 year for from two | to four years to encourage school house l building. We are wasting money by try | ing to have schools where the houses are | worse than barns
 The state superintendent could encour- l age this building by an appropriation of | from s10O to $500 to a community that | would build from s400 to a $1O0O build I ing, according to plans furnished from | the educational department Of course | such property should not be owned by l the state, but by the county in the name | of the county board of education. Text Books.
 "The people will have lost thousands
 of dollars on school books by the time | the present adoption expires and will have | used some boks for five years that should | hava bpen misplace1 af thp end of one