The Montgomery advertiser., 1906-12-16
interesting Story Told by Representative
 of Advertiser.
tBr A STAFF coRAEsroNDENr. .,


 (BY A STAFF CORREsPONDENT.) !
 Whe road of learning that passes through the State Normal School at Jacksonville. leads to the rural schools of Alabama. Jacksonville is place of preparation-a point for training. The pupil who learns and develops there is ever reminded of the country school over the hill.
 He is taught not so much for his own mental development. as for that de- velopment of his talents that win rem der the most assistance 10 the country school. The school house just beyond his Normal School is kept ever before the eyes of the Jacksonville student His educational work. he is hot allow ed to forget, is at Jacksonville only a preparation for the great duties that lie ahead of him and which he has chosen to undertake.
 Of the educational problems which confront Alabama, the rural schools ofs fer at least eighty per cent in import ance. The city schools of Alabama, &C., ordinge to generally accepted estim- ates. embrace only twenty per cent of NsAN 5&ASC4 OL lnG 0haIe. The city schools have but slight difficulty In securing trained and capable teach CTS. Salaries are larger, conditions are more agreeable in the city Nor is any general improvement now demand ed in the city schools of Alabama. Her city schools need not shrink from com parison with those of any other State.
 In the rural schools, comprising eighty per cent of the schools of the f- of To render most good to the country school is JacksonvillAs aim and pur- pose. Her students. while many of them are from the towns and villages. come in the main from the rural dis tricts They will go back to the coun- try when they have been trained and prepared for their chosen work of teaching.
 It is the aim of Jacksonville to rem der it's service to this great portion of the State. to render it by sending the rural schools teachers who are efficient ana who are capable. It is held at Jacksonville that trained and intelligent rural population. Is the best asset the State can have. which Is proposition that may not be de- nied. hasa ssg, his5i-y
 To, turn out trained and efficient .teacAers and thus attain her ideal, Jacksonville devotes her energies to the professional work of teaching. It is the strong point-the point most important at Jacksonville--the practi- cal methods of teaching the child IL '7 n great field of endeavor and 1t is Iarksonville's chosen fieId--That of the practical and intelligent instruc- ton of the future teachers of the State.
 At Jacksonville there Is no set rules of disciDline--no iron clad code to which the future teacher must con form. but there is a standard of de- pertinent and of accomplishment be- low which the student may not fall Students have failed in the discharge of their duty have been requested to leave the school. but they have been few in number-very few. The hardest students in the world are the country boy and country girl. who. after a youth of labor and of some privations. get their chance at school. And Jacksonville students in the main come from the farms in the hills and the valleys.
 In their work at Jacksonville they are taught the necessity and the value of discipline. They are impressed that discipline is largely a matter of en- vironment, of conditions, of tempera- ments. For instance. in a community where parents whip their children school discipline could not be success fully maintained without corporal Tn inculcating correct ideas of discipline a most important phase of the training of a future teach CT stres is laid upon firmness, tact and 
 There is at JacksonvilIe a thorough systematic course of physical culture. It is a Swedish system the use ot which demands no apparatus or equip- ment. This system of physical culture je taught out in the open in a series of motions and exercises which best bring about grace and strength
 The purpose in the adoption and use of this is that it's teaching can bs from Jacksonville to the rural school houses of Alabama Ihe students who learn it at Jacksonville can teach 1t in the rural schools TOT there is no need of apparatus in It's teaching.
 Physical culture Is needed in the county schools" said Professor Dau- gette in discussing this feature of the work of Jacksonville. mot so much as to build up the muscles of the country children as to teach them how to use those muscles with grace The country hoy who has lived his life out in the open is generally stronger than the city boy of his own age. but he Is in- cltned to pc muscle pound ana dWh- ward, handicaps which are removed by physical culture"
 Two literary societies are maintained at Jacksonville, the John T. Morgan and the Calhoun, and the students are steadily encouraged to maintain their daop interest in them This is done too with a definite purpose, AS Professor Daugette points out the school teacher jn a rural community is a leader. He is called upon to preside at meetings and to speak in public. So at Jackson vile he is taught to speak in public and to think standing on his feet
 Sewing Is taught at Jacksonville taught thoroughly and systematically, If is so taught that a teacher who has gone through the course can teach 1t in the rural schools that lie bevond in their life work. Like the other industrial work the sewing stu dents work is subject to criticism from fellow students and from teach ers Criticism is undoubtedly an aid and means to thoroughness.
 While the unparalleled success of is due in large measure to Professor c. A. Daugette, he has haen able to carry out hls plans by a Roars of Trustees. which is at once IIberaI and ar-seeing. From this Board inc school has received splendid ser vice It is composed in the main of vouns. business men, alert, intelligent ana progressive. They have maintained an active and aggressive interest in inc school and in the broader educa- tInnal policies of the state. This has