The Columbus commercial. (Columbus, Miss.) 1893-1922, 1907-12-03
A STATE NORMAL SCHOOL
Subject Being Widely Discuss
ed at This Time

anu Training oOiIoCi LII SCc+S~AAN~i -
is being discussed now through
out the state and at the next ses-
sion of the legislature a fight viii
be made to establish one
In discussing the subject Prof.
NJ. Rose, president of the Mis-
sissippi Teachers Association
says:
I see floating over the state a
very weak attack upon the move
ment for q state normal training
school for teachers in Mississip-
pl. 1t perhaps is as strong an
attack as could be made under
the premises.
THE children Of Mississippi
are entitled to as good opportun-
tiles as the children of any other
part of this republic That is
what the teachers of Mississippi
are asking for at the hands of
the next legislature.
In one paragraph we see this
statement: We deny that Mis-
sissippi school teachers do not
measure up, as q class, with
those cf other states.
Has the writer attended
school meetings, summer schools,
an d educational associations?
Has he studied school systems
and the profession to such an eX-
tent that he is thoroughly capa-
BILE of making an accurate nd
unbiased statement as to the
real facts in this case? No class
of people in Mississippi are more
earnest than the teachers; no
class are more handicapped; no
class realize it more fully or feel
it more keenly and sorely than
they; and no class are working
more arduously, and pleading
more earnestly and Unselfishly
than they. They know that the
profession is not up to the stand
ard in mississippi, for they nave
mingled with the teachers of
other sections sufficiently to feel
the warmth of better conditions
and opportunities.
In another paragraph we see
the following: The school
room is a natural equiper and
gateway to other callings and
professions. 1t has been so from
time immemorial and will con-
tinue to be so.
My sympathy was thorough
ly aroused for the country child
when | read the following from
Prof Fl. l. Whitfield: THE
training school is needed, es-
pecially for the country school,
for the reason that the country
children have suffered most from
incompetent teachers. 1t has
been the custom to learn how to
teach on the country children,
and as soon as this experiment
ing on the country children gave
some proficiency, the teacher has
been attracted to the town school
because of the better salary and
the longer term offered by the
town school, and a new corps Of
Ignorant boys and girls have gone
out to fill the places thus made
vacant, to again learn to teach
by butchering childhood "
But when | read that the
school room is the natural equip
per and gateways to other call
ings and professions. has been
from time immemorial and will
continue to be so, I shudder at
the spectacle. If this statement
is true. the means to the profes-
sions referred to are furnished at
state expense and the steps to
them are Strewn with butchered
childhood. If this is true, it
would be better to stop the
schools of Mississippi and use
the whole appropriation IN train
ing up a body of professional
teachers capable Of dealing with
immortal childhood in a rational
manner. And ye we deny
that Mississippi school teachers
do not measure up, as class,
with those of other states.
1.-The University, l. |. and c
and A. and NJ. are furnishing
some good teachers. But where
do they 90 and how. many are