The Bourbon news. [volume] (Paris, Ky.) 1895-19??, 1907-02-08
ACrying Need.

! the State Federationof Women s Clubs.
are to devote this year to anzearnes
and determined campaign in behalf of
hthe9 school system Of the State sIIou
1please every one who has at heart tn
interest of the State and its citizen
] ship. The boy lis father of the man
4 and unless thesboy is trained properly,
mentally and physically, the mapswi
kbe a failure. TO raise the standard of
citizenship 1t is necessary to raise. the
standard,of the youths, and the yonths
1 are reached through the school system.
7 All this IS trfte; it has beetGsaid a
thousand times, but that does not rem
der it less. needful of considerations 1t
lis also itrite tSs say that sthe public
school system is therhulwark of evil
cation, the dynamo Of progress the
maRers of arace, btitslf the school sys-
tenn is below par the truism cannot be
repeated too often nor can an improve
ment of that system be urged x too
heartily. Humiliating as it must be to
Kentuckians. to confess it. there is
| much room for Improvement in Ken
tucky's schools, and regard for the
future OF the eStatesand the quality of
its men and women demands early
action to gain that Improvement.
In an admirable paper prepared with
much research by one of the leaders
of the women s, movement, , it islshown
that Kentucky is thirty-seventh in the
fist of States, graded according to edu-
caticnal rank, and if you eliminate the
colored population it is not that high.
but drops to the forty-second placeis 1t
is in the rural districts that Kentucky
llags so lan1entably. Yet, this being
largely an agricultural State, thesrural
schools should be the best. The day of
the illiterate farmer is past. Unless
Kentucky's agricultural population has
the educational opportunities and the
education of competitors of other
States it must fall back in the process
sion., .ss..5.ssss--s , .s..
In the report Of James H. Fuqua,
Superintendent of Public Instruction,
are embodied the following statements,
which, although made threesyears ago
by Prof. Cassidy, of Lexington. have
not been altered to any great degree
from that time to this: M
There are in Kentucky 1,238 old log
school houses, to say nothing of thous-
ands of little plank boxes, nearly as
unsightly and hardly as comfortable.
There are in Kentucky 2,107 schools
without suitable seats and blackboards.
Only think of nearly 10000 of Ken
lucky s children, bumped over on back
less slab benches, shivering with cold,
in the full light of this Twentieth cen
fury, while searching for the long-lost
common divisor on a broken slate !!
There are 1854 schools without globes,
maps, charts and other educational
aids. This is more than half the
schools in the State" 49,
That is not pleasant exhibit. An6
abominable as the physical equipment
of the schools is-most of the buildings
themselves being too delapidated anC
unhealthful to make even third-rat
barns school attendance is as dis
tressing. From the report of the Con
missioner Of Education for 1903--th
last one. issuedEit isiearned that Il
average number of days attended
each pupil enrolled in the publ
schools of Kentucky was $50. In Flori.
da it was 1913; IN Georgia, 70; in Yves
Virginia, 1914; in Ohio, 1929: il
Illinois. 124.6; in California, 129.7;ir
Massachusetts,. 1889. In short amont
all the States and Territories. there
was but zepe, with~a worse record II
this respectthau Kentucky-t aver
age in Oklahoma being 55.5.
So, with an improvement in equip
ment, must come the enforcement of
the compulsory education law. Stats
tics. show that p per cent. of the white
children of Kentucky Between the ages
Of ten and fourteen are not in school,
and nearly so per cent. of the children
of school &geare not in school. The
writer Of stle paper alluded to above
cites two schools that recently came
to her notice-one, in district having
sitxy-seven children of school ages has
an average attendance of only twelve;
another, ingagGistrict having fiftg-sk
chiidrea OF school age. shas not child
IN Attendance That school receives
its appropriation based on fiftyesix
children. Undoubtedly somethingais
wrong here fagrantIy. shamefully
wrong.
The women s. conmittee blamess The
existing trustee system and With
much reason @for many of the deIin-
iqquencffes Of our public schools. One Of
sthe aims is to have the system abolish
Fed. Discussing this phase of the work
outlined for the women's clubs this