Lexington gazette. [volume] (Lexington, Va.) 1871-1962, 1907-01-09
Our Rural Schools Makeshife,
Says DIR. Quarles

follows In the hicnmohu ilmee-
Dispatch:
"Next to religion, education Is
the most important interest OF
man. Indeed, in the proper, fullest
estimate of it, education compre-
bends the culture of the entire
man--body, mind, soul--and SO
includes religion.
"In our educational system, the
public schools, and the primary
schools, and the rural primary
schools, are the most important
feature. Manifestly so, because
with rare exceptions, every child
attends the primary public schools
and the large majority have their
residence and training in the coun-
try. These schools do the founda-
ton work, ard influence the child
at the impresslble period of his
life. The country boy becomes
The influential man of his genera
ton. both in the sciences and the
arts, in the church and in the
| State.
"Our Lublic schools, our primary
public schools, our rural primary
public schools, are moderated and
com paratively neglected; our pre-
paratory schools are de mere
makeship. This is seen from every
point of view.
"Out of one hundred and fifty
school-boys in Virginia. on ar
average only one attends college
or university, while every mothers
son of them must at some time go
to the primary school. Outside OF
travelling expenses, clothing, board,
athletics, and pocket money, every
college boy costs the institution he
attends an average of over two
hundred dollars, ($212) each year
of his course. The average edu~
cational cost of each of the one
hundred and fifty in the primary
school is less than ten dollars
(S9.51) year. We ungrudgingly
give twenty times as'much towards
! the training of our eighteen-year'
old son as we do for our eight-year-
old boy. Not a dollar too much is
spent on the final work of educa'
ton, but many dollars too little
are allotted to it's proper be-
ginning.
Handsome, imposing, comfort
able, expensive buildings are to he
found on the college campus.These
buildings are filled with neat
furniture and costly apparatus
The State appropriates thousands
and philanthropists give thousands
more, to these elegant appoint
ments for advanced instruction
This is as it should be; not less
but more, for the capstone of the
D, ramid, we all properly say. Bul
in contrast look at the Imprinted
wood of the exterior and the bare
walls of the interior of the country
schoolhouse no campus, no trees,
no grass, no blackboards, no maps
no charts, no apparatus, pltlfu
poverty for the rural primary.
"For the two colleges on single
hill at Lexington over six thousant
dollars are wisely appropriated
each year for experimenting tn
training of seven hundred yount
men; end We reckon that tn
superintendent of the Virginia
Military Institute and the presi
dent of the Washington and LIE
University are inadequately pail
for their efficient work. For tn
" hole county of Rochbridge, witt
it's scores of primary schools anc
! its thousand of pupils, less thar
. five hundred dollars of publ
money is given to the work o
superintendent.
c "The professors in our college
Y at Lexington receive yearl.
K. stipend of more than two thCus
and dollars each, and no one think
them overpaid; while the faithful
hard-worked teacher of the cOuntr
e school is starved upon the miser
j. able pittance of one hundred an
q fifty dollars-less than the wage
(f the day laborer.
"All this is presenting tn
monetary aspect of this neglect 9
s cur rural schools in the least stril
e ing way. 1t may be better see
+ and more deeply felt, perhaps
when we consider our expenditure
= for primary education as compare
d with other outlsys. We spen
|, more for the bodies of our childre
e than we do for their minds. w
n give more for the clothing tina
for the schooling OF our sons an
daughters in the preparation
% grades; more for feeding the
is bodies than for the training
j. their minds. But more and wori
ic than this, more money is expende
:, in Virginia on luxuries than {
> primary educs ton; nay, worst
Is all, more ia consumed in the smol
K of tobacco and more in the drinI
o. ing of intoxicants that upon q
10 the schools in the State.
"But there ia higher point
O. view, resulting, however, large
IN from our meagre pecuniary co
US tributions to primary rural educ
of ton. More important than campu
If or building, or apparatus,or book
is the teacher to whom we com N
- our children during the tormati