The farmer and mechanic. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 18??-19??, 1907-08-13

! publishing an edition that is designed
to focus attention Upon educational
activity in the state and the indica-
tions OF continuing progress botn IN
legislation and In the popular interest
I'm the welfare Of the children and
youth of the State that caught It's
greatest impetus from the passage OF
the Constitutional Amendment. II Is
a gratifying fact that the impetus
holds and n results increase. The
educational note has sounded deep in
the hearts Of the people. The means
Of educational needs come ever more
cheerfuI1y and ~abundantly. The spread
OF educational advantage is serving
TO elevate all sections Of h State 70
a common level of opportunity.
As is significant OF all great pop
! ular ~awakenings, il is found that leg
islation is a length behind opinion.
That is the ideal condition to per-
| feet the law and to satisfy the people.
1t means a continued campaign and
no pause in the concert Of effort that
| gives the movement vitality. And
his means the nearer approach to an
educated people. An educated people
is the condition precedent to the ideal
in government and to the perfect De-
mocracy.
During the last rear the State has
seen, first, an unlessened repetition
Of the general educational advance
ment throughout the State. The new
school houses have been springing up
- 49,
have been planted with the perma-
hence Of landmarks. There is moth
ing of speculation about a school
house in this day except the spread Of
it's influence and the effect of its ex-
ample. New tax districts are being
created daily. The -four months"
school is ~conquering the most remote
and hitherto thu most ~uneducated
sections. The six and nine months
schools follow on their heels. The
campaign goes on with the swing OF
an army that in the charge has be-
come unconscious of the leadership
that directs 1t. The unit of citizen
ship has caught the inspiration and
has felt his responsibility.
Inc ldSl Legislature ueulI wisely
with educational conditions. It con-
tinued liberal State appropriations but,
equally as important. it passed acts
Of which the people could avail them
selves as they were ready to move
forward. so was dundee the principle
of the compulsory education" bill,
which was in reality a law to enforce
tho avnracca1 Ca,+;,onrA 90 ~.
munity. So, also, was the High
School legislation which Is the first
step in the unity of q system that will
ultimately teach a child to read, guide
him through the preparatory periods,
give him back to citizenship a finish
ed product of the University.
The High School principle operates
to complete and perfect the public
school principle. In a way 1t serves
to repay with interest something that
it has taken IVA With the recogni-
ton of the public schools, with their
increased facilities, with the adop-
ton in the cities Of the principle ex-
tended into the thorough unity of the
graded school Systems only the
NA ~ "NSpAy NOOtSN u
the many excellent private schools re-
NAMED. Institutions like the Bing-
ham and the Horner Schools con-
tinued to flourish and are still use
full and permanent. But the schools
that existed by virtue of a lack Of
public opportunity closed autonati-
cally. With them for a time ceased
the opportunity to many children for
sound intermediate education which Is
the basis of the higher usefulness of
the University. 1t IS this deficit of
opportunity that the new High School
system will repay with the increment
of affording to the mass of children
reached by the public school, the
means Of development n of realisa-
ton. In fifteen years time the pro-
duct of exceptional brain and power
that the High School will develop
from the material tina goes into the
public schools in the raw" state will
alone have paid back in the medium
of money and property more than the
cost. What it will have returned in the
better coin of higher and more earn
est citizenship is one Of the dreams
of hope with which the future is preg-
nant. When the High School shall
haze become recognized in every
county there will have been realized
in practice the old n immortal prin-
ciple enunclated by the earliest ex-
Founders Of education in the State:
The University and the Public schools.
parent and child, or, better, eternal
helpmeets renewing and replenish-
ing and strengthening each the other.
But it is a law suit that best points |
the growth of educational feeling and
the advance in opinion in the State.
Law has been said to be the refine
ment of reason. but reason arises
from public conviction. What reason
is, is what the people think. There
is no rarified realm of unpopular
logic. In the great matters the de-
cistons of the courts swing at length
into the channels of popular thought.
This educational law suit, Collie VS..
Commissioners of Franklin county
is started to correct q precadant die