The Manning times. [volume] (Manning, Clarendon County, S.C.) 1884-current, 1908-11-04
OUR SCHOOLS.
Paper no. 8.
nv desk are some specimens Of spell

nv desk are some specimens Of spell
!ng IN the handwriting OF high school,
teachers-aN but oRe college grad /;
yates: Ceaaar (thus By three teach
ersl, latin. iiturature, Enock Arden.
Buetler's grammar has been in con-
slant use IN this State eight years,
and Myers histories more than
afteen years. Here are some Of the
variations: Myers. Meyers,
Meyers; Beuhler Give teachers),
3eulah (three teachers). Buelaa
(two teachers), Beahlar Zone teach
cry. 4 fifteen hundred dollar pinci-
pa! can not make bricks without
straw.
Only a few high schools are con-
tent to offer two-year course. al
.hough one Of the best in the State
is two-year school. Nine-tenths
If the high schools offer a three
vear course, no matter how nant
lor how few teachers. Last year
here were but four public high
schools IN the State with standar.s
'our-year course. and enough teach
rs to teach it. The report for 1908
20 will show perhaps eight standard
:ou--vear schools To be sure more
han four schools claim four-year
course. Several schools claiming
'our-year course were credited with
ever units Of work than are reQuir-
I'd sor a standard three~year course,
md one school claiming four years
ell below the requirements for =
standard tHo-yeaT course. the
standard applied to the high schools
vas that generally accepted By tne
colleges OF the State, and Is below
hat used by the Carnegie Founea-
ion Board. The error into which
most OF these schools have fallen
is to divide their pupils into four
classes with six and seTen-mouth
intervals of advancement between
each two, then call each diTis!on {
year in the course. That the reaoe:
! may see the validity OF some o.
these claims, some courses are her.
. outlined. This is the fourth year
work In one school: The first ha,
of Myers General history, CONNIE
f! cial Arithmetic Ave times q week
| three books Of Plane Geometry, an
sorty-fve hours during the year Il
! Tappan's History Of Literatur:.
Another four-year school get.
through the Second Book Of Caesar
! Gallo War, four books OF Flan
Geometry, and Tappan's Literature
!! Numbers of these courses show tha
!: he thir6-year and the fourth-yes
!; classes are together in more tha
oee study. One must not be misle
By the term literature IN many c
these schools. It is nothing NOR
han reading about the authors 0
.lterature-a little biography, II th
ruth must be told.
! The poverty of some OF these four
wear courses is more than Offset b
some~ Of the plethora 'hree-yea
courses, some Of which are form;
liable affairs. AT random I tax
! one years work from one of thes,
courses: Arithmetic, Algebra, Rher
oric, Literature, Latin (reading
grammar and prose composition
| Physical Geography, History, an
! Business Methods Gan innocent HIT
| .ext). In this years work ever:
pupil takes everything prescribed
and each pupil is on recitation prac
.ically every period during the da,
! Seyera, schools have Arithmetic
Algebra and Geometry in the sam.
years work, and few have Physica
Geography and Physics in the sam
! year, with practically no other Sc.
ence In the entire course.
The majority c,f the one-teache
high schools undertake the impos
sibIe-to teach full 3our-yea
course. One such school has class
es in Arithmetic, Algebra, Geometry
English Grammar, English Comp"
sition, Literature, Physical Geosra
ply, Z. S. History, s. c. History
General History. Beginners Latin
+; Caesar and Ovid. One teacher ma,
eesch q few subjects through -four
year course, and do it well, but %
such 3 course as the one just siver
a teacher is wasting his time ant
energy. The greatest evl! is to tn.
pupil. His time and effort are a.
vided up among 80 many subject:
that he pursues none of them long
enough and far enough to get any
training or knowledge out Of them
n even the better schools the aver.
age pupil gets but little out of such
subjects as Physical Geography
! physics. and Civics, because they are
not studied long enough to benef'
| the pupil.
The high schools, Ike the conno,,
| schools, suffer from the endless
! changing Of teachers, 4 comparison
Of this years schedule with that {
! last year shows that the Whoie
| course has been oyerhauled and re.
| organized, and in some cases the new
! course seems to be given over TO re,
/ viewing past work. Perhaps such
course is necessary, but it shows Z
fearful vast Of energy somewhere
In at least two cases the new teach.
! ars have taken the pupil out of las
years Sth and eth grades. added
! a feN recruits. and made four
year school. Presumably that is
progress.
/ WILLIAM Il. HAND.
University OF South Carolina.