Edgefield advertiser. [volume] (Edgefield, S.C.) 1836-current, 1908-10-07
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{ OUR SCHOOLS ]
BIZ PROF. WILLIAM q. HAND. +
University of South Carolina. +
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Paper Number -Four. !
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- 4Oo Mduy LiIGle 1ldlI-0uppoltetl
Schools.-Sooner or later our people
are going to have more comfortable
and commodious school houses. Be
fore the people pat their money into
permanent improvements, would 1T
not be- wise to reduce the number OF
schools in great many places? A
good four-room house costs less than
four ons-room huoses Of equal COM
fort and convenience. Sixty pupils
in one building can be better taught
and more easily taught than fifteen
pupils each in four buildings. A
four-teacher school viii flourish
where four one-teacher schools would
struggle to keep alive.
In more than half the counties in
the State are to be found dozens of
schools with 10 and II pupils each.
Not many weeks ago I visited rural
school with an enrolment of IL pu-
pills; three miles off was another
school with 13 pupils, and in another
direction was third school with IA
pupils. The three teachers were paid
$35 each; each school house was cheap
and i'll equipped. In some districts
six miles square are to be found es
many as three white schools, each
with a small number Of pupils scat
tered from first reader to high school
grades. A good many Of the incor-
porated villages have school districts
oo-extensive with the incorporate linz
its. An accurate school district map
Of the State would look very much
like crazy quilt.
What is the remedy9 Take the
three schools cited above. Build a
comfortable two-room house at cen
tral point, and give the entire 50
pupils to two teachers. Each pupil
would then have his recitation time
doubled, for there would be in the
consolidated school more grades, or
classes, than there were in the most
advanced Of the three little schools. I
am at once reminded that some of
these children would have too far TO
walk. Ut is marvellous how much
trouble a father who walked four
miles to school and brags abous,
makes over his child's walking oae
mile.) I grant that the consolidation
puts the school too far for some to
walk. What then7 Take part of the
money to transport these to the
school. Prof. W. K. Tate of the
Meminger Normal school, says, cit
is better and cheaper to transport the
distant children to the good school
than to bring a poor school to the
distanct children. Yes, one good
school is immeasurably better than
three inferior schools.
The transportation of distant pu-
pills is no new fad. Several years
ago the Eastover district in Rich
land county threw five schools into
one. The district runs four wagon
cites, made for-the purpose, to haul
the distant children. Another in.
stance: Three adjoining districts in
Fairfield county, With combined en-
rollment Of 60 pupils, have consoli,
dated their schools at Bethel, have
erected a $4,000 school house and are
transporting all.the children who live
too far to walk. This consolidation
gives the school enough pupils to es-
tablish a rural high school, with $500
of State aid.
:. State Superintendents McMahan
and Martain have zealously advocai-
ed the consolidation of small schools.
Such a policy would encourage the
building Of better roads, while the
transportation itself would protect
the children in bad weather. and
would protect the small children and
the girls from insults or violence at
the hands Of tramps or thugs en- the
lonely country roads.
Neighborhood Jealousies and Quar-
rels.-These twin evils have done
more to prevent and to destroy the
efficiency of the common schools than
any other two agencies in the land. 1t
is difficult enough to maintain good
school where everybody works in
harmony, and it is well nigh impossi-
BILE where strife and division are. To
listen to~the petty contention, the
sharp chickering's and the tales of dis
cord in some communities makes one
marvel that school can exist in such
a place. The petitions and the ap-
.peals which come before the various
school boards are enough to make ouc
turn pessimist. The worst Of it all is
that most Of these contentious and
chickering's are childish and groundless
and that they are usually begun and
kept alive by men who have at heart
but little interest in any school. In
settling most of these disputes, Sol
omon's judgmen between the two wo-
men claiming the child would be
wholesome.
1t is 10 these jealousies and quarreis
that we owe two, three and even four
little starving schools where but one
ought.to be. To them we owe tie
little district unable to support a
school. Every influential local cele-
brity wished to have a school house
at his front door or in his backyard.
To these jealousies we owe most OF
the defeated local tax elections.
Nearly all the local disputes over. the
teacher have their origin in neigh
borhood jealousies, and the baneful
habit of constant change Of teachers
has its roots embedded here.
A certain district school is support
ed by ten families. All is we'll, but
the school house stands on the south
side of a little creek which about
once year reaches depth of four
foo4 A l.