Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1908-02-18
SCHOOL IMPROVEMENT.

About forty or fifty people, most of
them teachers, representing different
parts of the county, assembled in the
court house last Saturday morning in
the interest Of the school improvement
movement, and after the delivery Of an
able, earnest and instructive address by
Miss Mary T. Nance, the president OF
the state association, the organization
Of the York County School Improve
ment association was perfected.
Miss Nance is a Winthrop graduate
of the class Of 1903. She Is good look
ing, has lots Of good common sense,
is fluent and attractive talker, and Is
filled with a burning zeal for the i'm
provement of the common schools OF
the state. She is working under the
auspices Of the state association for
the Improvement of rural schools OF
which association she is president, and
her efforts have the full sanction Of
the state and county educational au-
thorities.
The meeting last Saturday was called
TO order by Superintendent Of Educa-
ton McMackin, who introduced the
speaker. Miss Nance plunged directly
into her subject and stuck 20 her text,
school improvement, from beginning TO
end. She had the undivided attention
of her audience throughout.
After expressing her pleasure at be-
ing greeted by such a large audience
in spite of the bad roads and threaten
ing weather, the speaker stated that
she had been in every county OF the
state but three, and had found a uni
formlity of Indifferent conditions that
stand in need Of improvement. The
hn
travesties in the way of appearance,
comfort and convenience; but that Is
BY no means the most serious fault TO
be found Many Of the schools, ma
jority of them, in fact, are in charge OF
more or less incompetent teachers, ut
terly unqualified to impart accurate
knowledge Of anything for the reason
that they are possessed OF no Such
knowledge themselves.
The soreSt need of the rural schools,
she declared, is first-class teachers.
There are now about twenty-four nun
dred rural schools in operation IN this
state. Many of them are in charge or
teachers who hold only second and
third grade certificates, and whose title
even to these is more or less doubt
fuI. Good efficient service from them
is manifestly impossible and there can
be no satisfactory results in such
schools until there is a marked eleYa-
ton in the standard of efficiency. IF
could only be allowed my way about
this matter, | would at once proceed
with an examination of all the school
teachers in the state, and after grading
them according to efficiency and ability
I would put the best ones in charge of
the 2,400 rural schools and the others
would put in graded schools where
they could be kept under the eyes Of
the SuperintendentS
There are twenty-five thousand chill
dren in South Carolina of school age
who have never been inside of a school
house. II is largely because of the tact
that their parents are too poor, too ig-
nUrant OF too sensitive to send them to
school Here is a field of the widest
and highest usefulness for the teacher
who has the proper conception of her
dutv. The rural teacher should spend
as much of her time as she can make
available visiting the mothers OF these
children. getting their confidence and
persuading them to send their children
to school But instead Of engaging In
ANYTHING like this or putting In their
snare time preparing lessons and plan
ming to make the school house and the
wcrk more attractive, most Of the rural
teachers merely hear lessons during
school hours, beat the children who are
unable to recite and send them home
for their mothers to do the real teach-
ing. while the called teacher Is bug
gv riding and flirting With the young
men. The average teacher OF today
does not care a snap for the children.