The Lancaster news. [volume] (Lancaster, S.C.) 1905-current, 1908-10-31
Our Schools.-Poor Attend =
ance- Another Article by
Prof, Hand.

school terms, and incompetent teachers,
the people may show commenda BILE
educational purpose by sending every
child to school every day the schools
are in session. Much good may be got
out of a very inferior school if the chill
dren attend il regularly and with the
purpose of getting the most possible
out of it. How are the white children
of South. Carolina attending the schools?
In 1907 the white enrolment of the pub
lie schools of the State was li4,66S,
while the average attendance was only
1O3,304. The federal census, taken sew
en- years before, $1,000 gives South Car
olina 2l7,972 white children between
the ages of and 20 years, while our
legal school age is between 6 and 21
years. 1t is safe to assert that barely
go per cent of the white children of the
State are enrolled in any kind of school,
and not over 40 per cent are in average
attendance. In 1900 SO per cent of the
white children between the ages OF 10
and If years were not enrolled in any
school, public or private. In the same
year Massachusetts had only per cent
of her white children of the correspond
ing ages not in school, Connecticut had
per cent, and Michigan per cent.
In 1900 South Carolina had 54,177 ma
tive white illiterates over 10 years of
age, only 792 fewer white illiterates
than the State had in 1870, 30 years
previous. At the same date Connecti-
cut, with nearly twice the white popu-
lation of South Carolina, had but |, ,95S
white illiterateS over 10 years of age.
Again, South Carolina had Ii, ,64S native
white illiterates of the voting age; Rhode
Island, with four.fifths the white popu-
lation of South Carolina, had $50. We
had 1889 native white illiterates be-
tween the ages of 10 and 10 years; Mich
igan, with twice our population, had
liz; Connecticut had 100, and Rhode
Island 100. Is ii reasonable to hope for
the South Carolina of tomorrow, with
her load of helpless illiterates, to cope
successfully with those States and sec
tions which have freed themselves from
the bondage of ignorance? The day is
forever gone from South Carolina when
fewhighly trained men of leisure could
direct and control the destinies of the
people. This responsibility has been
shifted to the shoulders of the masses,
and now we are forced to consider the
training of the masses. Only yesterday
a R trin
through New England, gave out this:
Several educational leaders in New
England frankly told us that they are
spending their money and building up
their schools in order to retain and
maintain their industrial supremacy.
They realized that we have advantages
and great resources in the South, but
they propose to keep the lead, if possi-
BILE, through the power of trained brains
and trained hands" Intelligence and
skill will win every time in every race.
What is South Carolina doing to meet
this open challenge from New England?
Who are these South Carolina white
children not in school, and why are
they not in school? Some are the sons
and daughters of parents themselves
ignorant and unable to appreciate or to
understand what education means to
their children and to the State; some are
children of fathers and mothers, greedy
and selfish, who are more than willing
to make wage earners and bread win
ners out of their young untaught Off
spring; few are the children of parents
opposed to education, because they
have known some educated scoundrel;
very few are the children of parents
who actually need the labor of their
children to exc out a living; and many
are the children of fathers engrossed in
material affairs and mothers recreant to
duty. Many of these children are at
work on the farms, in stores and shops
at a few cents a day, and in the cotton
mills, making good wages for children,
while hundreds of others are roaming
the streets and country lanes-the train
ing grounds for idlers, vagrants and
enemies TO law, order and decency.
Two of the worst enemies to child