The Manning times. [volume] (Manning, Clarendon County, S.C.) 1884-current, 1908-09-09
Our Schools.


found very few people who would ad-
nit that they are unfriendiy to popu-
lar education, and fewer still who !,
would admit that they are not friends
to our common schools. The people |
of the State have just passed through /
somewhat vigorous political cam
paign. In this, as in almost every
such campaign. many OF the candi- !
dates for Office have taken occasion
to declare their deep interest in the
common schools. The candidate
doth protest too much, methinks,
but most of them are entirely sincere
n their declarations. Some Of these
men will soon occupy positions which
will enable them to demonstrate their !
interest in our schools, and their
capacity for improving them. From
the outside it would seem that very
few Of these men have made any
careful analysis of the conditions OF
our schools, and certainly few have
offered any definite. practicable plan
for their permanent improvement
By no means do intend to cast any
slur at these men. Perhaps it is ask
ing too much of men busy with their
own affairs ard the affairs of the pub
lie, to stop to study the problems Of
education-a field broad and rich in
vexatious questions. Perhaps, too,
those who have studied these pro-
bIems, and are familiar with the con-
ditions, have been, remiss in not tell
ing the people frankly what they see
and know.
For fifteen years this writer taught
in the common schools of this State,
and for seventeen yearsr he has tried
to study the conditions which make
for good or for evil in the educational
system Of the State. During the past
twenty-six months he has Travelled
more than thirty thousand miles in
side the State, driven hundreds Of
miles through the rural districts. and
visited not far from three hundred
schools in the State. He claims no
wider or richer knowledge Of the con-
ditions than is possessed by scores of
his fello~-workers. Yet ne feels that
he knows something Of these condi-
tious, and that he owes it to the peo-
pie to set these conditions frankly
before them.
Let me say at the outset that
I have 40 disposition to forget or to
disregard the many good things IN
our schools, Or to Withhold merited
eommeuostion anywhere, yet 1t is not
my purpose to tax the readers time
and patience with platitude and empty
eulogies, so frequently INDUCED in oy
those who strive so diligently to blind
themselves to our patent weaknesses.
Our schools. have been vastly lmprov-
ed within recent years. We should
rejoice at their growth, and ever hon
or those who have contributed to
that growth. But We can not afford
to stop at that. It would be folly to
assume that our schools, and our
school system, are anything Ike per-
feet. Let US discover some Of the
slaring weaknesses, admit what we
discover, and set ourselves resolute-
ly toward improvement.
Some Of the most conspicuous
weaknesses in our schools are these:
I. Lack of funds sufficient to main
tain high-class schools;
Q. Beggarly salaries paid to teach
ers;
8. Too many incompetent teachers
employed in our schools;
4. Short school terms, especially
in the rural districts:
5. Poor school houses and poor
equipment;
S. Neighborhood jealousies and
peighborhood quarrels;
2. Too many little half-supported
schools:
s. Inadequate supervision of VII
iage and rural schools:
s. Non-attendance and irregular
attendance of the pupils;
10. The missing link-the high
school
wish to discuss these features os
our school system frankly, somewhat
fully. and altogether dispassionately.
wish to avoid anything captious or
hysterical. In these discussions,
beg to offer, as unobtrusively as
may, some suggestions as to rene
dies. For he is poor physician who
tells his patients that he is sick, bur
offers neither to tell him what the
disease IS, nor to prescribe any rene
dy-
Lack Of Funds. To maintain good
schools reQuites money. They can
not be run on eoullfent sentiment,
nor will spasmodic charity keep them
at very high standard. Money is
absolutely necessary to build comfort
able school houses, to furnish these
houses, to pay competent teachers.
and TO keep the schools open nine
months in the year. What is Souta
Carolina putting into her common
schools, the training school Of the fu-
Z ture citizenship Of the State? In
1907, the State enrolled in the COM
mon schools 314,399 pupils, or about
IS per cent of her total population.
j On these pupils was spent s1,4l5,724R
= or $3.50 per pupil. This $3.50 in
cludes the expenditures on school
houses. furniture, apparatus. Ebrar-
les, and teachers salaries. The aver
age attendance upon the schools was.
of course, much lower than the en-
rollment. therefore the amount spent
per pupil on the basis of attendance
was Iarger-s6.37 In 1906. North
Carolina spent $3.50 per pupil in at
tendance; Georgia spent s7.45: Miss
jSsioni. SS.01: Tennessee, SS48: Vir-