Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1909-01-30

THE EVENING STA
none; today there are IS. In Florida there
was one; today there are 20. In Alabama
there was none; today there are AZ.
Until recently there were no normal
schools for the education OF teachers
| anywhere in the south. Now there are
3 in Virginia, 1 in North Carolina, =
in Georgia, 9 IN Alabama, 1 in Tennessee
and In Kentucky, and so the improve
ment continues in every direction.
Compulsory Education Laws.
| Two years ago there were no compul-
sorry education laws in the south. Ten
nessee and North Carolina have since
passed them and require children of
school age to attend under penalty. while
| in Virginia a sort of local option law
was passed in 1908, authorizing each
county to make school attendance COM
pulsory If a majority of the citizens con-
sidered it expedient. The difficulty, how
ever. is the lack of schoolhouses and the
| impossibility of compelling a child to go
! to school when there is no school to go
to. But schoo houses are being built quite
rapidly, and those that are already IN
| existence are being improved.
| In Virginia the school revenues from
| local taxation increased 81 ,O05, 401 In 1904
to $1,73o. a:i3 in 1907. and the state APP
propria tions from 81, U62,9S1 to 81 459 2SS.
In North Carolina, South Carolina,
Georgia, Alabama. Louisiana, Texas and
Arkansas there has been a gratifying IN
crease, but in Mississippi the receipts
from local taxation and the state ap-
propriatiOns have both been reduced dur
| ing the last four years.
| Concerning the education campaign IN
the south, which accomplished these re-
suits, DR.. Brown says: 1T is doubtful
| whether the large vitality and signif1-
| canoe Of the movement are generally APP
preciated. 1t is, indeed, one of the most
striking educational movements of our
time. and is making chapter of surpass-
| ing human interest in the history of civil
| lization. In Tennessee, for example. more
| than 300 public educational meetings were
held in 1905. and in 1903 every county was
visited, and there was an average attend
ance of about 1 600 at the meetings. 1t
| is said that this is a larger attendance
than at the political meetings In the gov
ernorship campaign in the same year
The specific object OF the campaign IN
Tennessee was to influence the legisla-
ture to make more liberal appropriations
| in the upbuilding of the educational sys-
tenn Of the state for the ordinary pur-
poses Of the common schools, for length
ening the school terms In the poorer coun-
ties, for the establishment of county high
schools, for normal schools. for the Uni
versity of Tennessee and for public IL
braries in the rural districts. AS re-
suit of the movement the state appro-
priations increased from $4O7,644 in 1904
to 81, O3O 524 in 1907.
"A similar campaign was carried on in
Georgia, where the legislative appropria-
lions have increased from $SOO,OOO to
81, 591, AL during the last four years. In
Georgia new educational undertakings
have been quite extensive and successful,
and very soon there will be an agricul-
tural high school in every county,
The Conference Last February.
Dr. Brown speaks with enthusiasm con-
corning the first conference of school Of
ficia,s Of the several states and territories,
which was held in Washington February
"a, 1908. This conference was called by
the commissioner of education on the sug-
gestion Of Mr.. Joyner, state superintend-
ent Of North Carolina, which had been
followed by a similar suggestion from
Miss Katherine l.. Craig. state superin-
tendent of Colorado. OF fifty state super
ent in person. with fifteen or twenty edu-
Gators, representing state educational Of
fees, the chiefs of which could not be
present, and other educational bodies.
This conference said DR.. Brown,
Seems destined to mark an epoch of no
small Importance in the history of CO.
operative education in this country. 1t
revealed strong disposition on the part
of the state educational officers to
strengthen the national Office of educa-
ton. and made clear the aim of the ma
tional office to accomplish its work
through the rendering of assistance to
state officers. The special emphasis which
was laid upon cooperation in the re-
vision of statistical reforms and reports
and in the diffusion of information touch
ing new legislation in the several states
will in all likelihood lead to definite I'm
provements in the immediate future"
Revision Of School Systems.
DR.. Brown calls special attention TO
seven commissions which are now en-
gagged in formulating recommendations
touching the revision of school laws of ten
states or In contributing in other ways
to the improvement of the educational
systems in those states.
For the most part said DR.. Brown
these commissions seem to have come
into existence without conscious reference
to any common lTopulSe or purpose. 1t
was not so much that one two states
led and the others followed their ex-
ample as that all of these states arrived,
by fairly Independent ways, at a point
where a REORGANIZATION of their school
system seemed called for. with a view to
considerable improvements. This spOn-
taneous movement in so many populOus
and prosperous commonwealth would
seem to indicate that we have lighted on
an epoch of readjustment in public edu-
cation. The last preceding period OF ex-
tensive readjustment. was that Of gener-
alton ago, in the years just following the
civil war, although In some Of the states
there has been one general revision of the
statutes relating to education in the in
term. Some of the questions now promi
nently under consideration by these COM
missions are those relating to more gen
eral and regular school attendance. closer
and better supervision. the consolidation
of rural schools more equitable distri-
button of school funds, betterment of
the teaching profession. Interstate comfy
with reference to teachers certificates,
greater attention to hygienic cOndtiOnyin
schools, better regulations concerning the
adoption of text books, the extension of
provision for education looking to indus
cial agencies for the training of excep-
tional pupils.
No one of these commissions has at
tracted greater attention than the Massa-
chusetts commission on Industrial educa-
ton. That body, following upon the work
of the commission on Industrial and tech
meal education, which had been appoint ed
i'm June. 1903, and had reported in Janu-
airy, 1906. was constituted in August, 1906
by appointment OF the governor. 1t is
engaged in the effort to build up a system
of state Industrial schools, in virtual in
dependence of the earlier established
school system of the state. Massachusetts
has led i'm many of our great educa-
tional movements that her experiment in
this new field becomes matter Of
national concern.
GOING TO CONVENTION.