The commercial. (Union City, Tenn.) 190?-193?, 1909-02-12
EDUCATION AND tn
III.
THE TRAINING soHooL.


yersity, " have to deal with the real eco
nomically important helpers OF the
country's erudition and progress. All
over Tennessee there are feeders Of the
great universities. For the most part
those who go to the greater school first
finish in these preparatory schools. In
fact the very name preparatory"
means that they are fitting boys and
girls to handle bigger" preparation
And what should be the community's
attitude toward these so important fac
tors grown up and growing up In Its
midst? Apart from our individual gain
derived from placing children in these
schools, there must of necessity be
some furtherance Of their progress be-
cause Of local patriotism. The boy who
goes from the training school to Van
derbilt or Sewanee does not take with
him simply the name Of his school, but
represents the character and spirit OF
the town from which he halls.
"Breathes there man with soul so dead.
Who never to himself hath said: :,
This is my own, my native land!
The words of the poet may be aptly
applied to the community which has
pillowed on it's bosom an educational
institution. We need more support
from Union City, and not from far-off
universities. When we have the form
er, the latter will follow. To thine
own self be true and it follows, as the
night the day, thou canst not then be
false to any man''-these are words es-
pecially applicable to ourselves. 1t
goes without saying that we only get
out of life what we place therein; can
we expect to have a greater preparatory
school unless we lend the helping hand
and boost that institution? School life,
like life in general, is what we ourselves
make it.
Let us draw comparison. We have
in mind at present boy attending our
school who burns his oil past midnight;
who knows an opportunity when he sees
it, and takes advantage OF it; who IN
dulges in athletics with the same vim
that prompts his intellectual efforts;
and who, above all, does what he does,
not with an eye single to his own ad-
vancement in teachers estimation,
nor the peoples reclamation, but Tor
the upbuilding of the spirit OF the school
he is attending. And SO he gets pro-
motion and praise, and goes singing on
his way But what Of the other fellow,
who sits opposite and lags, with no hope
nor energy to quicken his slow efforts
nor cheer his weary hour? That boy is
simply in the way of school, and will
never make citizen in anywise worthy
of merit.
And so the community which talks its
school and helps it ever to the upward
way, always cheering, quickening, pro-
noting, by tongue or pocket-book, is
sure to have as its child a hall of learn
ing famed among the preparatory insti-
buttons of the country as steady, clean
and progressive.
Fine it is to have our cattle on thou
sand hills; finer still to have their water
ing places of a thousand clear and run
ming rills. Fine to have our factories
and our shipping points, our marts and
trading industries. But how much bet
ter it would be, along with the craze for
these, to emphasize refinement and en-
courage learning! In our eager haste
for material gain, why be belated strag-
gIers after towns so far above us in the
education of their youth? There are
generations yet to be trained for future
and bigger battles. Shall we halt for a
single day in spreading their advan-
tages along the lines of art and culture?
The real man of the future must
be skilled in other things beside the
handling of the dollar Encourage
ment of the training school will surely
reap its fruits in the battles of the NOR
row. From every energetic place there
comes the cry, We must educated we
must educated" The training school is
the bone of our educational system, and
the university is the sinew. Let us
make our framework strong and look
for the dawning of a grander day, that
shall sound the tocsin of our city's tri-
umph as an educational center.
I'll fares the land to Fastening ills prey,
Where wealth Accommodates, and men decay"
F. C. NEwBERRY.