The Adair County news., 1909-01-06
A Visit to Adair County Schools:
Editor News

I have just finished visiting the Adair
county schools, and looking after their
sanitary conditions. find the health
conditions good. They generally have
good water some have to go quite a
distance to get it, but the most of them
have good neighbors, who will not deny
good water to the children of the
schools.
l found the attendance generally bad
1t is awful to think how little attention
is paid to the schools by the trustees,
and the parents. We have had under
the old law about 27O men who have
been elected or appointed trustees,
whose business it is to look after the
condition of the public school. We also
have superintendent, who receives
the money from the State, and pays it
out to the teacher, and the name Of her
Office implies that she too, has to see
how the schools are getting along.
kept record of the attendance at
the various schools, and wish it pub
lished so that the people can see how
the work Of the public schools is being
done. The number Of pupil children in
the county, as given to me by teachers
lis 5095. The number in attendance is
1905, the number absent was $3.50,
making the attendance 37A per cent.
This includes all the schools-taking the
colored schools separately, we have
in all ,578 with an attendance of 128, or
just Is per cent
Il found one only with no attendance,
and that was in good neighborhood
with So in the district. / found two
with only one present in each. These
were colored districts. Among the
whites found one district with 70, and
only present. 1 found two others with
only 4, and yet, do not blame the
teachers. They seemed to be doing the
best they could. In talking with them
l found some Of them murderers of the
Kings English. One of them whom l
had met only once before, a year ago,
when l asked her if she knew me, an
swered, 80 yes, knode you as soon as
l seed you" A very common express
ion among them is, 81 taken" so and
so. attributed this fault to the ex-
aminers. They should, l think, give
them oral examinations on grammer,
if it is lawful to do so. Of course, they
know better, but they should be taught
to be more particular, and not make so
many blunders in the presence of their
schools.
Now see no solution Of this state Of
things, but in a rigid compulsory school
law We have a compulsory law now,
but it won't 'compulse." We once had
law requiring the teacher to be dis
missed if he did not keep rs per cent in
attendance. l do not know what has
become of that law. 1t was very
poor law, and ought never to have been
enacted. 1t made the teachers respon-
sible for the non attendance of the
pupils, and made no provision for the
rs per cent not attending. s
One trouble with our common school
system is, the teachers are paid just as
much for the children who do not at
tend school, as for those who do. The
teachers are paid in our county the
magnificent sum $4,000, or more, and
this sum divided by the number attend
ing would be dollars each.
| do not want to close this communi-
cation without saying something re-
specting the school houses. Some are
good, some are bad, and some are in
different. One house ! visited was
made of logs, and the door was off the
hinges, the stove was nearly burned up,
had no shutter to the door, and two of
the windows to the house had not even
sash to them. That young lady teach
er went from Columbia, was bright and
cheerful, and making no complaint.
She had eight little children huddled
around that thing that had once been a
stove, and not a word of complaint
from any of them. If there had been
case of diptheria, or scarletina in
that neighborhood, would have sus-
pended that school, and sent the child
rem and teacher home. And yet keep
ing those children there under the cir
cumstances, was much more detriment-
al to their health than the other would
have been, for that day the thermom-
eter registered below 20. Now let us
hear from the people on this subject,
especially, the parents, the teachers,
the trustees, and the school superin-