Clinch Valley news. [volume] (Jeffersonville, Va.) 18??-2019, 1909-10-01
School Days.

| Dayton news: Inete he goes
that's him'-with enough books
under his arm to start library. He's
starting to school. He doesn't know
what ii is all about DO you? He
cant figure out the good of school,
anyway. Seems like fellow ought
to be aIlo we'd to play when there
plenty of play To 20 around.
Fifteen or twenty minutes ago they
told him school was out and that he
had the whole summer before him.
He went romping home with a lot OF
dirty books with their covers Off;
went i'm swimming a time or two;
went fishing just little bit; played
ball n few seconds; had circus i'm
the back yard one day; fixed up
seesaw across an old barrel; put an
"acting bar" in the lot and fell of
of il once or twice; had fight and
got his nose scratched; climbed two
sample trees and didn't feel good that
night; took bundle of lunch and
went to the woods and got "jiggers"
on him, and found tree with wal
nuts on it he expected TO get this fall
Then they woke him up and told
him il was time to go to school
again. That's all summer amounted
to with him.
Teachers wont let a fellow learn,
anyway Every time he writes out n
lot of stuff on piece of paper they
make marks on il and say il amt
right. If he sees something across the
room and laughs, or throws little
old piece of chewed up paper mt
another boy, he has TO "stay in"
just for spite.
But he has way of getting even
with the teacher. lie goes home
and tells mother how mean she is
TO him; how she takes out her spite
on him; how she has a pet in the
way of pug-nosed kid that lives
on the next street. He can't learn
anything with a teacher against him
And MOTHERHOOD soul and sympa-
thetic-she Will fight his BATTLES.
She'll see IL her boy hasn't as much
right in school MS any other boy /;
she'll go right down there and Tread
her mind" TO the teacher ;she doesn't
understand why they employ such
teachers, anyway-but they can [
impose on her boy.
And the weeks come and 90, and
the months pass. Winter falls, with
its snow and ice and cold rains and
gloomy days. And spring breaks and
n tiredness comes into the bones and
the brain Tags when books are men
homeland another vacation dawns.
1t fits with the leetness c. the
shadows, and school again.
Thus il goes for IA few brief years
until the real school life opens-a
school wherein the teachers are the
, most obstinate, wherein the lessons
have nothing TO do with that which
was learned at other schools; n school
wherein the hours are longer and the
days shorter.
You, little boy, ale not the only
one who has TO 90 TO school. You are
not the only one who notes the
brevity OF the vacation. You are moi
the only one who is,apparentlY, dis
eliminated against by the teacher.
Great are your troubles, they are moi
| greater than the troubles of those
: who have entered this other school,
Short as was your vacation, il was
3 not shorter than ours. EXacting a,
s are the rules laid down for you, they
y are world OF disorder compared
with the formalities To which We
must adhere.
Nor can we get even with the tea
u cher. Mother has long ceased TO figh
= our battles for us. Telling tales abou
the principal will avail us nothing
No sympathy is laid at the door o
ouI tutor. We stand alone in thi
+ great school, unaided, unassisted, tn,
= decree of fate marking our paper
II ''imperfect" regardless of the hour
we spend in working out the prob
lens. No, little boy, you are not tn
re only one who finds the everlasting
, grind beneath the eyes OF an instruc
tor. Peace be with you, and joy, - IL
all your days at school, but. finisl
when you may, there awaits yot
!, another school whose welcome bel
4 will call you from your pleasures er
q you can count the profit of the sum
mers' holiday.