The Laurens advertiser. (Laurens, S.C.) 1885-1973, 1910-05-04

: ana his JacR-Knife.
Against the rules? Why of course.
and they preached the care of school
property and eXacted incidental fees"
then as now-but it was day of en-
prise and daring and regardlessness
OF consequences. Much of the history
of Laurens for half a century and
more was cut into those pine boards
ana L am sorry that t. ey are gone.
suppose that Jim and Ed Crews. Clar-
ence Kennedy, Sam Wilkes, John Nc
cain, Bob Nicholson, the four Bowen
brothers. Oscar and Prior Babb and
| and some good fellows, too. who
nave gone to their reward, enrolled
ourselves deeply on more than one
desk. AS for Genie Wilkes. his cary
ing was so much better than that of
the rest of us that it should not be
mentioned with ours.
All of this brings up the definition
by Thomas Carlyle. or some other old
gentleman. of the present as a tool
using age. For small boy to cut
with knife is quite as distinctive
as it Is for him to rob strawberry
patch. but the two instincts have this
VIDE difference-cutting with a knife
may be developed into a useful art
while robbing strawberry patches. if
encouraged, Will make embeZZlers and
grafters. When | was at the academy
| suppose | was rather we'll advanced
At any rate, had had far better prep
aration than most boys had enioyed
and. besides. learning history and
geography and grammer came easv TO
me-not to mention spelling. Had |
net imagined myself smarter" than
some other boys who We're much older
ana not studying such big books. ii
would have been highly creditable to
my modesty but. looking back now
very we'll know that | wasn't-not that
! had an oVerwecning admiration for
my parts even then. The simple ey
planation is that they taught in the
schools in those days the things that
were adapted especially to my mind
ana utterly omitted to teach equally
useful and necessary things that
would nave acquired with exceeding
difficulty. So now approach the OBJ
iect OF this letter
Immediately before my visit TO Lau-
rens was in Marion and was taken
to see the manual training depart
ments in the Marion public schools
snail not describe them in detail but
saw 10 boys working at benches and
with turning lathes. making curious
end useful articles with their hands.
out OF wood and doing it well. Asl
many girls were learning to sew and
cut patterns. They were ali under
the instruction of accomplished and
thoroughly trained teachers-one Of |
them, Miss Martin, is a graduate of
Columbia university. New York The |
Is beng developed to make him skill |
ful handler of more complex tools and
so, when he grows uD. when he has |
house or a fence to build. he will |
net he at the mercy of n contractor as. |
for example, | am. He will know what
ne is about. With me. verify be-
lieve, at the Laurens academy 30 years |
ago. were dozens OF boys. who. if they |
mad the little start and impetus that
are given these lads of Marion. would |
have become successful contractors |
and builders and machinists i'm this
age OF tremendous industrial energy
in the South. That these things |
should have been taught is as certain |
as that |, boy with a bent towards |
history and writing. should have been
given opportunity to learn those |
branches. In n word, hand-training |
is as necessary as mental training. but
we are only now awakening to the |
truth that education should not be i'm |
a rigidly narrow groove. In Spartan
burg. Columbia, Charleston and other
towns they are doing or beginning to
do what is being done in Marion.
The Marion manuai schools are sup
ported out Of the public school reve-
nues and they cost comparatively lit |
tle-the instruction is on small
scale-but the frame buildings were
erected with money contributed volun-
tarily by citizens of Marion That is
what | should like to see duplicated
more generously in Laurens Thirty
years ago we looked on a man worth
$4,000 in LaurenS as we view a Car
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