The Brandon news. (Brandon, Miss.) 1892-1961, 1910-05-05
THE STATE TEACHERS ASSOCIA
TION.

The State Teachers Association met in
Meridian last week. 1t was a great
meeting-great IN numbers, in interest,
enthusiasm and work accomplished. The
surprising thing about it to the writer
who never attended Mississippi conven-
ton before, was that so many of the
grade teachers came. There were more
than I, 900 teachers on the streets of Me-
ridian wearing the red badges, showing
that they were paid up members of tl.s
association.
Another striking feature was the cordial
hospitality of the citizens of the clty, both
the business people, and all others showed
the visitors every courtesy, that would
make their stay pleasant.
There were an unusually large num-
Der of prominent educators present and
on the program-men who make it a
business to speak at such meetings. Among
these were DIR. S. c. Mitchell, of the Uni
versity of South Carolina, and who by
the way, is native of the Delta section
of Mississippi. He spoke of the wonder
full growth of this state within the past
few years and showed that as economic
conditions are changing SO rapidly that
schools and colleges must be up and doing
TO keep pace. Another was Dr. P. P.
CIaxton, of the University of Tenn. Dr..
Claxton spoke in the interest of universal
peace. He illustrated very graphically
what Immense things could be accom-
pIished with the almost fabulous sums
now wasted in supporting standing armies
and equipping war vessels for the navy.
From government statistics he showed that
the state of Mississippi contributes an
nually six million dollars to the war
fund, including federal pensions, and not
including confederate pensions, enough to
give $4,000 to every county in the state
for educational purposes, annually. There
are some 2oc peace leagues in different
parts of the country and these are work
| ing with the hope that in a generation
or two PEOPLE may be educated up to the
point of really using the iron for plow
shares, rather than for steel plates for wa.
vessels.
| But th1 Gee de resistance ef the whole
injecting was that of Dr.. S. A. Knapp,
IfU. S. Department Of Plant Industry,
| Washington, d. G., whose address was
along the line of sociafizing the schools,
especially the rural schools. The way to
teach the boy agriculture is not to try to
have him learn all that is in the book,
! but to take UP some one thing at time
that is of interest to the boy. 1t the
neighborhood is in Mississippi teach him
how to grow a corn crop or cottor
crop, and then let him go home to hi:
! fathers farm ard plant corn or cot
/ ton crop and cultivate it and where his
father has been growing ten or twelve
lcushels of corn, teach him how to grow
from forty to one hundred. This latter
part of tho process-this working ou
what he was taught at school is rea
education. The school part was only th'
i getting of the knowledge. The same witt
the girl in regard to household economic
in teaching her how to equip and man
i age home. DR.. Knapp's address ough
to be printed in full and put into every
lhorne in the country. The school canno
do all the educating; the home always
i must be prominent factor and the hom:
ought TO encorage and assist, and CO
operate with the school.
Another excellent address was by DR.
| Uptegraft, of the U. S. Department Of
Education, Washington, D. G. His ad-
| dress was on Rural Schoct Improve
i ment. He spoke forcibly to the point
that the social life of rural communitie:
must be improved if the great agriculture
people were to be kept from crowding
into the centers of population, and leaving
the farms to tenants. And the way tc
ibrlng about this improvement is through
the school
/ Informal talks were made by Pres
Whitfield, Supt. Powers, Miss Agnes
Morris, of Louisiana, and others.
In the spelling contest Hattiesburg wor
| the rst team prize; Meridian, and, and
Laurel the srd. There has been dis
satisf action with the manner of holding
this contest and before another year there
is to be a revision, So as to give smaller
places and rural communities better
| showing than they have had
The officers elected for next year are,
Pres-Jarnes w. Bell, University; Vice
Pres-D. c. Hull, Agricultural College
Secy.-E. L. Bailey, Jackson; Treas.-W
| c. Williams, Newton. The next meeting
will probably be held at Hattiesburg.
| All of the Brandon teachers attended
the entire program, as did many others
| from Rankin county.
The receptions on Thursday night at
| the Masonic Temple at the Park were
enjoyable sociable features.
S. c. BROWN.