Clinch Valley news. [volume] (Jeffersonville, Va.) 18??-2019, 1910-06-24
THE COMMENCEMENT"


The closing exercises of the Hirh
School tits week were interesting.
and all the performances and eNercis-
es were highly creditable all around.
One interested listener,a man no long
or young, said that the scene before
him recalled many pleasant recolIec-
tions, and carried him back to the
days long gone, etc. This was true.
chiefly, however 10y contrast. "When
we were boys, " there were no such
scene and exercises I'm our far of.
shut-in country schools. There we've
no public schools, academies" were
few and located as rule in the
larger towns, and the expenses Of
board, etc, too great for "clod-
knocker' TO meet. But there were
celebrations at the close OF school.
There were no commencement
except in the college. The country
people didn't understand then. and
some do not now, why "a closing
should be called n commencement. >
They did understand celebration. -
and had them, too, quite different
from what we have now. There were
speeches, REGULATIONS, determinations.
and nearly always "a play" partic-
ipated in by number of boys and
girls, and there were songs, mostly
sacred hymns. MARY Had \ Little
Lamb y Twinkle, Twinkle, Little
Star, The Boy Stood on the Burn
ing Deck, " Give Me Liberty or
give me Death, and not infre1uent-
ly you heard something about
Greece and Rome" The whole
school sang in chorus. We remember
IA Celebration" in which we ven
tured to speak" part of Brvant's
'Thanatopsis, ''and the whole school
sang, Grave on the Green Hill
Side, y and 'Sister Thou Vast Mild
and Lovely, and certain school i'm
another community had for one of
It's closing songs, clark from the
Tomb DOleful Sound, =" But ibev
sang all the same, and sang we'll.
We can shut our eyes and see still
The boys and girls standing erect, as
stiff as pokeIs, in thier best clothes
as they tremblingly faced the crowd.
packed in small room dimly light
ed perhaps, by kerosene lamps or tall
low candles-Ihese boys and girls
who are the men and women of TO-
day. already old but many of them
still young in spirit. The old teach !
ers OF those days were poorly equipp-
ed, according 10 modern standards.
Reading, spelling, arithmetic, writ
Ing from copy set by the teacher, Il
Iittle geography and little gram
mar, was about the length and
breadth Of the Curriculum. But the
boys remembered what they were
Taught, and remember il still. The
old teachers had several processes for
putting "learnin' into how
Three was the fore and aft process
mostly aft, and one or the othe- was
pretty sure TO succeed, and sometimes
other methods were necessary, and
II so were used without stint. The
old days, old methods, along with |
she old teachers and the log school {
mousse has passed, and the bows and {
girls Of today have great advantages |,
their fathers and mothers never
'ieamed OF. MY fifteen year old }
'oy' said one father, "knows a :
great deaf more about books than I
I'D when j entered college" This
great age in which we now live-the
greatest The world has ever seen in
many respects, offers advantages IN
he young folks which, if appreciat.
d. should give the next generation a
ace OF great and useful men. u