The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1910-09-18
GALA OPENING OF BIB
COUNTY HIGH SCHOOL
The Effect of the County High Schoo-Is Citizens
Their Institution-High School System Means
Much to the State
By FRANK MCCOY DoMINIcK

have in the past lacked opportunity for
the education and Improvement of the
county's boys and girls. The great
majority of the children have had to
be content with three and five months
terms, taught by SIS and $40 teachers.
Their fathers were unable to do much, as
they could barely stand under the task of
providing for their families. The condi-
ton of this county was not peculiar nor
was 1t alone. That was the status OF
the state. But 10 years from that period,
between 40 and 30 high schools have
been established in as many counties in
100000 buildings, with a like advance
In the work of the elementary schools.
Surely the openings of these this year,
at time past the experimental stage,
and with certain assurance of success,
marks a new era in the life of the people.
And it Is surely the message Of the state
to its boys and girls at this glad school
time, you are entitled to the best. In
this day and hour, without at least
high school education, you are useless
if not a dangerous citizen. Your fathers
came to me from Virginia and Georgia
and the Carolinas. Your blood is pure
and free from foreign faint. And you
must be trained to take the places of
leadership in your own communities and
in your own state, instead Of calling in
the stranger and the supplanter. You
SIldl IlOI De deprived OIL your DiTlHTlSHl
for a mess of pottage.'
Let me give you one feature of this
school at Centreville that perhaps has
not yet been fully appreciated by those
who established these schools. The
county board of education has already let
the contract for the erection of two
story building to be used as a home
for the department of manual training.
In this building will be placed gasoline
w mi wOOd-
working tools and the various labor
saving devices OF use to the farmer.
The school will thus try to reach the
farmers boy with something that he can
take home with him, and give him a
knowledge that will play larger part In
the solution of the problem OF keeping
people on the farm than one would |
think. Today in Bib county with posi- |
bly, one or two exceptions, there Is not a |
single gasoline engine IN use on farm |
Many of the farmers are able to pur- |
chase them,l but they just don't know |
about them. Possibly with the same ex-
eeptions, there Is not a single cement |
walk around the yards of any OF the
farm-houses. This statement can not be |
made four years from now, after the |
boys from these farm homes have been |
taught the use of gasoline and cement |
and wood in the manual training de- |
partment of the county school. There
will be hundred little engines putting |
away on the farms baling hay, saving |
wood, pumping water and performing |
the many duties that now require weari- |
some toll and the waste Of energy. A |
dozen farm-houses in every community |
will be approached by nicely cemented |
walks, and some bright boys may even go |
so far as to make blocks from the |
wealth of gravel at their very doors
and change log-cabins into pretty stone
homes -
Another effect of the high school sys-
tenn will be the revolution of our higher
of learning. The normal
schools in this state, certainly most of
them, and as for that matter the col
leges, have been doing secondary work. |
Many of the normal schools have been |
engaged largely in rudimentary instruc- |
ton in elementary studies. such as geog- |
raphy. arithmetic, reading and spelling. |
Most of the colleges have been doing the |
work of the high school along with col |
legiste instruction. This IL not as 1t |
should be, but conditions have been such |
that the students could not be fitted at
home Now, with the high schools in
successful operation, no higher institu-
ton need masquerade under one name
and do work Of another nature. 1t Is en-
tirely possible that we shall change some |
of the normal schools into high schools |
ana eSIdDlSH OHiy lWO hoiAiioi AhSei'o7
lions doing the highest kind of normal |
work and rendering to the state such SER
vice as will fully meet its demand for
trained teachers.
What has been said applies not alone |
to any particular school, but to the state |
system of high school instruction. Each |
school Is unit, each must reach largely |
the boys and girls in the rural sections of |
the county of its location. Weak units |
will make a weak system. Strong units |
will assure success. The purpose |
of this article is to call attention to the |
work of one unit, backed by the strong |
support of it's community and the county |
authorities. There are some fifty other |
similar high schools In the state under |
state control, in buildings decided to the |
state, and rendering yeoman service. |
Sum up these forces and you have an |
agency that will revolutionize the rural |
life of our people.