The herald and news. [volume] (Newberry S.C.) 1903-1937, 1910-12-20

opportunity to meet you this morn
ing, and to speak to you for short
time upon one of the most intensely
interesting, and at the same time one
of the most vitality important assets to
the great work of education. By in
fiuence Of the freside is meant the in
fuence of parents upon children. The
origin of schools was to aid, but not
supplant the influence of the firesida;
and if either had to be abolished the
State could more easily see the schools
20. A work, then, of such a kindred
nature to the work we are engaged in
may properly reeeiye orr attention:
In spite of the acute interest that
education has received for the last
20 years; in spite of the incr aased ia
cilities of our public schools, involv-
ing the expenditure OF hundreds Of
thousands Of dollars; in spite Of the
efforts Of teachers to specialize in their
chosen work; in spite OF all the work
that our State summer and normal
schools are doing, We are squarely up
against the criticism that our public
schools are not turning out boys and
girls with superior training to that
received in the old-fashioned school
house when this State was PROSTATE
through the misfortunes of war. It is
said even that our methods are not
improved upon. One writer recently
said in one of the leading newspapers
of this State that: 'It matters not
what kind of books are adopted or
by whom th ey are adopted, just so they
are uniform and are used by Compel
ent teachers. The old blue-back spell
Ter, Maurys geography, Smiths gram
mar, Robinson's practical arithmetic,
and other books used at the same time
that these were, were used by hun
dreds of people, and handed down year
after year to their younger brothers
and sisters until actually worn out
by use. These books were in the
hands of teachers who understood the
art of imparting knowledge and
grinding into the pupils the power of
application of fundamental principles,
and it is to many of these, who have
been turned out from the old schools,
to whom We look up to as shining
lights in every phase of life" A
splendid rhetorical tribute to the older
system of education, and very I'M
piled cutting insinuation of the pres
ent system of education. The older
method is sufficiently described by the
writer's own phrase of "grinding
into the pupils the power of applica-
ton" and no other description is here
necessary. We have grown beyond
the grinding period, and have reverted
to the more common sense Socratic
method of developing from within in
stead of trying to pour into from with
out. Serving their generation the best
they could with their limited prepara-
ticn and their still more limited facili-
ties, I still believe no class of profess
sional men have received more Un-
stinted praise for what they attempted
to do than the old time school master.
The old school master who satisfied
his patrons, he was known to
frequently nod in the school room,
and occasionally steal little nap, and
in whose school the throwing of pa
per wads against the loft, the fixing
of pins and tacks to benches to stick
unsuspecting pupils, being SNOWFALL
ed away from the school house at
times, and yet who was withal man
isolated from other members of his
profession, little tyranical in his dis
cipline, and believing that the rod was
the solution of all school problems
such master would be utterly at a
loss to know how to get results in a
modern school room, and under the
peculiar environment the modern
school teacher is forced to work. 1t
is useless to argue that the old time
school master of a half century and
more ago, using his same books and
methods would escape the shafts Of
the most severe criticism today; for
he would not. Oliver Goldsmith points
out both his faults and his virtues in
a few we'll balanced lines,
"a man severe he was, and stern to
view;
I knew him well, and every truant
Well had the boding tremblers learned
to trace
The days disasters in his morning