The Dawson news. (Dawson, Ga.) 1889-current, 1912-06-19
WOULD CONSOLIDATE DAWSON
AND COUNTY SCHOOL SYSTEMS

N~~~N~~~~~~~~~
child to draw any of the benefit o
this taxation, and is consequently no
securing any benefit, except IN al
indirect WAY Not a word OF protes
has ever been even entertained
There is nothing which means one
half so much to a county as the ecu
cation of it's citizenship, and we al
owe il not only to ourselves but Il
our country to submit to whatever II
needed to promote such end. an
| a believer of not only public taxa
tion for the protection of culture ano
! advanced education, but OF enforced
education. You say that you had ia
! nav for the education you obtained
! So did l, but had you stopped 70
| think that when you and l were
growing the per cent OF those VINO
received even enough education 10
he he able to read and write was not
very large one, and that since the
DAVIS of the public school and pubic
contribution to education through
the medium of taxation the per cent
of illiteracy is rapidly decreasing?
There lis now absolutely no excuse
for the man or woman VINO cannot
read and write, except the simple
exnlanation of a lack of manly ambl-
ton. The time has now passed when
it is thought that the farmer has
little need for a finished education.
Education means just as much to
him as to the members of any other
calling. 1t will be the educated
farmer who will in future set the
pace for his neighbor, who will pile
I'D a bank account, who will be able
to extract from Mother Earth all her
strength. Improved rural schools
mean increased culture and educa-
ton outside of the towns, and this
in turn means incalculable benefit
TO the entire body polite. Having
been myself for number or years
a country school master l am pre-
pared to feel more keenly all when
| have said. Especially can | view
from a disinterested standpoint now
another side of the school PROPOSE
ton which is much in need of the
serious thought of every one in gen
eral and of the school boards in par
ticular. refer to the Importance
of the teacher. Every teacher should
be the most thoroughly educated
person in the community, if posi-
BILE To attain this end he or she
has had to spend many years or
study and has done so at much eX-
pense of both time and money. He
is fitted thus for many avocatiOns in
life which now offer much greater
IN th0r docs the
avocation of the pedagogue. AS a
result the majority of both men and
women go into school teaching as
mere temporary matter-as a simple
stepping stone to something; the
man to a profession and the woman,
possibly, to matrimony. This is not
as it should be. The work of the
school teacher is the grandest work
of man. for it is in the making OF
the real man in which he is engaged.
Then he should be paid for his work
in proportion to what such accom-
plishments as he has possessed will
obtain for him in other walks of life
He should be given salaries which
will make him feel that he is serving
in a calling whose results are appre-
ciated and that, therefore, he has
no good excuse to leave it for some
thing else.
What we need most in the way OF
a change in the school system of the
county is not to fret over the mat
ter of a small tax, but to get busy
and bring about the consolidation OF
the systems of the county under one
first-class educator, who will be
worth $4,000 to $4,000 a year. Let
him see that up-to-date faculties are
placed at the head of all the schools
of the towns and rural districts
wherein the same branches of study
are taught, and make it possible fol
a child to go from any school in
the county and enter the same grade
in any other, whether in Dawson
or rural community. With such
system no man can calculate what
| it will mean to the county in a quar-
ter of a century.
If YOU would reduce your tax be-
gin a movement with as much zest
as was shown in this school tax mat
ter looking to a return to common
sense in the management of a ques-
ton which has, in the opinion OF
! the writer, DrOuSnL 10 Inc ~
and state the greatest curse which
has ever befallen it, Let's be hon
est with each other in this matter
lay aside fanaticism, and get down
to real reason. Look about you al
the young boys who are now in g
position to go at rapid rate to the
grave of the debauchee, who are al.
ready on the way, and realize thai
you are more helpless than ever be-
fore to prevent such a situation
Change materially your tactics il
controlling the damnable stuff, re
! trace your steps to reason and theI
you will have less tax, fewer days o.
! litigation, better morals and far les:
| dissipation. j. G. DEAN.
Dawson, Ca, June II. 1912.