Newark post., 1913-06-04
AGRICULTURAL HIGH
SCHOOLS OF GEORGIA

Georgia received copy OIL lile re-
port as to the founding of rural
high schools in that state. Georgia
has a great many difficulties not
common to the rest Of the country
but these schools seem to do much
to overcome the obstacles in its edu-
cational work.
Georgia is spending more than
half her income for education,
about forty-four per cent OF 1t 60
ing to the common schools. Forty
seven out of each hundred children
of school age are negroes, and for
ty per cent Of the pupils enrolled
are of that race. This shows great
interest on the part of the colored
population but as the negroes have
little property it puts heavy bur
den on the white population. The
negroes pay, directly, only four per
cent of the taxes. The population
there is scattered. New Jersey, for
example, has three hundred and
thirty seven persons per square
mile, Georgia has only forty four.
The leaders in educational work
have a heavy burden of illiteracy
to contend against. Of the children
between six and eighteen years old
white and black, only one in four
have ever attended school more
than five months. In twelve coun-
ties one fifth of the white men old
enough to vote cannot read. In dis
tricts where there are cotton mills
only little more than one in five
of the children between five and
nine years of age are in school. OF
children between ten and fourteen
years old in such districts only nine
in a hundred are in school. The
ignorant parent, the greedy en-
ployers and the grating polite
ians who refuse to pass laws to pro-
tect the children and the race, make
up an unholy trinity of evil which
only radicalism and intelligence,
backed by votes, can defeat. The
superintendent who made the re-
port sees plainly that only by a
compulsory school attendance law
can conditions be much improved.
Yet with all these evils the educa-
tional forces OF Georgia are doing
splendid work. United States Sen
ator Hoke Smith, from whom | OBJ
tanned information how to learn as
to conditions in Georgia, is appar-
emily expert on educational mat
ters and is doing much to establish
a national system Of help for each
state.
The teachers of Georgia and the
members of the state board, and es-
pecially Hon. M. l.. Britain, the
state commissioner, set an example
which ought to encourage educators
everywhere.
The agricultural high schools
were established in each Of the
eleven congressional districts by an
act of the Legislature seven years
ago. There was much opposition,
almost no money and many dlscour,
agements. 1T was two years before
the first six of the schools opened
their doors. A tax on fertilizer, III
the form of official tags which were
ordered placed on each bag, gave
them six thousand year to start
with. The people in each district
were eager to have a school near
them, and the land was donated by
leading men. AS soon as the schools
opened the boys admitted were set
to work improving them. Each
school aims to teach actual farming,
practical iron work and wood work
such as is required on farm, and
every phase Of farm activity. The
girls are admitted on equal terms
with boys and are taught every
form of farm home labor. The boys
were admitted first and set to work
raising crops. The farm products
are used for table supplies as far as
needed and boys have built new
buildings and additions, improved
the buildings already on the prop.
critics, and have learned practical
plumbing, electric Lighting and ma
son and carpenter work.
The boys course includes Eng
lish grammar and study of the
best examples Of English literature
with the addition of the Bible ano
the Odyssey, the latter being q
translation. Arithmetic, algebra
and geometry make up the foul
years mathematical course, English
and American history, school man
agement, civics, psychology, geog'
raphy and the use Of pen and q
study of the spelling book, with
chemistry, physics and agricultural
chemistry, identify the course with
the ordinary high school list of stu
5ias Latin and foreign langu-