The Jeffersonian. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1907-1917, 1914-10-08
"THE LITTLE RED (?) SCHOOL
HOUSE,"
HOUSE,"

II
Worthier subject than when
~ he wrote, recently of 'The
Little Red School House,"
though why red should always be
designated when speaking of the
average unpainted, poorly built, more
poorly furnished public school Of the
rural and country districts, is one
of the things left for poets and ora
tors to explain.
Anyway, Mr.. Graves wrote most
feelingly of the spirit Of dissatis-
faction that had come over the pat
rOns OF those same school houses,
ably backed by the doctors and
scientists who are beginning to take
keen interest in Uncle Josh and his
children. Having so long designated
the rural population and the country
cousins as 1.-The backbone of the
Nation,' and that same backbone
beginning to show signs of weak
ness, curvature and watery tenden-
cies; and the lungs which accom-
pany said backbone showing a de-
cided tendency to pneumonia and
tuberculosis, it is on the cards that
a showdown be made as to the con-
ditions Of the little school houses,
red and otherwise, for the benefit of
the statisticians.
It's safe bet that some of the
doctors, etc., have never been in a
country school house until they were
put On an investigating committee,
and it is comforting to know some
of them have been getting the shock
of their lives, at close view of how
benef1cient and paternal govern
ment doles out the shekels for cOun-
try school children, and what little
consideration they have had, as COM
pared to the city child, the offspring
in ninety per cent Of renters,
while the country child's parents pay
the burden of the taxes.
It's an old tale, but Uncle Josh's
backbone lost most Of it's upright
ness while bending over the home
made desks in the little school
studying his bluebacked speller
through window sash that were too
small, too low, and in many cases
half paper, where the lights should
have been-but were not. The bal
ance of Uncle Josh's backbone went
while he was blowing, in order to
make the crops to make the money
to make the taxes for the little
schooling his children might be able
to get from the same little school
house, and which, architecturally,
had not improved much since his own
day.
If you have ever taken a ride from
the beaten paths, into the country
sections, and looked at close range
at one of these school-houses, you
will have to be possessed of more
than the ordinary amount of "po-
etic" spirit, to reconcile yourself
with the glamor that song and ora
tory have woven about it. If you are
a normal, healthy and level headed
man or woman, the chances are fifty
to one you would like to put a
match to the ill-built, rough, un-
painted, unventilated and worse
lighted building you see; the walls
are sealed, and not much sealed at
that; the benches look like the sort
the first emigrants to a new coun-
try put together; the blackboard is
as primitive as blackboard can be,
and the books-and then you come
up to the real reason why there isn't
a better school house-it takes all
the money the patrons" can spare,
to buy the books, and the Board of
Education of many communities
seem to lose interest, once the money
for the books are assured.