The Jeffersonian. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1907-1917, 1914-03-26

somuch as his letter in your columns
is misleading, feel in justice to
your readers, your paper, and the
important question at issue, it is my
duty to make reply and I wish to
express to you in advance my appre-
citation of your kindness in gener-
ously giving me space just as you
gave Mr.. McCrory.
My letter challenged certain state
ments he made in his letter. He ac-
cused the State Board of Education
of having disregarded the wishes of
the U. d. C.'s, the U. C. VS., and
other lovers of the truth in history
impartially treated and Of adopting
histories prejudical from the North
ern standpoint. [ replied that the
primary history was written by
Texan and the advanced history by
Hon. Lawton B. Evans of Augusta,
Ca, and that both books are per-
fectly fair to the South and have
the unqualified endorsement of all
the Daughters of the Confederacy
and the United Confederate Veter-
ans. Mr.. McCrory allows my cor
rection Of his statement to stand in
its entirety and therefore admits
that he published an erroneous state
ment.
He stated in his letter that the
people have paid in the school year
1913, more than one million dollars
for school books. In reply I showed
by actual figures that the amount
scarcely exceeded one hundred and
fifty thousand dollars. He admits
his error and virtually accepts my
correction and says that it makes no
difference if he did make error in the
cost Of school books. Now, this is
a big error for any man to make
and publish to the good people OF
Georgia as the truth, especially when
he used this great error Of six
hundred per cent as an argument to
prove his contention on a question
of no less Importance than that of
the school books which are of vital
concern to every child in our State,
or to be in it. Yet Mr.. McCrory
says this big error of nearly a mil
lion dollars is not the question and
proceeds to enlighten CD us on
other phases of this important sub
ject.
Mr.. McCrory has been for months
advocating the Ontario primer, and
in his article to which I made reply
I showed from the bids of the State
printer that even if some one should
make the State a gift of the copy
right Of this book it would then
cost as much or more to print this
worse than worthless primer, than
the people are paying for the primer
now under adoption, which meets
the demands of modern educational
science. The Ontario primer is dis
tributed in their province by T.
Eaton e Company, one of the larg-
per copy, for advertising purposes.
In regard to the merits of this
primer I used in my reply to him the
following:
Let us consider the pedagogical
qualities of the much talked of On
tariO primer. More talent, science,
and genius of authorship, are re-
CURED to write a primer than any
other book. Educational science now
requires in brief that a primer con-
sist of from two hundred to three
hundred words common to the life,
interest, and vocabulary of little
children Of six, that not more than
three or four new Words be intro
duced on each page, that each word
in the primer be repeated at least
twenty times in very interesting sto-
ries in connection with beautiful il
lustratiOns. The reasonableness of
these principles will appeal to any
ipta11ioro11t Ontario y1,,;,11oy.