The Palatka news and advertiser. [volume] (Palatka, Fla.) 1908-19??, 1915-11-12

boys slept and where they pridec
themselves on the order of their sur.
roundings.
During my visit to the school | was
impressed with the united interest Of
everybody in the school; they were all
pulling together, and everybody seem
ed working to a definite plan, and ]
only wished that instead of the thirty
SIX young people in the school there
could have been hundred, and that
many; that the building had been lar
ger and more comfortable, and that
there could have been more teachers
to impart their knowledge.
But the school is poor There are
not enough of the mountain people in
terested to send their children there
to built it up, therefore it is depend
ent upon the outside agency for de-
velopment. The prosperity of the
school crop and the rich harvest an
tagonized many of the inhabitants of
that district, and when the first herd
of cattle was shipped from the school
to Atlanta for sale it was reported as
the best cattle on the market. The
Atlanta banker was paid back his
money and a nice deposit left in the
bank to build up the stock department.
doubling its profits this year. Still
this school has no endowment; it has
only group of friends who look to
its interests. The head of the school
is pushed to the wall when it comes
to paying the kind Of teachers which
Lucy Lester points out the mountain
school must have.
At one of the schools this year the
young woman teacher had not only to
teach, but go to the kitchen and train
the girls in cooking. Wien they
were sick she was their Coctor, and
when they needed clothes she taught
them to make them.
She broke down one lay when a
storm tore part of The roof of the
house and shattered the back steps.
None of the boys knew any better
than she did about repairs, so she sent
for the father of two to the children,
then being give their tuition in the
school. He SET word back he couldn't
come and ha' no idea of mending her
house. "'V ny didn't she do it her
self, as she was bent on teaching the
children every other sort of thing"
Another incident indicating the in
difference of many of these people to
the care of their children was this: \
teacher believing a week az home
might do a boy who had been sick
some good, sent him there with that
in view. When he returned at the end
of the week he was so exhausted he
slept almost continuously for several
days, because the moment he had
reached home his father put him to
work in the field and kept him there
from sunrise until sunset.
| shall not refer to the conditions
which will always arise among an ig-
Iorant and isolated people in inter-
marriage, illegitimacy and general de-
generacy, in ignorance of family ties
and sanitary living. These condi-
tions breed the lawlessness of spirit
in the men, which moonshine whis
key fires. and the indifference, sloven-
illness and mental spirit in the women.
which deprives the mountain districts
of any semblance of home or commu.
nifty life.
When, therefore, the children of the
most needy of these people do get to a
school, are reached for and brought
there and kept there by the inspired
energy of a good teacher, they must
be trained out of the influences of
their former surroundings first, thee
the textbook and its contents may be
interpreted to them.
Already there have been seen the
good results of these schools in the
boys and girls who have taken their
message of civilization back to the
mountain coves. But there are not
enough schools, and those already built
are not being maintained. There is
no money to pay the right kind of
teachers.
There is still the work which must
be done toward bringing the school to
the people. The teacher must extend |
her work out into the very coves. She
must go to the very steps of the
mountain cabin, where sits the little
girl of the oft-told story who asked.
Amt nobody never comm here to tell
us nuthin ?"
The teacher must be able to reach
for the boys and girls and bring them