Clinch Valley news. [volume] (Jeffersonville, Va.) 18??-2019, 1915-02-19
THE NEEDS OF THE RURAL
SCHOOL.


ages when man was savage and bar
barouS, there has been evidence of ed
ucational process. We konw that. in
the solution of life's problems we in
variably come face to face with the
mind problem. We know also that
the training of the mind should be
the first concern of the race. We
know, too, that the most sadly neg
lected part of the educational system
of the South is the rural school. Yes,
and we know that it ought not to be.
The needs of the rural schools are
many, but the first and greatest need
| is an awakened community spirit.
| The older people, the parents of the
boys and girls must realize that it is
not only their privilege but its their
duty to send their children to school.
We are living in an age when an ed
ucation counts. From every depart
ment of industry there comes a cry
for trained men. GIVE us trained
workman" they say. The old time
Jack of all trades" is no longer in
demand. The age demands training
and specification, and the founda-
tons must be laid in the public
schools. 1t seems that since the be-
ginning of the 10Th century the uned-
ucated boy in the United States has
failed to become notable in any de-
partment of usefulness. In the face
of facts no sensible person can say
that an education does not pay. 1t
pays from every standpoint, for as |
have said before, "A we'll trained mind
stands always at par value. No thief
can ever approach it. No fire can
ever consume it; the hand Of greed
can never touch it, while the green
eye of envy can only covet its I'M
fading influence and imperishable
power. When the patrons of the ru-
raj schools realize that the training
portance; when they realize that the
deepest love parent can give a child
can never make up for the loss, if that
parent fails in the building of the
child's character, in the training of the
child's mind; when the parents have
realized this they will lend to the
teachers their sympathy, their cooper
alton and their support
OF course, we need a compulsory
education law-the very fact that
large percentage of the people in
| Virginia cannot read and write is suf-
icient proof for the need of such Il
law. If 1.-THE man of yesterday" was
content to go thru life without pub
lie school education, is he content that
his child should share like fate? If
he is, he should not be.
You say it is not worth the while.
Ii most certainly is. know a man,
who, feeling the need of higher ed
ucation said: 'Pll give to my chill
! dren the best can" He sent little
girl, (six years old, to school. She
went every day. She FINISHED at
x.,la I.
and the day she took a b. A. degree,
teen school years, I've not missed
sixteen days" During those years
she had teachers, good badrld indiG'-
elont. there were days when she did
not want to go to school, but that
didn't matter, she went, and each day
was worth while. | know for | was
the girl.
The rural school needs better equip
ment. We are living in the twentieth
century, but still teaching in a little
old-time school house. The room is
too small, the desks are not the right
size, the heat cannot be properly reg
ulated, and we who are out of doors
breathe the pure fresh air of the AL
leghanies must spend part of each
day III there. It's not even sanitary
and who's to blame?
Next, we need more teachers, bet
ter teachers, and more thorough teach
ers. Only we who have faced the
situation know the difficulties. The
teacher finds Johnnie in the 5th grade
when he ought to be in the Bird. The
pupil in the 9th grade can't read; the
foundation work is painfully weak.
What shall we do? Begin at the bot
tom and lay the foundation anew?
We learn after while that expe-
rience teaches 4 dear school, but
fools will learn in no other" We
need more thorough system of ed
ucation. We need to know and know
that we know. Next we need Il more
practical system of education. Psy-
chology teaches us that the needs of
the intellect are as various as intel
lects themselves are various. Study
your child and give him what he needs
We do not appreciate the genius har-
bored IN the average child and we let
1T lie fallow. We are mentally poor
not because we lack riches, but be-
cause we don't know how to use the
hidden, treasures, the now accessible
mental powers which we possess. A
well known writer in recent med
ical journal says: eve fail to devel-
Up d ioNe Ol hnOWieuSe during the
very early life of the child and then
when its too late, we force them to
study, we cram them and feed them
and stuff them like geese, and what we
get is fatty degeneration of mental
lives" We sometimes need the doc
tor. We fail so entirely in giving
the child what he needs and so we see
the Italian doctor, Marea Montessori.
with immense, almost phenomenal,
success undertakes the raining and
education OF children.
AS mothers and fathers and teach
ers the fate of the young generation
is in our hands. We can make them
a host of nervous wrecks and wretches
or crowd of narrow minded, bigoted
self contented individuals, bat blind
to evil, or they may be made into a
race of geniuses, with powers to con-
troll their own energy. And since we
believe in the ultimate triumph of
harmony over discord, of love over
hate, of truth over error, we pre-
dict for the "Rural SCHOOL, of a
brighter tomorrow.