The Dawson news. (Dawson, Ga.) 1889-current, 1915-01-26
FROM MR.. RIVES.

Editor Dawson News Say not that for
mer days were better than these. There is
that scattereth and yet increaseth; there is
that withholdeth more than is meet and it
tendeth to poverty"
Every new thing made for the benefit of
humanity has encountered, from men grow
ing old, the first part of the above quota
ton, and it is not surprising that my friend
going down the slope, on the western side
Should, looking up and seeing the glow of
the new sun rising above the summit from
which he is descending, imagine it was from
the lightwood fire he left on the top. Now
expect to leave the earth young, and there
fore forgetting the things that are behind
am reaching forward to the things that are
before" This orgetting-meaning not
looking backward-to see if the things be-
hind, like the "looks in the flesh pots of
Egypt made the Hebrew pessimist forget
the hopes of the land that flowed with milk
and honey but using the things of the past
that were good to help make the things of
the present better, and the things of the
future to continue to increase with good
until the fulness of time, when the king
doms of the world shall become the king
dom of our God and His anointed One"
1t is now 81 years since I started to school
to Miss Chipstead, where Tom Moody lives
in Cuthbert. My father paid her in Confed-
crate money-eight dollars per month for
me and ten dollars per month for John Mas
see, we going to her, and the girls to the
college. Moving to the plantation in the
fall of 1868 he paid Mr.. Allen, / think
ten dollars per month for each of us. In
1866 he paid in gold to John Galloway at
Springvale $25 per year for myself and
younger brothers and $35 per year for John
Massee and $40 per year for my sister and
Miss Sarah Massee, each, they being in the
highest classes John in the intermediate
and the balance in the primary grades. When
7 nuif in no ms vii
NJ. c. Edwards $50 per year for my tuition.
Now strike the average and you will see
that it was considerably over 81 per year
or 81 per month for each pupil.
The failure of large number of patrons
to pay in full and of another contingent to
pay at all made the public school a necessity
if the children were to have anything like
continuous term by competent teacher.
True, there are some incompetents now, but
there always has been, always will be under
any system, but my observation is that I'M
der the old system there were more broken
down preachers, incompetent limbs of the
law, immature women attempting to teach
than there are incompetent teachers now.
Taking my own experience, every time we
changed teachers we were turned back, es-
pecially in our higher studies and in all my
schooling l recall but two really competent
al-round teachers, John Galloway and M. c.
Edwards, and the latter could not teach Lat
in grammar. Only one teacher to whom |
went did, Prof. Monk. When l started to
him | knew Latin by rote-had been turned
back SO much that I knew Aesop's fables
backward and forward-but knew absolute
ly nothing Of the construction of the Ian
guage.
The teachers of today 90 advance the pu-
pills, and in the higher grades grammar,
geography and physical science-are taught
so that the pupil can master them, and in
the lower grades, beyond spelling-under
which the old system was stressed-the pu-
pills of this day are ahead of any teaching
so or 40 years since.
Remember / come of a race of teachers
My grandfather Rives was bred to the bus-
ness and taught a select school in Hancock
county from 1898 to 1912. My sister can
impart all she knows to any pupil. l have
in my library a copy of the first arithmetic
published in the English tongue, used IN
Williams and Marys college, where grand
father went and from which he was gradu-
ated, and used by him during his teaching
career.
Like everything else there has been
gradual improvement in method and in in
struments in the teaching calling, as in eV-
cry other calling. The man who farms as
was done when / was boy could not make
living. The man who practiced phEsic by
the old methods or used old remedies refuS-
ing to progress with new methods, would pc
without patients. The same holds good OF
the law, of machinery of every other branch
of human endeavor. We cannot stop human
progress if we would; we shout not stop II
if we could. 1t is the law of nature Tine
tree that stops growing dies. Appealing 10
men to vote against school taxes because
our fathers lived without them is appealing
to this generation to travel in gigs, move
their household effects in OK carts, go With
out ice in summer and submit to surgical
operations without ether, because our grand
parents thought they were doing well to
have a gig and had never heard of autos
and knew nothing of painless surgery.
We need compulsory education to perfecI
the system-it would be enforced like some
other laws for the good of both races by
compelling the attendance of the white ana
overlooking the lapse of the negro, as our
divorce law and bigamy penalties are en-
forced. ANDREW p. RIVES.