The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1921-09-09
MAKING PROGRESS.

ed q hard year. Most people have
found obligations pressing on them,
and they have been unable to pay.
The times have been discouraging.
Just now things look more hopeful,
however. But if the people have been
hard-pressed in financial ways, they
have not overlooked their obligations
towards the young. The opening of
the schools this morning brought
evidence that our people are wide
awake in the matter of education.
At the Abbeville Cotton Mills, the
number Of pupils enrolled on the first
day was about fifty per cent. more
than the total enrolment for last
years session. We have not the fig
ures for the primary department at
the graded school this year, nor for
the grades in the grammar school, but
the enrolment in the high school this
year on the first day is 147, which is
much larger than the total enrolment
last year.
The most important thing to be no.
ticed in the matter of enrolment, as
we. see it, is the fact that in the
eleventh grade more than thirty pu-
pills are enrolled-thirty-four to be
exact. That is almost one-fourth of
the total enrolment of the. high
school. Last year there were eleven
members of the graduating class, and
we do not now recall that the num-
Der has been greater than eleven,
that is in recent years. The enroll
ment of thirty-four the present
year therefore is significant. 1t means
that instead of eleven students we
are to have thirty-four students next
year who will be seeking entrance
into the colleges of the land. 1t
means that the people are becoming
more and more interested in the mat
ten of higher education. Heretofore
it has been that pupils attended
school until they finished the seventh
the eighth or the ninth grade. After
that for one reason or another they
quit school. It seems that we are to
improve in this regard, if the enroll
ment in the eleventh grade is to be
an. index to the future.
And not a little of the credit for
the change in this matter is due to
the present administration, we think.
When the present superintendent
and his assistants took charge of the
school the eleventh grade of the
present year was the ninth grade
then. That these pupils have been in
'duced to remain in seh0ol to pursue
their studies and to finish the course
offered them here must be credited
to the good work Of the superintend-
ent and his nne teaching force, and
to the enthusiasm and school spirit
which has been built up amongst the
pupils. The trustees of the city schools
toe, have been alive to. the wants ;of
the community, and they have with
the means at hand provided the best
equipment and the best teaching
force they have been able to provide.
The sentiment for higher education
has been built up, too, by the Parent
Teacher Association and by the gen.
eral interest Of the community in
educational matters. To express it in
the language of the college boys and
girls, we are getting "pep."
We should all feel fine over the
progress which has been made in the
last few years. We hsss rad good
schools before, and The people were
interested In the sehooi before, to be
sure, but the people never gave the
assistance they are how giving in
the years gone, the teachers neve,
had the encouragement they are
now receiving, we were never quite
, as good community before ir
matters as we are now. We are max
ing progress. We should all be glae
of it and try to do even more.