Edgefield advertiser. [volume] (Edgefield, S.C.) 1836-current, 1922-04-19

L
ed a beautiful poem about "fringed
gentians" because I was afraid not
to, and now when I can sometimes sit
alone in my room unannoyed by the
ringing of school bell, unconscious
that there is such thing as mark,
and with no stern eye gazing at me,
waiting for me to repeat the next
line exactly, / can read the poem and
enjoy it. and know that it is beauti-
full.
While still child in the grades or
in High School, or even college, did
not know it was beautiful, / only
knew that I had been commanded to
learn it, that the ten commandments
of the Bible had had one scholastic
law added, the harsh and unlovely
word-obey.
There were no seven fat years fol-
lowing the first seven lean ones, only
summers in which I forgot some of
the fear and the self-depreciation.
However September rolled quickly
around again and / again yoked my
self with text books and did not know
that beyond these mountains Of
wearisome height" there were "brook
gladdening meadows ahead" My lips
said "two and two are FOUR" and my
heart said 81 am afraid" and again, 1
said that the word happy, was an
adjective, and my heart said, "what
terrible thing will happen to me if l
make mistake?"So it would have
come to pass that if the room had
furnished itself with all the terrors
of my imagination, there would have
been two edged swords hanging on
the walls instead of pictures, and
tongues of flame leaping through the
windows instead of breezes.
The rooms were well enough ven-
tilated. Our physical and mental we'll
being was looked after, but / turned
hot and cold at unexpected times re-
gardless of the temperature inside of
the school room or out. One should
| not learn fear, he should rather be
taught to uId derstand that ings
work together for good for those who
try, and even those who don't will
not absolutely be shot at sunrise.
There have been cases of pardoning.
My last thought is that modern
education tends toward hatred of au-
thority on the part of the student.
There is such a thing as understand
ing authority, and working with it
and not in spite of it, or against it.
But the student doesn't know that.
once heard one of my teachers at
college say, "When meet student
barbed wire fence goes up between
u.s." The point was this: The teacher
possessed authority. The student
didn't, and the student had no reason
to believe that that authority would
be exercised with kindness and SYM
pathy. Kindness and sympathy! l had
forgotten that those two words could
come into such discourse as this. ]
have left certain classes when stu
dent, with tears in my eyes. thought
then that it was terrible thing, and
it was. There could have been few
worse things, but I have resolved
that all that I failed to enjoy shall be
meted out ten times over in every
sort of Joy and pleasure and kind un-
derstanding that / can give a stu
dent, that my studio shall be haven
of refuge for the oppressed, a place
or rest for all that labor and that are
unhappy.
My authority, now that I can exer-
else it, fosters, hope, no hatred of
itself, no fear and no self-deprecia-
tion on the part of those who are sub
ject to it.
You doubtless think that l have
had an evil dream and are glad to see
signs of my awakening from its spell.
My peculiar conclusion to it all is
that the students here are little con-
cerned with hatred Of authority, they
rather utterly disregard it, though
not rudely or disrespectfully. They
are not afraid, for they are as free
as the coyotes that roam the plains,
and they do not depreciate them
selves, but rather have a wholesome
self respect that in some it amounts
to decided self-appreciation.
This all comes of the school sys-