The Ocala evening star. [volume] (Ocala, Fla.) 1895-1943, 1922-09-13

about different countries, and then
took their text books and went TO work .
with a will to learn all they could 7
from that source. /
When the time for the county school .
fair came, our little school went over /.
and took every prize-two loving cups, /
one for literary merit, the other for !
athletics, four medals and nearly ev- /
cry ribbon. Our school is a very /
small school and competed with the
county high school, where the old /
fashioned methods held full sway. +
There ''the school children go on as
before, learn to read, study only their !,
text books in school. and read news
papers if they want to, at home"
The teachers really deserved little
credit for what the Greensboro chill
dren accomplished that day, and later
at the state track meet for girls,
where our girls took both loving cups.
a medal and a great many of the rib
DCIlS. anu NIlSLS OI1S VI Jul < II - "dS
chosen to represent Florida at the in
ternational track meet in Paris.
l am not a pioneer in this kind of
work. Educators, as you know, are
all favoring the teaching Of current
history by means of the newspapers.
Ii would be very foolish idea for US
to suggest that any school board adopt
special newspaper as text or ref
erence. In this day, however, when
there are SO many serious economic
problems, don't you think that some
thing should be done to awaken the
interest of the people, and how better
can this be done than through the
school children? Do you think we are
employing in our public schools men
and women so ignorant that they
would not have sense enough to know
what news stories to have children
read? Goodness, l am glad | moved
out of that profession into your own,
if that's the way you feel about the
poor teachers.
Very truly yours,
Miss Farris Davis.
jacksonville, September 8.
Miss Davis has fine theory, but
she makes the mistake common to all
of us-of believing because she can
do a certain thing we'll, in certain
place, that everybody else can do the
same thing in every place. We should
infer that Miss Davis has a gift for
putting her own theory into practice,
and she had the fortune to experiment
with it in a place where her efforts
were appreciated. We doubt the abil-
ity of the average school teacher to
dc this work as she did it. We have
reason to believe that such training
would meet opposition at the average
school if it was attempted by the av-
erage teacher.
We would not say school teachers
are too ignorant to pick out news
stories fit for children to read. We
would say school teacher has no
more right to pick out a child's news
reading than select its Sunday school
literature. We think both are outside
a public school teachers province. 1t
is necessary for the state to select
the textbooks for the public schools.
Textbooks must be standardized.
Newspapers can't be standardized
Textbooks are -political-or should
be Newspapers are political-they
have to be. Nearly all the newspa-
pers in Florida are democratic. Most
of the newspaper readers are demo-
cratic and most of the school teachers
are democratic But there are a good
many republicans-many of them pay
ing heavy taxes-and it would be
wrong to pen their children up in a
school room and make them listen to
democratic editorials. A school teach
er, who in the interest of fairness,
would read an editorial out Of the New
: York or Chicago Tribune once IN a
while would be fired.
There is now railroad strike. One
Jacksonville paper uphoIds the strik-
ers. The other sides with the rail
roads. Which of these papers should
be read to the Jacksonville schools
each day-or both-and wouldn't
there be the devil to pay if either ?
Should professor be detailed to read
the sporting page aloud to the boys
and a professoress the society squibs
fashions and movies to the girls? II
not, why not? This is history in the
making as the newspaper makes it
and is tasteless as a cold buckwheat
cake any other way.
The Literary Digest and Current
History are nothing but clippings
| from %ha loilx-