The county record. [volume] (Kingstree, S.C.) 1885-1975, 1922-11-23
WILLIAMSBURG SCHOOLS.
State Inspector Submits Report on
Their Condition.

made to State Superintendent of Edu-
cation on the condition of schools in
Williamsburg county.
Columbia, s. c., Nov. 20, 1922.
Hon. J. E. Swearingen,
Dear Sir: l give below review of
school conditions in Williamsburg
county, as seen in the course of a
visit made during week ending No
vember 18.
On November ID the County Super
intendent and l visited the following
schools:
Wayside,' two-teacher school F.;
Carlisle, a two-teacher school; Cades,
4 three-teacher school; Rough Branch,
one-teacher school; and Indiantown,
school of three teachers.
On November Is we visited Mouzon,
one-teacher school; Bethel, a one
teacher school; Hebron, school of
four teachers; Pergamos, three
teacher school; and Aimwell, a one
teacher school.
November 16 we visited Cedar
Swamp, a four-teacher school; Cen
trail, two-teacher school; Blooming
vale, a school with two teachers;
Marion Branch, one-teacher school; (;
and Piny Forest, a two-teacher school.
November II we visited Gamble,
two-teacher school; Mulberry, a
school with two teachers; and Lanes,
"a four-teacher School.
At Wayside we found an excellent
new building, recently erected. The
people Of this progressive community
are to be commended. The people Of
the, Gamble section are likewise to
be congratulated on their neat two
teacher building just completed.
We found the teaching corps, in
almost every case, a body of earnest,
hard-working people, getting good re-
suits in their teaching. In two schools
the discipline was not good 1t fol-
lows that the work of the schools
was not good; there can be no good
work without discipline. Teachers
should have good discipline, otherwise
their work will go down as failure.
In several schools the pupils were
not reading well. This was perhaps
due to two causes, possibly three.
The pupils may have been promoted
without being prepared; they may
do little or no reading outside Of the
schoolroom; or the teachers may not
be teaching reading well. In case the
pupils do not read well, the teacher
should concentrate on this subject, as
all other subjects are sealed books
unless the pupils can read and get
the thought from what they read.
Some history teaching was observ-
ed, where the teachers had prepared
their recitations, but were not get
ting response from the pupils. The
trouble seemed to be that not enough
was expected or required Of the pu-
pills, and the teachers were trying to
do all the work for them. 1t Is not
well to do too much lecturing to class
es in history in the intermediate and
high school grades; the pupils will
not pay attention, and nobody ex-
cept the teacher derives any benefit.
The history lesson should be so pre-
pared by the teacher that questions
provokingthought on the part of the
pupils will take the place Of the lee
ture. These questions should devel-
op logically every point in the les
son, and the pupils should be expect
ed and required to know the answers.
The teacher. should do some parallel
reading, so that they can narrate
interesting related facts to their his
tory classes, and thus make the sub
ject live and interesting to the class.
Geography should be taught in the
same manner, and history and geog-
raphy should always be correlated,
maps and other geographical helps
being used in the history teaching,
and stories from history being used
to make geography interesting.
In some schools pupils are not be-
ing given sufficient drill on the analy-
sis and parsing of sentences. With
out such drill, the value Of technical
English grammar is very doubtful,
whereas, when analysis and parsing
are thoroughly taught, it constitutes
the finest kind of mental training.
Furthermore. without a thorough