Ellsworth American. [volume] (Ellsworth, Me.) 1855-current, 1922-07-12

Dear M. B. Friends:
The educators of the present day
are very much worried about the
rural schools. Perhaps they have
reasons to be, of which we know not,
but that the inhabitants of the rural
districts, which include teachers and
pupils, were and are ignorant
and uneducated, is not readily be-
lieved by those who recall the faith
full teachers, who grounded their
pupils not only in the most useful
and necessary studies, but inculcated
moral principles at the same time.
Now the "one-teacher school" is
deplored. At the recent national
educational convention held in Bos-
ton, Miss Fannie w. Dunn of Column
bia university said: Despite efforts
at consolidation during the last
quarter of century, nearly 100000
one-teacher schools remain in the
| United States. 1t was hoped to re-
duce this number to 10000" She
admits that lit is urgently important
| to consider their contribution to edu-
cation in the past, and that a con-
siderable number will continue to
| depend on them Then adds: 1--WE
must ask wherein lies the future
service of the one-teacher school.
Under what condition, finally, should
| it be permitted to exist?
| quote from two other speakers.
George A. Works of the New York
| State College of Agriculture urged
| that systems of state support be put
on such a basis that the country
4 IL. O.,
parable with those of the city child"
and Agnes Samuelson, superin-
! tendent of Page county schools,
| Clarinda, Iowa, recommended the
abolition of small district schools
and the substitution of county unit
system | don't understand how
| thisc latter proposal could be accom-
! plished unless children were re-
moved from their homes to a COM
| mon educational center.
At the risk of being called an ''old
fogy," let me say, there are some ad-
vantages in one-teacher school, for
| there you find pupils of several
grades. BY the way you cannot
grade" the minds, and the ability,
and the concentration of all pupils in
any one school, Those in the primary
and lower grades listen to the recita-
lions of those further advanced and
they pick up many facts and incl
! dents which are stored in their
minds, which give them a bit of gen
eral information and awaken a de-
sire to learn about those things for
themselves.
How about "The Little Red School
house." which, with the Three Rs, y
has become almost proverbial joke
The little red schoolhouses that dot
ted New England's valleys and hill
sides were unadorned with the
American flag, but within theil
walls lessons of patriotism were not
lacking when the reading included
"Breathes there a man, with soul sc
dead,
Who never to himself has said,
This is my own my native land?'
or when some lad, perhaps in bare
feet and tattered clothes, concluded
his "declamation" with
AS for me- give me liberty or give
me death"
From "Old School Days" by vii
Carleton, | quote:
This University-in- a-room
Has freshman students with child
hoods bloom.
Who con the letters that long have
chung
Together in words of the English
tongue
They toddle down with worry and fret
The cellar stairs of the alphabet;
Right loud is their tone of triumph
heard,
When joining two letters, they coin {
word.
What would they have thought Of
being introduced to talking animals
and fairy stories before they knew
their letters?
After all, 1.-THE Three RS" lait
the foundation of many mans
fortune and higher education. So il
|, is 'Riting we mention next. Did you
ever see an old copy-book or sample
of some of the teachers penmanshiI
of years ago? And how carefully
the pupils would attempt to copy thu
clear and distinct handwriting a
the top of the page! Perhaps a half
hours writing was all the pupil ha(
to attend during the day. Now, no
only with written exams, but will
all lessons required, for the mos
part, to be written, no wonder thu
= | hand wearies, and the writing i
carelessly done and the vast
, baskets are filed with wrinkled tab
, | let leaves.
Clear desks for writing! is born
sound
OF rustic of paper and rasp of pen
! Precepts that are more or less pro
found
l Are written, and written, and writ
ten again.
when characters lost then all
lost"
= We read and write, and the though
= is new,
: We wonder and wonder, with hand
z close-crossed.
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