Atlanta tri-weekly journal. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1920-19??, 1923-03-24
THE COUNTRY HOME
BY MRS. w. H. FELTON,

(also a grandmother) has the cour-
age to affirm: This six.year propo.
sition should be stricken off and per-
haps seven years is some months
too early after the child is exam
ined."
When I look out Of my room win
dow and see these baby ones trudg-
irg to school with the rain pouring
down or the ice on the ground
do not wonder that our public
schools in my town had to suspend
two weeks in January because "the
flu" was so bad. Common sense
should secure an inning somewhere.
Those children should not be forced
into compulsory attendance by q
sovereign state while they are only
babies.
I am one of the pioneer Georgians
who dared to rise up and declare
more than twenty years ago before
a Georgia legislature, in joint ses-
sion, that compulsory taxation,
without compulsory attendance was
a crime against free government,
We were raising. money to- pay a
horde of superintendent and teach
ers, on the census figures-fOr chill
dren from six to sixteen, and the
State School superintendent affirm
ed that less than 40 per cent of the
children of proper age did not go to
school at all. Sixty per cent miss
ing.
| said it was 4 shame for the state
to put its iron hand down in your
pocket to educate my children, and
these children did not so to school
at al TO i11IonnoI
ent to send them to school, free of
charge.
These six-year-old children Shout
not be made such a heavy burden
on the burdened taxpayers of the
state. Crops of all ''inds must have
laborers-but to expect a crop of
good educators when babies must
be counted in to raise the amount
now demanded for common school
education in our own state is pre-
posterous.
l grant you that little children do
get instruction in kindergarten
schools at ar early age; but to put
the compulsory attendance on chill
dren of six years is not only a COM
edy. but a tragedy, in its perform
anCe.
While I have the opportunity 1
VIII venture to say a few words
more. These little ones are a diff
cult problem TO any sensible teacher
and they should be given the most
capable teacher of any grade. be-
cause they do need a mothers at
tenticn along with the school teach
er's rigid rules and curriculum.
AS a rule, the teacher of all or
any grade has no particular call to
donate a mothers care when the
child leaves the school building
All children in Georgia's educational
scheme must be big enough and old
enough to look out for themselves
after school is dismissed in he aft
ernoon. No matter what sort of
adventures they can participate in
| (before the youngsters reach home;
it seems to be nobCdy's business
and the mothers at home must bear
all the anxiety and perhaps all the
blame, when things go wrong.
A distinguished lady-who ad-
dressed an Atlanta audience a few
days ago-laid the blame Of a daugh-
ter's derelictions to unsympathetic
mothers. The mothers who are re-
lieved, in large measure, of their
children's training from six to six
teen. in education. have but little
time if they are compelled to so to
school by the state they live mas
early as six years,
AS sure as we live and see the end
of it. we will be convinced we are
straining at gnats and swallowing
Cames. There is time for all
things under the sun. and there
never should come a time where
the state undertakes to paternalize
everything and everybody and die
tate manners and methods TO chill
dren who belong at their own homes
until they are large enough TO I'm.
derst9nd what a school stands for.
We lose sight of the fundamental
fact that the state or nation has no
constitutional authority 10 rob one
class of its citizens to donate to
another class. The only plea under
which q state can compel the tax.
payers to educate others who are
not able, or who refuse to educate,
lies in the provision which makes
it easier to prevent crime by educa.
ton than to punish criminals who
break the laws because Of illiteracy
and ignorance. Educate. rather than
prosecute.
The record Of crime and criminals,
as set forth in our daily newspapers
goes to prove that home training
is quite as essential as book lar
min" for a prosperous common
wealth. When a child is taken from
its home to be educated in it's chip
pen age" it is evident that mistake
has been made and should be cor
rected. l have said nothing about
the money-saving part Of this rropo-
sition. but great deal more might
be added