Atlanta tri-weekly journal. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1920-19??, 1923-04-21
DR.. T|GERT'S TALK
ENDS MEETING Of
SUPERINTENDENT

School officials and educators of
Georgia must organize and make a
united effort if they are to receive
the appropriations needed for COM
mon schools, John J. Tigert, United
declared in an address Thursday be-
fore the convention of county and
city school officials,
"There must be a concerted ef-
fort" he stated, cor the other or
CARNATIONS interested will obtain
the funds. The common schools
will not reveive money like mamma
from heaven and unless they make
an aggressive fight for it, the clos
ing sessions of the next legislature
will find the Georgia legislators 60
ing on record with the majority OF
those of the Al states which have
met this winter-shoWing a ten
dency to sacrifice education for
other more material things"
This session brought to a close
the superintendent annual meet.
ing. Thursday afternoon they took
nautomobile sightseeing tour of
the city as guests of the various
civic organizations, starting from
the capitol and ending at the At
lanta Woman's club for tea as guests
Of that organization.
Upwards of 1000 educators rep.
resenting the entire educational
forces of the state will be here the
balance of the week for the con-
vention. Headquarters will be at
the Piedmont hotel. General sessions
will be held in the Wesley Memorial.
church auditorium. Departmental
meetings will be held IN various
smaller halls.
Mayor Sims and Chairman Gaines,
of the Atlanta school board, will
deliver the addresses of welcome at
the opening session Friday evening.
Will c. Langley, principal of the
Quitman High school, will deliver
the response. Addresses will be
made by DR.. M. M. Parks, state
superintendent of schools; H. D.
Knowles, Quitman, president of the
association, and w. A. Sutton,
superintendent Of Atlanta schools.
Compulsory Law Discussed
The superintendent took an ear.
| ly start Thursday morning on their
| closing day. Assembling at o'clock
| on the Hotel Cecil roof they COM
bined a very pleasant breakfast with
| a profitable informal discussion of
! the Georgia compulsory school at
| tendance law then adjourned to the
| house of representatives for the clos
ing session which started at $50
o'clock and ran past the noon hour.
DR.. Tigert, one of the principal
speakers of the morning, spoke of
Georgia's standing in illiteracy, stat
ing that she is fourth from the bot
tom, having 16 per cent of her citi'
zens who are unable to read and
| write.
"Out of the 21,OO0O0O children in
the schools of the United States,
he said, more than forty per cent
of them are in schools in which one
teacher is endeavoring to do all OF
the work"
Speaking Of the compulsory attend
ance law, he declared that while
there are only two counties in the
entire United States that have such
a law, it is not being enforced as il
should be.
1T seems that education in GeOr
gia depends upon the whims of
certain individually he declared
There seems to be a lack of finan
cial support, a lack of teachers
proper supervision and Of opportu
nifty for children to obtain an educa
ton in the state.
DR.. Tigert stated that the legis
latures of forty-one states had met
during the winter and he regretted
to acknowledge that the genera
tendency was to sacrifice education
for other things.
The difficulty is that other state
agencies seeking appropriations
from state legislatures are better
organized and more aggressive in
their legislative work, DR.. Tigert
explained, with the result that edu
cation is being sidetracked.
He said the southern states are
not sold on education to the same
extent as other sections of the coun
try and he attributed this to the
old southern idea that the public
schools were operated for the bene
fit of those not able to attend pri
vate schools. This idea still exists
in the south, he said, and is a draw.
back to the progress of public edu.
cation in this section.
AS illustrating an attitude towards
education which he said is too pre-.
valent not only in the south but in
other sections, DR.. Tigert told an
amusing anecdote of a rich, but ig.
norant man who could not give the
name of the school his daughter was
attending, but who knew in detail
the technical education of his chau1'
fer.
Nowhere in the country, said DR..
Tigert, have school children been