Pocahontas star herald., 1925-12-03

land today as being somewhat the eff
feet of the above cause. However, as
we are not discussing religion, we will
not comment upon his statement ex
cept to say that we are all well aware
of the fact that the first steps taken
| by missionaries TO convert heathen
nations is to educate them more OF
less.
We do not wish to he understood as
speaking slightingly of those who do
not possess n high education, for in our
case we are not qualified to throw
stones" While our supply of acquir-
ed knowledge. il is plainly seen. is
small indeed we would not exchange
it for piles of gold if il could never be
had again.
Some of the sweetest memories of
our life, is the remembrance of days
long gone by. when we trOd over two
miles of hill and vale TO the little
weatherbeaten school house back in
the sticks" which has been replaced by
"A more modern up-to-date structure.
But never will any other seat of learn
ing be looked upon in the kindly light
by us as the one named above which
was hallOwed ground to us.
Early in life we became interested
in things pertaining to schools and
any movement made for their better
ment is strongly boosted by us.
We were in favor of a county super
intendent long before we had one, and
boosted (but i'm vain) for the free text
books bill presented at the last legisla-
ture. movement which, If adopted
would have been one of the greatest
steps forward for rural school advance
ment ever granted in our state. We
know this is valuable plan for hav-
ing personally seen it worked i'm our
sister state, Missouri.
We are in favor of an outlined
course Of study prepared by the state
superintendent and forwarded to the
county superintendent, who in turn
supplies the program to each teacher.
In this way an outlined course is com
pleted in given time and no work is
sighted. When we attended school the
practise was to begin at the first of
each book, and in this way we would
get TO about the same place at the end
of the term and many times never
study the last part. The outlined
course is a remedy for this.
We believe in higher tax (mini
you, school taxi. 1t takes money to
finance a good school. Today ArlIan-
sas stands far down the line in an edu-
catiOnal way II is not because we
have poor state but because too
small a part of the tax goes into school
funds. In 1918 Arkansas. with a
school population of over sixty one
thousand, expended less than five mil
lion dollars for schools and the same
year Indiana, with sixty four thou
sand pupils enrolled. spent over twenty
seven million dollars, nearly six times
as much on practically the same num-
ber Of school children. We do not
desire to be knOcller but neither do
we want to euphOnize everything just
because II is ours. unless il merits II.
We are proud of our schools. Glad
they are as good as they are. but we
want them better
We have wonderful state. with
many wonderful opportunities. We are
anticipating great strides forward i'm
the years To come, especially along
educational lines We stand in glad
expectation of its coming We have
the noblest and finest bunch of boys
and girls under the canopy Of Heaven,
here in Arkansas. and it is the desire
Of the heart Of the writer to see them