The coastland times. [volume] (Mnateo [i.e. Manteo], N.C.) 1947-1959, 1956-08-31
@ LIN P S E S
TIL E P ST
By CAROLYN LLOYD

never before In the history OF
North Carolina and the entire
South has the opening day of
school found the public so concern
ed with education. Anxiety over
the future of our school system
is widespread. For many years
laymen have taken that system
for granted; now comes the reali-
cation that it can be destroyed.
Looking back to the year 1882,
see the building in which / be-
gan my teaching career in Bella
pen. There were four high school
classrooms, one of which doubled
as a science lab. In that room the
equipment for the study of science,
the best l can recall, consisted of
a few Bunsen burners and a few
beakers. The principals office, a
narrow, dark room, also did double
duty as library, most inadequate
ly stocked. Across the street in a
room above a store was the So
called home economics department.
Downstairs in the main building
were the lementary and primary
rooms and an auditorium, which
was later converted into class
rooms and lunchroom. The two
toilets, which l shudder to remem-
Der, were located in the rear of
the building in the basement and
could be reached only by going
outside the building, rain or shine.
A short distance away was the
frame building which housed the
Negro school, even less adequately
Equipped than the white school.
Scattered throughout the nearby
communities were the one and
Two-room schools attended by the
'ural children.
Many of the graduates of those
schools went to college and did
veil; but for those, who had
leither the money nor the desire
or further education, the second
Try schools offered nothing to help
hem make a living.
In the beginning of that year,
932, the support and control of
he schools was almost entirely in
he hands of. the local units. There
we're eight months of school and
leven grades. Before the year was
yer, the local units found them
elves unable to support the
chools and the state took over.
How different will be the pic
1re on the opening day in 1868.
uses will bring students from the
ommunities where the one-room
chools once operated. Negro and
rhite children alike will report to
podern, well-equipped classrooms.
hey win begin the study of
cience in a laboratory stocked
18th up-todate tools for study in
field of ever-increasing import
nee. Girls will report to a home
economies department equipped
it'll modern teaching devices.
oys will find in the separate
griculture department the tools
nd the knowledge with which to
AXE the best use of their hands
nd minds. Many will turn to the
numerical department to develop
leir talents and abilities. All will
rare the benefits of audio-visual
DIS unheard of in 1882. No longer
ust the students be trained for
|llege or. nothing; and so many
no enter school this year will re-
ain for the full twelve years,
hen once they would have drop
ID out upon completion of gram
ar school.
They will remain, that is, if the
hool remains. North Carolina
IS made great strides in educa-
On and there is room still for
UGH improvement. 1t has been
goal of the state to provide
r every child the opportunity to
uip himself for a good life. 1t
frightening and sad to think
at in times of stress that goal
ould be forgotten. The citizens
this state should take good
PIX backwards before rushing for
ard at a headlong pace that
ight take us back to the starting
le instead of forward to the
hiSh line