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JDUCATIOHAIi DSPARTMSNT.
Organ of the Georgia Teachers Association-
Organ of the State School Commissioner, G. J, Orr.
B. W. BONNELL, Editor.
The Educational Situation at
tlie South.
Everywhere, and especially among the civi
lized nations of the world, the general educa
tion cf the people is receiving more careful at
tention. The opinion is constantly gaining
strength that the most important factor in the
progress of civilization is the universal educa
tion of the people, and that this is true what
ever the form of government. Education exerts
a strong conservative influence upon all civil
institutions; it adds to the material resources and
prosperity of a country; it renders all the people
more self-helpful, and more self-respecting, and
consequently more independent. Education
thus undoubtedly tends greatly to diminish pov
erty and crime by giving to the masses increased
intelligence and greater resources for obtaining
employment and support.
England, in which for centuries the higher
institutions of learning have been supported by
munificent endowments and by government
grants, while the elementary education was left
to take care of itself, has during the last ten
years completely reorganized its education, and
now has a most complete and effective system of
shools from the lowest to the highest.
Germany, in which the universal education of
the people has been vigorously pressed for the
last fifty years, now as a consequence eiijoys the
distinction of being the foremost nation of
Europe.
France under the Republic is rapidly perfect
ing its education of all grades.
Reconstructed and united Italy has establish
ed a system of elementary education that is re
quired by law to be ‘secular, gratuitous, and
obligatory upon all classes.’
Even the semi-civilized country of Japan has
during the last few years organized a most com
plete system of public free education.
In the several provinces comprising the
Dominion of Canada education receives the
most careful attention, and schools of the highest
character, both for primary and secondary educa
tion, free to all, are maintained throughout the
entire Dominion.
In the New England states, New York, Penn
sylvania, and most of the western states of this
country the schools, in their organization, aims
and methods are perhaps the best in the world.
In all these states and countries referred
to education is well organized, and is within
the reach cf the entire people. In all cases
the elementary education is free, and in most
cases the secondary, and higher education are
free or nearly so. In addition there are tech
nical, industrial, and art schools, as well as
normal schools for the preparation of teachers.
By every means available, through intelligent
supervision, teachers’ instftutes, associations,
educational conventions and teachers’ semina
ries, methods of instruction are constantly im
proved, courses of study revised, and the entire
work of education, in its philosophy, its aims
and methods, is becoming more rational and
more effective every year.
What is the educational situation in our own
southern states? Are we keeping pace with this
rapid advance in educational progress through
out the civilized world? Is our education well
organized ? Have we good elementary schools free
to all our people, rich and poor ? Are our high
schools and colleges well supported and well
equipped for their work ? Are our teachers well
qualified foi their high duties, and are they
gaining professional skill and experience
through wise supervision, and by means of
associated effort?
Alas ! no. The work of educating our chil
dren is almost wholly unorganized. It is left to
the uncertainty and caprice of individual
effort. Our people manifest little interest in
the subject, and our statesmen seem to utterly
ignore it. The question of most vital impor
tance to the future well-being of the state is set
aside for the consideration of matters of compar
atively subordinate value. As a consequence
the eductional statistics of the country show a
fearful percentage of illiteracy in some of the
southern states, reaching 25 to 35 per cent
among the white population, and fully 95 per
cent among the colored.
Before we look for the remedy for this some
what discouraging state of affairs let us consider
the causes that have hindered our educational
progress in the sonth.
The first settlers of the southern states were
certainly not inferior in intelligence and culti
vation to those who settled the northern states.
Among them were fine specimens of the English
gentry; Huguenots, learned and thoughtful, with
a heroic devotion to their faith; and the Scottish-
Irish who combined the brightness and persist
ence of the two peoples. Indeed the most in
tellectual races of Europe were represented in
the early settlement of the south. But their so
cial organization was diffe.ent from that of the
northern settlements, and in the end proved un
favorable to general education. Land was
cheap, and temporary settlements were made to
be abandoned for a new home whenever the
lands became exhausted. This practice, com
mon to most countries, was continued longer in
the sonth than in the north, because it was easy
for the large planter to transfer his slaves from
place to place. Thns with large plantations the
settlers were farther separated, and were more
independent of one another. Schools were im
possible under snch circumstances. Elementary
education was given by private tutors, while the
higher education was obtained abroad. In the
more permanent settleinents, the planters would
sometimes form a village within reach of their
plantation and live there during the summer
for the sake of health, as well as to obtain the
advantages of schools and religions worship; but
aa they generally lived on their plantations in
the winter, this mode of life tended to indi
vidualism rather than to unity of organization.
As the population of the states increased, those
who lived upon the outskirts of civilization,
and those who were too poor to pay for educa
tion allowed their children to grow up in igno
rance. To provide in part for the education of
the poor the plan was afterwards devised of
supplementing the existing private schools with
subsidies from the Btate and county, allowing
the ohildren of the poor to attend these schools
without charge. This plan was never satisfac
tory. It did not reach one-third of the poor, and
it served to introduce undemocratic and odious
distinctions.
Gradually our people were accepting and ap
proving the theory of publio education, and in
all the principal cities of the Sonth, public
schools were established before the war. But
for the war, in all probability, the public school
policy would have been successfully established
in all the Southern States before 1870. But the
'war came and passed, and left a desolated and
impoverished country. The taxable wealth of
most of the Southern States was diminished
Snore than one-half Georgia’s from 675 millions to
less than 200 millions. Their entire circulating
medium was swept away, their railroads, bridges
and fences destroyed, their mills and manufac
tories of all kinds burned or otherwise render-
ad valueless, their cattl6 and horses gone, farm
ing implements used np— it was literally begin
ning anew with nothing but the soil. The en
tire laber system bad been overthrown, the la
boring class who had been nnder the control of
oapital were now free, and thoroughly demoral
ized by the great change in their situation,
while at least three-fourths of the capital of this
portion of the country bad been buried beneath
the ruins of the great disaster.
Add to all this a heavy burden of indebted
ness in almost every slate, brought about by
misrule during the unhappy reconstruction pe
riod. Considering all these depressing influences
it is not to be wondered at that so little advance
has been made in the matter of educa' ion.
Soon after the close of the war a public
school law was passed in every state, but it was
a mere form. It was utlerly distasteful to the
poople, not so much because they were not ready
for a wise educational policy, as beoanse it was
forced upon them by carpet baggers and ne
groes, and officered by men from other stales.
Within the last ft w j ears, however, the gov
ernment of these stales has returned to their
own citizens, and our legislators have marked
the advance of public sentiment on the subject
of education by incorpora'ing in the organic
law of every sta'e a provision for a system ot
public instruction. As yet in some of the slates
this is indeed but a mere form. Outside of the
cities the public schools are few and feeble, be
cause the state does not furnish the money nec
essary to sustain them. Our people are still too
poor, or what is practically the samething, they
think they are too poor to tax themselves for
general eduraiion.
The insufficiency of the appropriations in
some of the states may be seen from the follow
ing statistics of school population and expendi
ture:
STATE.
School!
Population.
White,
Colorod.
Cost per
Scholar.
X
•3
QJ
Georgia
oil 1,0:17
220,000
175,000
1 00
8435,000
Iowa
5b7,8ti9
9 5>-
5,199,428
Alabama..
400,000
2:!5,<X>o
170,6 K)
£5
350, (MX)
Michigan..
400,000
s 00
3,180,000
Mississippi
37.5,000
175.000
’266.066
1 ot
400,1 NK)
N. Carolina
400,000
260,000
110,1 >00
8(1
340,000
S. Carolina
Louisiana..
Tennessee
220,000
260,000
441,972
81,000
i45,000
90
3 00
1 .50
226,000
776,000
............
698,000
Kentucky..
530,000
470,666
6’),t>00
3 00
’1,315,461
Virginia ..
483,000
250,000
200,000
2 .50
1,050,317
Maryland..
250,000
6 00
1.500,000
Minnesota
200,0 0
5 5-)
1,181,000
Illinois
1,000,000
9 00
9,000,000
Penn
1,000,0IH)
9 00
9,000,600
Ohio.
1,000,000
9 oil
9.000,000
New York.
1,200,000
9 50
11,000,000
It needs no argument to prove that 75 cents or
a dollar a year per scholar will not go far to
wards the education of a people.
But now that the difficulties are apparently
removed, and the people understand and desire
public schools, why not at once move forward
and adopt a wise and liberal educational
policy?
Unfortunately all the difficulties have not
been removed; and a review of the educational
situation in these states would be very incom
plete if it did not refer to the fact that many of
our people are unwilling to tax themselves to
educate the negro. They do not oppose his ed
ucation as many believe; they are willing he
j shall have every chance for his improvement;
but the majority of our tax payers and of our
legislators are unwilling in the present depressed
state of our finances to tax themselves tor this
purpose. This is the real difficulty in the way
of present progress, and we may as well look it
fairly in the face. If we were a homogeneous
people there would be no hesitancy, and within
less than two years every southern state would
have in successful operation an tffioien
systemof public education. But here are
side by side the extreme types of human
race, in some of the states in equal num
ber, struggling for equality or supremacy,
political and social. In those states in which
the number of the inferior race is small the bur
den of educating them is not great and it ought
to be willingly borne. But even in Kentucky,
where the colored population is only about one
fourth of the whole, the taxes of the white citi
zens are not made available for the support of
the colored schools. If felt to be a burden
there, how much heavier the burden in the gulf
states, where the colored out-number the
whites, and where the people are far lese pros
perous?
I do not now wish to discuss the justice of
this matter. It is my purpose simply to state
what are the hindrances in the way of securing
general education at the south, and I wish to
present all the difficulties.
The higher motives of humanity would prompt
us all to do the best that can be done for the
colored race; but men are apt to apply these
higher motives to test the conduct of others,
while they are governed in their own affairs by
the ordinary motives of human action. The
work of civilization proceeds upon business
principles, not upon high humanitarianism. The
few are so influenced; the many are governed
by interest. The people of the northern states
are ever ready to tell us what we ought to do
with the negro. Perhaps if they had the prob
lem to solve they would exhibit the motives and
methods of ordinary hupvanity.
There are two views entertained at the South
respecting the future of the colored race. There
are those who contemplate the negro as a per
manent factor in southern civilization, equal in
civil and political rights, but forever occupying
a separate and subordinate social position.
There are others who consider it impossible
for both races to live together permanently and
prosperously with such inequality, and that a
true and vigorous civilization cannot be main
tained under such a social organism. They be
lieve that the iron rule of the ‘survival of the fit
test’ will ultimately solve the question, and that
the weaker must give way. Tnose who hold the
latter opinion are probably not so numerous as
those who take the other view of our future, but
they constitute the more intelligent and thought
ful of our citizens.
The lessons of history as well as the present
aspect of many of the social and political ques'
tions now agitating the public mind in other
parts of our country all sustain the latter view,
The Pacific states are already alarmed for their
future, and the feeling is in general,and becom
ing more and more intense, that no tinge of As!
atic civilization can be tolerated in this country
—that measnreB must at once be taken to meet
and to thwart a danger so grat and so threaten
ing.
The antagonism of races that cannot commin'
gle is a constant source of irritation and a seri
ous check to progress, and no civilization shonld
be pat to such a strain. Suoh a burden has been
imposed upon the Southern people—a burden
heavier than any ever borne since the world be
gan.
Lest a wrong influence be drawn from the pre
ceding statements and opinions, I desire to say
that the Southern people, among whom I count
myself one, would not re-enslave the negro if
they could do so to-day. I am sure this con
vention of Southern men will endorse my state
ment when I say that nine-tenths of the South
ern people and 99 one-hundredths of the intel
ligent classes among them, would prefer to take
any risk to our future civilization with the ne
gro free, than to have slavery re-established in
this country.
Bat, whatever view we take of the future of
the colored people, whether we regard them as
•ike.y to be permanently ingrafted into our civ
ilization, constituting in general the laboring
class, or whether we look for their ultimate re
moval by emigration, it is manifest that neither
view furnishes a strong stimulus to the superior.
race to make sacrifices for the education of the
lower race.
And yet, such sacrifices must be made if we
would keep up with the tapid progress Oi the
age. We cannot longer neglect the education ot
our own childreu.nor can we leave the children
of the colored people in ignorance. The cry that
we are too poor to do this is blind foolishness,
we are too poor not to educate. Education is
the only way out of our poverty. Educated peo
ple can take care of themselves; it is the igno
rant in general who cannot. . .
The ever-shifting phases and conditions ot
civilization are constantly requiring a new ad
justment of the forces of society, and especially
of the relation of capital and labor. The inven
tion and employment of labor-saving machinery
has greatly increased the productive power of
the community, and as a consequence the num
ber of laborers required in the lower depart
ments of industry is growing relatively less,
while the cumber in the higher departments is
constantly on the increase. Ignorant men
thrown out of employment are without re
sources; they cannot do other work requiring a
higher degree of skill and intelligence, and in
sheer desperation they are driven into commun
ism. Educated men, on the ether hand, can
readily adapt themselves to new conditions. The
very beet investment in a material point of view
is the general education of the children of the
community. A glance at the map of the world
will show that where education is most general
both the capitalist and the laborer are best pro
tected, aiid there also, all forms of property reach
their highest values.
We must not, therefore, be content with our
present imperfectly organized education. Ex
perience everywhere shows that education left
to individual effort reaches effectively less than
half of the community. We must organize our
education in village and city and State. We
mast establish public schools tree to all our
children, good enough for the wealthy and the
cultivated of our people, and thus only good
enough for the poor. We must give them a lib
eral support and thus secure their stability and
their effectiveness.
We mast also educate the children ot our col
ored citizens. It would not be difficult to show
that this will tend to lighten our burdens, and
ultimately lead to a satisfactory solution of our
complex social problem.
Education will surely improve the colored peo
ple both as laborers and as citizens. The train
ing of good elementary schools gives habits ot
order, punctuality, obedience to authority and
to duty, neatness, attention and orderly thought.
These are all important elements ot character,
which would not be acquired by colored chil
dren if left to the guidance of their ignorant pa
rents. Indeed, the training of character in good
schools everywhere is of more importance than
the amount of knowledge acquired. The col
ored children now growing up without school
education are being prepared neither for good
? servants nor for good citizens.
But it is said, ‘If the colored people are edu
cated they will thereby be spoiled as laborers.’
This is a superficial judgement. It is a narrow
view, taking in only the immediate and the pres
ent. When all are educated, the lowest forms
of labor will still fall to those who are least edu
cated, while those who are better educated will,
of course, seek to improve their condition by at
tempting work requiring greater skill and in
telligence. No doubt, at first some will be
over-ambitious and will aim too high; but the
inexorable law of supply and demand will soon
remand everyone to his own place.
It is our duty and our interest not only to give
the children of our colored people a good ele
mentary education, but we must also give to
such as can receive it the higher education.
They be the teachers oi their own race;
and we r ‘,\. Yqhelp those who have the capacity
to acquire/tie necessary quab hcations tor that
work. They have already shown that with a lair
opportunity a good proportion cf them can reach
such a standard of scholarship and attainment
as will fit them for teachers.
Thus there is a chance for them through our
assistance to work out the possibilities ot their
race. And in this direction—it may seem far
off to some—there is to come release from our
dual civilization. The educated negro with bis
wider outlook for the future of his people will
see that the weaker race must continue to occu
py the subordinate position, and that in the
end it will be utterly crowded out of existence.
He will see that there is but one remedy, and
that is migration. This has been the resource
in the past for over-crowded peoples, as well as
for the persecuted. For the last two hundred
and fifty years America has furnished a home
for the oppressed, the unfortunate, and the ad
venturous of Europe, and, while the tide of em
igration has beon constantly flowing westward,
a new nation with a ntw civilization has been
developed in the new world, and at the same
time the complex social life of the old world has
been greatly relieved.
There is no new America still farther we3t to
invite the dissatisfied and unassimilated ele
ments of our new life, but for the negro, who
can never become thoroughly incorporated into
our civilization, there is the great continent of
Africa, with its splendid possibilities tor the
race. The great plateau of central Africa with
its healthful climate and its wonderful fertility
offers an attractive home to the colored race.
Under the fosteriDg care and protection of the
two great English speaking nations, England
and tne United States, a stable government might
be established in the heart of that great conti
nent, snch as would lift the people of Africa out
of their barbarism, and through the new civili
zation thus developed prove a blessing to the
indue tries and the commerce of the world.
Thus the ultimate migration of the negro to
Africa will furnish the solution to our great so
cial problem, a solution, too, on the side of hu
manity. ,
Let the day hasten when we shall be a homo
geneous people, with nothing to retard our on
ward progress!
I have thus recounted the many and peculiar
hindrances to our educational progress here in
the sonth. I have endeavored also to point ont
that education and migration will prove to be
our chief reliance in onr efforts to overcome
these adverse influences, and that these forces
will finally carry us on to a high and noble civ
ilization. _ . . ,
As to the mode of organizing our education
and the methods of instruction, we have most
excellent models, not only in the Northern states
but in Missouri and Maryland, which have very
successful educational systems. Kentucky and
Virginia are not far behind. We can sately fol
low the experience of these states. But in a mat
ter of such vital importance we ought not to be
content to follow any state. We ought at once
to undertake the training of our youth in a way
so far-reaching and so effective that the black
clouds of ilieteraoy now hanging over ns shall
be forever dispelled by the glorious sunshine ol
universal education.
Poor as we are, the cost of this education is
within our ability. Were we poorer still, as I
have shown, we must educate if we hope to main
tain a high rank among civilized nations.
A state tax of two mills, or one-fifth of cue per
cent, together with a local tax of one mill, will
sustain liberally a system of elementary educa
tion in any atate; and by increasing the local tax
to two mills, the combined income of state and
local tax will cover the cost of both elementary
and high schools. , .. . .
The friends of public education throughout
the Sonth must organize, agitate and discuss
this great subject, until our people are thorough
ly aroused to a sense of its overwhesltniDg im
portance. Q B - Mxuuon.
Atlanta, August 5tb, 1878..
Religion and Science.
Closing Extract from Prof. Iflenrs
Essay on 4 Stumbling (Clocks
to Teachers.’
But if the baleful, career of a lecturer like
Ingersol 1 may be tracked by these later scinti I-
lations, the coincidence of his assaults upon re
ligion with the turbulent and communistic
movements of the year ought not be overlooked.
Irreligion and disorder go hand in hand. Men
who do not believe in God will not believe in-
any object of reverence or fear. Those times
and ages must prove unteachable, in which the
idea of responsibility is attenuated, and in
which a jealousy of the recognition of the De
ity and of religious authority in the state and in
the school is proclaimed and cherished. The
zeal, energy, and success of the men who are la
boring to expunge the religious element from
the American system of education will yet be
avenged in the inherent decay and rotteness
that will invade the system, if their efforts are
not thwarted.
Education, according to Plato (.Republic,
Book II.), begins with inculcating right ideas of
God. Education with the Jews began and con
tinued in acquiring a thorough knowledge of the
divine law; the Saracen schools, which from the
tenth century did such great service in preserv
ing and diffusing classical learning, began with
an elementary school attached to every mosque;
in the Christian schools which arose beside the
pagan iBStitutions of learning, the Bible became
the leading text-book; and when the Roman
Empire was overthrown by northern barbarians
education was cariied on almost exclusively in
monasteries and abbeys. It was the religious
impulse that created and fostered the great and
ancient universities of Europe, and with Pro
testant Reformation schools and institntiobs of
learning and educational appliances broke forth
everywhere in Germany, and a splendid gym
nasium arose in Geneva under the impulse of
John Calvin. Scotland owes her free schools to
John Knox. The Pilgrim Fathers, imitating
Knox, overspread New England with similar
institutions, and all the older colleges in the
country, all, in fact, but perhaps haif-a-dozen,
owe their existence to the zeal of religious de
nominations for education, and recognise more
or less explicitly the fundamental necessity of
teaching a specific and positive form of religion.
The modern missionaries, from John Elliot in
New England to Albert Bradwell in Africa, are
the creators of written languages, the founders
of literatures, and the organizers and promoters
of education wherever they go.
Rtligion, says Rosenkranz, must form the
culminating point of education. Education, he
contends, must not be content with inculcating
morality, but must accustom the youth to the
idea that in doing the good he unites himself
with God, and in doing evil he separates him
self from Him, Education must superintend
the development of the religious consciousness.
Nohing is more absurd than for the educator to
desire to avoid the introduction of a positive
religion or a definite creed as a middle stage,
between the natural beginning of religious feel
ing and its end in philosopicial culture. Pp. 83,
93, 98.
You will not, fellow teachers, regard these
words and pleas for retaining the religious ele
ment in our teaching as irrelevant, when such
centuries of use and tradition and such pro
found philosophy can be quoted in its favor,
and when, on the other hand, such a complica
tion of cirumstsnces and such an over-ready
spirit of concession have arisen to allow and al
most to compel its exclusion from our system of
public schools. For the sake oi education it
self, for the sake of the pupils, for the sake of
the land and the national life, into which the
irreligiously educated are already entering—the
irreligiously educated meeting the masses of the
uneducated at an era of unusual and dangerous
excitement—I appeal to you to defend and cher
ish so far as lies in your power the measure of
opportunity still left to us to inculcate positive
religions principles into the minds of the youth
of our State committed to your care.
I venture to assert that in the Albany Acade
my of fifty years ago the youthful Joseph Hen
ry’s mind was daily trained in the knowledge of
duty and in the fear ot God.
Hence arose a character not more distin
guished for scientific ardor than for reverence
and piety. We teachers may accept Joseph
Henry himself as our teacher, and listen tc-day,
as we and all the public have already listened,
to the last words put upon record by that emin
ent man, whose name will shine as one of the
brightest upon the rolls of America’s original
investigators, with Franklin, with Rumtord,
with Rittenhonse, with Dana, when arlatan-
ism and false science have had their day and
passed into oblivion.
‘How many questions,’ writes Professor Henry,
‘press themselves upon us. Whence came we?
Whither are we going? What is our final des
tiny? The otject of our creation ? What mys
teries of unfathomable depth environ us every
side ! But after all our speculations and at
tempts to grapple with the problem of ttie uni
verse, the simplest conception which explains
and connects the phenomena is that of the ex
istence 1 ^ one spiritual being, infinite in wis
dom, in power, and all divine perfections, which
exists always and everywhere, which has creat
ed ns with intellectual faculties sufficient in
some degree to comprehend his operations in
nature by what is called Science.’
John W. Meabs in Barnes Ed. Monthly.
Hamilton College, AT. Y,
Self-Improvement.
A want of thoroughness in whatever study is
undertaken is, perhaps, one great cause of most
failures. A practical writer gives the following
directions: ‘Never leave what you undertake to
learn, until you can reach your arms around it,
and clench your hands on the other aide.’ It is
not the amount of reading you run over that
makes you learned; it is the amount you con
solidate with your previously acquired knowl
edge. Dr. Abernethy maintained that ‘there
was a point of saturation in the mind’ beyond
which it was not capable of taking more, and
that whatever was pressed upon it afterward
crowded out something else.
Every t< acher should endeavor to perfeot him
self in the science of the business he has chosen.
Without this, he must always coEtent himself in
the lower walks of his calling. The cost of
things he can spare will buy all the books he
requires, and his own diligence may be made to
supply the rest. But steady labor is necessary;
without it the best and greatest libraiies in the
world ceunot manufactuie him into a Scholar.
If once going over a point will not master it, he
must tackle it again. Better give a week’s study
to a page than to conclude that you cannot com
prehend it.
But though it is wipe to give your main
strength to jour own specialty you should not
confine yourself to such studies exclusively.
The perlection of all your powers should he
your aspiration. Those who can only think and
talk on one subject may be efficient in their line;
but they are not agreeable members of society in
any of ita departments. Neither have they made
the most ot themselves. They become one
sided and narrow in their views, and are re
duced to a humiliating dependence on one
hianch of industry. It costs nothing to carry
knowledge; and in times like these, to be able
to put his hand to more than one branch of in
dustry often serves a man a good turn.
The Normal Class, Atlanta Public
School.
The teachers of the Public Schools met in
Normal Class, on Saturday morning, Nov. 9th.
Rev. Mr, Foute, rector cf St. Philip's church
of this city was present, and by invitation of
the Superintendent delivered to the teachers a
most interesting and instructive lecture on ‘Per
sonal or unoonscious influence.’ Messrs Slaton,
Isham, Moore and Mitchell made some amusing
statements in regard to their difficulties in teach
ing spelling - , each seemed to think he had some
scholars who could carry off the prize for mis
spelling the commonest words. Mej. Slaton
thinks there must be some weakness in the
human mind in regard to the word sep-a-rate, as
almost aDy boy will spell it improperly with the
word before him on the black-board. Mr. Bon-
nell thinks that scholars should be taught from
the first to observe carefully the form of every
new word with which they meet, and this aide
greatly in making good spellers.
Mr. Isham would have more individual work
done in the lower grades, that scholars may thus
be better prepared for what is required of them
in the grammar grades.
Mr. Mitchell would like some changes in the
reading books used in the schools; as some of
them contain many pieces beyond the compre
hension of the children who use them.
Mr.Mallon wants scholars to appear well when
called on to recite; if prepared as they sould be,
teach them to respond at once, and not to
become confused by criticism from the teachers,
or if unprepared let them .rise and excuse them
selves promptly and politely.
Concert work is appropriate in reciting tables
and practicing vowel sounds or mis-pronouneed
words; in giving dates in history, or for a drill
in speaking, in emphasis or inflection, but not
in reading.
Mr. Mallon knows it is impossible, with such
an unreasonable number of scholars as mo3t of
the teachers now have, to do gcod, earnest, per
fect work; but ttachers must be patient, and do
all the good work that is possible, must study
methods and learn to work rapidly and skillful
ly, and to lose no time.
Miss M. F. Andrews. Secretary.
Scissor Sheaves.
Richmond, Ya., schools have enrolled 5.65G
scholars.
Dr. Willard of the Chicago High School, de
clares that school-room walls, for the sake of pu
Pil's eyes,should be tinted with a pinkish,green
ish or blueish tinge, and the blackboards should
be green, brownish and drab in color. He adds
that it is a mistake to think that the board must
be black to make the chalk mark distinct.
The French Government has, during the sum
mer, sent the school teachers, composed iargely
of ladies, to visit the Paris Exhibition, and paid
their expenses for them. They went in batches
of one thousand at a time, holding conferences
in the morning and then dividing into parties
to visit different points and study systematically.
Castor-oil has been introduced into the Texas
schoois as an instrument of torture. A teacher
in Galveston compelled a boy to take a heavy
dose as punishment for smoking, and rubbed
castor-oil on a girls lips forswearing. The pun
ishment proved effective, but the people swell
with indignation and pronounce it barbarous -
Russia and the Jews.—A Russian paper pubs
lishes a copy of a contract which has been conclu
ded by the district lutendant of Sf. Petersburg
with the merchant Isaac Malkiel, of the firm of
Malkiel brothers, for the supply of provisions for
the arc The firm is a Jewish one, and yet ii
p. i, from the contract that the government iu-
s fi u that the contracting party should en
gage not to employ as a representative or clerk, in
the operations consequent on supplying the food,
anyone who was a Jew. This is a very charac
teristic of the intolerance still maintained by the
Russian Government.
What to do with Books and Papers.—Har
pers Weekly makes the following timely sugges
tion : ‘ Those of our readers who are accustomed
to be surrounded by books, magazines, and
newspapers, whose libraries are overflowing, and
upon whose tables lie the last ntw novels and
tLe freshest periodicals, can scarcely imagine
what it is to be almost utterly deprived of read
ing matter. Yet such is the condition of hun
dreds among us, and others isolated from the
world, who know how to read, ana v/onld gladly
avail themselves of any means within their pow
er of thus spending some of their time.
Intelligent middle ckss laboring people and
farmer's familits are often unable to taki more
than one literary periodical and have few boots.
VY WAS DAT ?
A GOOD DUTCH STORY,
Let me tell you a Dutch story right here, be
cause it comes from a Dutchman in the eastern
part of Pennsylvania, and must be a true story.
The Dutchman was never ashamed of his religion.
In his neighborhood there was a skeptic, who
said:
« You can’t believe anything you can t under*
stand.’
Some of the people asked the Dutchman if he
weuld not have a conversation with him. lie
said:
‘Yes, if you tink best.’
‘Have you any objections to the neighbors com
ing in ?’
•No, shust as you tink best.’
So they made the appointment, and everybody
was there. The old gentleman came in, and laid
by his hat, end was introduced to the skeptic, and
he begu- suddenly / saying :
‘Well! now look —.e, I pleefs the Bible—what
you pleefs?’
Said he:
•I don’t believe anything I can’t understand.’
‘Oh ! you must be one very smart man. I was
mighty glad to meet you. I ask you some ques
tions. The odder day I was riding along the road
and I meet y ‘ dog ; and the dog he had von of his
ears stand u, .a this way, and the odder von he
stand dun so. Now, vy was dat ?’
Now that was very unhandy just then, very un*
handy. He either had to prove that the dog did
not have one ear standing up and the other stand
ing down, or else say he did not believe it. So
he said:
‘I don’t know.’
‘Oh ! then you are not so very smart after all.
I ask you anoder question. I saw in John
Smith’s clover-patch, the clover ccme up so nice,
and I looked over into the fields, and dere was
John Smith’s pigs; and dere come out hair on dere
packs ; and in the very same clover-patch was his
sheep, and dere came out wool on dere packs.
Now vy was dat ?’
Now that was as bad as the other, because the
same perplexity aiose. He had to prove there was
wool on the hack of the pig, or hair on the back cf
the sheep; and he couldn’t tell why, and there
fore he had no business to believe it. Finally he
said:
‘I don't know.’
‘Well! you are not half so smart as you link you
are. Now I ask you anoder question. Do you
pleef dere ia a God ?'
‘No, I don't believe any snch nonsense.’
‘Oh ! yes, I hear about you long ago. I know
all aheut yon. My Bible knows all about you, for
in my Bible He says : ‘The fool says in his heart
there is no Gcd,’ but yon, big fool, you blab it right
out.’