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The Laurens advertiser. (Laurens, S.C.) 1885-1973, April 10, 1913, SECTION 1, PAGES 1 TO 8, Image 6

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COUNTY SCHOOL PROBLEMS.
Charge of Judge <?<?<?. K. Prince, Mudc to tlie Grand Juries of Abbe
Tille, Greonwood, Lnureus nnd Xewberrjr Counties.
The next ofllco to which I would
call your attention, over which you
have supervision, Is that of County
Superintendent of Education. It is
your duty to examine the records of
his office, mit those may bo well kept
and yet you may have a very Ineffici
ent Superintendent of Education.
Any man of reasonable education
can keep the booka required by law
to be kept in the office of the Super
intendent of Education, but the only
way to determine the efficiency of this
ofllco Is to go by committees into ev
ery school district, even Into every
school house in the County.
This Is one of the most Important
ofllc.es that there Is tn any county,
and the man who fills this oflico ought
to bo the best teacher in the county,
a great organizer and a man endowed
with great love for the magnificent
work of educating the masses of peo
ple. The fact la he ought to be a
very evangel of education, going to
and fro throughout ttiS county and,
by his eloquence and enthusiasm,
arouse the people to tlu gieat impor
tance of educating their children,
lie ought to be a man of high prin
ciple nnd with auch love for bli work
that In selecting Iiis Bc.irl of Trus
tees for the several school districts,
he will not select those men who
have the most political influence,
merely, and whose active interest
very much promoted his election, but
to select men because of their pecu
liar fitness for the duty that they
may have to perform as Trustees of
the several schools.
Now, Mr. Foreman and Gentlemen
of the .lury, when you go Into any
school district first investigate and
detormine the fitness of the Trustees
selected for the position to which
they have been appointed. See what
Interest they take In the school? of
their several districts and determine
whether they are llvlnn up to the
requirements of the law in perform
ing the duties devolved upon them
by law. Mr. Foreman, it is sad to
pay that In numerous school districts
in South Carolina men are daily act
ing as Trustees who are absolutely
Unfitted by reason of want of sufflci.
ent culture, by reason of the lack of
high character, by reason of the lack
of appreciation of the responsibili
ties developed in them, by reason of
the lack of interest In their work to
properly disharge the duties of the
ofllco of Trustee. There are numbers
of Trustees who would not know a
good school if they were to see one,
nor have they the slightest concep
tion of how to properly go about to
secure one for their community.
There are Trustees who have accept
ed their position merely for the lit
tle honor conveyed by such an ap
pointment, who are absolutely with
out any just conception of the re
sponsibilities resting upon them nnd
who are absolutely devoid of any pur.
por?> to discharge the duties of the
olllce. There are Trustees who have
not vlslled the schools in their dis
tricts once a year since their appoint
ments, and Who know absolutely
nothing about the quality of the
teaching done in the several schools
In their districts, except what they
have heard from patrons. The infor.
inatioii derived from patrons Is, for
the most part, the merest hearsay;
often, It is derived from the statement
of their little children as to the con
duct of the teacher. Those patrons
never visit the schools and have no
first hand knowledge, but are dis
posed to accept the child's estimate
of the teacher. They are silly enough
often to believe that their children
are Incapable of speaking anything
but the truth and aro entirely capa
ble of forming a correct estimate of
tho character of the teacher and the
quality of the teacher's work: tho
truth is every parent, nowadays,
eeoms to think that his children arc
little angels who are almost sprouting
wings, ready to be wafted away to
the veils of light and love. This is
a fearful mistake. Our children have
Just about as much human nature In
them as their parents, when young
er, possessed, and are no more truth
ful than you and I were when boys.
That Trustee who turns over '.o tho
patrons of the chool the selection of
the teacher, has no proper concep
tion of the duties and roaponsibill
tes devolved upon him by law. It Is
his duty, under the law, to select the
teacher and he cannot shirk the re
sponsibility by electing teachers mere,
ly because they are selected by tho
patrons. His Is in tho responsibil
ity of knowing tho efficiency of each
teacher employed, and ho can only
know this by frequent visits to the
schools.
One of the weaknesses of our pres.
qnt school system Is largely due to
too frequent changes In our teaching
forco. These frequent changes re
sult often from discontented patrons
who have no knowledge of the teaoh
or's efficiency except that v/hat they
have gained from the prattling of
their children . This frequent change
of teachers works not only as an in
jury to the teacher but as a greater
Injury to the child. No teacher can
properly devolop a child's Intelligence,
knowledge and superior nature until
he first understands such nature, and
this can only be understood after more
or less Btudy of each individual,
j About the time the teacher learns the
characterlstlcts of his several pupils,
he is removed and a new teacher se
lected who cannot do the efficient
work Incumbent upon him until he
too learns the special characteristics
of the several pupils entrusted to
his care. About the time he learns
the children, he too Is removed and
yet another teacher is selected. This
course does not tend to promote the
best interest of the child.
Trustees are too frequently given
to nepotism In the selection of teach
ers: that Is to say, they too frequently
elect as teachers in the several schools
under their care, those who are re
lated to some member of the board.
This is prohibited by law and It Is
not to the best interest of the schools
for the law to be violated by Boards
of Trustees, yet it la frequently vio
lated all over South Carolina. It Is
your duty to ascertain whether or
not this law has been violated In your
County.
We can never hope to have good
schools in South Carolina until we
put more money into them and more
business management into the selec
tion of proper teachers. We have
by our false economy, almost driven
the men, as school teachers, from
the school room and substituted for
them little girl graduates from eigh
teen to twenty-three years of age,
who do not feel especially called to
teach as a life work and who have
no Idea of engaging In it for life, but
who undertake to teach for a fow
years while they are waiting for mat
rimony. No one has a right to oc.
cupy the responsible position of teach
er who is not divinely called to that
work. This divine call Is just as Im
portant for the teacher as it is for
the Minister of the Gospel, and one
has no more right, uncalled, to thrust
himself into the school room as teach
er than one has to thrust himself Into
the pulpit to preach the everlasting
Gospel without a special call to that
work. No one can teach, however
thoroughly' educated they may be,
who has not been endowed Ith the
teaching capacity or talent. One may
have the talent and yet be worth lit
tle in the school room until that tal
ont lias been developed by experience.
Teaching Is an art, and can only he
learned from cxperence, and yet you
and I are guilty of the folly of pay.
ing as much to the teacher just out
of school with little or no experi
ence as we pay to one who has taught
for ten years. This is the only pro
fession, calling or business on earth
where the novice earns as much as
the trained and experienced work
men. This is why all the men have
been run out of the school rooms In
our country schools, and the -work
of t^achflng has tieen turned over
entirely to comparatively Inexperi
enced girls and we have made the sub
stitute merely because or the fact that
we can employ the girls at a very
small salary.
We boast of the superiority of the
present school system over anything
wo have had In the past: this is but
an idle boast. The old time academy
taught by one man for years In one
community did much more efficient
work than any f our modern schools.
I will grant that education Is now
more general, but I Insist that it is
much moro superficial than that of
the past. Your father and mine paid
from thirty to forty-five dollars a
year tuition for each child while at
the present time you and I are con
tented merely to pay our luxes which
seldom amount to thirty dollars per
year: then wo expect to oducate at
the public expenso not only one
child, but a half dozen children.
Such education as they are receiving
In our public schools is to disfuse,
and necessarily so, because of the
number of children set apart for each'
toacher to Instruct. No teacher can
teach successfully more than twenty
or twenty.flvo children and yet those
cheap teachers whom we have em.
ployed, of necessity, more frequently
attempting to teach forty or fifty pu
plls. We can never educate our peo
ple by any false economy. Qur child
ren know little of many subjects, but
are taught no subject thoroughly.
It Is the duty of the County Super
intendent of Education to supervise
the instruction given in every school
in the County and to determine the
quality of the work done in each
school. To do this thoroughly ho
ought to be able to go into any school
in the County, from the highest to
the lowest, and so intelligently %ex.
a-mlno any class in that school on
any subject taught as to determine
clearly the quality of the work done
by the techer. You may have a man
of that type and of that degree of
equipment, but if you have, you are
not paying him enough salary. What
do you think of the propriety of ap
pointing a little twelve or thirteen
hundred dollar man to supervise tho
work of a fifteen or eighteen hundred
doilar man?
Too often do our people elect a man
as Superintendent of Education not
because of any superior fitness for
the performance of the duties devolv
ing upon his office by law, but be
cause he is a shrewd politician?in
fact a shrewder politician than his
opponent who may have all the neces
sary qualifications for efficient service.
This I would have you look into in
this county, and if you go into every
school district in the county, I would
have you visit the several schools
so that you may see how the superin
tendent has the educational force of
the county organized and how efficient
are the teachers and trustees in the
several school districts. I would ask
you, with the aid of the teachers, to
ascertain and report the number of
white children in each school dis
trict within school age who ought to
be in school, but do not attend. If
you will make a can\ass of the chil
dren who do not attend any school,
you will be surprised at the numt.t
of parents, white men, who, by rea
son of ignorance, do not insist on
their children attending some school
and have no appreciation of the fact
that every white child has a God given
right to an equal chance to every oth
er white child to develop his God
given faculties, and every parent who
does not give his children this oppor
tunity, ought to be held up to pub
lic scorn and contempt; and, If you
are so disposed. I trust you will pre
sent the name of every parent in this
county whose children ought to oe
in school, but are not to be found
there.
In visiting the schools, do not per
mit the teacher to get off any littlo
Friday afternoon stunts, but take your
scats in the school room unobstrusive
ly and ask the teacher to go on with
her usual work. You may not jvo
a college education; you may never
have taught school, but if you will ap
ply the same business Intelligence to
the work being carried on in the
school room that you apply to ordi
nary business matters, you will be
able to tell whether the teacher Is or
is not doing good worK.
N'ow, Mr. Foreman, in ibis matter, as
In all other matters devolved upon
you by law, you are required by the
terms of your oath to make diligent
inquiry nnd true presentment made
according to your best understand
ing. I trust, Mr. Foreman, that this
year will be one noted In the history
of your county because of the work
done by the Grand Jury, annimalod by
no other purpose than to conscien
tiously and impartially work for the
public yield.
Wood's Seeck
for The
Farm arid Garden.
Our New Descriptive Catalog
is fully up-to-date, giving descrip
tions and full information about
the best and mcfst profitable
seeds to grow. It/tells all about
Grasses and (/lovers,
Seed Potatoes, Seed Oats,
Cow PeasV^jjoja Beans,
The Best Seed Corns
and nil other
Farm and Garden Seeds.
Wood's Seed Catalog has
long been recognized as a stan
dard authority on Seeds.
Mailed on request; write for it.
T. W. WOOD &? SONS,
SELDSME.N, RICHMOND, VA.
WILLIAMS' KIDNEY PILLS
Have you overworked your nervous sys
tem and canned Itroublo with your kid
neys and bliiflddV? Ilnvo you pains In
loins, side, bnclkknd bladder? Have you
a flabby RppcaraSre of tho face, and un
der tho eyes* A frequent desire to pass
urine? If so. Williams' Kidney 1*111 j will
cure you?Druggist, I'rlce 60c.
WILLIAMS MFG. CO., Prop*., Cleveland. Ohl?
LAI7REN8 IMG (J CO.
Lsurcns, 8. (?
THE UNIVERSITY
OF
South Carolina
IFOUNDED BY THE STATE IN THE
YEAR 1801 IN THE CAPITAL CITY |
The University has the following Departments of Study:
I. The College, with various courses of study in Languages, History,
Science, etc., leading to the degrees of A. B. and B. S. Five general scholar
ships, worth from $100 to $150 each.
II. Graduate School, with advanced courses leading to the degree of
Master of Arts.
The graduates of the colleges of South Carolina are admitted to the
University in all courses, except Law, without charge for tuition.
III. School of Commerce and Finance, with a course leading to the de
gree of A. B. Also special two-years' course for men who expect to enter
business, journalism, the public service, or law.
IV. School for Teachers, which seeks to prepare persons to serve the
State as teachers, principals and superintendents of schools. In this course
the A. B. degree is conferred. Forty-four teachers' scholarships, each worth
$100 in cash and exemption from tuition and term fees.
V. Engineering, Civil and Electrical, leading to the degrees of C. E. and
E. E. Practical Work in Road Construction.
VI. Law, with a coarse leading to the degree of LL. B. The presence
of the various courts and the the use of the State Law Library afford excep
tional facilities.
Graduates of the Law School are admitted to the State Bar without examina
tion. Law scholarships worth $190.
The health and morals of the students are closely guarded. The conditions in
the dormitory are sanitary and baths modern. The gymnasium and all athletics are
under direction of a competent instructor. A modern infirmary and trained nurse
provide expert care in the event of sickness. /
Under the influence of the pastors of local churches UndJme college Y. M. C. A.
with permanent secretary, the students enjoy ideal religious Jnfluences.
College fees for the year, $18, including medical attyuion. For women college
fees are only $12. For those paying tuition, $40 additional. Room, with light and
service, $8 a year.
Active teachers have the advantages of the University without any charge
whatever. Loan funds available.
FOR CATALOGUE, ADDRESS
S. C. MITCHELL, President
Columbia, South Carolin
$<KKKm>000<)MOOOOOOPOOOP<
j Your Picture Taken Free
And Later Will be Shown
All Over South Carolina
? On April 18th, the day of the Big School Fair, I am going
m to take One Thousand Feet of Moving Pictures in Laurens.
You can be in the pictures by simply being on the City
Square when they are taken.
You Can See These Pictures Later
By coming to the Motion Picture Show about three days after
* he pictures are taken. Later they will be shown on Satur
days. Watch the papers for these dates. They wil! interest
you and they will interest your whole family.
DON'T FORGET THIS:
Everybody in Laurens County is welcome to be in the
Pictures. Come and bring the whole family and later come
and see yourself at the Picture Show.
It's Only 5 and 10 cents*
Opera House Notion Picture Show
D. R. LAVENDER, Manager,

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