The progressive farmer and southern farm gazette., June 25, 1910, EDUCATIONAL SPECIAL, Page 450, Image 6

About The progressive farmer and southern farm gazette. (Starkville, Miss.) 1910-1920

Image provided by: Mississippi Department of Archives and History

                
THE HOME CIRCLE
THE WHITE SOUTH.
BADGERED by precepts, prayers and jeers,
By petulant friend and foe that sneers.
She stands defiant through the years.
Guarding the future's open gate,
Alone, unchampioned, passionate,
Unreasoning and as fixed as fate.
To hostile creed and subtlo song,
The roted rules of right and wrong.
That fall so lightly from the tongue,
She shouts one final argument,
On which her soul of souls is spent,
Deeper than plausible intent.
That, with more zeal than wisdom knows,
More courage than the hate of foes
Or love of native land bestows,
Taking no thought for ill or good
With the blind heart of motherhood,
She fights the battle for her blood.
The voice of many a buried age,
Poet, and warrior, priest and sage,
Who hoarded close her heritage,
And poured into her pulsing veins.
Rich with their slow, millennial gains,
The life that crowned itself and reigns;
The cry of children yet to he,
Whose doom she writes for time to see
In the stern script, Heredity;
O, louder than the roaring mart,
More sweet than any speech of art,
The past and future in her heart!
And never, never will her face
Proclaim creation’s primo disgrace,
A mongrel, prideless, hopeless race;
But while her seed shall yet endure.
Clear-eyed, their tread shall still bo sure,
Their blood be proud and brave and pure!
—John Charles McNeill.
THE SCHOOL: HOW THE HOME CAN HELP.
If You Have Not a Good School In Your Neighborhood, Are
. You Sure It is Not Your Fault?—Little Neighborhood DifTer
■k ences Should Not Be Allowed to Interfere With This, the Most
B Important Work of the Community.
By Mrs. F. L. Stevens.
THE DISTRICT school lacks dig
nity and social prestige. The
graduates of colleges, acade
mies and town or city high schools
take pride in their “alma mater,”
but apart from a weak sentimentali
ty for “the little red schoolhouse,”
no one feels any keen satisfaction
because of his relation to the district
school. The efTect upon the men and
women looking back upon their
school life is not such a serious mat
ter; but it is a very serious matter
- that country children at an early age
outgrow their respect for the country
school and do not wish to attend it.
A gentleman not long ago visited
a country school and asked this
question of the 26 boy and girl mem
bers: “How many of you like to live
in the country? Raise your hands,
all who like to live in the country.”
One hand was timidly raised. Then
in answer to the question, “How
many do not like to live in the coun
try?” 25 hands were promptly raised.
The one child who liked to live in
the country was a child visiting for
a few weeks in the country.
Why Are You Not Proud of Your
School.
A lack of pride in the country
school, and country life in general
seems to me to account for the gen
eral unrest among the youth of our
rural communities. The country
school of the past has failed of its
mission, of that there can be no
question. To-day in many localities
it is still a barren, isolated, unkept
place. Many lines of effort are need
ed to make the country school all it
should be, but I wish only to empha
size what may be accomplished
through a community working in
co-operation for the best interests of
the school.
The teacher of the country school
is usually town or city bred, with
little or no interest or understand
ing of rural conditions. If she is
successful, she is quite likely to be
transferred to the graded schools of
the town. Thus the corps of rural
teachers is a constantly shifting pop
ulation, and because of this fact
there is always an element of un
certainty about a succeeding instruc
tor which works a constant disad
vantage to the school.
The country will never compete
with the towrn in the employment and
retention of the best of the teaching
profession until our country districts
are consolidated, thus making possi
ble a graded school with the equip
ment such as we find in an up-to
date graded school system of the
city or tow-n.
Tho Farmer Who Did Not Need an
Education.
A teacher interested In country
life can do much to bring about an
atmosphere of wholesome content
ment, but the selection of material
for study is not left with (he teach
er. The course of study of the coun
try school in the past has been whol
[y unfitted to the needs of the boys
and girls. Because the subjects
taught in the country school have
been so far removed from the lifo
3f the farm boy and girl, there
uas come about the very general im
pression that a boy or girl who is to
remain on the farm does not need an
jducation.
I met one such youth not long ago
who told me with pride that despite
the loss of his father, with a widow
’d mother to care for, he had been
able to educate an older brother for
the legal profession. I was much
interested in his account of his strug
gles and his successes; but it seemed
luite time that he was making some
preparation for his life work, so 1
asked, “And when and where will
you attend college?” Quite sur
prised came his reply, "Ok, I am
going to be just a farmer, so 1 do
not need an education.”
Nothing has so worked to disad
vantage to the profession of farming
as a profession as just such senti
ments as these.
A School That Did not Train for Life.
It was my privilege to visit a
country school sometime since, and
the things that 1 saw there were so
representative of the country school
in general that I must spenk of them
The schoolhouse was comparatively
new but had seen much thoughtless
ohtien* (hn crrminrla vvata in rHarirtinr
overgrown with weeds and strewn
with school-room litter, the out
buildings were filthy and unsanitary,
the conditions inside the school
house were little better. A bright,
interested teacher and devoted pu
pils were the redeeming features,
one group of pupils industriously re
citing upon Latin declensions, and
another group diligently copying
Greek passages from the blackboard.
Whose fault is it that this sort of
condition exists in our country
schools to-day? Surely It is not the
fault of the pupils, not the fault of
the teacher, for the things she must
teach are ontlined for the teacher in
advance. Scarcely can It be consid
ered the fault of those who outline
the course of study, for they are
more than likely city trained men
and have only the city point of view.
It seems to me the people who are
to be held accountable for the lack
of efficiency in our country schools
are the patrons—the fathers and
mothers whose children attend this
same school. And this leads me to
the main point the co-operation of
the parents in making the country
school a real success.
The Duty of the Parent to the .School
I have repeatedly asked parents,
when visiting school neighborhoods.
"Have you a good school?" Very
often the reply is. "No, we have not
much of a school. The teacher doeH
not take much Interest,” or "The
teacher has favorites.” or "We do not
like the teacher,” some such answer,
which shows that the speaker has no
Interest or knowledge or wish to co
operate in making the school a good
one.
Now a school is a community
matter and a community responsi
bility and no force should be strong
enough to interfere with the efficien
cy of this best of institutions, if the
teacher is weak and poorly equip
ped, all the more reason then why
the patrons should rally around that
school and see to it that because of
the misfortune of a poor teacher the
school itself shall not suffer.
Personalities and petty grievances
have no place when it is a question
of the education of the boys and
girls for future citizenship. You
know as well as I of numerous in
stances of foolish pnrents who have
withdrawn their children from
school, perhaps for an entire term,
because perchance some one was so
unwise as to laugh at or ridicule a
peculiarity of manner or dress in a
member of the family, or becaaae of
a real or imagined grievance against
the teacher. You know, and I know,
of instances of children beiug kept
at home throughout an entire term
because the parents had a grievance,
real or fancied, against another
school patron.
The boys and girls who are being
deprived of school advantages to-day
because of petty neighborhood mis
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