The progressive farmer and southern farm gazette., July 09, 1910, Page 492, Image 16

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

Image provided by: Mississippi Department of Archives and History

                
SHORT TALKS ABOUT RURAL SCHOOL PROBLEMS.
THE RIGHT WAY TO GO ABOUT IT
How One Farmer Has Helped to Im
prove the Schools of His County.
Messrs. Editors: I have been tak
ing your paper two years, and I claim
that it made me $100 last year by fol
lowing its advice in farming.
I moved here three years ago, and
found a public school, averaging
about 15 to 20 pupils; one school
house, with 127 children in this,
Asbury district, I got permission of
the county superintendent to get a
teacher to teach two months’ private
school before our four-months’ pub
lic school. I gave the teacher free
board and stood responsible for her
salary for two months. We got a
trained teacher from the State Nor
mal College at Greensboro. We had
two months before and two months
after the four-months’ free school;
that made eight months’ school. We
have kept the same up for three
years and our children have learned
just about double what they did be- :
fore, under the old grade teacher. <
We now have two teachers and
average from 60 to 70 pupils, and <
yet we are having a hard time to
hold our own. Some cranks want ;
the old fogy teachers back. But we
are still in the ring with them, for
our trained teachers and eight :
months’ school. Three years ago,
the best teacher in our county i
got $25 per month; this year they
l
are paying the best teachers $35 to
$40 per month.
The great needs of our county are
longer schools, better teachers and
a compulsory school law to keep all
children in school at least four
months in the year. Then we need
better roads. Every winter we are
tied up at home on account of mud
roads, from a foot to a foot and a
half deep. If we can get better
schools, we will later get the good
roads as we get better educated.
G. L. SIMMONS.
Brim, N. C.
SOME THINGS NEEDED BY THE
RURAL SCHOOLS.
The Children Should Be Sent to
School to Study and They Are En
titled to Convenient and Comfort
able School House and Grounds.
Messrs. Editors: There are three
hings necessary to have good
schools: good buildings, good teach
ers and good pupils.
We should have compulsory edu
ction. As the school laws are now,
the children are robbed of what
egally should belong to them—their
ime for school. A child is kept at
tome on the slightest pretext until
te becomes discouraged and doesn't
vant to go, and no one says he must
?o. We should have longer terms,
hree or four months is not suffl
What the Agricultural High School
Should I)o.
The agricultural high school falls
of Its mission if it does not so weave
agriculture Into Its proper organic
connection with everything with
which it has a real and normal re
lation. Agriculture must be the one
paramount, dominating thought of
the institution. While history, math
ematics, music, debates, athletics,
may play their part In rounding out
the symmetry of the Institution, ag
rlculture as its main purpose must
stand out as clearly as theology in
a school for the ministry, law In the
law school or medicine In the medi
cal college. To attain this end, the
debates, exhibitions, contests, will
often partake of an agricultural
character. Text-books will be used
which draw more freely and fairly
from the agricultural subject mat
ter. The chemistry and biology,
while dealing with the fundamentals
of those sciences, will Illustrate with
subjects of practical bearing In his
tory, the influence of agriculture w ill
not be Ignored, as It so often Is. but
the part played by corn, cotton, to
bacco. etc., as factors In history
making will be given fair hearing.
Geography will deal more than now
with soil capacities and crops, as
well as with political boundaries
Arithmetics will be based more
* ' ..
largely upon farm matters and in
particular, the subject of balancing
rations, and mixing fertilizers will
also be included. The school atmos
phere must lead to a love of agri
culture such that the students shall
desire to talk of It. think it, read it,
practice it, improve It. It must build
up a pride in agriculture, in what it
has done, and what It will do. it
must dignify agriculture by making
it worthy of the greatest thought
and intellect that can he devoted
to it.—Dr. F. L. Stevens.
Each generation owes it to the
past and to the future that no pre
vious worthy attainment or achlev*
ment, whether of thought or deed or
vision, shall he lost Dr Charles I).
Mclver.
cient. The cities have 6 to 9 months,
but what privilege do the rural chil
dren have. How are they to pre
pare for college?
In regard to fuel, it should be
furnished by the committee. If they
can't afford to hire It chopped, ap
point a day and have the patrons
come with horses, wagons, 6aws and
axes, and provide wood enough for
the season, and not have the boys
spend their time cutting wood when
they should be at their books. I
have passed school houses and seen
six or eight boys, out under the pre
tense of chopping wood, who were
really playing ball, and thus neg
lecting their lessons. One school I
have in mind where the teacher and
some of the girls have had to saw
their own wood, as no big boys hap
pened to be there. Now, people
don’t hire teachers to saw wood,
neither do they send children to
school for that purpose, taking their
time from their lessons. Again I
have known little girls, sent to the
nearest farm house with a heavy
pall for water, there being no well
on the school grounds.
We need better rural teachers,
those who have experience, judg
ment, discretion and government.
Send your "sweet girl graduates" to
the graded schools where there are
older heads to Instruct them In the
art of teaching.
Last, but not least. Is the want of
outbuildings. There should be two
on every ground, but as It often is,
there is none, thus causing both
teachers and scholars much annoy
ance, embarrassment and Inconven
ience, besides being a menace to
health. The committee should see
that such buildings are erected and
the teacher and scholars instructed
to keep them decent and in order.
M. B P.
A CITY business man who sent his farmer brother a copy
of “A Southerner in Europe", writes us as follows:
" Please note the enclosed bit, cut out of a j
letter from my sister in reference to your book,
and note that my father, now seventy years
old, was much interested in it."
The "enclosed bit” cut out from his sister’s letter, reads as follows:
^ j*.!
c^aL I/
ftsh Ut^aL, ^^4^4
!cs/
had nfLolf ,77 yaa? °ld had never read a book through before,
be ohio t P reB*_oyee, but If your eyes are younger, you may not
read fr^n8toP‘ *1 W‘ D Connor’ autbor of "Cornelius Harnett”: "I
£**£“ CZlr £. COVeLwlthout «topplog-a whole day of delight,
before last an/ ^ Sh!r? WlllUma* of Mississippi says: “I read It night
CaroHni “ucb” E*-Q*vernor Aycock, of North
other ni’^htL / f®fd the *aBt cbaPter of ’A Southerner In Europe,’ the
lth Hartne’ read^th tbe flrat time found an opportunity to look Into
fromthl LI! d, h U chapter* I turned back and took the book up
ginning, and nearly completed It before laying It down.”
No Farmer’s Book Case la Complete Without It
volu JetotoLL1! yOUrBelf: your wlfe aa<* your children to put this
learn as to how Europeans work, live, and are governed.
.JVP.?*r' 60 cenU I Ooth, *1. w»h Th. Progressive Farmer
and Gazette one year, Cloth, $1.50; Paper Copy, $1.30.
Free Paper Copy to any one sending $1 in NEW aub
aenpbona to The Progressive Farmer and Gazette.
Educational Directory.
A LA BAM A
Poiytecnic institute
College of Veterinary MediJne
IN Oalr Cm>M«U U man. C»!l«(i in IN S»«tk
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In tha I *11*4 S air* Iwpn Imrml « f A*il a/.
fare For catalog and further Information.
addmu
I* A CARY Auburn Ala. Dean
Whitworth College
T^Yflty «hd l«n« trra V f* »b ri two
hurd’oi «*ti * • U»t y •* « our*—
trwrfin« \hm dei?r*r« of |, |i A It lN u»r1.
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tie* tour ere on America > lafgeal
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Vl&GCn •!. r j i i mm. I’.aUlinn* **■
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Addr***
SHUMAN COLLEGE
No mar* careful and pain* taking achoci for
ym»ng Women In the South
Ir.Hh fear. Molc.n. Hca.tlful Healthful Hill
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I Hu*trate.! catalogue.
H H. BROWNLEE, Pres, Clinton. La.
MARTIN COLLEGE FOR GIRLS
PULAHKl. TKVNM9SBM.
Modern eouipmfnt
bTKoNi, FACULTY
ALL UEPAKTM ENTS
TKom tntaraatad In 7WH tiK'T ahould «rl>
tha Proaldrnl for »atj«l<>*ur
W. T. V'ynn, : : : Pulaski. Tenn.
Fifteen Thousand Dollars
h»va bean a pen l at French < amp the paat y*«r In
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• Kh moral rharan.-r tha I ralihfulnaaa and tha
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Iraiarl ratalugu.-a. Forth, girl, a.ho.l, uddr. a#
1 .. A Sandar««i Forth* buy. rollout. ad
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th° "?°*t1J,roft[eB£,ve and healthful city of the South,
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Demand for graduates much greater than the supply.
Students received at any time during the session.
For illustrated catalog, address
^ K. O. MATHESON, LL. D.f President, Atlenta, Ga.