Page images
PDF
EPUB

fortable. Of the schools in Dougherty County, Georgia, Professor DuBois says:

I saw only one schoolhouse there that could compare in any way with the worst schoolhouse I ever saw in New England. Most of the schoolhouses were either old log huts or were churches colored churches used as schoolhouses."1

The following table offers a comparison of the number of schoolhouses, the average value of each, and the total value of school property in three of the representative southern states and three of the northern:

[blocks in formation]

A second table gives a comparison of the wealth and school expenditure in the same six states:12

[blocks in formation]

In North Carolina 108 new buildings were erected in 1901, and 332 in 1902. In the larger and wealthier districts the problem of building is easily solved; but in the weaker rural districts there is much difficulty to be encountered, as the school fund is barely sufficient to keep the school running. The problem is reaching a solution in many parts of the South through the ten11 Report of Industrial Commission, Vol. XV, p. 161. 12 Report of Department of Interior, 1901.

dency toward the consolidation of three or four small districts into one large district. In North Carolina there was a decrease in the number of districts of 557 in the years 1902-3. The superintendent of public instruction of that state, Mr. J. Y. Joyne, has had prepared by able architects plans with specifications for oneto eight-room buildings, in accord with the best modern views on sanitation, light, and ventilation; and wherever the old building is unsatisfactory an effort is made to erect a better house in a larger district. The old demand for "a schoolhouse in front of every man's door" has changed to "a good school nine months in the year within possible reach of every child."

So far we have spoken only of elementary rural schools. While the cities have good high schools, there are no public secondary schools in the country districts of the South, except one at Jefferson, Miss. The question of rural high schools is receiving careful study. It may be well to remember that the unit of education in the South, like the political unit, is the county.18 In Tennessee the county court of any county may establish a public high school, and may levy a tax of not over 15 cents on each $100 of taxable property for its support. No such schools have yet been founded, however. There is, at the same time, throughout the South almost no expert supervision in the country districts. The county superintendent is also the victim of a small salary and a short term of office.

Various methods of enlarging the funds for the support of rural schools have been proposed. Federal aid has been urged. It is to be noted that the majority of the southern states still expend a very small sum out of each $100 of taxable property for school purposes. The demand has been urged for an increased local taxation to supplement the state and county tax. The principle of local taxation prevails in the cities and towns where well-equipped schools are found, and also in those states having an adequate school system. In many states throughout the country over 75 per cent. of the school funds are raised in this manner. It would appear that the solution of the financial difficulty of the southern rural schools is to be found in this direction.

13 Educational Conditions in Tennessee, p. 7.

[graphic]

PUBLIC SCHOOLHOUSE IN MANGUM TOWNSHIP, DURHAM COUNTY, BEFORE CONSOLIDATION OF DISTRICTS.

[graphic][subsumed][merged small][merged small]

A movement comparable to the westward migration of the young and energetic has gone on in the South. The more progressive element of the country has been drawn off by the towns, and this has tended to weaken the rural districts and leave them in a stagnant condition, lessening the demand by the people themselves for good schools. The South speaks for itself concerning its rural schools: "All thinking southerners know that the public schools are a disgrace." 14 "The common school should be the very best school that we have, so far as it goes, instead of being the poorest, as it is today in most of the southern states.'

"15

But the South is rapidly being aroused to the fact that without a foundation in well-equipped public schools no system of education can accomplish lasting results for any people; and that such a system can only be maintained through ample financial support.

IV. INDUSTRIAL EDUCATION.

It is evident to every observer that since 1880 the South has passed through an industrial transformation. Up to that date it exported large quantities of raw material to be worked up by the mills and factories of the North or of England. Of its largest crop, cotton, the South kept and manufactured in its own. territory only about 234,000 bales-a slight fraction of what it produced. The iron ore that it mined was sent to be converted into machines and implements in the blast-furnaces of the North. Its coal and timber were still to a large extent unutilized natural

resources.

For the production of these raw materials unskilled labor could be used to considerable advantage. The industrial and commercial change that has taken place within the last twenty years has centered largely around cotton. The southern states trebled the capacity of their cotton-mills in the last decade, but still use only 30 per cent. of the cotton crop. A large part of these mills are located near the cotton fields, mainly from Virginia to Alabama, along the "fall line." That is to say, since water power is used extensively, they are located at points where the "Dr. Charles DABNEY, Proceedings of the Fourth Conference for Education,

p. 42.

15 J. W. ABERCROMBIE, State Superintendent of Public Instruction in Alabama.

« PreviousContinue »