KENTUCKY. HON. H. A. M. HENDERSON...State Superintendent of Public Instruction, Frankfort. [OFFICIAL.] -Where no school is taught in a district the trustee can make an arrangement with neighboring districts to have children taught under Art. vi. Sec. 5, and can draw so much of the fund apportioned his district as is necessary to pay the pro rata for pupils actually taught, and the commissioner shall pay it to the respective teachers thereof to whom it is due. No unconsumed moneys can be used in the building or repair of schoolhouses. -A change can be made in the boundary of a district any time before the census is taken. -Graduates of the Normal School, Carlisle, by special provision in its charter are privileged to teach in common schools without the necessity of obtaining a certificate from a county board of examiners. -In grading teachers' certificates, less attention should be paid to the answers in geography and history than other branches. Many perfectly competent to teach such branches may know very little of their fact details. Ignorance in orthography, grammar and arithmetic, however, is ignorance of principles. If a candidate is good in these branches, but little weight ought to be given to his failure in such branches as geography or grammar. -We regret that the present trustee has not the right to employ a teacher for the next scholastic year. –In some instances contracts have been made based on the payment of the money apportioned a previous year and unused. In the case of a white school district, if the money is not used the year for which it is apportioned, it is put to the credit of the county in its surplus bond and can never be withdrawn by draft, or even by special act of the legislature. In the case of a colored school, the unused fund is put to the credit of the general fund and the district and county lose all particular interest in it. Persons who contract with teachers contrary to law render themselves liable personally. -City school boards have the right to prescribe the duration of a school month, except that the schools must be taught five months of twenty-two days each in order to draw the state apportionment. MISSISSIPPI. HON. JOSEPH BARDWELL...............State Superintendent of Public Instruction. WILLIAM L. SUTTON..... ...... Editor, Sardis. -School matters are quiet just now, there being a general interregnum of the county schools throughout the state. . -A superintendent of public instruction is to be elected this year, but up to this time we have not been able to obtain any information as to the probable candidate or candidates. We believe our present incumbent to be an efficient and worthy gentleman, but whoever you decide upon, Messrs. Politicians, as your nominee, please throw aside party and political preferences in the matter and give us an earnest, practical teacher. —Arrangements are being perfected looking to a state convention of teachers in July or August. Let every one give their co-operation when approached on the subject, and Mississippi will yet see brighter times in her public school administration. -The Sardis schools close on the 8th, after a very successful session. -Subscribers failing to receive the ECLECTIC should forward postal card to the head office at Carlisle. -A teacher of Panola county saw fit to reply to an article in the ECLECTIC through the medium of the county paper, upon the plea that so few took the TEACHER. All wrong, friend "Monitor," 120 teachers take their own paper in Panola county. A gentleman a short time ago wished us to send the TEACHER for six months, as his school would be out and he was only teaching to prepare himself, or rather pay his way, to a more lucrative and higher (?) profession. Well, we decline. The ECLECTIC won't do him any good. He would only find vexation and bitterness where he expected profitable reading. The JOURNAL has nothing consolatory for that class of teachers. --We insert the following from "Uno," contributed to the Panola Star. Will "Uno" please let us know him personally?—ED. MISS. Dept. PRACTICE VERSUS PREACHING. "It has been well said that perfection is made of trifles, but perfection is no trifle. A past age delight in theory, and with all the aid of our modern civilization, we have not passed beyond its influence. It is very easy to preach, but not as easy to practice. There are many who can tell what a good school should be, but few who have the courage to teach one. Here is our nation's trouble, viz: preaching instead of practicing. Those men in ancient times, who for a pretense made long prayers, were about as serviceable to the church then, as those who deliver long addresses to teachers now without being able themselves to teach. Two things stand in the way of advancement: amateur educators and long, learned, but not practical text books. Third-rate teachers will describe in glowing terms, the grandeur of an educational system, the manifest destiny of our country, the beauty and advantages of our situation, in reference to other nations, and will then act as though the means by which we are to prepare the youth for their life is by cramming the mind with facts concerning dead generations. The past is only useful to us when it shows us how we are to act in the present and prepare for the future. Is it necessary that children should know more about ancient Greeks and Romans than they do about themselves? It is undeniable that we have urged our pupils too far in the dead past, without showing them its intimate connection with the living present. Latin, Greek and Hebrew are necessary to thorough scholarship, but for all practical pur poses, what is gained by preaching the classics to the thousand pupils who never expect to go through college, nay, perhaps, be obliged to content themselves with a small part of what we call an education? Then let some part of it be practical, and so be of lasting benefit to them. Educationally speaking, we are in a transition state. From the dull monotony of committing to memory without understanding what is learned, we are passing into a pure atmosphere of practical thought. My race must be educated in order that they may enter the rank of a civilized class. Therefore, it will not only be a God's blessing to us, but to the community at large, if the legislature, at its next sitting, will arrange the school law in such a manner that the pay for teachers will encourage them to make teaching a profession instead of a stepping stone. You can't find in the state of Mississippi one teacher outside of those who receive their salary partly from the public fund and partly from the private fund that intends to make teaching a profession unless there will be a change made in the school law by the legislature. Only the aristocracy have private funds, and since that is true, the masses must, without doubt, be brought up in ignorance, and instead of one penitentiary we must have three or four at a great cost to the state. Therefore, what shall we do? Shall we let ignorance reign over the land as chief monarch, or shall we let education, in its stead, be the crowning victory of our state. Let one visit our penitentiary and jail houses and he will find confined within their walls most of the inmates on account of ignorance. Ignorance costs, education pays. "Very respectfully, UNO." SOUTH CAROLINA. HON. H. L. THOMPSON.. ..State Superintendent of Education. ....Editor, Columbia. At last we have got him—our new superintendent, we mean. He isn't hardly warm in his new office yet, and we haven't said anything about an official department in the ECLECTIC to him yet. Mr. Thompson is r practical educator of long experience, having had charge of the Columbia Male Academy for many years. His school has been very prosperous and he brings to his new work that excellent qualification of having had much experience in teaching and management. When Mr. Thompson matures his plans and sets out on his campaign, we shall hope to know all about them. Meanwhile we will let him alone. -The legislature seems disposed to deal liberally with the free common schools, the bill now pending appropriating $200,000. We see no disposition as yet, on the part of the party in power, to change the common school system. Rumors of future modification have, however, reached us, but not with sufficient distinctions for us to express an opinion. -The African Methodist church is endeavoring to re-establish its school at Cokesbury. A new principal has been appointed and great efforts are making to secure success. If all sects could unite and put their money into one good school how much better it would be. -We lately had a visit from Rev. S. G. Richardson, the newly elected school commissioner of Fairfield. Mr. R. has great plans for the future, proposing a large graded school for whites and a large boarding school for colored teachers. He hopes to get means to carry out the latter idea in the north. Success to him. -Newberry College goes back to Newberry, where it belongs. It never had any business to go away. New buildings, one or more, are to be erected at once. -Mr. Thompson, the new superintendent, has been appointed a member of the new commission to revise the list of text-books. We wonder if all that bat tle has to be fought over again. R. B. HUBBARD, Governor...... TEXAS. ....President Board of Education. O. N. HOLLINGSWORTH, Secretary Board of Education.........Editor, Austin. [OFFICIAL.] DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION, AUSTIN, MAY 1, 1877: 1. Attention of county school officers is respectfully called to the following letter: GALVESTON, TEXAS, March 10, 1877. O. N. Hollingsworth, Esq., Secretary Board of Education, Austin, Texas-Dear Sir: Your favor of the 8th inst. to hand, and in reply beg to state the only school property in our hands is a quantity of slate blackboards-57 cases, each case containing three slates, about three by four feet square, all in good order. The charges on these amount to $6 per case; on payment of which we shall take great pleasure in turning the goods over to such county authorities as you may direct, and trust soon to receive such directions. Yours truly, C. W. HURLEY & Co. 2. County judges desiring to procure a supply of said boards for use in the public schools of their county, will, upon application to this department, showing the number of cases they desire, receive an order on the consignees to deliver to applicant the number of cases called for, upon payment of charges. 3. Any unappropriated school funds belonging to the county may be drawn upon for payment of charges on said boards. 4. Orders will be issued on the consignees, upon application, until notice is received from consignees that the cases have all been delivered. R. B. HUBBARD, Governor And ex-officio Pres't Bd. of Ed., Attest: O. N. HOLLINGSWORTH, Sec. Bd. of Education. OUR JOURNAL. Board of Education. In some future issue we propose to give in full the reason for our faith in the support of school officers, teachers and the Texas public, in this, our new enterprise in the interest of the growth and development of the policy of free universal education. We have time now only to ask that our fellow-citizens give us their moral and financial support in the work. Every school officer, teacher and friend of free schools in the state should subscribe for the ECLECTIC TEACHER AND SOUTHWESTERN Journal of EDUCATION. The information it will contain, generally upon the subject of education in its various phases, and the special information in regard to public schools in Texas, conveyed through the medium of circulars, etc., will repay an hundred fold the subscription price, $1. BLANK FORMS. The various forms necessary for the use of the department of education, state of Texas, for the next scholastic year, are now in press and will be ready for distribution in about thirty days. CITIES AND PUBLIC SCHOOLS. The following named cities and towns of Texas have assumed control of their public schools, and will receive next year, through Dr. B. Sears, general agent Peabody educational fund for the south, literal aid from that more than princely endowment, made by an American citizen, and the world's greatest philanthropist, the late lamented Mr. George Peabody: Breham, Paris, San Antonio, Denison, Mexico, Marshall, Fort Worth, Sherman, Waco, Houston, Honey Grove and Dallas. It is expected that other cities and towns will follow the example set them by the above, and give their influence in favor of free popular education. FAYETTE COUNTY. Hon. John C. Stiehl, county judge of Fayette county, writes that he has thus far organized sixty-seven white schools, with an enrollment of 2,304 pupils within scholastic age (eight to fourteen years) and twenty-eight colored schools, with an enrollment of 1,245. He further reports fifty pupils from his county enrolled in the schools of adjoining counties, making a grand total of 3,599 children between the ages of eight and fourteen in Fayette county public free schools. Well done for Fayette. She bids fair to head the list as the banner county of Texas on the free school question. MASON COUNTY. Although Mason is one of our frontier counties, having organized as late as 1869, yet reports from that county show that her people are prosperous, having sold this year $100,000 worth of cattle and wood; that they appreciate and foster the system of public free schools as the grand lever to elevate the masses to the high plain of intelligent citizenship, fully prepared for its varied and responsible duties; that her teachers are wide awake, active and energetic, as the following will demonstrate: At a meeting held at Mason on Tuesday, March 27, 1877, by school teachers of the district, including the counties of Mason, Menard and San Saba, it was agreed that they (the teachers present) organize themselves into a school convention. The following officers were elected: President, Prof. G. Stricker; treasurer, Prof. G. Walmsley; secretary, Prof. R. W. Landrum. It was moved by Prof. Walmsley that a convention be held at Mason on Saturday, the 19th of May next. HARRISON COUNTY. Hon. J. B. Williamson, county judge, reports to date sixty schools organized and in successful operation, and more reported as ready to enter in the grand march of civilization and progress. |