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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,