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irry■ess,ton.a ay -i il 1 iswiliMb*■ay■ for the ow-aj!that: tlt;? t ofipOB bt-ork, Q»t e along sot :n a not iareanta per, over • the .cnt, to-849 Elill.for eoa-aaye been lipu-seat, ence the • 11 ;r*t* gov-igh, iams s for says neatated any .i«ly ite's pu ai sit-'THE COMING PROFESSION. Henry Ward Beecher, daring hi* lift, in his lectare on the “Coming profession,” placed teaching ahead of all others aid predicted that the time would ceme when it Would ie so regarded. Beecher was right, there are none of the learned profession* as important as that of tetteh1 Ing,nVne that'hare so wide a field for influencing fer good or evil, those who are to be the future men and women of this country.The teacher has te do with the young wjbjsu thejr minds are In a formative state, when they are easily impressed and when characters are being formed.How important then that they should be weliVquipped for he great work, that they should have culture, severe mental training, paUe^qe, level headedness and that equipoise and common sense, which constitute the well-rounded man or woman.And hefe conies one of the troubles of our present school system, Farenti hare no voice lathe selection of those wha have so much to d° in the formation of the character at their children. The •tate has stepped in and usurped the place of the parent, and like a great many other things the state proposes to do, outside of its legitimate functions, it is often poorly done.The public schools are frequently made the asylum of broken down teachers. Teachers who have failed to sustain them selves as teach*rs of private schools are hoisted upon the public, nolens, volens, and not being amenable to the parents, whose children they have in charge, they can dofy them, so long as they keep in whh the powers that be. Talk about “paternal government,” if this is’at paternalism, we should like to know what is.Mrs. Dr. Felton ic a severe arraignment of the present public school system of this_state,jyliich she made in a speech at Cuthbert last week, before the state agricultural convention, took the position that if the state has the right to tax o»e man to educate another's children, it also had the right to force the man who had the children, to send them tc school.Mrs. Felton was correct in this. Compulsory education naturally follows trom compulsory taxation. If the state has th* power to create a tax for a certain purpose, bo ono will deny the power to see that the tax is usod for that purpose. Compulsory education, and rightfully so, is the next thing fori.tlie state to tackle, and in forcing the children to attend the schools, it will be assuming no more autocratic power, than iu forcing the “other fellow'’ to pay taxes to educate them.But to return to our text, we do not believe that the tendency of the public school system, is to oleyato and dignify the great profession of teaching. The selectiou of teachers haying been taken out of the hands of the parents, those most vitally interested, they haye grown Indifferent to the whole business, and frequently the only schools ia a community, are taught the few month* of the public school term. Meagre salaries of course attract only poorly equipped teachers, whereas if the peoplo were not dependent upon these schools, they would take hoi 1 of them and make seme-thiig out of them, such schools as would authorize the selection of good teachers at good salaries. Every par*ut feeling the responsibility that they 6honld feel in sueh matters, would exert themselv*s to elevate both school and teacher.
Newspaper Details
Carroll Free Press
Carrollton, Georgia, US
Fri, Feb 19, 1892
Page 1
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Anonymous
USA 30 Jul 2023
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