Newspapers / The Franklin Press and … / Sept. 12, 1957, edition 1 / Page 2
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EDITORIAL WEIMAR JONES, Editor Special Privileges? fcqual rights to all, special privileges for none. That a noocl American concept. And it is as fair and democratic in this atomic age as it was in an earlier era. Well, we don't think it is in keeping; with that Concept tor public officials here to reserve for themselves special parking places around the court house. We don't believe the public feels it is in line with that time-honored idea. We doubt, in fact, if the officials feel it is. While we are sympathetic with the officials' problem of finding parking places, we wonder by what line of reasoning thev arrive at the conclu sion they have a right to special parking privileges not accorded the farmer from the head of Tellico or the merchant operating a business in downtown Franklin. In that connection, it also is worth noting that no tavi has the legal right to reserve a parking place for itself ? and no government agency has the authority to seek to give it such a privilege. Background Why did Arkansas' Governor Orval Faubus last week call out state militia to halt court-ordered de secration of a Little Rock high school? Is he just a stubborn fool, as newspaper dispatches would indi cate? Well, for all we know, he may be both stubborn and a fool. Nor do we pretend to know the Govern or's motives. But here is a bit of background, un reported in much of the daily press, that throws' light on the i.ittle Rock school crisis: In the last general election ? held more than two yeafs after the Supreme Court school decision ? the people of Arkansas voted to amend their state con stitution. Amendment 47 requires segregation in Arkansas, and provides for criminal prosecution and removal from office of officials who fail to carry out that mandate. Whatever the merits or demerits of the* amend ment, the people of Arkansas voted it into their constitution. And it would seem that Governor Faubus was morally obligated either to obey the constitution he had sworn to uphold, or resign his office. Congratulations! It has been well said that the best police officer often is the one who makes the fewest arrests. In stead, he obtains compliance with the law by his very presence, by the respect he commands, and by a combination of education and firm but courteous warning. There come times, though, when it seems some people are oblivious to anything but force ? the force of arrest and punishment. And for months it has appeared that a small minority of motorists here were going to speed along Franklin streets until they were forced to stop it. We congratulate the police department, there lore, on its vigorous campaign. Of 34 arrests in August, as reported in last week's Press. 24 were for traffic law breaking, and 10 of those 24 arrests were for speeding. ? ? , Assuming the police get the .proper backing, in ihe form of stiff punishment of those convicted, we can make speeding here as rare, in the future, as it has been common, in the past. Douhlv Significant School accreditation can be. and sometimes is, over-rated. What goes on among the human beings inside the school building, the stimulation and in spiratioti the pupil gets from the teacher ? yes, and the dicipline : these are the things that count, and they ary^things that cannot be measured. It does not follow, however, that there should be no effort to measure, and accreditation is one yard stick. It is a yardstick that, until a few years ago, was much too long for any elementary school in Macon County. Hut now three schools have length ended their physical and instructional facilities and procedures to the point they meet the test. The latest is six-year-old East Franklin; Otto and Cul lasaja won accreditation earlier. t . Congratulations are in order to Principal \V. G. (Bill) Crawford, to his stall' of teachers, and to the patrons, as represented by the school's hard working P.-T. A. The goal could never have been reached, according to Mr. Crawford, without the interest and support of the school's paitrons. Illu strating the community's cooperation and effort is the fact that it raised some $6,000 for physical equipment. And therein, perhaps, lies even more significance' than accreditation itself. A community that will work like that believes in education, and faith in education is a first requirement for good public schools. Dogs Astray We arc pleased that a group has taken to the hoard of aldermen the problem of stray dogs. We do not pretend to .know the answer to that problem, but we do suggest the difficulty isn't con fined to strays. It includes ? very definitely includes ? the dogs that have owners. It is one thing for dogs to be permitted to run at large, in the country ; in town, it presents an impossible situation. For howling, barking dogs and sleep just don't mix; they mix even less when the dogs arc under a bedroom window, engaged in dogs' chief sport, a fight. What to do about the strays is one problem, and a hard one. The matter of requiring owners to keep their dogs ,up at night is another, and an easy one. Letters Like Macon, By Proxy Editor, The Press: Please find enclosed $3 for one year's subscription. We do enjoy your Press. We have a rooming and boarding house, and most of our men are from Macon County and Franklin. And if the men left there are as nice and upright and honest as the ones we have here with us, you surely have a wonderful place to live. We hope to visit Franklin and Highlands sometime and meet the rest of you wonderful people. MR. AND MRS R L. HUFFAKER. Pontiac, Mich. EDUCATION FOR ALL 'Back To School' Is In The Air; Why Not Take Some Courses Yourself? Millicent Taylor in Christian Science Monitor The Back-to-School Movement lias worth for us all. With the cpenihg of the schools and col leges. self-improvement through regular study is in the air. Whether you wish further edu cation at the high school, col lege. or graduate level, or courses to lead you into a new career Held or to advancement in your present work, whether you wish to acquire some skill like dress making. shorthand, or public ?peaking, or to explore a possible bobby ? you can find courses worth your time and effort this Winter. In the cities, discussion groups ?will soon be forming. Many public libraries, adult education centers. ?nd clubs organize them. You will find the reading and the discus mtoo most enjoyable and stimulat ing- And you will make new friend* Some are on "Oreat Books," some on current affairs, Vthers on literature, art, child gnMaace. Then how about college courses? The extension division of your neutv university spreads before j a rich fare With or without i credit, you can take courses of college grade in the liberal arts, the natural sciences, art, music, and a variety of other fields. Most business and technical schools also offer extension courses. There are the reading clinics. We know one young man who took courses in drafting and esti mating, when he got a job with a building and contracting firm. He is definitely on the way up We know a newspaper reporter who took a course in faster read ing at a clinic and found it helped vastly in the Job, and another who studied one of the A-B-C shorthand systems to help in in terviewing people. A woman who was inclined to be too tense at her work took a hobby course in painting and sketching. A teacher %ho longed to do exchange teach ing abroad stepped up her Ger man and got the chance. Not long ago an older woman came into my office to tell me she had at last graduated from high school. "And I am going on and complete college." she said. She had married young, never finished high school, but had the courage to co back to evening classes at her local night school when her children were older. She tnd her eldest daughter finished high school the same year, one by day the other by evening classes. Many public school sys tems have free evening school. That woman is now taking college subjects. I know a boy who stopped high school because he hated it, then realized, later on, that lack of a high school diploma was a serious Job handicap. He has been finish ing his high school at night by correspondence, and will get his diploma in his local high school by transferring these credits and taking examinations. A group of young women in my home town took a course in tailoring and dressmaking at the local evening school, and made whole wardrobes for their chil dren and themselves. In the adult education centers and their equivalent, you can study foreign languages, art. music, literature, government, and almost anything else, on a non credit basis, for self-improvement or just for fun and interest. Even If you live where there are none of these centers, you can start a class with a group of neighbors and secure a teacher to guide you. More than a million and a half people in the United States arc studying by correspondence. II your time or location is such that you cannot join a local group, you can study a course by mall. Some of the universities offer very fine courses in almost any college sub Ject y.ou can desire. There are correspondence schools of art music, and business. If you don't lean toward takinii a course, you can still do some thing for yourself by following a reading plan this winter. With a Bible, a good Bible dictionary Bible concordance, and Bible atlas you can give yourself a "course' in some aspect of Bible study you work out for yourself. Or you car study some author by reading all his works, or some field like En? lish literature or all about some country by securing a textboook and a list of books to read in sequence. Setting aside a regular time fot study and keeping to It as closely as possible Is half the victory Studying is a form of self-dls clpllne. and for this reason alone is worth the effort. Besides this, the rewards in fresh viewpoints Improved understandings, greater alertness, new friends, and Inter ests. are many. 'That's Nice ? -Meanwhile, BACK AT THE ROW ? " Strictly Personal By WEIMAR JONES The human mind is a tricky thing. Sometime you can use it to trick the other fellow. More often, though ? and far more serious ? we ourselves are tricked by our own minds. I had an example of that last week, when I wrote something on this page that wasn't quite true; and the amazing thing is, my mind tricked me into writing it when I thought I was being most careful. In a piece about the opening of the schools. I made the state ment that the word "educate'' comes from a Latin root meaning "to lead out". I had repeatedly heard and read that that was the case; but after the sentence was typed on the paper, I became wary; "better not take anything for granted", I thought; "better be sure". So I went to Webster. Imagine my surprise, therefore, when a good friend, having read the editorial after the paper was out, pointed out that I was wrong. The word "educate", he told me, does not come, from the Latin term that means "to lead out." Here, as well as I can recon struct it, is what happened: I flipped the dictionary pages till I found the English word "educate", and looked at the de rivation "Educare" is the root, Webster said: and that Latin word means "to bring up a child". My eye ran down the column of variables of "educate" until I came to another word for which the derivation was given: "educere", a combination of "ducere", mean ing to lead, and "e". meaning out. "There! that's it", I said to my self. and went back to my type writer. What I failed to note was, first, that the English word with the "to lead out" root isn't "educate" at all, but "educe"; and, second, that there was a difference of an "a" and an 'e" in the two roots. Two different English words coming from two different Latin roots. The point Is, when I went to the dictionary, I fell into the habit all too common with most of us; I didn't go looking for all the facts, but just for those facts that would support and confirm what I already had taken for granted. In other words, I found what I was looking for ? and stopped there. The two root words seem to be related, and of course their English derivatives, "educate" and "educe" are akin. But they ARE different: and, as Mark Twain aptly said: "The difference be tween the right word and the almost right word is the differ ence between the lightning and the lightning bug." Webster says' "educe" means to "bring into manifestation" some thing latent or undeveloped "Edu DO YOU REMEMBER? Looking Backward Through the Files of The Press 65 YEARS AGO THIS WEEK (1892) Two more schools opened their doors last Monday, the St. Agnes School near the Episcopal church, and the public free school, near the Baptist church. Franklin now has three schools in session. \ . E. B. Smith, of Morristown, Tenn., has been in town during t the past week putting up tombstones. The following men have been appointed registrars in their precincts for voting on the 8th of November: N. P. Rankin, Franklin; John Elmore, Millshoal; John B. Gray, Ellijay; J. M. Keener, Sugarfork; B. W. Wells, Highlands; G. P. Mann, Flats; J. J. McConnell, Smith's Bridge; M. B. Setser, Cartooge chaye; J. H. Morgan, Nantahala; S. J. May, Briartown; P. C. Wild, Burnlngtown; and J. W. Rickman, Cowee. 25 YEARS AGO (1932) There are 322 in high school as schools get under way here this fall. Singing heartily to drown out the rasp of their saw, three i youthful prisoners sawed their way out of Mason County Jail Monday afternoon and lit out through a corn field, not to be I heard from since. [ Disagreement about how automobiles should be parked on Main Street and whether N. C. Highway 28 should go on Palmer or Main Street, nearly broke up the town council at Its 1 monthly meeting Monday. A motion to adjourn, put while Mayor George Patton was writing his formal resignation, was railroaded through in time to save the council from disin tegration. 10 YEARS AGO Mothers of three Franklin Boy Scouts will pin Eagle Scout badges on their sons Thursday night. They are Frank L. Hen ry in, 14. son of Mr. and Mrs. Frank L Henry, Jr., Charles Thomas, 14, son of Mr. and Mrs. Harry Thomas; and John Alsup II. son of Mr. and Mrs. John Alsup. Miss Ann Cowan, of Sylva, Monday joined the staff of the Macon County Welfare Department. cate" is defined as "to develop and cultivate mentally or morally; to expand, strengthen, and dis cipline. . . "Discipline"; that, of coarse, is the key to the difference. It is the key to the difference, too, between the old education and to day's "progressive" education. Well, what about the rest of what that editorial last week said? It commented that education, stripped of incidentals and ex ternals, Is simply this: To stim ulate a child's curiosity so he'll want to know badly enough to try to find out, and then will use his imagination to compare ? compare this new bit of knowl edge with all others, so he can put this latest bit into its proper place. Does that still hold up? I think it does; because I don't believe it is possible for a child to do those three things without under going some mental discipline. And surely discipline is at the heart of learning how to use the mind ? as my experience of last week proves. For unless the mind is under iron discipline, it will trick you ? just as mine did last week. It will show you not what is there, something new to be learned: but only what you're looking for, what you knew al ready. ? ? ? Another, entirely different ex perience recently showed me how a person can be tricked by his own mind, when it fails to see or correctly read all the circum stances of a situation. On a picnic trip with friends to Whitewater Falls. I suddenly found the highway, the woods, the mountains all an indistinct blur. I batted my eyes; it didn't clear up. I closed my eyes for a few minutes; no improvement. For a man who has had similar experiences, and who. following such experiences, repeatedly has had it touch-and-go as to whether he ever would see again, that sort of thing is serious. A number of my friends have suffered detached retina ? and some of them have been blind thereafter. Could it be that? We were miles from a doctor, and I didn't want to spoil our guests' day. So I agreed with them that the flowers were beautiful, the woods at their best, the moun tain view superb. But my voice must have lacked enthusiasm: for, in the pit of my stomach, I was sick. At last, we reached the falls, and I got out of the car, ready to pretend admiration, though I knew I wouldn't see the falling water. Before I had gone half a dozen steps. Mrs. Jones called me back to the car, concern in her voice. "You've dropped the lens out of your glasses", she told me: "here it is; I don't know why somebody didn't step on it ? and I don't know what we are going to do." Well, one man's meat is another man's poison, or vice versa. Her worried announcement brought from me not only a sigh of relief, but I was doubled up laughing ? It was so darn funny for a man to be such a fool.
The Franklin Press and the Highlands Maconian (Franklin, N.C.)
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Sept. 12, 1957, edition 1
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