Vol. 6. No. 7.
CXRQli
If
GASTONIA, N. C, FEBRUARY 15. 1912
One Dollar a Year
(By Celeste Parrish.)
■ State Supervisor of Rural Schools in Georgia.
/ The passivity of educational leaders in the
South with regard to vocational training for
the children who need it, the silent ac-
•tuiescence of the Southern women who are,
’■usually, pioneers in the agitation which must
precede great movements for social better-
nient, and the lack of effective stimulation
^roiii philanthropists who have been giving
somewhat liberally to Southern education,
'voiild, when seen in the light of its tragic con-
^^^uence, be unaccountable except for our re-
^ction in most transitional movements of
thought.
^ Cause of Tremendous Social Disaster.
3- consideration of concrete examples of
^^^mendous social disaster through the com-
P^cte Wreck of individuals who might, under
proper conditions become valuable members
the social whole, can result in an accelera-
^*°ri, however slight, of a movement which has
^^come an absolute necessity if wc are to hope
^ civic righteousness, happiness or prosperi-
the purpose of this article will have been
Served.
^ ^^ot Tack of Vocational Training has Meant
For One Girl.
young girl born and reared in a country
^^riimunity has resolved to escape the mono-
^ Oils drudgery and colorless life which have
^cn hers so far. She determines to go to the
confident of her ability to earn a living
^sily share in the life whose distant
®cs are luring her so strongly.
^^She has been a pupil in the common school
j^. rieighborhood and has passed through it
§hest grade. She has memorized the usual
^nd been called a bright pupil,
^t is upon this that she bases her confi
de:
^Ut
in her ability not only to make a living.
^c> get some joy out of life. She wants
^°rt, beauty, varied interests and some
with the world of life and action. It
‘lever occurred to her that she can get all
th
cult
Out of her country home with less diffi-
SUf
y than she will have in the city, for her
^'^Undings at home are poor, ugly, uncom-
df und unwholesome and she has not
^^uied that they could be any thing else.
Sgg always been possible for the premi-
be made entirely clean and sanitary, but
her teachers have been so busy trying to get
her to memorize the physiology as prescribed
for the school that there has been no time to
teach her practical sanitation. Indeed, when
she paid a visit to her teacher’s home, she saw
no difference in this respect between that 'and
her own.
Blind to the Natural Beauty Around Her.
The natural surroundings of this girl’s home
have always afforded possibilities of great
beauty, but she has been too busy learning the
bounderies of all the states in the Union to be
taught anything about tree, shrub or vine
planting. The interior of her home, too, could
have been made beautiful by a skillful use of
the material just about her father’s means;
but she has had to give too much time to work
ing the examples in Compound Proportion
found in the Arithmetic book to be able to
turn her mind to order, symmetry or propor
tion in real things.
Beautiful Color Schemes Possible in the
Home.
It would have been entirely possible for her
to make charming color schemes for the rooms
in her own home, to work them out in inex
pensive materials, and to herself do all the
painting, staining and gypsining needed to
transfer grimy walls into things of beauty,
but she never heard of a “color scheme.” It
has taken so much time for her to draw the
map of Eurasia, get the meridians and paral
lels exactly right, paint the different coun
tries' in red, green and yellow, paint the ocean
blue and get in all the mountains, rivers, cities,
bays, straits, sounds, gulfs, peninsulars, isl
ands, etc.,that she has not had time to think
about the colors in a room. Her map was to
be exhibited at the Fair, and of course she
had to put a great deal of time on it. Some
of the woods on her father’s farm are very
beautiful and a little money has come in from
their sale, but the furniture in her home is of
the cheapest, and ugliest kind. No one has
ever hinted to her that with proper training
she could become able to make furniture of
wood being sold, polish and stain it in almost
artistic way, and thus replace the ugly stuff
with articles of rare beauty and great value.
Neither has she suspected tiiat the natural
deftness in woodwork or the “eye for color”
which she always possessed, if fednforced by
training, could give her employment so lucra
tive that all the things she is longing for would
be within her reach. The school authorities
always said that there was not time in school
for Manual training. The children must learn
to work examples in Cube Root, Bank Dis
count and Foreign Exchange and they could
not do this and Manual Arts, too.
Ignoranee of Proper Food a Social Menace.
This girl is very tired of the unwholesome
food, which makes her sick and is making her
complexion so sallow. She thinks that ice
cream, candy and soda water—together with
other things of which she has heard—^re
to be found at “quick lunch” counter in the
city, will be very much better both for her
taste and her complexion. Of course there
is very fertile soil all around her home
where the vegetables which the city begs for
could be cultivated by her the year round. In
her father’s orchard there are • peaches, ap
ples, pears, cherries and other fruits which
could be canned, and which would thus be de
licious all through the winter. There is plenty
of room for berry culture and these, too, might
be canned. Poultry of all kinds might be rais
ed and fowls and eggs, deliciously prepared,
might be on the family table at all times, but
the teacher and her mother and the school
authorities have all said that there was no use
in learning these things at school. ‘ There was
no time for any such foolishness! The chil
dren must work examples, learn the cap
itals of all the countries in the world; they
must spell hard words and must know the
dates of all the battles in the Revolutionary
War. How could they find time to learn to
garden or to cook; to can fruit or to raise
poultry? Besides, could not the mothers
teach their daughters such things ? The people
who kept trying to get the girls to form a
Home Life Club had better attend to their own
f)usincss, said the school authorities.
And so the old order has gone on; the gar-
.dan has had a few vegetables in the early sum-
jner and has then grown up in weeds. The
iruit has ripened, dropped from the trees, and
the hogs have been turned into the orchard.
The few hens that have been on the place did
not lay in winter. Half the chickens that were
haK:hed died and the mother always “^elt so
(Continued on page $)
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