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Show WELLSVILLE-SANITARY-SCHOOL MATTERS. Editor Journal.-The sanitary condition of this city has been proverbially good ever since its first location. No epidemic has yet visited us; nor has any contagious disease afflicted our people. The local authorities have at all times been on the alert, by prudent advice and ceaseless watchfulness, to preserve the great blessing of health to us. Deaths however occur frequently from causes mortality is heir to. I regret to record the death of another of our citizens, making thrice in three weeks, all females. Sister Agnes Kerr departed this life early to-day, a fourth lies on the point of death, and ere this reaches you will, in all probability, have passed behind the vail. Disease of the lungs seems to be the prevailing ailment. Would not this be a good time to offer some good advice, through the Journal, to the people, not to indulge too freely in gratifying the appetite with unripe fruit, watermelons, etc. A word or two on another subject may not be amiss. There is a moral contagion that afflicts the mind, as well as the physical one that afflicts the body. It is noticeable that for several years back there has been a strong and determined opposition to the assessment of school taxes. Logan, in the Island district last year, had the same opposition to meet, and was obliged to succumb, the trustees being twice defeated, and that too after rallying all the friends of education they could muster. This disease-for it must be a disease-we have got in Wellsville, as well as in other settlements. Bishop W. H. Maughan, and other leading men of Wellsville, have done all in their power to help the school trustees to raise ample funds for school necessities, and yet the "nays" have twice prevailed. Now the question arises "What is the matter?" Every effect must have a cause, whether real or imaginary. "Is it because the opposition are too niggardly to pay a tax? It may be so, but I think not, perhaps the reason may lie in another direction. However it would be well to enquire into the matter. It is not my intention to criticise the system on which our common schools are managed, nor yet to attach any blame to the trustees, or county superintendent, or county board of examination, perhaps it is no fault of theirs. However, I will tell you some of the complaints I have heard, when speaking with citizens on the subject. The first objection is the grading of schools, which they say may be good of itself, but it works great harm to the largest number of scholars Wellsville is cited for an example. Here we have two schoolhouses, one in the northeast corner of the city, the other adjoining the public square, a more central location. Both have had very able teachers, but the central one took all the pupils from the third reader and upwards while the other took all from the alphabet to the second reader inclusive, and as a general thing these embrace all the infantile school population from six years old and upward. It will be readily admitted that children of such tender years cannot travel from the south-west part of the city to the north-east to go to school, winter and summer, hail, rain, snow or blow and often there is from one to two feet of snow on the ground, in the winter time, and on account of the severity of the winters they cannot attend school, it is difficult for the larger scholars to go, much more so for the smaller ones. The same condition of things may exist in other settlements as well as here. Another thing is urged, and that is that infant schools should be opened in neighborhoods, easy of access her young children. Under these pleas many have banded together to oppose a school tax, unless they can have a school at which their children can attend at all seasons of the year. This of course would multiply schools, but the question arises: "Who is to pay the teachers?" According to the territorial school law, teachers must qualify and receive certificates, or they are not allowed to teach. If schools are run on any other plan the territorial appropriation would be withheld. "But," asks the objector, "do we require such a grade of teachers to teach the alphabet and the first and second readers?" Perhaps I have said enough and will therefore leave others better able than I am to solve the problem. However, we would like to have the matter well ventilated in the Journal, if agreeable. Much remains to be said, but this will do for the present. T. D. Wellsville, Aug. 24, 1882. |