Fifty-third Report of the Public Schools for the School Year Ending June 30, 1902
Jefferson City, MO.
Tribune Printing Company, State Printers and Binders
1902
Pg. 131-132

I hear good reports from the schools this year. It was thought by many that the influence of last year’s severe drought would keep many pupils out of school this year, but such does not seem to have been the case. The attendance is regular wherever the patrons are interested in education and like the teacher. This being so, it is easy to see what is wrong where there is an irregular attendance. It is a part of the teacher’s work to interest his patrons, and to do this he must get acquainted with them by coming in actual contact with the minds and hearts of their children. Interest the children and they will interest the parents. Let the teacher be practical and use common sense, for “fine sense and exalted sense,” said Horace Greely, “are not held so useful as common sense.” Very few of our teachers have had college training, but probably sixty per cent have had high school and normal training and nearly all of them have had a least a small amount of pedagogical instruction. The short terms and frequent changing of teachers make grading almost impossible, yet much has been accomplished. The Reading Circle work is not what it ought to be. The teachers claim they are not able to buy the books and make other ends meet. The interest in libraries is growing. The teachers have become interested and the work will be a success. Only about $200 had been spent for libraries since ’97. Why not have supervision in every county in Missouri? It is my opinion that the schools will never be graded and unified until strong and honest men are paid to look after their interests. – M.L. Burris, Com.

Transcribed by: Carrie Tuck {cvt1977@yahoo.com}