I never taught in towns as I preferred the country. The Robinson Bridge
school was after the Hamilton school and now it has consolidated with Wallace
and Pace schools. Both schools are nice brick buildings having several hundred
pupils enrolled and employing several teachers. They are equipped with up
to date school furniture and other school equipment. They have kitchens
where luncheons for the pupils for a small price and those who are unable
to pay are provided free, are prepared. The school children used to bring
their lunches in buckets or paper sacks. The kitchens provide a well balanced
luncheon which helps the pupil to do his est.
All pupils living at a distance are transported in county
school buses driven by experienced drivers to the nearest consolidated school
and returned after school closes to their home.
All the schools have kitchens where school lunches are prepared,
giving all pupils an equal opportunity.
I found in my teaching, some of the brightest pupils came
from families who are executing every effort to give their children an opportunity.
What they can not do, the state and county will complete. All are given
an equal opportunity and the ones best prepared are leaders.
In those days pupils did not have so much to divert their
minds as those of today. In those days the most of the pleasures were picnics,
fish fries, parties of simple games and dances, by some.
The Olive school I taught in 1887-89 was a two room school
with a long porch and painted red. It was equipped with new school furniture,
but had a water bucket and dipper. Now that school has been consolidated
with Ensley, Ferry Pass school and Tate.
The Allentown school is moved several miles from the old site.
It is a fine brick structure equipped with the latest in school furniture,
with several hundred pupils enrolled and employing several instructors of
college education. I think it is required of all our county instructors
now.
Good schools and good roads go together. The counties are
crisscrossed with good roads. I am glad to have lived to see these wonderful
changes. There will be many more if the pupils are given the opportunity.
The influence of our teachers are boundless and felt in all
parts of the world. The hand that rocks the cradle and the minds who train
the minds of the children are the guiding influence of the world. Let us
give every child a chance as it is the most powerful factor in our country.
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