University of Virginia Library

Our Schools.

THE location here of the great
University of Virginia has
created an air of the higher
education that permeates the
atmosphere of Charlottesville and her
environs. The sentiment of culture
has been the pride of the people for
many years, and when this city was
referred to as "a staid old town" it was
considered a compliment, and the intended
sarcasm was lost. It was under
this higher order of things that the
present excellent public school system
was inaugurated and fostered. To-day
Charlottesville justly boasts of having
one of the most perfect systems of
public instruction in the country. It
would require a great deal of space to
take up the history of the school and
detail the events from the beginning
to the present day. Almost with the
coming of the early settler came education
to the section. Soon after the log
cabin came the log school house with
its stone chimney and high fire places.
The seats and the desks were of
roughly hewn logs with the old "pegleg"
supporters. The schoolmaster
was the typical poor-fed, long, skinny
character who was paid almost
wholly in keep, being cared for at
different houses throughout the district.
A tramp of from one to five
miles to the school house was not considered
a hardship in those days. The
studies were limited to spelling, reading,
writing and arithmetic. Goosequill
pens were used, and pupils made
their own ink from bark and berries.
Such was the crude system of the
early days of learning in this section
of advanced education to-day.

This city was one of the first to recognize
the fact that popular education
was to become a permanent factor
in the educational system in the
Commonwealth. Acting upon that
conviction, the city schools were established
and fostered and developed on
lines that soon brought them in favor
with the citizens of the city, and
secured for them a patronage and support
that manifested that the work
they were doing was appeciated by
every class in the community.

The several School Boards charged
with the management and development
of the schools have been composed
of men whose hearts were in the
great work of giving to the people they
served schools that should measure
up to their needs and expectations.

A thorough course of studies was
adopted, wise rules prescribed for their
government and competent and faithful
teachers were chosen.

They were not left as they were begun,
but trusteesand superintendents,
by careful and discriminating study
of the best schools in the large cities,
extended and broadened the course of
studies in the Charlottesville schools
by adopting the latest and most approved
methods.

How well they have accomplished
this task is attested by the high stand
taken by the pubils and graduates of

the Charlottesville Public Schools in
the universities and colleges attended
by them after leaving the city schools.

Attention should also be drawn, as
further evidence of their thorough
work, to the fact that many of the
faithful and efficient teachers in the
city public schools to-day are graduates
of the Charlottesville High School,
while a goodly number of others are
now teaching in the county schools of
Albemarle and in other counties in
the State.

The council has always shown a
lively interest in the welfare of the
schools, and has not withheld that
support which has enabled the trusttees,
superintendents and teachers to
keep them abreast of the times in educational
efficiency and progress.

A feature of these thoroughly graded
schools is that with a course of carefully
selected studies, appropriate to
the age and needs of the various
schools, the grades are not overcrowded,
and the teachers are concerned wholly
with pupils and studies belonging to
a single grade.

While thorough instruction is given
from text books, the work of the
teachers does not stop with the mere
training of the mind, but the moral

training of the pupils receives daily
attention, and the important question
in all education, that of character-building,
is never lost sight of, that
those who attend these schools may
not only obtain useful knowledge, but
be trained in heart as well as in mind
for useful and honorable citizenship.

The High School course is one in
which any school may feel a commendable
pride and the the instruction
here is so faithfully imparted by university
graduates, that a pupil who
has completed the precribed course of
studies and earned a diploma as graduate
of the Charlottesville Public
Schools is fitted for life's work, and
furnished with an education of which
none should feel ashamed.

[ILLUSTRATION]

W. T. MARTIN,
President Chamber of Commerce.

With such educational facilties as
offers in her public schools, it is not
surprising that many who are attracted
to the city by its enterprise and opportunities
in business and professional
lines, are still further influenced by the
inducements of the best educational
advantages to cast their lot with the
people of this progressive city.

The schools are (white) Midway
School (embracing primary, grammar
and high school) Ridge corner of Main
Street.

Trustees: J. H. Lindsay, Jas. B.
Wood, Phil Leterman, A. Russow,
H. M. Gleason Jas. F. Harlan, W. D.
Macon, F. B. Peyton, Charlottesville,
Va. John S. Patton, Clerk, West Main
Street. Finance Committee: Messrs.
Wood, Chairman; Leterman, Gleason.
Building Committee: Messrs. Harlan,
Chairman; Dinwiddie, Gleason. Book
Committee: Messrs. ——Chairman;
Fishburne, Peyton.

Teachers, (white): Jas. W. Lane,
Principal; Mr. E. E. Dinwiddie, H. S.,
Miss Emma Moser, H. S., Miss Carrie
C. Burnley, G. S., Miss Sarepta A.
Moran, H. S., Miss Kate R. Lipop, G.
S., Miss Annie Godwin, P. S., Miss Mary
Wingfield, G. S., Miss Hickson, P. S.,
Miss Mildred Thacker, P. S., Miss Carrie
Vaughan, P. S., Miss Annie S. Caldwell,
H. S., Miss Nettie Godwin, H. S.,
Miss Hallie Wingfield, G. S., Miss
Mary Dinwiddie, G. S., Miss Minnie
Jarman, P. S., Miss May Dabney, G. S.

Colored: Miss Jane Johnson, Mrs S.
Hem, Mrs. M. L. Terry, Miss R. B.
Ferguson, Miss Mary A. Buchanan
Miss Seppie West.