Southern Schools Show Progress - Sometimes

Hidden beneath the facade of Southern decadence lies the keynote of present-day secondary school education in the South: progress. Progress is the motto of the new South, and is now reflected in all aspects of Southern life. Everywhere the signs point upward.

Secondary education in the South is now "mediocre, but getting better," according to one high school principal in Atlanta. In terms of national averages, Southern educational figures seem dangerously low because of the large undeveloped rural territory. Teachers come from poor educational backgrounds, they receive low wages, and many have never been out of the South. Most of the buildings are antiquated, and above all, the students--to say the least--do not have an overwhelming interest in academic subjects. Consequently, many statistics do not present favorable pictures.

Good in the Cities

In the cities, however, the curricula are generally excellent. These schools offer a broad selection of courses, equalling in scope many passable northern school systems. Along with the traditional offering of physics, chemistry, trigonometry, and solid geometry, Southern urban schools are now introducing physiology, advanced mathematics, German, and geology into their programs. The basic requirements in urban schools are similar to their northern counterparts--four years of English, three of math, two of science and social studies--and college-bound students take a great many more than these.

Thus, it is clear that all is not stagnate: progress is slowly being made in educational methods. In Georgia's DeKalb Country, the school board has begun breaking classes up into ability groups, enabling the poor student to set his own pace, and the good student to move ahead. Many schools direct their good students into college courses, offering analytic geometry to those able to undertake this advanced work. In addition, Ford Foundation grants have enabled some schools in Atlanta to offer elementary calculus and extensive studies in English literature and American history.

In that city--and in at least five others throughout the state--all students are required to take two years of algebra, one of plane geometry, one of general science, and one of general biology.

Worse on the Farms

But in many high schools throughout the state--a student can graduate having had only business arithmetic, general science, and biology. This is true especially in rural areas, where students lag far behind city students in science and math, primarily because the duties of the farm or general store do not create strong academic interest. Negro schools also lower the general education statistics, usually because the Negro is more interested in learning a trade than in making honor rolls. The average Negro student is not so likely to attend college as his white counterpart, and consequently is not interested in purely "academic" subjects.

The Negro is also a partial cause--albeit involuntarily--of the Southern lag in school construction.

Separate Schools

Facilities are poorer in the South because of the lack of money, but the difference is rapidly disappearing. One reason for difficulty in having adequate educational facilities is the fact that present Southern law requires separate school systems for white and Negro students. A country of 3,000 residents will theoretically need equal, and rigidly separate facilities. Thus where one building would suffice, two are constructed. Further evidence shows that some Negro schools are nothing more than hovels. Of course, there are some white hovels also, but this fact is hardly justification for the poor Negro school.

Teaching standards in the South are also below the national average. Because there are fewer teachers' colleges or even colleges, there are fewer teachers. This says nothing of the low wage scale; all wages in the south are low and the teacher's is hardly an exception. The lack of progress in a child is not necessarily due to poor teaching, for the social climate may also contribute to the lack of respect for academic subjects.

In the scores of the Cooperative Tests of the Educational Records Bureau in American History, a score which would put an independent school student in the 78th percentile ranking would put him into the 99th percentile ranking of a Southern high school. If the same student ranked in the 50th percentile in the independent scale, he would place in the 91st bracket of Southern schools. These figures do indicate that the Southern high schools are considerably behind the private schools, but the Midwestern or Eastern public schools would rank somewhere in the middle of these two extremes.

Competence Lacking

In the realm of government, generally the members of the school boards are sincere men devoted to education. They want to see schools improve, but frequently they lack the professional competence to do so, possibly because they attended an inferior school thirty years before.

The most emotional obstacle to progress in Southern schools is the enormous problem of segregation of the school systems. This issue does not materially affect the technicalities of the curriculum, but does cause tremendous emotional difficulties. School standards for Negroes would undoubtedly rise of they would receive the same financial attention as white students in the same schools. The Supreme Court decision has already caused deep emotional conflicts. One elementary school teacher in Gwinnet Country, Georgia, was fired last year for refusing to denounce the court order in the classroom. The state legislature has debated a resolution that teachers must sign a loyalty oath that they never have belonged to or supported the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. Such actions can have an obvious adverse effect on both teachers and pupils. The whole issue of segregation remains the foremost problem in the South, but authorities are mean-while trying to improve white and Negro schools internally.

There Is Hope

The general standards of Southern secondary schools are lower than those in most other sections of the country. There are relatively poor facilities, teachers, and students for various reasons. Yet it is evident that the South is not doomed to eternal backwardness in scholastic achievements. Improvement is the battle cry, and one can not help but hope that a better school system will arise and drown the cries for no schools at all if they have to be integrated, or for a ridiculous private school system now existing as laws in Georgia and Virginia. There is a deep desire for improvement in the South, though the rate of progress must seem unbelievably slow and very characteristically Southern to outsiders. But the roots are there; they merely have to grow. The South will not remain in a state of suspended stagnation, but must eventually rise to better standards of education. The wheels have already begun to turn; they only need more acceleration.