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Thursday, February 23, 2023

Angus Cameron Encourages Strong Finish to School Year, Feb. 23, 1923

Educational Matters

By Angus B. Cameron, County Superintendent

The present term of our schools is mor than half out. All the schools opened with large enrollment and during the first months the attendance was good—in most of the schools—much above former averages. Higher standards were set and it seemed in most cases these standards would be maintained throughout the term. More enthusiasm on the part of the teachers, keener interest and more active response on the part of pupils, and a greater evidence of active, co-operative interest on the part of patrons, all bespoke the greatest school year in the history of the county, and then came the “flu” and the whooping cough and various other ailments more or less dangerous, painful or disagreeable and the schools have suffered both in attendance and morale. In some communities there has been so much sickness that it has been necessary to close the school for a while, in other communities the daily attendance has been so reduced and so irregular that it has been difficult to maintain proper class organization. All the schools have been affected to a greater or less extent, with the result that the work has been somewhat more trying upon the teachers and the results somewhat less satisfactory than we had hoped for, but conditions are improving rapidly now, and it is important that patrons, teachers and pupils unite in a determined effort to put all our schools in the 100 per cent class for the remaining months of the term.

Let the children that have been sick and those that stayed out of school because they thought they were going to be sick, get back into school and taken up their work with a will and determination to make up for lost time. With the proper “comeback” spirit the 1922-23 term will come close up to the high mark set in the beginning and will soon forget the few weeks of sickness and discouragement.

County School Field Day

The program for County School Field Day will be along the same lines as last year. All schools are expected to take part. Township elimination contests will be held early in April, and be followed by final county-wide contests at the county seat.

Pick your best oral speller, your best declaimer, your best reciter, your best story teller, your best singers, your best map maker, your best runners, your best jumpers, your best ball throwers, your best basketball players, and groom them for the contest.

And because your school isn’t the largest in the county don’t get the idea that you can’t win and give up before you begin. Quality rather than quantity will be the winning factor. Your school may be the smallest, but, with proper training, it may have some of the best quality.

A prize will be awarded to the winner in each contest. And an extra prize to the winner of the greatest number of prizes. Get in the game and be a winner. Let’s make a great day for the schools of Moore County. A full program and list of prizes will be sent out soon.

Progress Day for the Colored Schools

This will be held on April 2nd. There will be school exhibits, music, speaking and athletic events. We want every negro school in the county to feel that this is their day, that this event is for them, and that each school must do its part to make the day a great day for the negro schools.

Letters to Heads of Families

We have just received from the State Department a supply of enlistment blanks for the North Carolina Live-at-Home Program. We are sending them out through the schools. We believe it will be a fine thing for our county and state if the heads of all families will sign up this enlistment blank and do their utmost to live up to its provisions throughout the year. Those who are able to make a good report in November will be entitled to a certificate of Honor.

This will be a good thing in itself, but the other good things coming from this plan will be far better.

From page 6 of The Pilot, Vass, N.C., Feb. 23, 1923. The Live-at-Home Program encouraged families to increase their self-sufficiency by planting vegetable gardens, home canning surplus, keeping chickens, a hog and a milk cow, rather than putting all of their efforts into a single cash crop and going into debt for food at the local grocery store.

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