Bio: Lucile Mabry Rice, Caddo Parish La Source: From Chronicles of Shreveport and Caddo Parish, Maude Hearn O'Pry, 1928, Submitted by: Kay Thompson Brown ********************************************************** ********************************************** Copyright. All rights reserved. http://usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://usgwarchives.net/la/lafiles.htm ********************************************** ************ LUCILE MABRY RICE LUCILE MABRY RICE is the daughter of Captain Philip and Theresa Chambers Mabry, born at Carrolton, Mississippi, and has spent her life in constructive, progressive, charity, educational and civic work. BELIEVING: Nations depend for their prosperity, their defense and their glory upon the home and the children, and will become whatever these make them; Advance in civilization, in character, in all that makes individual or national existence worthwhile, depends upon the spiritual, mental and physicœ life of the nations' children-all are of utmost importance; The home is the primary unit of good citizenship-the haven of rest for struggling humanity, the earthly object to be most desired by old or young--a place to be loved, adorned-sacred to all ambitious families, where all the graces of life may be cultivated, where comfort, happiness and peace may dwell; The young people should be constantly trained in the responsibilities of enlightened, constructive, progressive factors of citizenship. Then the law enforcement problem will vanish; Light-look at God's perfect work. Over this wonderfully beautiful world-visions of rapture, fair to behold-every creature a product of His infinite love. OUR SCHOOL PROBLEMS Lucile Mabry Rice THE Bureau of Education is sending out many leaflets and forms to gather needed information to improve our entire school system. These problems concern the adult as well as the children. There must be inculcated principles of morality and thrift, established sanitary conditions, personal efficiency and responsibility felt. In dealing with business affairs some are much more capable than others through native endowment, education and experience, consequently there are variations and differences which demand consideration. In addition to teaching the children in schools, whole communities must be elevated. They want tabulated data concerning the teaching staff, the student body, the material equipments, the receipts and expenditures, anti the branches of study for each group or class of schools in the United States. The members of the National Educational Association and Bureau of Education are vitally concerned with the working out of these significant educational problems. Now listen! They say there is no greater force or more reliable help than the S. I. A.'s of our land, and every woman's club that studies civic conditions or child life and social service workers are helpful. Bow to them. Are we coming into our own? In the public schools there are 506,040 teachers employed, of which 21.4 per cent are men, 108,300. Four hundred million dollars are spent in public school's. The average cost per pupil has doubled in twenty-five years. Has our efficiency kept this pace? The demand that money spent for education shall bring the greatest return and that no money be wasted is not a criticism of public education, but a cry for the best possible organization and administration of our public schools. The work undertaken by the Bureau of Education to bring about reform in accounting and reporting statistics will help toward that standard of efficiency which is the right and duty of every community to expect. Why so much talk, trouble and expense about the schools and education? E means out, duco to lead--to lead out thoughts formed in childish minds. When the average child looks with absolute dread upon a number of yellow or green backed books that must be absorbed in a specified time. How very strangely this idea of education has gotten upside down. After all that science and psychology can do for us, the intuitive preferences of childhood can no more be explained than his aversion to Dr. Fell. This is a feeling as deep as biological law and as high as an attribute of God. Parents are the God-given protectors and instructors of their families and should carefully maintain their purity, filling the lives of their children so full of Cans and Dos that Quits and Don'ts become relegated to the past to form humus to make better ideals flourish on. Education is the key that unlocks the storehouse of the world's knowledge. It is a companion no misfortune can depress, no clime destroy, no enemy alienate, no despotism enslave. Rome was Grecianized by her slaves. The taxpaying people of this country own their schools, and they would be run by a hard working lot of men and women, who have a profound sense of their responsibility to the public, and they should do it in a way that will produce the desired result-efficient, moral, broadminded manhood and womanhood--men and women who are prepared to deal with the problems of this civilization and those the future will bring. Longfellow says in the "Builders:" "Our todays and yesterdays Are the blocks with which we build. Build today then strong and sure, With a firm and ample base, And ascending and secure, Shall tomorrow find its place." Agitation is the first child of prosperity and education. To give a man something does not benefit him. The Sage foundation fund says all schools are public service corporations, and that the public is entitled to know the facts concerning their development and administration, whether those facts pertain to the financial or to the educational side. However, I do not know that there has ever been a syndicate formed on brains. Arkansas, our Arkansas stands forty-third in the columns of states, with 65.1 per cent of her children in the school four months in the year, a monument to our clumsy management, and the result is 53,000 white voters who cannot read or write their names to make our laws. Our boys and girls of today must decide the issues of tomorrow. A mighty educational campaign must hammer home these facts. Send a child home impressed with these truths and he'll convert his parents, whom you could never reach. One great lesson taught by this war is-it costs more to destroy a village than it does to build it. To have ideas on or about a subject and enforce them, is difficult and interesting. We cannot stop to embroider our language or pluck flowers from the gardens of rhetoric. We cannot use gloves, but we do need hooks that are strong and will bear heavy loads, that need turning; to make moral sentiment and laws effective and honorable officers to enforce them; eliminate present wrongs and use such means to prevent their recurrence. Little traits show the drift of character, and no plan that places a premium upon dishonor will ever receive anything but condemnation. The school situation throughout the United States demands that classes be formed for the bright, the slow, the backward and the deficient child. Instead of repeating the work over and over again, children should have the opportunity to make such progress from year to year as for them is possible. Our grammar schools show from 30 to 48 per cent of their pupils retarded. One-fifth of our entire population is in school, besides the army of teachers. Compulsory laws, a greater appreciation of education, better equipment and buildings, wore sanitary surroundings, better prepared and more efficient teachers, in fact the trend of our nation demands that this progress be made. To develop thought power is the key-note of the age. We need experts in trade, commerce and manufacture. In this great world war these thinking experts will determine the destiny of nations, and has made apparent the ignorance of the governing classes. This kind of ignorance is not confined alone to politicians. In attention to facts, concentration on physical prowess, wide spread ignorance of science, contempt for investigation are the basic faults of our present day educational systems. This war should open our eyes to many perils that have been overlooked. We want the initiative to bring the schools into such relation with everyday life as to make education more valuable, interesting and real. Teach children to see with their own mental eyes, not parrot-like; understand with their own brains, and feel their personal responsibility to life, home and country.