Our school is very small, as it always is at this season of the year, the children having to assist their parents in farming. For that reason, during the summer months of the previous years, we have had to teach about two hours at night, for the benefit of those who could not come in the daytime. We have not yet commenced night-school this year, though it is desired by many.
There are many children in our neighborhood who belong to our school, but we find it very difficult to get all, or the most of them, to attend school regularly. We have a pretty good average attendance, but do not at all times have the same scholars, which causes much discord and delay.
The children seem to be anxious to learn, but it is done in the midst of hardships which are uncommon to children in many other places. The older people are not as much interested in the education of their children as they should be, by a great deal.
Only two schools for the colored children are kept up during the year in this county, namely, Second Midway and Old Midway. There are other places I know of in this county, where much might be done in the way of instructing the people in the right way, and they would be very glad to receive it; but the aid is wanting.
About two-thirds of the colored people in this county are trying to buy land, and really some have succeeded in so doing; but it is done by about four years’ hard labor and strict economy. There is very little money in this county, and it will be so until the colored people pay for and take possession of these lands. After a couple of years they will be able to do much for themselves in many ways.
A Growing School—A Literary Society.
COSMO P. JORDAN, MARIETTA.
The Mission School at Marietta was opened Oct. 15th, 1877, with four pupils only. The 2d day of January, 1878, there were fourteen. The end of January found a roll of thirty-seven, which has steadily increased to seventy-two. It may be seen that the growth of this school was not very rapid, from the fact that it was opposed by many of the colored people in the city. But the more water they threw on this little spark, the brighter and faster it burned, till it has become a centre of attraction. Friends of this work are fast multiplying, and the future seems bright.
My school is composed of some very bright and promising young men and women, seven of whom go out every summer to teach. The studies are spelling, reading, writing, geography, composition, grammar, and arithmetic.