Photo by Sam Blncham
Almost as long as I can remember
I have been hearing of the Asheville
School — "for Boys." I had always
heard it called; and for "rich north¬
ern boys," I had classified it in my
mind.
Asheville School, I had surmised,
was a sort of junior country club for
privileged youths, an institution fa¬
voring such arts as horseback riding,
golfing, bridge, and tea dancing, but
little inclined toward pursuing the
problems and drudgery of sound schol¬
arship.
Those boys spent their evenings in
dinner jackets, I took for granted, de¬
bating the relative standings of the
social clubs at the Ivy League Institu¬
tions. I figured they knew more about
the Grcck-lcucr fraternities than the
twelfth multiplication table.
But not often did I hear the school
mentioned or give a thought to it.
Until a few weeks ago, when I
came across a 1953 catalogue of Ashe¬
ville School and a brochure entitled
"The First Fifty Years."
I began casually to thumb through
Bij LeGETTE BLYTHE
them. I looked at the pictures, read
sketches of Newton Mitchell Ander¬
son and Charles A. Mitchell, mid-
westerners who founded the school in
1 900. and of the early efforts to get
the institution established on a sound
financial basis. Then I turned back for
a more intensive perusal of the
catalogue.
"The School believes that adher¬
ence to high standards and the for¬
mation of good habits, both of work
and conduct," I read, "remain the es¬
sential basis of education."
Five Years of Latin
And then, there it was. wonder of
wonders, in a 1953 preparatory
school catalogue! "Latin: An intro¬
ductory course, normally given in the
Second Form, and four years for cred¬
it." My doubting eyes bulged. Five
years of Latin in a North Carolina
school, even though a school for for¬
eigners from up yonder! Five years of
Latin in an era where school authorities
have sought consistently to mini¬
mize cultural courses and particularly
courses that require brain work.
Amazing!
The list went on: French. German,
Spanish, history, mathematics. Tough
math, too — solid geometry, plane ge¬
ometry, plane trigonometry, advanced
algebra. Good solid stuff, meaty stuff;
stuff to make a boy scratch his head
and crinkle his brains.
Manual training, too. But not one
course on how to make up a bed or
lay out a pear salad on the southwest
corner of a lettuce leaf or talk over
the telephone or prune a banyan tree
or sell lace to a Lithuanian. Not one.
Incredible. I said to myself. But that
wasn't all the catalogue said.
Within a 10-year period. 361 boys
had been graduated. More than 10
per cent had gone on to the University
of North Carolina. Another large per¬
centage had entered Duke. Some had
gone to other North Carolina institu¬
tions. That gave this state a big per-
Rich or Poor _ They Work
THE STATE. OCCCMOCR S. 19 5 3
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