DESCRIPTION OF SALISBURY ACADEMIES, 1820.
SALISBURY ACADEMIES.
The exercises of these institutions are regulated in the following manner: This year is divided into two sessions, and each session into two quarters. At the beginning of each quarter, a committee of three of the Trustees is appointed, whose business it is weekly to visit the Academies, to attend to their general concerns and to the progress of the scholars. At the end of each quarter, another committee is appointed, to conduct what is called "the quarterly examination." This committee take up the two last days of the quarter in examining the classes upon their various studies: this examination, though very strict, is not made public, being principally intended for the purpose of inciting industry and emulation among the scholars, and that the Trustees may judge of the improvements they make in their studies.
At the end of each session, a public examination takes place, and the report of the Trustees is published in the papers.
The examination of the last quarter took place a few days ago, and the committee who attended it were well satisfied with the progress of the pupils, of both the male and female departments.
In a short time, the large and commodious house intended for the male department, will be finished; when it may, without hazard, be said, that there is no Academy in the State where the pupils will be better accommodated than in the institution in this town. The houses are large, (being two story buildings, in size about 40 or 50 feet,) situated upon handsome sites and surrounded with pleasant groves of native growth. Every care is taken to render the situation of the Academies comfortable and pleasant, both in winter and summer; and indeed, the Trustees have spared neither pains nor expense to deserve public patronage, and make their institution a place where the useful and ornamental branches of education may be acquired, not in a superficial, but in a solid and beneficial manner. G.
—Western Carolinian, September 19, 1820.
(Source: North Carolina Schools and Academies, 1790-1840, By Charles L. Coon 1914)
