Dr. Mauney Douglas Collins
(1885-1967)25 years Georgia's Superintendent of Schools, 1933-1958
THROUGH
MOUNTAIN MISTS
Early Settlers of
Their
Descendants...Their Stories...Their Achievements
Lifting the
Mists of History on Their Way of Life
By: Ethelene Dyer Jones
The Life and
Times of Dr. Mauney Douglas Collins – Part 5
Major
Contributions as
Dr. Mauney Douglas Collins
(1885-1967)
25 years Georgia's Superintendent of Schools, 1933-1958
His retirement at age 73 highlighted a distinguished career that
spanned fifty-six years as an educator, from a one-teacher school at
Old Liberty in
One of his favorite expressions in his tenure as superintendent
was, “We deliver the goods, express charges prepaid.” He
had Georgia’s children and teachers at heart, with grass-roots
knowledge of how education could work for the best good to the most
people. Some of his favorite expressions have often
been quoted:
“
“Education does not cost; it pays.”
“Everybody is somebody.”
“A teacher can only teach two things: What
he is and what he knows.”
To encourage those who often sought him out in the state’s
highest educational office with what seemed to them mammoth problems,
“Doc” Collins would send them away with his characteristic smile and
“Attaboy! You can do it!” ringing in their ears.
Speech writers were often concerned that he read their
painstaking research, tucked the manuscript into his pocket, and went
onto a podium to make a speech, filling it with his own home-spun
philosophy that often ended with his favorite comparison of two things
of like nature going together “like grits and gravy.”
Some of these were: education and the
community; teachers and pupils; hope and determination.
His favorite themes were expressed in his speeches:
“We must have equal educational opportunities for all the
children of all the people.”
“I had rather pay the bill at the schoolhouse than at the
jailhouse.”
He entered his job as state school superintendent the year
Franklin Delano Roosevelt became president and Eugene Talmadge was
governor of
From 1933 through 1958, he led Georgia to adopt the Minimum
Foundation Program for Education; free textbooks for all public school
students; school, public and regional library services; bus
transportation; surplus commodities; state teacher salary scheduled
increases; school lunch programs; expanded
vocational education; establishment of regional technical schools at
Clarkesville and Americus; vocational rehabilitation programs; twelfth
grade added to high school; curriculum expansion; school terms extended
from three months to nine months; Georgia Teacher Retirement System
(TRS); state employees’ retirement system; state merit system; high
school equivalency program for veterans and other adults (GED test for
high school diploma); a $200 million school buildings program; and a
state audio-visual library with the largest educational film loan
system to schools of any state in the nation.
As he pushed for teacher salary increases, he also encouraged
teachers to get better training for their jobs and initiated a stricter
teacher certification program for
One perilous hurdle for
In higher education, he was one of the founders of
He died
Dr. Mauney Douglas Collins exemplified in his life and service the spirit of individualism, self-discipline, hard work and ambition. These are often characteristics of persons reared in adverse circumstances and determined to achieve. He was mountain-bred and people-oriented. He left a rich legacy from which Georgians are still benefiting today. Indeed he was a noble mountain man, a person of vision, fidelity and attainment.
c2003 by
Ethelene Dyer
Jones; published October 23, 2003 in The Union Sentinel, Blairsville,
GA.
Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
[Ethelene Dyer
Jones is a retired educator,
freelance writer, poet, and historian. She may be reached at
e-mail edj0513@windstream.net;
phone 478-453-8751; or mail 1708 Cedarwood Road, Milledgeville, GA
31061-2411.]
Updated July 14, 2018
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