Green-Mountain freeman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1844-1884, 1845-11-20
g 0 m I'M o IA schools.
Or the Green Mountain Freeman
Common Schools,

present system of common school education call loudly
for eradication. | am glad to see the appearance of
an awakening interest on the subject, and indications
that our Legislature, at its present session, will enact
efficient laws, which will tend to reform existing evils.
/ believe, however, that if we look to legislation a.
lone, as a reformatory process, we shall look in vain
for the removal of all the evils which prevent our
schools from becoming what is desirable, In this, as
well as in all other cases where prominent defects and
glaring evils are suffered to exist and flourish in civil
or social economy, we should look for the cause, and
direct our efforts to its removal. Any attempt at
legislation which overlooks or d~isregards this, is but
blind, inefficient, and laundering.
The cause may always be found in a bad state of
public sentiment, which cannot be removed without
disseminating information and exposing errors.
Much has been said about the ineficiency of teach
ers, and of our liability to be imposed upon by ignorant
p~retenders to the science of pedagoguism. Now,
Messrs. Editors, | certainly am in favor of "a tarifGor
protection" against the Importation of such articles
"duty free" either into our State or school districts. |
would have them admitted under such liabilities and
restrictions as will afford ample encouragement" to
our "native growth" and domestic manufacture"
But why, | would ask, does the necessity exist for
legal protection? Our teachers do not take us by the
throat and compel us to employ them, The contract
is mutual. It is the province of the prudential COM
mittee to satisfy themselves of the mental and moral
qualifications of those whom they employ and if they
do not do this, they neglect their obvious duty. They
have just as good a right to do this now, as they can
have under any system of legislation. From the SUI
perabundance of teachers they can select whom they
please. School districts should appoint none for COM
mittees but those who are qualified to examine and
judge of the qualifications of teachers, and who feel
an interest in the school and are willing to exert them
selves personally to promote its best good,
Again: if parents would take that intelligent inter
est In their schools which they ought, they need not be
imposed upon very long by any ignoramus. They
would visit the school, and ascertain, in this way, its
condition and prospects. If they found a teacher in
competent, they could discharge him. It is because
parents are too Indifferent Or indolent to do this, and
because public sentiment is at fault in various other
particulars, Ito some of which | mean to advert that
we need Legislative protection, restriction, prescription,
and prescription.
But let no one suppose las many seem to- that the
people at large are a poor, weak, sckly body, liable to
be overcome and trodden under foot by the very pow
erful body of itinerant school teachers; Or that they a.
lone need protection, and the school teacher has no
rights, or is not subject to abuse, Or does not need the
aid of law, as well as his employers.
believe there is no class or profession, the members
of which are so much abused-whose feelings are SO
much trifed with, or whose rights are trampled upon
with SO uchimpunity,as school teachers. Consequent
Iy mono hut those who have NOT learnt This nv observation
or experience, Or those who scare for nobody" will
engage in school teaching. They dare not encounter
the probable abuse which blind prejudice, Or wilful
malice may heap upon them. They are conscious of
integrity of purpose, and that they have qualified them
selves to teach; but they know that neither, nor both,
will shield them from unmerited abuse and contumely.
School teachers are often looked upon as a set of lazy,
proud leeches, who are willing to draw money out ola
community without rendering, in return, an adequate
equivalent. Good, competent teachers, as a general
thing, cannot command reasonable wages. Their
charges are considered exorbitant,-and such is the
penny wise, pound foolish, niggardly economy practic-
ed, to a very great extent, that any one disposed to turn
pedagogue, no matter what are his qualifications, for
they are seldom enquired after, can get employment, if
he will keep school cheap enough. Thus, those who
have talents are driven from the field, or forced to take
up with pitful wages, which they are made to feel, by
the loud complaints they hear, are %grudgngly given;
and which are neither remunerating nor stimulating
Why, sir, a man who knows enough, or has muscular
strength enough to chop cord aeood, ought to have
higher wages than a school teacher, who has nothing
to do but to stay in the school house six hours per day,
aboard round" for his living, and " go a visiting in the
EVENING"
Again: the disposition to take sides with the scho-
lars against their teachers in cases of discipline, is grow
ing alarmingly prevalent. | know there are many who
object to the use of the "rod," Or any other corrective
punishment, and contend that a school should be gov
.erned by persuasion and love. But | believe such
know but little of the depravity of human nature. |
will not stop now to argue the practicabiity or imprac-
ticability of this policy. There may be one school in
a thousand, and one teacher in a thousand, where, if
the two were connected together, the school for a time
might progress harmoniously on such principles. But
believe Solomon lost none of his reputation for wis
dom, when he said, 'FWithhold not correction from the
child, for if thou beatest him with the rod he shall not
die. Thou shalt beat him with the rod and shalt de
liver his soul from hell"
| believe / have never heard of 50 many cases of
disturbance or troublesome disobedience in schools, in
any one year as within the last. | attribute this to the
fact that scholars are getting the opinion that they can
t~ransgress the rules of the school with impunity; or if
they are punished, many will take their part, and per-
thaps they can get up excitement enough to turn the
teacher out of school, A scholar is justly punished
but his stubborn will is not subdued. His parents are
disposed to think he is abused straightway a petition
is put in circulation, and a school meeting is called t
4turn the master out" The large, and sometimes
small boys, attend. They hear all the angry, vituper
alive abuse, which on such occasions is generally ban
died back and forth against each other, and the teach
er, and if the master is not "turned out" his influence
is, in a great measure destroyed. The scholars trea
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