The voice of freedom. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1839-1848, 1846-01-01
BRANDON, Thursday January |, 1916.

s conveniently furnished by teachers, and
e method of embodying it will be given ii
-. the address to them.
, You will in your visits note the condi
: ton of school houses-whethe they ar,
pleasantly located, comfortable, convent
ent, and adapted to the purpose for which
they were desi gned. Pal pable defcien
cies which materially interfere with the
comfort and progress of the school, and
which might cheaply and easily be RENE.
died, you will name to the proper per-
sons, and suggest the desired improvement.
Especially should you find in any ofthese
buildings, little children subjected to the
living marsyrdom of sitting five or six
hours in day upon seats without sup
port to their backs, and perchance unable
to reach the floor with their feet, you will
at once procure the abolition of this sys-
tenn of inquisitoriaI torture. There is no
district so poor but that it can furnish a
board for its children to lean their backs
against. We are we'll aware that a great
deficiency in regard to school house arch
ltecture exists generally throughout the
state but i! is not contemplated that an
entire change in the construction of school
houses can at once be effected. Districts
which have recently borne the burden Of
building one, cannot reasonably be ex>
peeled or asked Immediately 10 submit to
the expense of building another. But in
many cases alterations might be made at
an expense which would not place the
improvement beyond their reach, while II
would secure, in much higher degree
than they are now secured, The health
comfort, convenience and progress Of
scholars. In some cases too, districts
will be, in the natural course of events,
about erecting new buildings, and you
may be called upon 10 furnish models, or
advise in regard 10 the most approved
modes of construction. And it is OF course
important that you should be furnished
with the information requisite 10 meet this
call ably and fully. And thus, as the ILL
constructed, the uncomfortable, inconven>
lent, unhealthy, and-to use a word in
new sense-unimproving structures of the
past go 10 decay-and we would not re-
tard their progress-lhere may gradually
be erected in their stead, if not precisely
in their places, ediices so constructed that
one might look in upon them and at once
see and feel that means had been adapted
to the end designed.
In your visits 10 schools you will OF
course, in accordance with the provisions
OF the law under which you act, give such
instructions and advice 10 teachers as you
may deem proper. Where an error in
management or instruction is found, that
may be corrected by suggestion from
you, that suggestion will, of course, be
given. But if in any case you find in the
teacher hopeless and remediless de6cien-
cy, whether from gross ignorance, vicious
habits, an incidence so adhesive that it will
not be shaken off, or from some other OBJ
vious constitutional unfitness for his sta
ton, l cannot doubt that it is your duty
promptly to apprise the prudential com.
mittee OF the mater and recommend HE
removal. And this too, even though no
better teacher could be procured to sup
ply his place. For it is vastly better that
the children OF the district should be kept
away from the place where error is incul.
Gated, and where they are exposed to the
communicating and pollutng influence of
vicious habits, even though they should
be making no valuable attainmens else
where. But it will not be necessary re-
suit that our children should entirely lose
their time because kept from school, Our
girls, employed at home in domestic az
ocations, even if they should learn but
little of the science of chemistry, from the
display of its agencies in the various opera.
lions of the culinary art, would still be
acquiring some useful practical accom-
plishments and our boys, although no
better employment could be found for them
than that Of snow-ballng and skating,
even should they learn in these sports but
little of the theory of projectiles or Of the
laws of locomotion and gravity as devel>
oped in their exercises, would at least be
acquiring vigor of muscle, and suppleness,
and activity of limbs. And how much
better is positive good, though small,
than positive eviI-especially when that
evil is, as in the case under consideration,
g4eat and perhaps irreparable.
In your lectures you will be able to ac-
complish much by way of removing pref
udices, exciting attention, and awakening
the interest of the community in the cause
of common school improvement. Any
attempt to effect an improvement will be
futile and unavailing unless it be made to
appear desirable to those among whom it
is TO be wrought. The community must
feel that it is not yOwr work that is to be
done, nor that of the legislature, but their
oVn. The law under which you hold your
office confers upon you but little authority
beyond that which must flow from your
power of producing conviction upon the