Burlington free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1827-1865, 1860-04-27
For the Free Press. 2
BURLINGTON UNION HIGH SCHOOL.

/ have, ia effect, charged upon the failure to
enforce the terms ofadmissiou to the High school
that scholars re.lImittei TO the use Of unsuitable
books. to- attendance upon unsuitable instructions
and &, the influences Of spirit for which they are
NOT ripe
/ Tho plea If parents who would thrust their
children into the school without sufficient prepa-
ration is that they wish To- give them the best pro-
clrlb.e advantages and that the lower schools are
not good If this is wholly true they plan but
poorly. for they only secure for their children uu-
adapted, lui so poor Instruction while they effect.
usliy diminish the power Of the school ever to
give that good instruction they seek for ; and at
the same time they iujure the bower schools, Of
which they already complain, by Withdrawing the
best scholars. which are always powerful stimu-
lus both to pupils less advanced and to teachers,
before they have reached the legitimate end Of the
course # studies in those schools. The rel tions
between the schools is also broken UP. and the
stimulus which should be gained from the desire
t. have passed through one school Of clearly de-
fined capacity and to have been admitted to
another with capacity and limits equally well
known, is lost
The reasons for which such laxity in respect to
admission seems to have began and continued. that
it would win friends TO the school and ultimately
render it popular, are utterly false. They are
based on the assumption that men DO not know and
love true worth but are satisfied with names in
stead. But the world at large is not deceived,
nor does it choose the worthless. 1t knows gold
from brass. and chooses the more valuable. In
nothing is this trucr than in education. That a
school may become really and permanently popu-
lar, IL must deserve e. be So it must ever insist
on high attainment it must be filled full, not
necessarily with individual boys and girls, but
with a zeal for learning. Efforts to establish or
maintain a school in any other way, will surely
fail. Men at last will always judge correctly
F51 poptH, cor Da, as truly came from Heaven as
any word Of prophet apostle
Iadyoclto, then the enforcement Of the long
established terms of admission to the school I ad-
yocate it as a matter of economy. The High School
costs about one thousand six hundred dollars year.
More than one-f, urth Of this sum is expended for
the instruction of class of scholars in branches
and departments Of branches for teaching which
we have provided and must sustain other schools;
and because Of teaching here what is equally well
taught in the lower schools, many who seek in
structiou in branches confessedly within the prov
ince Of the high school, are compelled to seek it
elsewhere at a large yearly expense for tuition.
advocate it in behalf of those youth Of high aspi
ations and noble purposes who come to it for their
highest instruction and in behalf of thoss more
numerous youth who will never enter it, but who
are educated within the sphere Of its influence,
and for whom it should care all the more anxious
ly because it labors but indirectly for them.
To dabble with and shrink from the enforce
ment Of these terms Of admission, is to perpetu-
ate weakness in the High School by bringing to
its doors with every now term swarns of such as
are competent only TO lower it. The same course
tends equally to perpetuate weakness in the pri-
may and intermediate schools and to render
their work of preparing scholars for the high
school only the more difficult Do the people Of
Burlington wish such course to be persisted in
Do the managers of the High School really mean
to persist in it If so, Let US change the name Of
the school at once, for High School it is not and
cannot become, as it is now managed
A CITIZEN.
\ TORNADO passed over Carlinville, H.,
last week on Monday destroying large |
amount of stock and property One man
named Lowe was killed by lightning, and |
many persons were WOUNDED. The roof Of |
1.
nd half.
The OPENING EXERCISES Of the Mission
Try Convention, were cDmmence1 Tu esday /
venins at the Congregational Church, at /
? Nj. Addresses were delivered by Rev DR..
Walker Of the GAboJn Mission, and Rev. DR..
PERKINS of the HISTORIAN Mission.