Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1860-11-24
BRATTLEBOROi
SATURDAY, NOVEMBER "a, 1860.
SCHOOL REPORT.

be widely circulated and read. The Report of
the Board is well written, clear and dignifed,
containing judicious remarks and valuable sug-
gestions. 1t gives favorable account of the
working of our present school system, and pre-
diets greater progress in the future. Its tone
is cheering and hopeful-its spirit, mingling of
conservatism and progress. 1t would hold fast
to all that is good in the System and at the
same time make all improvements necessary to
its greatest efficiency and usefulness. To the
question, $50 far, what has been done" The
Report says:
LIST. "The public have been generally made
aware of what their school system is. They
know its strength and its capabilities. They
know its effects, and are in a condition to con-
slider intelligently the means of remedy.
End BY prudent legislation, based upon a
very wide and clear expression of opinion from
all parts of the State, many of the more obvi-
GUS defects of the law have already been rene
died, and the public mind is pointedly directed
to the question whether any thing more, and
what, is needed in the way of legislation.
Sd. Good fruits are already beginning to
appear in the improvement of the schools, and
in more general attendance. The schools are
more valued and respected. Better teachers
are therefore employed higher wages are paid.
School houses are repaired and better furnished.
New housesare built on better models and in bet
ter places. Districts could be named where Sc
ect schools have been discontinued, and the chill
dren OF the rich and poor attend together the
same school, under teachers fully competent to
teach and train them ALL With the disposition
to have better houses, and better teachers, and
to give higher wages, we find also the desire
and effort to avoid frequent change of teach
ers. There is an increasing number of instan
ces where it is made the interest of good teach
ers to continue their schools the year round"
The Secretary's Report occupies l3l pages
about sixty-seven of which are taken up with
"Remarks of Town Superintendent" These
Remarks coming from men situated in all parts
of the State, and touching a great variety of
topics, are not only an interesting but impor-
tant part of the Report. They contain many
important statements and facts relating to school
houses and their appurtenances, teachers and
their discipline the interes, of parents in schools;
the manner in which the School Law is regard
ed; and the good and evil generally in the con-
duct OF our public schools. These "Remarks"
show very clearly that large proportion of the
schools of the State are by no means what they
ought to be, and that much is yet TO be done to
give our children such an education as they
ought to have to qualify them for the duties of
civilized life. To the Report the Secretary has
added an appendix" containing "An abstract
of the decisions of the Supreme Court of Yer
mont, of questions arising in the administration
of the school laws OF the State arranged alpha
betic1lly, by topics" This "Appendix," togeth-
er with the "Appendix" of the Secretarys Re-
port last year, containing the school laws ofthe
State, requiring much labor CT the Secretary,
will be of very great service TO our citizens,
and the Secretary deserves ten thousand thanks
for the same.
The Secretary discusses in his report great
variety of subjects informs us of his labors in
holding Teachers Institutes, visiting Schools and
delivering Lectures, collecting statistics, and
other duties of his office. He has held during
the year one Institute in each of the fourteen
Counties of the State. These have generally
been well attended and excited good degree
of interest. The statistical aggregate of the
condition of the common schools Of the State,
which the Secretary gives us, will be read with
interest. The statement therein of 9,SS2 in
fiictions of corporal punsaments during the
year, will lead some to ask if Vermont is civ
ilized, christian State.
The Report shows that the Secretary has la
bored faithfully and diligently in the discharge
of his duty, that he is earnest and interested
in his work, that he understands the working
and the needs of our schools and that he has
the ability to do his share to make our schools
what they ought to be. We should be glad to
give our readers many facts to be gathered
from this Report, but our space forbids. We
hope the Report will be generally read. We
limited in our Notice of the Secretary's Report
last year, that his style of writing was suscep
tible OF improvement, and could hardly be rec
commended as model for the imitation of our
scholars. His sentences are often long, in
volved and confused, and his style is wanting
in clearness and simplicity. The following par
agraph with which we close our notice of this
valuable Report, shows both Mr. Adams's opin-
ion OF an important point, and his manner of
composition:
"But an actual visitation of the different To-
calities shows conclusively, that the apathetic
GOODNESS of the general mind, or rather the gen.
eral failure to yitalize and make practically
useful the vague and theoretical interests which
really subsists, in popular education, is at the
bottom, not only of most other school Difficult
ties but also, Of the failure of Teachers either
to improve their qualifications as they ought or
to exert their best cultivation and ability in
vocation which they are apt to think is not APP
preciated as it should be, and in which medioc-
rity, as they sometimes suppose, commands as
much respect, and as high compensation, as an
ability to teach of much higher grade"
sEcEssIoN---A SOUTHERN CoNvEN-
TON.
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