Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1870-10-21

EfHor Or the Free Press and Times;
cannot but think that your Montpelier cor
respondent spoke without book in his letter in
your issue Of this morning. when he said
&c Tie three existing Normal Schools unite to OF
pose this project Cof single Normal SCHOOL,
81 this time"
suppose that the State IS more indebted to
Edward Couant than to any other msn for its pre-
sent system Of Norm a. Schools The " plan for
the establishment AID endowment " of such
school, found on pnge I2d Of Adams ninth
Report. I suppose to have came from his hand.
This plan contemplated but a single school, and
required yearly income Of sG,0oo,-only
81 200 less than is now asked for by the Board
Of Education He saw clearly enough that one
COED school well equipped and well differed,
would be worth more than fourteen would
b.. surprising each county to demand such an
Institution. mad the pleasure Of = long con-
yersaton with Mr. Conant on this very matter
only three months ago, in which he assured me
that neither he nor the trustees of the Randolph
school had any thought OF opposing such pro
iect as has now taken shape. aui received the
sanction Of the State Board. l understood him
70 believe still in ONE STATE Training School, and
TO hold it to be the true policy Of the State to
endow AMI maintain it. Neither Mr.. Conant,
nor anybody else, iaesns by this that Vermont
v i'll 1ercr need more than one school for teachers
To ey mean that we should get one, and $ strong
ST / vigorous one, before starting = second that
the second should have proper endowment, an
able facility, aud full be iches, before agtsting
f5r third, and so on. They would rejoice TO
see such teachers semin airy in each county, if
only placed upon proper footing. As the FREE
Pass argued some time since, Vermont has not
vet hs anything like State Normal School.
The st Re has offered pittance to such students
as wou / sue for its charity, but has never given
one doh ar to sustain the schools. Messrs. Con
ant and Pearl and Williams Cor their trustees)
have be, graciously allowei to use tho word
State - in their catalogues and prospectuses,
and run I risks themselves. And if we might
venture an inference from what We have known
Of these &c hools. we would dare to affirm that
not one Of them has yet made its principal rich,
or is ever likely to They have served the
State and n cause Of education far better than
themselves.
1t is SON ct mes attempted to show how many
Normal Sc lools are needed by reckoning up the
number Of teachers required annually in our
district sci ools. 1t may be said thst we need
5000 teacl ers ian UNDERESTIMATE, that they
will averse but five years school work ian over
estimated. md that so we require constant re-
ipforcemen Of COO Normal pupils every year to
keep up til supply. If the Normal course oc-
cupies two years, As it may be granted ii
should. III n the one school will contain l2OO
pupils.-a number for which NO one town in the
State could rovide accommodations All which
NAV be TT 1e el 'ough but this is not the way tc
count the pupils The question should not be
How msu train ID teachers are needed but
How manv would le teachers can be got to IN
dergo a Iror er train ing This number, unhap-
pily. has hitherto bee quite limited. suppose
-
be wiling to undertake a care for them all
Your correspondent ints that 1t would Ut
unjust TO legislate the resent scho lis out o.
existence" From one pc mt of view t seem'
so. But consider, that the proposed plan can
not go into opera ton at once Allow two yes u
to consider propas, Is from di feren; towns, erect
buildings, organin proper faculty, &c, &c
This time doe. not seem more than is needed to
get everythi ng resdy. Two years will bring US
to 1872. But the special privileges [ ] given to
the pre- ent State n Normal schools were to
ooutinr e "for the term Of five years" The
Rand ,lph school went into operation 10Th Feb
1866 the johnson sch oil about the same time
Fi- years will bring them, will it MOTTO
Is ,72, the year in which we have hope to see the
Vermont STATE Normal School in complete
readiness to receive pupils, and begin all It's
courses Of instruction. Much more might be
said on this point, but this seems enough.
G.
na,ohsr Tath 1870