Rutland weekly herald. [volume] (Rutland, Vt.) 1859-1877, 1871-06-29
The Public School and the Public
Teacher-their Effects upon So.
ciety and the Nation.

4
Teacher-their Effects upon So
ciety and the Nation. ~
Abstract of the address of A. j. San
born, of Middlebury, before the Otter
Greek Teachers Association.
He commenced by saying that when
Burke first said Education is the cheap
defense of nations Madison, that well
instructed people alone can be perma-
nent people, andJo John Adams that Re-
publican Government without knowledge
and virtue, is body without a SOUL the
world was not willing to adopt them, but
now they were acknowledged truths. The
embodiment of these ideas in deeds in
the establishment of systems of educa-
ton at the public expense in the nine
teenth century, was what he proposed to
consider.
His first proposition was that the pub.
lie schools canvasses the whole face of So
ciety. Only few centuries ago, know
ledge and education was confined to the
rich and aristocratic few, and the great
mass of the people were shut out from the
pursuit of knowledge. This period has
been called the midnight of time yet it
was the midnight of midnight Slowly
the age passed away. The great effort of
the present age is to furnish education TO
the whole mass of the people. The doors
of the public school are never closed, and
all who choose can enter, day or night.
In some places an endeavor may be made
to make distinction between the chill
dren of the rich and the poor, but the
child of poverty often gains the laurels, |
and talent will bridge ever chasms between
l 90 -. kn - II
thought of Washington, Webster and
Lincoln will live when the wealth of the
Rothcbilds is forgotten. School-houses
are to be found everywhere through the
length and the breadth of the land, where
all, be he rich or beggar, may gain that
knowledge and mental power which shall
enable him to strike blow in the world,
which shall make his name a household
word ages hence.
He alluded to the attendance of public
schools, which he illustrated by large
array of statistics, only a few of which
can we find space for.
/ The average attendance of public
schools in the United States is 1877 ,069.
while the average number of children of
school age absent from school il 4.S43,-
$50, so that 1 ,465, 49S more children are
absent from school than attend. (Thel
number of children absent from and at |
tending school in each state was then Civ
en- In Vermont froms 1860 to 1878 the |
number of pupils of school age attending
school was only from 4S no to 90 1-2
! per cent. varying by a few hundreths.
1 1t is the unanimous testimony of all hsv-
| ing the care of our educational interests
throughout the land, that absence is the
1 greatest evil in our public schools. In
support of this position he quoted at
lenght the opinions of the superintedents
of the public schools of Pennsylvania, |
Boston, Wisconsin, Portland and others |
1t appears that while ample opportunity
for education are furnished to all, large
proportion of the children of the United |
States do not avail themselves of these
privileges
Having seen the condition of the child
rem, he next illustrated the condition of
| those older. In 1860 there were 1,277.-
779 white persons over twenty.one years
of age in the United States who could not
read and write, being nine and one-half
per cent. of the population over that age.
Of these S71 AIS were native born and
BAG, 1893 foreigners. The number of adults
who could not read or write, in each
state was given; New Hampshire hav-
ing the smallest percentage and Delaware
the largest. The statistics were taken
from the census, and were undoubtedly
underestimated, as many would hesitate
to acknowledge their ignorance. Horace
Mann thought 30 per cent. should be
added,
When Joe Johnston's army surrendered,
81, 513 out of 1924 could not write their
names in the Provost Marshars office The
foregoing statistics are of the white adult
population, adding thereto, those of the
colored adults, we have 1872, iii in
the United States who can neither read
or write.
The old adage "whatever a nation
would have appear in her laws, she must
frat put into her schools" has been re.
peated by thousands but its full import
has not been understood. The Common
School may not be as august as Senate,
but the veal or woe of the nation de-
ponds more on the power than the battle.
There was great significance in placing
the GODDESS of Agriculture in the State
House at Montpelier, surrounded as it il
by rich valleys and fertile fields. Yet
there is something more important for
the permanency of this building, its
foundation must be laid sure and deep or
1t will fall. The public school il the
basis on which the nation rests-upon the
intelligence of the people rests the secur-
ity of their liberties-while Germany
and Prussia for the past thirty years have
been giving education TO the people,
France has sought to give fashion to the
world and the result has been seen in the
late war. While in France there are
f:rty-seven out of every one hundred that
are ignorant of the alphabet, in the whole
of Germany there are not two thousand.
The power and enlightment Of Germany
is owing to her public schools, and the
snaechy and confusion of France is the
necessary outgrowth of ignorance. He
then at some length contrasted the differ
encs that existed in this country between
states where there were public schools
and in states where the system did not
exist.
During the last century history has re-
ceived into it's composition a new element,
and that is public opinion, and this has
given use to the necessity of and demand
for q public education. What discipline
and strength was to the great powers of
former ages, education must be to us.
But public opinion must be right. and to
accomplish this it must be enlightened,
and the public schools is the place for
this. Without this it will become giant
for evil, working destruction.
He then proceeded to illustrate. by
statistics, the different effect of education
and ignorance on the morals and domestic
veal of a people. A German is seldom
found in prison or begging our own
prisons and refornatory schools show that
By far the larger number there confined
are ignorant and uneducated. 1t costs
Vermont seven times as much to educate
. child in the Reform School as in the
public school. The street is where chill
dren are formed for the reform school.