Rutland weekly herald. [volume] (Rutland, Vt.) 1859-1877, 1872-03-07

MONT STATE TEACHERS ASSOCIATION,
AT MIDDLEBURY, JANUARY 26, 1872, BY
REV. r. C. WILLIAMS, PRINCIPAL OF THE
STATE NORMAL SCHOOL AT CASTLEToN.
The programme of our meeting calls
up few of the many subjects 10 when
the attention of teachers is often, and,
on such occasions, usually directed.
We INQUIRE as to the comparative
valne of this or that subject; as to the
hest methods of teaching this, that and
other subjects how pupils may be more
interested and more advanced; and, in
General, how education and its blessings
NAV be most rapidly and widely diff
And this is well, noble, patriotic,
Christian May these discussions and
their good never diminish in the least.
Let il ever be our great aim to elevate
and refine, to empower and direct to
great and good achievements. There is
motive, stimulus enough on this side to
ronse and to nerve for patient, faithful
work in the most earnest teacher But
let us, for a moment, ask ourselves and
ask testimony. Suppose we do not thus
educate and elevate and stimulate to
high and noble effort. Suppose we
pause in our labOrs, is there no other
side and no other result, except that
few less Of the citizens of the State or
town become educated Suppose we
reach ten less persons in Il community,
is the result only this, that that com
munity has not 50 many educated per
sons by ten? Instead of being ten more
professional men, or high-toned public
epirited contributors to the general good
in their varied pursuits, is that town
only 50 far behind what it might have
been? Is the State only and simply de-
prived Of the aid, the impalse and the
progress which ten more men might
have impaired
Or in the individual case, does the
schooling and the education mark and
measure the difference between John
Smith, the truant school boy, who goes
naturally to the prison and the gallOws,
and John Smith, the up light judge, the
honest merchant, the public spirited me
chanic. By no manner Of means. Not,
indeed, does every neglected Johnny be
come the prisoner, nor, indeed, do all
lbe ignorant Johns remain the quiet, i'll
offensive lOungcr We may overlook as
we pass py that unintercsting person at
the corner Of the street, but is he a mere
W
and no cunning to plan and execute a
crime. His eye did not CLEAN with in
trlligrncc. it was not an idiotic stare, it
flashed rather with the glare of q demon.
from whom you turned in fear.
We may not feel like travellers who
leave some of their companions behind
m uncduCatcd in a State are not sim
NV an. raucuted. They are not to them
selves "a lift out of the circles Of the
intelligent and refined. They are not in
fbp Stat, only u many less, skill"doper-
aIiyr- active producers and great pro-
moters Of The material Interests Of the
BODY p)litic They possess powers and
passious a. move them. They readily
acquire knowledge and skill to invent
and pprfO,m deeds of harm and injury
to society. they develop. As man must,
and become the dread and pests of the
world.
1t is in this view that the subieG, as
signed to me assumes great meaning and /
eniargcs to vast importance. So little /,
has hron in the past thought of it, that
NO records haye been kept with a view
to ascertain facts showing any such It
latiOn Of late anG sFry recently, how
ever. attention has been lurncd to it,
and enough has been gathered T. show
that such relation exists as should arouse I
the deepest interest in every well Wishrr ,
of his State and nation, and of his fellow
man.
True, such statements as this ouc by !
7 g. 1T Russell, Who knows whereof !,
10 ofi.,. -. may be easily and abundantly .
fornI .. The contrast between Eng .
ion ,,i', and Sy,. 'zpyland is, that England .
snends more than dive times as much or
and crime aS She does OF eau
cation. and Switzcrla % 9PcRs's seven
times as much on educate "a ~ 75' ''oGS
On pauperism and crime. Auu Socx
statements can be placed along siGF u
such a. this from Rev. B. G. NJ ''Rf"p'
Secretary Of the State Board of f. Gca'
ton of Connecticut, made from his o.
servatiOns, last summer of Switzerland.
''Such a government can afford to trust :
the people Hence there is a free press,
free speech, free schools, freedom in re-
igion, freedom in travelling, no pass
ports being required. There is rcI7tjyelY
I'm. less cri3ujnulitY here than in EagL1nd. (
As an instance, in the village of llgOw, t
containing [ $50 inhabitants, not one in i
lvidual during the last twenty-five years
las been brought into court as prisoner,
)r sued for debt, which can be said of :
few places Of equal population in the :
world"
Our Commissioned Education. Gen. 9
J. Eatan, Jr., will devote some space in
lis report of this subject, giving some
ables Of results and investigations that
will be new and startling. Having
,een favored with a few pages of proof
n advance of the publication of his re- d
,ort I would give a few facts gathered {
herefrom. l
From a tabulatcd report from Saxony, I
he fullest one given, not one sixth of l
he criminals could read or write well, l
n knew arithmetic and grammar well, |
me half knew the branches only tolcr- G
bly, well. '
Returns from the Bayarian provinces c
how remarkable relation between l.
cho0ls and crime. In Lower FrancOnia r
here is one school house to every 17G |
inhabitants and the amount of crimes is i
'S4 to every 1000 inhabitants. AS |
he school houses in the other provinces {
decrease, crime increases in almost per- 5
eCtly even steps. F!