Vermont watchman and State journal. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1836-1883, 1872-12-18
fUatohman s. Journal.
WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER Is, 1872.
Tfnus-slo1 per year, strictly 10 advance or il.io
Do not pad within three mouths.
Board of Education.

Board of Education
The committee to investigate the Board
Of Education has made report which we
publish to.day, that every Nermonter must
read with Indifference or contempt IL
seems that considerable dissatisfaction has
been expressed by the papers Of the State,
and the teachers with the Board Of Educa-
ton. 1t has been alleged that the Board
was, for an purposes Of real value to the
educational interests Of the State, utterly
worthless; that the gentlemen who com
pose it, however Individually able aud in
teliacut, necessarily Gnd themselves re-
striclel to the mere mechanics Of educa-
tiou, such as changing text books and
drawing their per diem that they are
procluied from instituting or carrying into
effect any improvements in the system Of
common and public schools that an eff
cicnt and able Secretary can better do their
work than they can do it themselves, and
that all their power is limited to mere
formal and temporary changes, or to couu-
eel and advice. The teachers Of the State
have also, in some instances, found fault
with the changes made in the school books,
as unnecessary aud unwisc.
TWAS broad charge, and required an
investigation that should overhaul our sys.
tom Of education, and result, if deemed ex-
pedicnt, ia the abolition Of the Board and
the appointment Of a Secretary with larger
powers aud wider discretion in respect to
all matters that pertain to the administra-
ton Of the school system of the State, and
make it something worlhier and better than
it is or can be under cur present system.
As it is, the Board has power enough to
DO little, aud 30 prevent the doing Of more
aud Of what is necessary. 1t makes us
think We have got school system, and so
contents US with doing nothing With nei-
Their legal power or discretion to do any
thing iutrinsically valuable, it satisfies the
people with the fancy that they have got
something, when in reality they have got
nothing at ALL The Board Of Education
Stat aomiais um5ra; and having the shad-
ow Of o good thing, the people imagine they
have the substance
The investigating committee lodges cv-
cry question that has been raised about
the Board of Education, and proceeds to
examine lbs members and its Secretary as
to whether they have committed any pecca-
dllocs OF done anything worthy Of censuro
in the manner Of discharging their very
simple duties They do not fad that they
have Transcribed their grave responsible
ties, or drawn from the State treasury any
thing to which they were not entitled. AZ
ter ga three hours examination, they do
not bring out single fact calling for CEN
sure Oh faultess Board Was ever
a powerless, needless, useless thing so pain
fully and searchingly investigated, and
found to be so faithful to its inferior and
inconscquential obligations? 1t appears
that tho Board have changed the text books
without any selfish object in view; that
they have done it on favorable terms with
the publishers, aud that the books are
on the whole cheaper than those now in
USE 1t appears also that many of the
teachers thought "the changes in the school
books wholly needless" and that the Legis-
lature restored the old books in some
cases. but that the "Board had taken
serupulous care to protect the State from
unnecessary expense and from imposition
from the publishers" So, though the
changes were needless, it would cost the
State nothing to make them. And, there
fore, there is no complaint with the Board
and so the State goes on with its utterly
useless and powerless machinery, powerless
except for needless or miscbieyous changes,
for another two years.
What.we have complained Of is not the
delinquency of the Board in their Official
duties, Il is not with the men or theiI
doipgs that we fluid fault, but with the sys
TEN which stands in the place Of something
better, and keeps us from having lorcibl'
aud intelligent aud useful administration Of
our educational interests. In other words
the Board is humbug 1t is matter OIL
no consequence whether it performs its du
ties well or not, for its duties are of nc
consequence. The Investigating Commit
tee ought to have gone to the root of the
matter, and investigated not the ofhca
conduct Of the members of the Board bu
whether there was any good reason for {
Board at all.