Rutland weekly herald. [volume] (Rutland, Vt.) 1859-1877, 1873-01-30
state Teachers, Association.


event like this, possessing more IMAM or
binary interest to the Ieachers ana
friends of education in Rutland county,
leads us to refer briefly to the objects of
the association, its organization and to
glance hurriedly at one or two of its
former meetings. In the fall of 1850,
Hiram circuit, then principal of the
Thetford academy, but now of Tildens
Ladies Seminary at West Lebanon, New
Hampshire, in a communication to the
Chronicle, over the signature of GA
Teacher" suggested the propriety of the
formation of State Teachers Associa
ton, aud invited the attention and con-
sideration of his co-workers to the sub
iect. The project seems to have been
favorably received, as we find, soon af
ter, number of gentlemen, residing in
different parts of the State, uniting in a
call to teachers and ''also all earnest
friends Of Education" to meet in conven-
ton at Montpelier on the sixteenth day
Of October ''for the purpose of organic
ing a State Association of Teachers and
also to discuss and adopt such Rcsolu-
tons as express their views upon the sub
iect of Education in Vermont" The
convention assembled and this, the first
meeting of the teachers of Vermont,
was composed of, as the record declares,
"a large and respectable body of teach
ers and friends of education" The con-
vention was composed of some of the
most earnest and best Of Vermont's
teachers, and the Teachers Associa-
ton of Vermont" was the result. Their
primary object, as announced in their
constitution then and there adopted,
was "to rouse from its slumbers the
public mind to interest and encourage
the heart of the common school teacher;
to impress upon superintendent, teach
ers Of academies and higher seminaries,
their great responsibilities as opponents
of the public school interest" Perhpas,
after all, the object of the organization
cannot be better or more concisely ex-
pressed than in the words of their first
president, Rev. Worthington Smith, d.
D., at the first meeting after the organ
izaton He says eve are assembled
to confer together freely, earnestly, and
intelligently on the interests of educa-
ton in our State, and especially on our
own personal duties as connected with
the profession of teaching" These OBJ
jects have been kept steadily in view
during the twenty-three years of the ex-
istence of the association. The public
mind has been aroused and enlightened
upon the subject of education, the sphere
of the teacher has been improved, en-
larged and strengthened. We no longer
look upon the common school as be-
meath our care or even notice, but its
well being Is carefully and wisely con-
sidered, its support cheerfully and liber-
ally provided for, and the means of a
higher education placed at its disposal.
Our school houses, also, show the adj
vance In public sentiment, and demon
strate that different spirit animates the
people and that, at length, the school is
about to assume its proper place in the
trinity with the home and church. 1t
needs no argument or labOred reasoning
to prove that in this great and marked
advance in the cause of free and liberal
education, the Vermont State Teachers
Association has been the nucleus from
which the influence has sprung that has
leavened the lump of Vermont's indiffer-
ence We all know and appreciate the
change, and can but bid God speed to
these patient workers in the field. So
far as Rutland is concerned, the present
may be said to open a new decade in the
history Of education in Vermont. We
do not propose to enlarge upon what has
been accomplished in the two last de-
cades, nor speculate in reference to the
probable or possible advancement of the
next ten years in a higher and better
education and, as connected Herewith,
purer morality and more vital chris
tianity. These go and must continue to
advance or retrograde together. We
leave these reflections and aspirations
and their discussion to those who are
with US, to-day, and who are better able
to gather up the threads of the past and
enforce therefrom the lesson of the flu
ture. To those of the association who
attended either of the former meetings
held in Rutland the occasion will doubt
less suggest many sad as well as pleas
ant thoughts. While contrasting the
growth of the town, the marked i'm
provement in school buildings, the high
i 10 x,F
as of schools, with the condition as it
existed in 1858 and 1863 there are other
memories that viii suggest themselves
to their minds. The presidents of the
association, Worthington Smith in 1858,
and Pliny II. White in 1868, after hay
ing finished their life work well and
nobly, have ''fallen on sleep" Rev.
Drs. Aiken and Hicks and i. L. Orms-
bee, Of Rutland, Rev. n. Bishop, Gov.
Eaton, Gov. Camp, Chauncey II. Hay
den and others, the leading spirits of
that meeting have passed away, and the
few others that remain are without the
State laboring in other fields and in 9th
er departments. Death and removal
have, also, made sad havoc with the
workers of 1868, but some remain with
us even to this day. Even the building
wherein the conventions were held is
numbered among the things that were,
and new faces and new buildings will
mark the changes of ten years. Only
one teacher, that met with the assccia-
ton ten years ago, still retains the same
place of residence. We trust that he
may be spared another decade, and that,
with him, may then meet many other
teachers, each representing his present
school, and that, on that occasion, they
may be able to recount more rapid
and sure progress in the schools of Yer
mont, than they would even dare to