Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1873-03-31
BARTON..-ITS ACADEMY AND
GRADED SCHOOL.


our Academy and Graded School, will
not be out of place; for it is fact, long
since conceded, that our public schools
are left too much to themselves But |
before we proceed to discuss the present
condition of the school, let us glance at
its past history, and see eff since the
change in the plan of conducting 1t, d"
its successfulness has been steadily in
creasing. 1t was certainly the right
step taken, and one of the essential
means of securing good school, when
the people of our village substituted
new, convenient and commodious build
ing for the old structure The first board
of managers, were efficient, for it was
new work and they wished it to succeed.
1t was ever present in their minds hence
they visited the school-room often-be-
came acquainted with the pupils-knew
all delinquencies-observed the merits
or defects of the methods of teaching
and relieved the teacher, in a measure,
of governing the school; and here we
might add the first board of teachers,
were also efficient, and with the cooper
alton of the committee, were able to do
we'll their work-and it was Just then
in the midst of its success, as new teach
ers took the place of old ones, that the
first cloud appeared. The committe,
'knowing the school was success re-
Taxed their vigilance. The patrons of
the school understanding that it was do
ing we'll, did not take the trouble to
visit it and before many terms had
passed, that little cloud had become
great, and had spread its blackness over
the whole chool horizon; and threaten
ed its destruction. The report came
that there was lack of discipline
that disorder and disobedience were ram
pant; that the school-house was in dam
ger of being made into kindling- wood
by the scholars. But those things are
of the past We now have the assur-
ance of our committee men, and the
supporters of our schools have at last
come to the wise conclusion that the
idea Of sustaining a school at the least
possible expense is all folly, and that
to have good teachers and good schools
without paying for them is impossible,
and should there be one who still advo-
Gates economy, let him visit our schools
this spring term just commenced and
compare them with some terms past, and
with other schools that are run on the
plan of niggardly economy and state
fairly and candidly which he thinks pays
the best, and without he is morally and
mentally dead, he will tell you it pays
to hire good teachers. And just here
let me urge the parents to visit the
school. You never visit the school-room,
but from the day on which you placed
your material for building in the hands
of the carpenter and mason, you have
not ceased to visit those individuals to
see if they are making proper use of
that material, and performing their work
according to your wishes. Do you not
know that you have given the teacher a
greater work to perform, a greater re-
sponsibility to discharge? and further,
were youth and children always infalli-
bic in their conclusions, genial in their
tempers and perfect in their habits,
teachers could submit cheerfully to be
arraigned before such tribunal to an
swer for their conduct; but in the pres
ent state of society. in the present con-
dition of human morals, We protest ear
nestly and vehemently against it. B.
BARTON, March 81, 1873.