The Rutland daily globe. [volume] (Rutland, Vt.) 1873-1877, 1874-11-24
TUESDAY MORNING. NOVEMBER a. 1874
The Board OF Education.


There has been growing dissatisfaction
with the acts of the board of education for
the past few years not perhaps with the
board as individuals, but with Its appoint
ment of secretary, and its arrangement of
text books. We are not to judge the acts
of the secretary in the discharge of the
duties imposed upon him, but we cannot
shut our eyes TO the fact that with those
who were competent to judge, and with
whom he was constantly thrown into
educational relations, to wit, the teachers
in our state, he has fallen into disfavor.
The very fact of importing from abroad
secretary of our board, was distasteful to
the people of our state, and the man who
could live down so natural a prejudice
must be one of more than ordinary acquire
ments and personal attractions. In some
way, whether truly or not, this appoint
ment was construed into an unhappy reflec-
tion upon the state itself. And so matters
have gone on from bad to worse, until to-
day it has eliminated in the abolition of
the board of education, which has had
identified with it some of the most honored
names in our history.
The uniformity of text books, which has
been regarded by some of our best edu-
Gators az an important element in the sue
cess Of our system of public schools,
whether truly or not we would not say, is
said to have degenerated into a system of
peculalon and fraud, in which the people
of the whole state are the suffcrers-that
the few have thus been enriched at the ex-
pense of the many, and the cause of educa-
ton hindered instead OF promoted thereby.
The secretary, Mr.. French, was most
thoroughly discussed by those who took
| part in the debate, and as he has had no or.
| portunlly TO speak for himself We shall be
| glad to publish his defence, which we doubt
not he will feel called upon to make. We
would give him fair play. We have given
no arguments of our own. We only re-
state some of the reasons and arguments
which were so generally used in the pro-
gress of the discussion.
Whatever may be the result of the aboli-
| ton of the old system, and the Inaugural.
ton of the new, we should extremely re-
| greet change that should prove detrimru-
tai to that great interest-the education Vi
| the masscs-which, with the virtue of the
people, makes the one enduring foundation
on which we must build the superslructurt
| of real state power and distinction
| We were panied to read in the education.
| al department of the atlantic Nonthly toi
| November, statement and comparison OF
| our public schools, which, whether true oil
| false, is injurious to our educationa! stand
| ing abroad. We shall recur to this subject
again. AS the remarks of the Atlantic
will be interesting to such of our readers
| as may not haye noticed them, or had the
opportunity to do SO, we transfer them to
our columns. For the credit of our people
we hope they will moi bear close scrutiny
and comparison with the facts. They are
as follows:
Since the Inauguration of the cducationa
| department of the Atlantic, the superin
tendents of public instruction of thirty
states and four territories have courteously
| sent us their latest reports.
Beginning with those from New Eng
land, of which we have all but that iron
| New Hampshire, one is surprised to fine
within this smallest group of the Union, il
area, almost the two extremes of our Amer
lean common school system Massachu
sets leading not only New England, bu
nearly all the country, in the privileges sh,
freely affords to her children, and Vernon
coming in this regard behind many o
her northern. and even some of he
southern sisters. Such is tn
apathy of her citizens on tn
subject, that, as one of them remarks il
the report before us, her schools are jus
where they were twenty-five and fifty year
ago. The number of school houses re
ported as "unfit Tor their purposes" is seve
hundred and six, which is nearly one-thir
of the whole. In her chief city, Burling
ton, out of forty-one teachers only tw
were graduates of normal school, an
only six had certificates from a teacher
institute The town examination for teac1
ers do not equal in difficulty those for tn
admission of grammar-school children int
| tuc leauluS llSu oCHOOls VI OtucI INcW Lils
, land states. There is no high-school systeI
in Vermont. The report represents tn
:" cheap teacher as everywhere sougl
after with ayidity. Ordinary "wages," {
they are called, range from S1.50 to $40
a week for women, and from $500 wee
and upward for men. No wonder, thcI
: that one committeeman reports it as a
most impossible to procure teachers for IL
district schools, and says that young w
men only take charge of them to accomm,
date their neighbors. The superintendent
of Maine reproaches his state for payin
less to her teachers than any other state
the Union, but when we turn to the La
published report of the National Educ
tional Bureau (1S72), we find that We
mont had discreetly sent no average at al
= She seems to be the only New Englan
: state whose report does not bear witness
increased interest and liberality on the pa
, OF her citizens toward the public school
and it is to her deep disgrace, not y
wiped off, that some years ago she appr
: prated her educational fund to pay HI
: outstanding debts
Y