Vermont watchman and State journal. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1836-1883, 1880-01-07
Our Common School SUPPLEMENTARY.

the proper work of the board In our re-
ply we said that we thought the Board OF
Agriculture ought to act in concert with the
Board of Education, because both were
working practically to the same end-diffu-
sion of knowledge among the people. The
assembled wisdom of our state has since
,bolished both of the Boards" and has
given us in their place two officers styled
Superintendent" These gentlemen are
lsboring manfully to do the work, calling to
their aid every onewho has enough interest
in the Improvement of the community to
be willing to assist them at their own cost
and expense 1t is to the credit of human
nature that enough of this aid is given to
make the meetings held by the superintend
ents about the state interesting and useful.
The attendance on these meetings is moder-
ately good,-that is to say, in town of from
one to two thousand inhabitants from fifty
to two hundred people can be got together
at one of them. When the meeting is small
it is usually composed of teachers and min
listers mainly. When it is larger, number
of the more intelligent citizens come out.
But the bulk of the people--those who are
out on circus and election days-stay away.
And this tells the reason why the politi
clans, who live by the breath of the multi
tude, are so 10th to spend money for either
of the causes represented in these meetings.
We spend hundreds of thousands Of dollars
to punish crime and relieve poverty, but the
idea of preventing crime by better training
in youth, and of preventing poverty by the
diffusion of useful knowledge, has not got
into the heads of the multitude, and has
therefore no great weight with their polit-
cal representatives in our legislative assem-
blies. There can be little doubt that every
hundred dollars wisely spent for prevention
will save thousand that must be paid for
punishment and relief. But the people
don't see it yet, and the politicians are the
servants of the majority. Consequently in
our legislatures we may expect to have al
ways contest to get and continue even the
most meager appropriations for these great
causes. The cry of " ECONOMY, econ
omy which signalizes itself by saving drop
at the spigot and wasting pailful at the
bung-hole--will always be raised against a
liberal expenditure, or even any expenditure,
where expenditure would pay us best. We
must fight the mean man and the dema-
gogue at every step; and as the mean man
and the demagogue are always on hand,
while good citizens are too apt to neglect
their most important interests when they
are not their nearest interests, nothing short
of an earnest pressure and a constant watch
fitness on the part of those widest awake to
the vital necessities of the case will prevent
Vermont from falling into the rear of pro.
gress. We are dangerously near to that
to-day.
What we want particularly to say here to
our readers (whom we count as being all of
them the friends of progress in good works.
is that what we thought best at the begin
ming in this matter still seems to us best
the friends of improved agriculture should
be also the active friends of improved COM
mon schools. And we want to say, too, that
we have in MIR. Conant, our state superin-
tendent of education, one who is "the right
man in the right place." He has already
been holding meetings in cooperation with
the state superintendent of agriculture, and
they have been exceedingly well attended
Mr.. Conant is strongly in favor Of the in
PRODUCTION of practical science teaching in
our common schools, and has had the assist
ance of men like Principal Crippen of the
johnson Normal School at many of his
meetings, who has illustrated and explained
to the audiences, and especially to the teach
ers assembled, the means of interesting their
pupils in practical science. Mr.. Conant has
also enforced this point strongly and often
and we believe that those farmers who are
interested in this matter can do no better
than to attend Mr.. Conant's meetings and
actively take part in making his ideas prac
tically success.
Only to moderate extent can this be
done at first. Very few of our teachers are
yet qualified for the work. Science in it:
practical bearings is yet very little laugh
anywhere. Neither the colleges nor the
academies teach it in that way. The schol
astic (abstracD method prevails there al
most exclusively, aud that method is en-
tirely unadapted TO the common school
But there is one place where We may, if w
wish, introduce the practical method, anC
that is in our normal schools. Let us, a
farmers, take hold, then, of the norma
school as our best lever to elevate the CON
mon schools-the peoples colleges. AT pre-
emit our three normal schools are doing prett
good work, but there are not enough O
them, and they are not sufficiently endowed
We ought to have one in every county, an
we ought TO increase the appropriation
granted to each. If $4,000 a year wer
given by the state to normal school i
each county, the cost (si2 ,0OW would be bu
about ten cents apiece to the people of tn
state. Where could the money be bette
spent to promote our progress and prosperity
With one such school in each county, an
the money to pay a science teacher in eac
school, in few years we should have quail
fled teachers in abundance Once introdu
ing such instruction to our common schoo
we should have such general interest
veloped among the children (for nothing
interests the young as instruction about Il
nature and uses of the things around then
that those who afterwards went to the NO
NAL schools would go there 80 far advance
in such studies as TO start almost whe
their own common school teachers left o
So the ball would roll on. Let the scien
of common things be once rightly taught
our common schools and it would almo
revolutionize the life and industry of O
households, farms and workshops. Throul
it the products of our industry would
doubled, the comforts Of our homes qua
rupled, and the people strengthened Al
ennobled by the development of thong
among them. Prosperity for the industr
classes means prosperity in all classes
society and even those who now so n
rowly oppose what we here advocate wot
greatly profit by it. Our literary collel
and academies would have far more s
dents were such a spirit abroad among |
people-the spirit of the love of knowled