Vermont watchman and State journal. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1836-1883, 1881-08-10
State Teachers Association.

State Teachers Association.
There assemblies to-day in Mortified an
organization of the teachers of this state.
The association has for its object the adj
vancement of the educational interests Of
the state. To the teachers in our common
schools is entrusted the efficient working Of
our school system. The benefits Of the sys-
tenn will ebb or flow according as high
standard of qualification in the teacher is
maintained or is relaxed. The elements
that make up the teachers qualifications are
various. They relate to methods, to tech
nical and practical knowledge of subjects,
to natural gifts, to acquired experience, to
moral qualities combined and intermingled
To the discussion of these and the related
subjects of the teachers art, the most diff
cult the most responsible and the most ex-
acting, in many important respects, of all
the arts or professions, the teachers of Yer
mont will address themselves during these
midsummer days. If the art of horse
breeding, practically illustrated by speci-
mems of animals and exhibitions of their
speed, of stock producing in all its ramifica-
tions, of growing larger crops by means of
scientific tillage and improved tools, were
the general subjects to which public atten-
ton will be called at this meeting, as it will
be in Montpelier month later, Mortified
would be thronged with people this week.
The character of the exhibition, the merits
and dement's of methods and exhibits, would
be the subjects Of close analysis and sharp
criticism, both by the special committees
and by the great committees of the whole
which interest or curiosity would draw
thither, and to which the practical good of
the meeting, however great or small, would
accrue. The educational meeting at North
field relates to the cultivation of mind in
stead Of matter, to the development Of men
instead of horses, to the raising of crops of
ideas instead of potatoes, and it is the meet
ing which in point of Importance takes far
reaching precedence of the agricultural
meeting but the public interest in it and
attendance upon it will undoubtedly be in
versely as the relative and natural import |
ance of the two interests.
But we wish to exhort each individual |
reader of this journal 10 do his full duty in |
the matter of attendance upon the meetings |
of this association. Go to hear, to Judge, |
and to criticise. 1t is not to be expected |
that all which the various speakers will |
say will be intensely interesting or in
tensely pertinent or orthodox but the best
way to awaken deep interest in such
meeting is for the public to attend, and,
by their intelligent and appreciative at
tention and judgment, inspire the earnest
workers to do their "level best in thought
and speech, and to place the bores, the hob
byists, and the humbugs, under the whole
some restraints of critical and exacting
public opinion. And the speakers, to en-
courage public interest and attention, should
ponder well the subjects of their discourse,
discuss their themes, in short, incisve, CO.
gent speeches, disclosing the very pith and
marrow Of their subjects, and leave dis
corning auditory something to do to carry
out and apply the details of their ideas.
The responsibility for the lack of public in
terest in educational meetings is, we are in
clined to believe, pretty evenly divided be-
tween the people and the speakers. If the
latter should display good deal more of
that burning enthusiasm, inimitable tact
and originality, unconventional address,
genuine hard work and native common
sense, which John S. Adams, the first secre-
tary of the old board of education, brought
to the discharge of his difficult duties, there
would be slight room left for scolding the
public for its apathetic indifference. We
believe this lack of popular interest in edu-
cational matters is more fancied than real.
The chosen advocates of the cause are not
always happy in their methods or their
speech, even when they are masters of the
subject; and the subject, lacking some of
the salient points of interest that attach to
material things, the public are unquestion-
ably responsible for lack of patience or
resolution to face its abstract features.
Now let both the educationists and the peo-
pie come together in these state, and also in |
the town and county, meetings where such
local associations exist, and work together
for revival of an active interest in this
subject which underlies all our material
and which is the cornerstone of
our free institutions. We may be wrong,
but apparently there has been retrograde
movement in our common schools, as a {
whole, during the last decade. Under the !
magnetic impulse impaired by Secretary
Adams, the schools took long stride in |
advance, but for some cause they seem to
have lost the impulse, and, outside of the
larger villages where there are graded
schools, we believe there has been serious
letting down in the efficiency of the old-time
district schools" The cause is apparent
enough, but the discussion of it is not rele-
want to our present purpose, which was to
entreat for this meeting of the state teach
srs' association the cordial and interested
attention Of the general public as well as
the common schools themselves, and to
make it the beginning of a genuine revival
Of interest in the things which pertain to
the education of the children in this state.