Vermont watchman and State journal. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1836-1883, 1882-10-11
Education with Us and Our NeighbOrs.


sioner of education contains more information
concerning the schools Of the country than any
volume which has preceded II. summary OF
home and foreign educational progress, a collec-
ton of miniature state reports, and state school
systems, private and public schools OF all grades,
and miscellaneous educational Institutions, make
up volume of nearly !, 200 pages little com
paratlve study Of the work shows the educational
place Of any state with relation to It's sister COM
monweath. Making this study hastily with re-
gard to Vermont many instructive lessons have
been learned which should larry suggestions to
to our legislators.
years, little than the average OF the states,
ten OF which have longer ard thirteen shorter pc
RODS. The average time o. life when school age
begins is at about five ard a half years, and 1t
ends at nineteen and half The school age in
New Hampshire, Massachusetts and Rhode Island
is from five to fifteen, in Maine from four to
twenty-one. The school population of the state
is given at %, S3l, though these figures are for
1878. Ofthese, 10, 23S (eghty-one per cent were
enrolled in the public schools, and 4S- COG, fifty
two per cent were in average daily attendance.
Throughout the state only sixty-three per cent OF
the school population are enrolled in the public
schools and thirty-seven per cent in average daily
attendance. This shows that the children Of the
state are not only generally enrolled in the schools
but that they attend them with commend
able regularity notwithstanding the distance
which so many children in sparsely populated sec
tons are obliged to go to their school.
The average length OF time which the schools
of the state were open in 1880 was one hundred
twenty-five days. This is very near the average
of the whole country, but falls below that Of New
England In New Hampshire the time was one
hundred five and three-tenths days; in Maine,
one hundred twenty; in Massachusetts, one hum
dred seventyseven in Connecticut, one hundred
seventy mine, and in Rhode Island, one hundred
eighty-four.
Vermont stands at the foot Of the list as to
wages paid her female teachers, their average
monthly salary being SIT. No other state goes
below S2l, and the smallest average in any state
north of Mason and Dixon's line is S2G. The
male teachers OF our state receive SIS month.
They are, however, only small minority Of the
teaching force, being seventeen per cent Of the
whole. This per cent is smaller than in almost
any other state. In thirteen states, mostly south
ern, the number of male teachers exceeds the
female. In the western states the number OF
males is usually from fifty to ninety per cent OF
the number of females. 1t would appear to be
nearly true that the farther north state the fewer
its male teachers.
The school expenditure of our state for 1880
was So 93 per capita of the school population
and 80 Is per capita of the average daily attend
ance upon the public schools, in all S454 2S5 This
gives the state the twelfth place among its sisters
on the per capita for the school population, but a
much lower rank (about the thirtieth) on the per
capita for daily attendance, the states ranking
below ours being nearly all in the south.
The question Of the best number of normal
schools for a state seems to have been variousy
determined. Ten states provide single normal
school each eight, two each and five, among them
our own state, three each Massachusetts has
nine; New York, ten; Pennsylvania, eleven. On a
general average there are twenty-eight pupils to
a teacher in normal schools; in Vermont there
are some twenty-five; in Massachusetts sixteen
in Illinois, forty-four The whole number Of
teachers in our three schools is twenty-nine; stu
dents, 40 of whom all but thrty-three are nor
NAL pupils. Drawing is among the studies pur-
sued in all OF them; each has a chemical labora-
tory and philosophical apparatus, but no one a
model school. The appropriations to our schools
are comparatively meager, aggregating but ST. 27S
New York city gives its normal college $685. 600
The state normal schools Of New York receive
about $4,000 each Wisconsin and Michigan
are equally liberal. The per capita appropriation
to our normal school at johnson was S15 to the
others somewhat more. The average per capita
to other similar schools in New England Is some
thing like $40. This looks as though Vermont
was not over generous toward her normal schools,
or cared to instruct teachers 80 that they would
be able to earn more than the SIT a month they
are paid. At no point does our state seem to do
herself so little honor in the treatment OF those
who are moulding in her public schools the lives
OF her future citizens. Once Vermont was noted
for fine horses; now it is for noble men and
women. Her reputation for horses is almost gone
her reputation for men and women will go, II
their early training Is neglected or committed to
unworthy or uninstructed teachers.
The private institutions Of learning in the state
do not affect the relation of the public to the
schools it supports, and the statistics of them in
the report before mentioned do not convey any
important lessons. resume for ten years of ed
ucationa progress in our state is given as follows
I" The showing for the decade Is better than for
the last year Of 1t. II the number of youth enti-
tied to free schooling continued the same as in
l877-7S, there was in the ten years then ending
an increase Of ,456 such youth. OF these,
somewhat more than half had been gathered into
the state schools, besides pa more in private and
church schools. The additional state scholars
(o,56o) were taught in lS5 more districts, by 175
more teachers, and on an average for nine more
days each year the quality OF the teaching, more
over being doubtless better in the main from the
fact that in the last year 228 more teachers than
in the first (54i in ALL had been trained at the
state normal schools. There were n additional
public schools. On the whole, then, there seems
to have been fair advance, Notwithstanding q
diminution in the funds for state school work and
consequently in the wages Of teachers, the dis
bursements OF the former being S32, 1913 less in
1880 than in 1871, and the decrease in the latter
S17 rs for males and 1921 for females since