Vermont watchman and State journal. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1836-1883, 1882-11-08
Wafrhn,an d gnnrnaL.
WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 1889
Decay Of Education In Vermont.


the above title the Cleveland, Ohio, Lsader
has the following to say Of the schools of
this state:
"The decline OF education in any state Of the
Union furnishes evidence that something Ia
wrong either with the educational system or the
people While the people OF Ohio were still strug-
Cling with the hardships and Inconvenience of a
uoneer life, the people OF New England were en-
joying all the blessings Of civilization, among
which we may mention that of public education.
But the people Of this state understood the advan
tages growing out Of trained intelligence, and at
the first possible opportunity naugurated the
public school system. To-day Ohio ranks high
AS educator and can point with pride TO her thou
sands Of public schoolhouses and other institu-
tons OF learning Every year her educational
system is growing better and more effective.
While Ohio and the other western states are ex-
tending the blessings of public education, there
are evidences OF dry rot in the schools of some
OF the New England states. Particularly Is this
true Of Vermont. In 1850 that state had popu-
lation OF 3l4 100 It then had in its public schools
some 5000 teachers and 100000 pupils. More
than thirty years have elapsed, and the statistics
show great decline in the education OF its youth.
The population has increased to 80 2S6, but this
year there are only 4,376 teachers and 1900 pu
pills In the schools This is certainly an alarming
showing, but what IL worse still, the character OF
the teaching has not kept up with the times.
There are three so-called normal schools in the
Sttte, loT WHlCH ltRishtutt ANNUALLY hppTO-
PIRATES the insignificant sum of $500. These
normal schools In many respects are of less value
than the high schools and this IL shown by the
fact that OF the whole number of teachers they
have only contributed 593. But what, it may be
asked, has caused this wondrous transformation?
Those who fully understand the situation attrb-
ute II to the parsimony of the legislature Money
seems TO be OF more account than education, and
asa result the entire educational system of the
state is falling into decay. 1t is well that this
backward stepin matter so important is confined
To a single locality, but 1t il a mortfying crcum-
stance that the advantages attending education
should be deprecated anywhere in a country the
safety Of whose institutions depends on the intel
lgence Of the people"
The fact that from thirty to forty years
ago, the age Of scholars ran up among the
twenties, instead of stopping midway in the
teens as now, may explain a portion of the
diminution in school attendance. At the
period Of time referred TO by the Leader it
was not an uncommon thing to find at a
winter term of district school many pupils
who were young men and women grown-of
an age at which it would now be regarded
almost disgraceful to be in any school. The
distribution of the population with the ad.
vent Of railways has been radically changed.
There has been massing of people at bust
ness centers. This shifting of the population
has not been balanced by correspond
ing shift in the educational machinery.
Business, trade, travel speedily adapted it.
self to the change. The district schools
have continued to jog along in the old ruts
like the stage coach of past era which per-
sisted in ignoring the day of railways, and
with quite as unsatisfactory results. The
old coach without passengers, rusty and
wornout, broken harnesses and raw boned
steeds, is fairly matched by school houses in
the sparsely populated districts with their
scanty equipment of pupils, scantier means
for instruction, and the pinched and pinch
ing disposition of the people of the districts.
To the main points in the Buckeye indict-
ment of her schools Vermont will have to
plead guilty. Men who have carefully
studied the condition of the schools and
considered the remedy for the evils which
affiict them are urging the state to try a
change of system. The medicine which it
is urged will arrest this dry rot and infuse
new life and vigor into the schools is the
town system. Evidence of the most conclu-
sive kind is not wanting that the remedy is
sure cure. Wry faces are made by men
who fear if the remedy is applied either
their school tax may be increased, or they
may be deprived of little petty sover-
eighty over school affairs or lose their turn
to figure for brief hour as the allimpor-
tant functionary Of the district, the pruden-
tial committee. The district system has
little else to commend itself, and against
the town system neither reason nor exper-
fence can be successfully urged. If wet
sponge could be passed over the entire system,
blotting out district lines and all the petty
prejudices which have grown up under it,
no man would so stultify his intelligence
as to divide town up into score, more
or less, of little principalities to run their
schools with a total disregard to the wei
fare of the town as unit or the state as a
whole. They would follow the course pur-
sued by the pioneers of Ohio, where the
petty district system is unknown, where the
principles of the town system are practi.
cally applied, and, with generous and we'll
considered support, produce the splendid re-
suits of which the Cleveland Leader boasts
In school management Vermont must speed.
lily make a new departure or forever tag
along, lowest in rank in the sisterhood Of
states. Here is the finger of shame pointed
at the state from Ohio. Other states will
mark the low estate Of education among
the green hills and Vermont's glorious ira
ditions win be as powerless to arrest her
waning moral interests as they are to re
build her agriculture or to people her streams
with manufactures.