The Middlebury register. [volume] (Middlebury, Vt.) 1850-1882, 1882-03-31
Report Of Superintendent Of Schools fol
the Town OF Orwell, vt.

|
the schools have been fully up to their
usual standard. Harmony has pre-.
vailed in every district, and most of the
teachers have given good satisfaction.
Indeed, greater number of good teach
ers have been employed the past year
than we have ever known In town; such
teachers as Mr.. Rollin Hack, Misses
Douglass, Sherman, Williams, Bissett
and Grunncll deserve something more
than dollars and cents as reward for
their labors andcheir fidelity. As to
the rest of the teachers, some have had
little experience, for which they are not
to blame, and others, lacking the early
advantages of education and being poor
have had to fit themselves for teaching
| by their own exertions, and merit our
esteem and confidence. We have no
adverse criticism to pronounce upon
our teachers to find fault with them is
easy, especially if one never visits the
school and knows nothing about them.
A long acquaintance with our common
schools enables me to say that we have
no class of people among us who strive
to do their duty more faithfully and
conscientiously than our teachers, some
times overtasked and undcrpaid; nor
have we right to find fault with the
public unfortunately. Our schools
coat enough ;sS2000 year OH an aver.
age speaks well for Orwell. We have
vet to meet the first man who Is not
willing to pay his share for the support
of good public school. But as com.
munity we do not express and manifest
the interest in our schools that VIC ought
to this is the general complaint alike
of teachers and pupils. Let all our
schools begin on certain day with IL
good teachers and 263 scholars, the
hope of Orwell be seen in our streets
passing to and fro armed with their
proper instruments-b ,oks and dinner
pails-and the event would excite less
comment and earnest talk in our homes
and public places than deadlock in
the Albany legislature, or horse trot
at Ticonderoga. Now, If public sentl-
nent makes aud unmakes our laws, we
emphatically say that it controls and
must control our public schools, and
until we manifest the same interest in
these primary Institutions of learning
that we do In developing our farms,
raising stock and increasing our in
comes, they will never arrive to their
maximum of usefulness.
We are justly proud of our town, its
fairs, its public entertainments, its
places of business, its fine horses, cattle
and sheep, and its beautiful scenery
but the future welfare of thie town does
not depend wholly or in part upon any
or all of these things, but upon the
training, mental, moral and physical,
of that large company of little people
| xyh n fro al, tI,n
paths of study in our school rooms.
1t rests upon us and we are responsible.
have to express my regret at not being
able to give the exact cost of our
schools, the number of pupils attending
and the average attendance, not yet
having received the registers; but prob
ably these statistics will not vary much
from the preceding year and will be
given in full in my report to the
state superintendent. In the absence
of these statistics we wish to make these
suggestions:
1st.- That when district is fortunate
enough to get good teacher, to keep
that teacher right along if possible.
We regard this as most essential-this
changing of teachers every year and
almost every term works injury to Our
schools. If it be important to secure
good teachers, it il still more important
to retain them. Our teachers ought to
be as permanently employed as clergy
men, and until then our schools will
not be what they easily mioht- a,.a
2d.-Tliat while we have in our
schools the best textbooks in this Or
any state, there is one book recon-
mended by your textbook committee
hat has not been SO generally intro
duced as 1t ought to be, viz: Hutchin-
sons Physiology and Hygiene. This
work is written in plain, concise lam
guage 80 that pupils may readily COM
psehend it. Physiology as you know
treats on the vital actions and uses of
the various parts of the human body,
and Hygiene, or tho art of procuring
health, is the practical use of Physioi-
ogy. Now, if it be important to fiji the
minds of our children with the useful
knowledge contained in our Textbooks
in Geography, Grammar, Arithmetic
and History, is it not of equal impor-
lance that they know something of the
laws of health and of the human BODY,
which is the abode of their minds, the
immortal spirtI have been led TO
these remarks by visiting your children
in the school room and noticing that
health was not apparent in the faces of
all. But space forbids me to say far.
Their here than this, that this book will
be OF great interest and benefit to them
while studying it, and of incalculable
value to them through life,
3d.-The last suggestion we have 10
make is this, that while we should look
we'll to the interest and physical train.
ing of our youth, we ought not to under.
rate the value of their moral culture. III
am led to this remark from the fact that
and disguise 1t as we may-we live in
an age OF corruption, rascality and
wholesale stealing. And the only way
l know of to bring about the needed
reform is to commence at home and In
the school room. If anybody is of the
notion that one hour of good training
or instruction Sunday noon in the Sab
bath school, will counterfeit the evil
influence of the succeeding week thew
are greatly mistaken. 1t may sound
strange in the cars of some to talk
about teaching the principles of com.
mon honesty in our public schools. But
L believe there is need of it. These
schools will either be places of refine |
ment and culture where good habits
are formed, or they will become nur.
series of vu'garity and evil doing; also,
it becomes us as citizens, as parents and |
as teachers to see that the 10000 chill |
dren who attend the public schools of
Vermont should receive good and |
wholesome instruction in the princi-
piles of common honesty. How shall 1t |
be done? We suggest that these prin- |
ciples ought to be taught in our schools |
as carefully aud thoroughly as the usual
studies. We have no textbooks on
this subject worthy the name. The
best is Cows Morals, recommended by |
yonr textbook committee. We>must