Vermont watchman and State journal. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1836-1883, 1882-12-27
Normal Schools.


WAToHMAN puts in singular plea for the
multiplying of normal schools in this state.
Because the existing schools are chiefly at
tended by young men and women living in or
near the locality of the schools, he favors
continuing or increasing the number Of these
institutions rather than concentrating the
aid of the state on one or two well-endowed
and efficiently managed schools. II our
correspondence. theory is correct there should
be normal school in every county in the
state. As a matteySf justice TO all sections
of the state, either Guild be done that
all sections may Ne or the state
should have one scf6e npg in its en-
dowment, its course of stS( its corps
of instructors, that IL will attract TO it the
energetic, capable and intelligent youth of
all sections of this and other states,
too. To our mind the reason given why the
three no rmal schools should be retained is
conclusive against the present policy of the
state. The schools are weak in resources,
too weak to attract students who live beyond
the borders of the town or county of their
location. They can never be more than
what they are, local schools. The advsn-
tages they offer may be all they can afford,
they may be good as far as they go, but the
youth Of the state at large or of other states
do not and will not patronize them. They
have not sufficient strength or character to
win the favor of students from distance,
and no well-informed, judicious person
would advise friend designing to make
teaching profession to go to any of these
schools for professional education. Youug
men and women in Vermont desiring a thor
ough training as instructors have gone to
other states, to Massachusetts,, paid tuition
and all the expenses incidental to attending
SC hool away from home, because the normal
schools of the state could not give them the
advantages they sought. The showing of
our correspondent in regard to the attend
ance upon the normal schools of the state is
familiar, and, among those who have given
this subject attention, has not been regarded
as a justification or recommendation of the
policy of the state either on the score of its
efficiency or of equal justice. No argu.
ment is needed to show that the state aid
now divided between three institutions
would, if concentrated upon one, vastly en-
bance the efficiency of that school and there
by insure patronage. The injustice of be-
slowing upon johnson, Castleton and Ran
dolph gratuities denied to other towns is
equally apparent True, students from the
state at large may attend these objects of
state favor, but in nearly every instance it
is an even chance that they would go
further and fare worse than in the unsubsid-
lied academies or graded schools of their
own towns.
Normal schools are professional in their
purpose. They are not designed for ele-
mentary instruction. They sustain sub
stantially the same relation to teaching as
law, medical and theological schools to the
professions for which such schools are spe-
officially designed to prepare young men.
These schools are necessarily few in number.
The quality of the school, the positive pro-
fessional advantages it possesses, not the
railway fare in reaching it or the difference
of few dollars per term in the price of
board, or any similar minor and material
considerations, are what win popular prefer
ence. Harvard, Yale, Amherst and Dart
mouth colleges, each by general or specific
excellence, attracts students from all over
the nation. None of these institutions is de-
pen dent upon system of dead-heading, or
state charity, to fill its halls. A young
man of spirit will mortgage the best years
of his life to avail himself of high advan-
tages rather than accept gratuitously those
of an inferior grade. We believe if Yer.
mont would direct its efforts to establishing
one normal school that should command the
respect and win the confidence of the toung
men and women in the state, it would find
no lack of students even if the eleemosynary
privileges extended to attendants at the
three existing normal schools were materially
abridged. Experience in the normal schools
OF other states and in schools in this state
proves that superior advantages is the desid-
eratum sought by the ambitious, independ-
ent, resolute student, and for these he will
make great present sacrifice to reap greater
future advantage.