The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1884-09-17
The School Problem.

We published, two weeks ago, communica-
ton from Rev. S. d. Church, veteran and skill
full teacher, formerly OF Massachusetts but now
a resident Of Waterbury, and superintendent of
schools in that town. Mr.. Church further con-
tributes the following upon the problem that
interests the country generally, and Vermont in
particular:
Mr.. Editor Some one has said that one
half of the children seldom enter the school
house after they are ten years of age. What
problem is here presented to parents, guar
dans and patriots: How to equip these mil
lions of children for life in SO short a space of
time and at such young and tender age. In
our form of government majorities rule, and
we cannot expect to reap good harvests in halls
of legislation unless good seed is sown in our
schOOl-houses. But let us compare the work
with the time required to perform it in. The
law requires two terms Of ten weeks each in a
year. The child which is permitted to take all
that the law requires gets a hundred weeks or
five hundred days, at school by the time he
is ten years old. In this time he must master,
II he carries with him into active life all that
our legislators have put into the common
schools, reading, writing, spelling, arithmetic,
grammar, geography, history, civil govern
ment, physiology, morals and manners. These
eleven branches Of learning must be taught in
five years, with two terms of ten weeks each,
to children under ten years ofage, or one-half of
the rulers Of the next generation must be igno-
rant of them The statement of the problem is
enough to appal any one who Is not familiar
with school problems and schoo-room work.
Any one must see at glance that the teacher
who knows exactly what to do the first day of
school has achieved advantage over one who
must wait to find out. Also, it is manifest
that any method which shortens the time
of labor, or brings the sciences within the
grasp OF the youngest minds, Is to be seized
upon without hesitation. The best possible
work must be done in the least possible space
n IN a bacausa a rp0uirpd N
such short space Of time that 80 much atten-
ton has been given during the past few years to
primary work, and for similar reason it has
become exceedingly difficult to find teachers
qualified to take charge Of the primary rooms.
The old alphabet method was a good one when
there was no hurry, when the child did not
need to begin writing until he was ten, geogra-
ply when twelve, arithmetic at fourteen, gram
mar year or two later, and history, physi-
ology, civil government, and several other
branches were not heard Of, But now there is
no time to learn the alphabet; the boy must
learn to read, write, draw, SPELL and count all
at once. The successful school-teacher, tax
ing up hat says, "What Is in my hand?"
The answer from the school is, "A hat"
Writing the word on the black board, the class
is told that that is the word hat, and every one
is required to do his best to write the same on
the board and upon his slate. In this way the
word Is learned in less time than either letter,
in the old way. Having one word tolerably
well mastered, by introducing one new letter,
there appears on the board 1.-THE hat" By
adding one letter at a time every word in the
language can be introduced, as 1.-THE cat, The
rat The rat ran, Can the cat catch the rat? The
cat sat on the mat" BY this method reading,
writing and spelling are carried forward at the
same time. Script is used, as no time must be
wasted in learning to print Care is taken
that each word and every sentence, as II is de-
veloped, is spoken in perfectly natural way,
for 1t would require more time to correct bad
habit than to teach a correct one. Natural
readers and speakers are made In the primary
room, or such luxuries are dispensed with. As
people seldom have occasion to spell word,
except when they wish to write it, the child is
never expected to spell, except when he has
occasion to write the word. There is no time
to waste In the mere amusement OF oral SPELL
ing. Experience shows that one may spell
orally In a correct manner many words which
he will misspell, when writing the same, un-
less he has had severe drill at writing the
words in use. Again, II Is a waste OF time to
spell words which are seldom used, the mean
ing OF which is not understood. Hence the
spelling book Is dispensed with, the slate and
pencil comes to the front and no word used in
any of the textbooks is allowed to pass with
out Its meaning being understood and its form
mastered.