St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1884-02-28
The Town school System.
VIEWS OF A PROMINENT EDUCATOR ON
THE NEW WAY.

The NEW WAY.
President c. A. Bunker of the state
teachers association has some definite
ideas on the proposed town school sys-
TEN, which are well worth the attention
of town-meeting voters, who will be
called upon next Tuesday to pass upon
this question. Prof. Bunker's opinion
is made still more valuable by the fact
that for the past fifteen years he has
been principal OF Peacham academy
and an active town superintendent.
Il am heartily in favor of the town
system of Schools" he said Monday,
"but do not favor the way it is being
introduced. 1t was thought that the
new system could be given fair trial
by leaving it optional with each town
whether it should be adopted, but eX-
,J---:E, - ---r--~---i-.-.
There always has been and is now a
large number, who favor the district
system, some | am sorry to say be-
cause it gives lower class of men a
chance to hold Office. AS a town
adopts the new system here and there
with that party fighting it all the
time, while the towns around are being
run on the district system, it is not
given a fair trial at all. But if the
whole state went into it in good faith
for five years, there would be no such
hindrance. People would have to help
it along just as they have to pay taxes
There would be no alternative and
they would try to make it "A success"
"Why do you prefer the town sys-
TEN ?"
"There are a great many reasons.
One point is the present difficulty in
getting intelligent teachers for the
schools. If the whole matter was left
in the hands of three men, they would
have the pick of the teachers and could
distribute them properly. They would
make that their business, but as it is
now, each committeeman looks out for
the interests of his own district and
that is all The advanced and harder
schools frequently get poor, inexperi-
enced teachers, while smaller and less
forward ones get good instructors. 1t
all depends on the individual feeling of
the committeeman. Then there is a
good deal of trouble in securing teach
ers. Farmers are busy in May aud
say they cannot leave their work to
hunt up school-ma'ams. The result is
that the teacher nearest at hand is
often hired and the superintendent is
asked to give her a certificate because
there is no time to find a better one.
With central board, all that would
be avoided and there would be good
deal more likelihood of having perma-
nent instructors. The business would
be run on civil service principles ard
teachers would be kept as long as they
did well.n
Glow about grading ?"
liz sCIlOOls COulu De MUCH better
graded by more central authority.
Now the committeeman does pretty
much as he pleases, the superintend-
ent coming in only in case of contro-
versy. Then taxation would be better
evened up. Part of the expenses, you
know, are paid by the public money
and the rest by district taxation. So
in the villages, made up of retired
farmers and wealthy men principally,
the per cent is very small, but in the
scattered districts it is much larger.
The town system would materially
tighten the taxes in the back district
and even the matter up all around"
"But would the back districts secure
as good teachers as at present ~
Better. Now in a small district
the tendency among those, who have
no children to educate, is to keep the
down just as low as possible,
barely maintaining a little, cheap,
school. Under the new sys-
TEN it works just the other way. Each
district would want and strive for the
best teacher. So much money would