The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1885-03-25
RepIY to "Tax.PaYer.N

Mr.. Editor.-The questions and remarks
Of Taxpayer have served their purpose
for at least one individual, and l want to
add my word of comment. Taxpayers first
question was fully answered in the editorial
remarks appended to his letter; but his
second, implying that pupils in the upper
rooms OF the Union School have forgotten
the elements of arithmetic, needs few more
words. No teacher in the Union School al
lows q subject to pass IL single scholar
who is willing to learn does not understand
it. The monthly tests show how far the
pupil understands his studies at the time.
If the child whom Mr.. Taxpayer questioned
understood the rules of arithmetic so that
he could solve the given problems, is a
teacher to be held responsible if he does not
care enough about the lesson to make it per-
manently his own? 1t is asking too much
of teachers to demand that they furnish in
struction and brains too. There are many
quick and bright, but needless and volatile
children, who commit their lessons easily,
and who know nothing of them. in two
months after they leave school? Did Tax
payer ever keep his boy at home from the
skating rink, or from any other evening en-
tertainment, that he might himself test the
boy in interest or partial payments, or make
any effort to ascertain that their principles
were so firmly fixed in his mind that he
could not forget them? Does Mr.. Taxpayer
require his boys and girls to measure his
wood-pile, to settle grocery bills, to attend
to the weighing, calculating and taking re-
ceipts for payment of coal bills? Does each
child keep his own little account-book, show
ing accurately all personal expenditures?
To the father the child is one to the teacher,
he is the fortieth or fftieth individual; and
If one fails, or If many fail to master the
work, it proves nothing against the teacher.
The boy who sits beside your son will push
on to college without an unsolved problem
or hazy point behind him. The wonder is
not that children forget, but that they re-
member anything at all, with their roller
skating, their Jesse James clubs ~ and
their uninterested parents. And these things
are beyond the teachers province. Tax
payers third question is his strongest point
Some pupils do go into the Grammar School
not well fitted. They are usually pupils
who are wearied with arithmetic and gram
mar work, and who will leave school rather
than spend another year on these branches
Then why is it that nine parents out of ten
use strong language and ego to the com.
mittee when their children manifestly un.
fitted to go on, are retained when the class
is promoted? There are two sides to this
| question. The last point, which Mr.. Tax
payer quotes from another person, is unrea-
sonable in the extreme, and raises the sus-
picion that neither Mr.. Taxpayer nor his
| friend has been inside a school-room tc
witness Rotations recently. One should
| be sure of his facts before making sweep.
ing assertions. No scholar in the Grammar
School is compelled to study either Latin OF
Greek. OF the forty-six pupils in the Gram
mar School, only twenty-three study Latin
and but three study Greek. OF the class OF
twenty pupils promoted to the Grammar
School this year, only one-half began the
study of Latin. There have been cases this
| year where pupil became discouraged and
wished to drop Latin and take the English
course. In one or two instances consent
has been refused; in three or four it has
been granted, to the injury of the scholar
1t is infinitely worse for child to drop
study for within, or because he thinks hi
cannot master it, than it is for him to perse
we're in it, however small its immediate
and practical value may seem. The chile
will always feel himself conquered and in
ferior. The time spent in Latin is worse
than wasted, and the English study is in
complete and unsatisfactory because he ha:
lost the beginning of it, 1t is no place here
to discuss whether Greek and Latin are
benefit to man who must "work for liv
| ing" but you can easily ascertain that the
study of these languages is not compulsory
in our schools. If there are faults in the
teaching, it is the duty of every parent anC
| taxpayer to know them But what parents
visit the school? How often does the com
mittee visit the school? / have it on credita
BILE authority that the number of visitors tC
any room in the school does not average
one in a month. The fault lies as mucl
with Mr.. Taxpayer and his dissatisfied
friend as with the teachers or scholars.
ONE WHO Knows.