The Londonderry sifter. (South Londonderry, Vt.) 1883-19??, 1885-02-26


She should make special preparations
outside the class for each recitation and
put herself on a level with her pupils.
The first thing to do Is to teach children
to connect sentence properly, and
then to diagram it, Thus synthesis
should proceed analysis since it is more
important. Written exercises of all
kinds including letter writing should be
taught during the entire course. She
paid high tribute to Reed and Kellog's
Grammar and emphasized the need of
thoroushness from the outset. Ii was
fine paper and wellread.
After this Prof. Leavcnworth gave
tabular view of the "conjugation of the
verb" as successfully taught by him for
twenty years. The opening of the
Question box completed the exercises
of the afternoon.
FRIDAY EVENING.
After recitation by Miss May Fem
of Weston, given in her usual happy
manner, Principal Leavenworth gave
an address on the standard of our COM
mon schools and how ii could be raised.
The speaker maintained that the stand
ard was much lower than formerly,
and that several things had conspired to
bring this about. The flatering promis-
ses held out by the commercial oleges
led to the depreciation of all solid edu-
cation. The great mania of the age
was money making and this had tended
to superficial habits of study in the COM
mon school as well as elsewhere. We
have better methods of teaching and
better appliances than our fathers, yet
they had better common schools than
we. They taught fewer studies but
taught them better. They taught the
three "Rs" but we to-day almost en-
tirely neglect the first "R," poorly
teach the second, and fail to give
a practical knowledge of the third. He
then spoke of orthoepy, grammar, his
tory, and civil government and spoke |
of the prevalent defects in the method
of teaching these branches. Our fa-
theirs considered schools the conserva-
tors of freedom and the nurseries of
virtue and worked out course of study
better than that in force now. The old
Greeks considered the people to be the
state, and we should consider the nee
essity of training the children as the
future state. The teacher should think
upon the sacredness of his calling that
he is in loco PARENTS, in the place Of the
parents. The best. teacher is he who
acts most as would wise parent and
the best school, that which is most like
a well ordered home. The speaker
said that the cause of this decadence
was wrong conception of the work
and province of common schools, the
looking upon them as charity and ne
cessity, rather than a priceless benefit.
We should not have as short and as
cheap school as possible, but as long
and valuable one as we can possible af-
ford. Business foresight would require
this. Committees should be selected
because of fitness and not as often as at
present. They should see that the school
houses are comfortable and well fur
nished with needful apparatus. They
should employ only good teachers and
them in the school as long as
they can be retained. A young and in
experienced teacher will often do more
harm than good. Another cause of this
decadence was loose supervision by
school officers and Indifference in par
ents. TO remedy all these defects the
causes must be removed and demand
created for better teachers and better
schools. The next i'll the program was
IN army song by Sidney L. Holt.
Following this Superintendent Dart
gave talk on ''Does it pay" showing
clearly that an education pays a state,
and an individual, in fl
lancial sense even, but especially in
broader sense.
The music during the session was I'M
Ter the efficient charge Of Mrs. NJ. c.
1dmunds, aided by our fine local talent |
md Prof. Julian johnson, of So. Lon ,,
1t was good throughout, I
'ver twenty five teachers were present I
nd fair number of visitors from ad-
dining towns. Tho citizens kindly o. :
'ened their doors for entertainment q
nd the Congregational society freely =
ave the use of their church. Every t
ne pronounced the meeting a great !
uccess and its influence to be for good. q