The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1885-03-18
Some Questions and Comments.

zone of the Taxpayers says: "I was
much pleased with your editorial in a late
issue, entitled Weed Out There is great
deal of truth in it, and thinking it over in
reference to our school should like to have
you answer a question or two: First, what
are the practical benefits in the tests that
the scholars have each month? Second,
why is it that the scholars in the upper
rooms cannot do some of the examples in
arithmetic that the younger scholars are
obliged to do, and that they cannot apply
their arithmetic to practical affairs? For in
stance / asked a scholar that had studied
cube root, to measure coal bin and tell me
how many cubic feet it contained. He an
swered that he did not know how to do it.
Neither could another scholar tell how to
find the number of yards of carpeting it
would take to cover certain room, although
he could recite the rules and do all the ex
amples in the book. Third, why are the
scholars rushed into the grammar school
before they are able to read correctly, spell
as they should, and put into algebra before
they understand the arithmetic? One gen.
teman said that he should like to know
why his children could not study the COM
mon branches and not be Obliged to take up
Greek or Latin, that would do them no
good as they would be obliged to work for a
living. Now, Mr. Editor, this may stir up
somebody, and / hope it will. The great
trouble with the people of this town is that
they do not take the interest in the schoolthat
they should. If they understood these mat
ters there would be less complaint. Please
give us little light on these matters"
Concerning the above we would say:
| Monthly tests, rightly arranged and con-
ducted serve to show how much of the in
struction of the school-room is fixed in a
scholars mind and how firmly and clearly it
is fixed. They also show to an observant
and intelligent teacher wherein instruction
!
| failed and wherein its efficiency may be in
creased. This is the theory of monthly test,
| and il the practice is dictated by common
sense the results should be highly beneficial.
| But the efficiency of the test like the in
struction, depends upon the capability OF
| the teacher.
The second query, we fear, touches de.
feet that is not peculiar to the Montpelier
| schools. In our general work in this paper
we have labored to call public attention to
the inefficiency of the schools of the state as
a whole, to the immense expense and INSULT
cient results of these schools. We sincerely
hope Taxpayers inquiry ,ciU " stirup y
some one, and as one result of the " stir
ring" when he next propounds simple arith
metical conundrums to the children in the
Union School the answers will be prompt anC
clear and correct. But this is neither the
time nor place for an adequate consideration
of the important things this question sug
gests. They have been discussed at length
in various forms in this paper, and we shall
take pleasure in recurring to them again ant
again till the reform comes. 1t is undeni
able that the schools do not make q close
or even reasonably close, connection will
the life the pupils encounter when they hav'
ended their days of special study.
In his third query Taxpayer has wakeC
up what we believe may be defect il
the Union School instruction. Spelling il
hardly acquired by lifelong practice. Schol
orul Al "a m w q
should be able to study this essential brancl
of a common school or collegiate education
at the best advantage, and when instruction
can be most successfully administered
Their distinctive intellectual traits have be
gun to develop, their judgment is budding
they have become susceptible to something
like elocutionary drill, a competent instruct
or's work is likely to be greatly assisted b.
the intelligent efforts of the pupil and tn
instruction derived to become permanen
and valuable acquisition. Furthermore,
wide-awake and accomplished teacher G
reading, by an easy and natural adaptation
of the means to the end, can enlist scholar
in the cultivation of taste for wholesom
and useful lliterature-history and biography
art and science, duly seasoned with poetr
and fiction-and in the more practical mai
ter Of taking an intelligent interest in dali
events, thus contributing to the formatio
of good mental habits and laying the founds
ton of self-education. Then, with sue
habits formed and foundation laid, with tn
world of books, papers and periodicals be
fore them, there is practically no limit t
the scholars means of improvement, if tn
instruction they have received in othe
branches has taught them to think, to sii
and investigate for themselves. This is tn
real end of education, rather than crammin
the mind at random with deal of amles
, and crude I" book learning" But the rea
education is pretty apt to be the product c
experience after leaving school, to whic
schoo-room instruction contributes in
very insufficient degree. We hope "TaA
: payers interrogations will " stir up
teachers, committees and parents to Civ
= the attention these matters of vital impol
tance imperatively demand. But it canno
be done solely in a newspaper. 1t must b
by painstaking, thoughtful, persistent ind
vidual action.