Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1886-10-08
THE EDUCATIONAL PROBLEM.
Better Facilities for Education in gu,
SChoOla.

10 une EDITOR OF inc free Press
The FREE PRESS anticipating in late
number the subjects that will come be-
fore the General Assembly of the State
in its next session puts the school uues-
ton forward as main one, If not the
chief. How to awaken and sustain popu-
lar interest in the schools, how to en-
tighten and direct this interest so that the
faults in the system shall be corrected
and the mperfections OF the teaching and
training under it be remedied, this is in
deed the problem for the legislators as
well as the citizens in each town and dis
trict to grapple with.
But how shall this question come before
the Legislature Shall it be by persist
ence in the effort which a few have made
in years past to change the system and
adopt the town in the place of the district
system that now exists Is the town a
better working basis for the schools of
Vermont than the district The people
do not so judge and they have deliberately
given their voice against any such change.
For 10 years past the opportunity to
change has been before them and they
have been urge to make the change by
State superintendent, school officials and
newspapers by all the arguments they
could present Besides they have been
compelled IN their town meetings, for two
years past, to vote on the question of the
change Thus persuaded and compelled
to express their judgment and declare
their choice, they have overwhelmingly
rejected the town system and held on to
the district. Should not the Legislature
and the state officials aud the papers to
heed this judgment of the people and
henceforth give themselves to work ont
the eXcellencies of the district system ?
Clear we are that it is better adapted to
the intelligence and wants of Vermont
| than the town system.
If we scan the history Of our schools, in
respect to their places and efforts to en-
large instruction and make it better the
first born of our republic, Vermont. holds
a conspicuous and enviable place. She
was the first to do justice to her daughters
and give them the same opportunities and
advantages that the boys have had for
ages. SpeaH now in respect TO building
academies, Seminares aud colleges for
young ladies and providing support and
instruction in them equal to those that
have existed for young men from the be
ginning of the Christian era and be
fore. In the records of female edu-
cation" says Judge Swift in his
History of Middlebury, lit is worthy
of notice that this academy-the Re
male seminary begun at Middlebury
in 1SOO-a separate building for which
was erected in lsO2-3, was one of the very
first in the country which was built for
that special object" Swifts Hist, Mid
dlebury, p. 1872
Into this academy built for the special
purpose Of educating Young ladies', came,
in 1907, by invitatiOn of the guardians OF
the academy, Miss Emma Hart of Berlin
Conn, afterward Mrs Emma Willard and
took the entire charge of it for about two
years. Marrying in 1909 DR.. John Willard
then resident Of Mlddiebury and marshal
of the district of Vermont, Mrs. Willard
suspended her teaching for a season and
till 1914 when she opened a boarding
school for girls in her own house. This
school for which Mrs Willard had been
prepared by her labors and experience in
the academy, was, rs both Mrs. Willard
and her friends frequently assert the
germ of the Troy Female Seminary and
OF the seminares and colleges for young
ladies that have so happily sprung up
since. 1t was here she writes, that de
vlsed that plan of female education
which became the basis Of an extensive
reform iii female education" "My neigh
borhood to Mlddebury college made me
bitterly feel the disparity in educational
facilities between the two sexes and |
hoped that if the matter was once set be
fore the men as Legislators they would be
ready to correct the error" For this pur-
pose she prepared and printed her plan"
\ copy of this plan she sent to Governor
Clinton of the State of New York with "A
letter opening it up and advocating it.
Governor Clinton laid the plan before the
Legislature and in his message recon-
mended the incorporation of the female
seminary and an appropriation to estab-
lsh it. a accordingly. the LEGISLATURE incor-
porated the seminary at Waterford
| whittier Mrs Willard had removed her
al tl.l
Middlebury and made an appropriation
to aid Mrs. Willard in establishing it.
The appropriation not being sufficient
and no more coming from the Legislature
the corporation of the city of Troy came
to Mrs. Wizards aid and gave sufficient
funds to erect the necessary buildings
and set up female seminary at Troy,
The seminary thus set up soon attracted
pupils from all all parts of the United
States and made way for itself, Others
like it under Mrs. Wizards planning and
labors soon rose both in the United States
and abroad. HOlyohe, Nassar, Smith
Wellesley, Bryn Mawr and others are
only the rpened fruit of her plan and
labOrs to improve female education. And
this plan was formed and the labor to real
ize it, begins in Middlebury. The school
at Middebury was in the spring of 1919,
with all its teachers and part of ITS
boarding pupils, removed to Waterford.
y. y, thus preserving the Identity as
Mrs. Willard SAYS, "of the school which
had only an ordinary vacation between its
close at Middlebury and its commence
ment at Waterford
Vermont is also conspicuous for another
step taken in advance and for wider and
better instruction in the schools OF our
land. Not only did this young State pre-
pare the way for the better education Of
young ladies, but equally for establish
ing the Normal school of our country and
thus improving instruction in all the
schools. A Normal school, with clear
course in the high art of teaching, was
opened by Rev. Samuel K. Hall, then a
home missionary IN the town of Corlnth
Essex county in ls2S Finding the elm
ate of Northern Vermont TOO severe for
him at that time Mr.. Hall was led TO
leave his school at Cornth ana take
charge of the Normal department of
Philips academy at Andover, Mass Here
he taught and labored with much dis
erection and zeal engaging Others with
him till in 1888, the Legislature
of Massachusetts was led to take
mp the subject and establish the