The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1888-10-24

primary pupils, wholly upon recommended
ton of the teacher. Intermediates to use
examinations, but in no case should an ex-
animation be a crisis in the pupils course.
Final examinations are Objectionable. Good
faithful work, during the year, deserves
recognition by promotion.
The subject of Primary Work " was in
troduced by Principal Edward Conant,
whose long experience and careful studies
and applications made his words peculiarly
forcible and impressive. He was diligently
heard by nearly three hundred teachers.
"The child nature is the human nature.
In the babe is the potency of manhood and
the child possesses a wide field of spon-
taneous movement. The spirit has only
begun to assume control of the body The
problem of the primary school is how to
lead the spirit to right control of the whole
man. The school involves moral relations
between pupil and teacher, between pupil
and pupil. The teacher, as the director of
action in these relations, is teacher of
morals. This is so always and inevitably
We have bodily training, movements of
hands, feet, body, head and the like, for
which work with splnts, blocks, pencil,
crayon and pen, also vocal drill, offer end
less exercises. Mental training proceeds in
three lines. First, form, sphere, cube etc.
second, number; third, language" Mr..
Conant lucdly amplified each of these three
points and, judging from the attention he
received, gave the teachers of children
particularly useful instruction.
Instructed by the vote of the assembly,
President Bishop appointed the following
committee to consider the educational bill,
now before the house, and to report resolu-
tons regarding the same: Joseph A. DeBoer
of Montpelier, George A. Brown of Bellows
Falls, Mrs Anne S. May of st. Johnsbury.
The afternoon session of Friday was
opened by George A. Brown, Esq, of Bel
lows Falls He made an able speech on the
subject of Schools and Citizens" The
entire paper deserves publication. {" The
word, civics, suggests progress. All agree
that as schools are the invention of the state
they are to be operated in its interests.
The state is interested in good schools that
there may be good citizens. The public
school is not charitable organization. Its
doors stand wide open. Good citizens will
make good schools Good schools will
make good citizens. The citizens of the
| republic are the crowned sovereigns of the
| land. Schools have a right to insist that,
in determining what shall be our system,
decisions be made, not along tax lines but
| upon an intelligent conception of what will
produce the best schools. Education is an
assimilation, a growth, leading forth, a
development of our faculties. The ques-
| ton is not, how much can child know,
but how much can he become in intellect
and character? An interested school is
always an interesting school. Civics awak-
ems thoughts upon questions of public
policy, and the school is not a gift but
habits, thoughts and impulses are early i'm
pressed, is the bulwark of the state" The
question was discussed by Principal W. E.
Sargent of Newport and II. A. Campbell of
johnson.
State Superintendent Justus Dart was to
have opened the discussion of Country
Schools" but, being kept at home by i'll
ness, President Ezra Brainerd took his
place. We have three thousand hillside
schools in sparsely-settled districts. This is
not wholly question of village schools, but
of district schools. The former have been
improving for twenty-five years past at the
expense of the latter. The causes of dete-
rioraton are the decrease in the population
of our rural districts and the consequent
decrease of interest in their schools. What
can we do to keep these schools? For New
England the town system is unquestionably
an ideal system; but, while we have re-
publican form of government in Vermont,
you won't have the town system until the
| people of Vermont say to their legislators,
Let us have it, The town system is in
great disfavor. Farmers like independence,
and the country schools are jealous of the
graded schools To be fair the town system
must be applied to large as well as to little
towns and to graded as well as to country
| schools. Since the commissioners on edu
cation could not help the matter by propos-
| ing the town system, we considered what
we likely might suggest with hopes of help.
We believed that our recommendation if
| followed, would secure a better grade of
teachers, by setting aside present methods
of securing certificates and introducing
others: better system of supervision by
setting aside that of town superintendent,
an office not supported by the people and
poorly paid; more equal system of taxa
ton, and thus reach the ideal that all
schools of the state should be supported by
the state. In closing, the speaker fervently
expressed the wish that another Apostle of
Education might arise and by his inspra-
| ton infuse energy and spirit into our edu-
cation. An interesting and sympathetic
view of the situation was next given by
| Superintendent Mrs. Anne S. May of st.
| Johnsbury.
The following resolution was then pre-
sented by Principal De Boer of Montpelier
and, on motion of Principal Edward Co
nant was adopted by the convention with
rising vote:
In view of the probable action which
the lawmakers of our state will this year
take on house bill No. 3, as recommended
by the commissioners on education and in
troduced by Mr.. Proctor, the Vermont State
Teachers Association, through its properly
appointed committee, desires to give ex-
preston to its feeling upon the subject as
follows: /. We consider the work of the
commission, both in its investigations of the
facts and recommendations upon the facts
to have been most carefully and consider
ately done, and, therefore, entitled to your
attention and study from every source
2. We believe with the commission, the
department of state superintendent, and
many high public officials, together with the
great mass of our people, that Vermont's
public instruction is not what it should be;
that radical measures of reform are pressing
necessities; and that our expectations and
hope of aid stand in the keeping of the gem
eral assembly now sitting at the capital of
our state 3. We accept as broad, practi-
cal and promising compromise of educa-
tional systems the general recommendations
of the commission. We believe that state
superintendent, acting through county SUI
pervisors, with the powers and functions
provided by the act, will tend to promote
homogeneity in state education, to increase
the percentage of attendance of our schools
one general and average enrolment and to
equalize the burden of taxation. L. We
await with deep solicitude, as citizens and
teachers, the action of our legislature upon
this measure. We sincerely hope that Pc
culiarities of structure may not defeat a
measure which represents the final work of
the latest and ablest investigation of the
subject but that this recommendation in
behalf of state instruction may, if it is
necessary, be carefully considered and
wisely altered and, by exalted unanimity OF
action, be made, under God, the means of