Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1889-02-25
Vermont Schools and the New
School Law.

For some years past it has been felt
that something ought to be done to i'm
III prove the schools is Vermont. Stats
tics have seemed to show that illitera-
CIV was on the increase, land it had been
argued that that the schools were
really depreciating in character and |
II efficiency. We have not held to this
view, but it is true that certain things
have tended to make the schools of
less value than they ought to have
been.
We note a few causes which have
tended to bring down the character
of schools, first among which is the
decrease in the number of children
in nearly all school districts, except
village districts, and the consequent
cutting down of the number of pupils
in most of the districts in the towns.
Small schools not only lead to the
employment of cheap and inefficient
M teachers, but it is well nigh impossi-
BILE TO keep up that lively interest in
them which promises the best results.
0 No schools make better progress, 9th
er things being equal, than those in
N which classes are large enough to
promote rivalry and strife within
them for the honor that belongs to
the best marking in class records.
Another reason, suggested IN the
above, is the employment of teachers
of such age and inexperience that it
is impossible to get good work from
M them. The bright and ambitious
III girl of fourteen or fifteen years, no
matter what her ability may be, has
not reached that age when her judg
ment and wisdom are sufficient to
well manage a school, and her expe-
rience in teaching must be so limited
that her efforts can be little better
than failure. Laws, criticisms or
talks about making better schools
will all be useless until those who
employ teachers insist on hiring those
whose age, experience and proved sue
cess are such as to make failure i'm
possible. 1t ought to require no al
Nj gument to prove that teacher, not
M yet out of her girlhood, is not the
most fit person to manage and in
struct a school. Another reason why
schools are failures or partial failures
is the fact that nobody knows any
M thing about how they are running.
N Nobody, or next to nobody visits
them; nobody cares enough about
how the most valuable time in the
child's life is spent, to visit the school.
We state this because what people
N have an interest in they attend to;
what they want to see, they find time
to see. The school weeks and the
school term fits away, and nobody
knows how the children have been
taught, what example has been set
before them, what character building
has been going on. There is really
nothing but fight or serious trouble
in a school that will awaken lively
interest in it. Another cause that
injuriously effects the common school,
is the general opinion among parents
that the one or two children the Lord
has given them are so made and so
good that that the common things of
the common school are not adapted
to them. They are either taken away
at an early age and sent off some
where to an "academy,'' OF they are
lifted up into the higher branches to
the utter neglect of the common
things of an education. There is
great deal of superficial nonsense in
the so-called education of to-day,
which parents are responsible for,
and for which our schools get the CEN
sure.
The new law was formed by board
of very intelligent commissioners,
who spent much time, travelled into
all sections of the state, visited
schools and obtained the opinion of
intelligent men and good educators.
1t is not a crude affair. The bill pre-
pared commended itself to the legis-
lature and was enacted into law,
and it ought to be received with ia
vor by the people. While the law
seems to be q formidable thing, as it
reads, it is not so unlike the old law
as many imagine. Aside from some
slight changes in regard to school
N year, etc. ,the most important change
n is in regard to the supervision of the
schools. The duty, now chiefly in
the hands of town superintendent, is
placed in the hands of county SUI
perintendent, ''supervisor. The du-
ty of this officer is very similar tC
that OF a superintendent; but as his
field is wider he is required to give
his whole time to the business. He
holds meetings for the examination
of teachers, grants licenses, may
hold Institutes and meetings fo
teachers-in short is the grand schoo
man of the county. To say that thi
man has an onerOus and responsible,
duty, will only say part of it. II,
ought to be man conversant witt
school matters, with books, with teach
ing, with law, He ought to hav
that ability of tongue and that powe
of influence which will ihspir
such zeal in teachers, and such Al
interest in the people as has not bee
felt since the days when J. 5. Adam