The Windham County reformer. (Battleboro, Vt.) 1876-1897, 1891-03-20

THE SCHOOL QUESTION.

4
The Boston Herald Acknowledge ,hs
! Rest OF Its Article Ia All Right-SOme Oi
the Specific Denials 1t Calls for.
| The school committee have sen: the follow
| ing letter to the Boston Herald:
| The article In your Issue of the 10th upon tae
Brattleboro high school is the most wicked and
untruthful attack upon beth the living and the
dead that ever emanated from an anonymou
correspondent. t. .
lied by the whole community as most cruel and
wicked, and meets with the severest condemns
tion.
rhe remainder of the article is grossly mis-
leading and untruthful. In its illusions tC
school and teachers 1t Ia calculated to bring in
to uisrepute persons who have entered upon
teaching as profession. and to mortify anu
disgrace tile pupils, who in character and de
pertinent are second to none In New England.
In any paragraph where q germ Of truth 1,
supposed TO exist. 1t Is 30 perverted as TO bs
practically an untruth.
HENRY ID. HOLTON,)
r. l.. PlALEN,
The Herald published III % It TUe.day iSue with tb,
following reply:
The above letter may be accepted as the full
est denial which the school committee Of Brat
lleboro desires to make to the Herald's recent
shbordinatiOn In the high school OF that town
Those who have read the Herald's report will
be struck by the utter absence of specific dc
malls Of the facts as published. That our state.
ments OF lecent proceedings In the school can.
not truthfully be denied we are firmly con-
yinced-frst, from the unassailable character OF
our informants, and, second, from the commit
tees refusal TO take up the issue on single
specific allegation as to what took place In the
schoOlrOOm. The general vOicing Of sorrow at
the Herald's ailusion to the late principal, Mr.
spirit of our articles, but is rather diversion
from the main point at Issue. We regret that
This allusion to- generally beloved man, now
deceased, Inadvertently found place In the ar
ticle, and have tried to make all possible amends
by publishing the joint statement of many In
fluential citizens testifying to Mr. Bingham 8
good characteItand faithful service In past years.
But 1t was the deplorable state of affairs in the
school to-day that we aimed to reach and rem
edy, and we cannot yet believe that this effort
to promote adequate authority and discipline
Will have other tnan good results Did We feel
at liberty TO reveal the names of our iHformants,
and present In full the reasons on which our
confidence in them Is based, the citizens OF Brat
tlebOro would recognize the strength of our
upon to say more than that they are not whit
less respectable and worthy of belief than even
the honorable gentlemen of the school commit
tee themselves. What they have said ana done
has been solely and singiy In the real best in
terests of the school and the town, and the Her.
aid proposes to regard the confidence they have
placed In It, at least until reason appears for re-
vealing their identity.
The Herald's position is 80 absurd as to
answer itself. 1t acknowledges and makes
due apology for the wrong and the falsehood
OF Its allusiOn to the late Mr.. Bingham. 1t
didn't make this up out of nothing; its infor-
nation or rather mlsinfOrmation about him
must have come from the same source or
sources as the other statements about the
school. And yet while practically acknow-
edging. that they lied to It in part OF their
story, 1t insists on reposing the utmost conf
dence In the rest of 1t, and In protecting them
from pubNc knowledge Of their authors hip.
We have no doubt that they managed in
some way 70 DacK their statements so that
the Herald was convinced Of their truth
The fact remains. nevertheless, that the
statements were simply false and the Herald
makes bail mistake In placing credence up.
on them.
1t is not true as the REFoRMER stated last
week that defiance of authority Is rife" In
the High school, or that there Is "alDoss Mt
ter disregard OF authority. or thst
the teachers aTS abandoned to auusp, Oh th i
Mr.. McLschlfn has ever told asagstants or
anybody elsn that be felt utterly helpless or
that one OF the assistants who has given 20
years OF the best service to our schools is
doing or has done anything to bother him,
or that the committee ever forbade Miss
Mason or any other assistant to take her
troubles 10 the principal, or that the commit.
tee do not give support to the teachers.
One who goes into the school sees no signs,
except perhaps In one 70 )m, Of disorder. A
year ago there WAS some of It, hut 1t was re-
pressed by being sternly dealt with, too
sternly and ubiustly In some cases, as some
OF the pupils and parents claimed, so that un.
deniably some bad feeling has been left as a
result. This feeling may manifest itself In
tricks like the hat cutting matter, which boys
OF certain age anywhere are liable to in
dulge in; but there is considerable doubt
whether that trick was committed by
anu mo hnr nf hn d
certain that the boys and girls have very gen.
orally condemned 1t. Brattleboro boys and
girls are not barbarians. There are some
wild and mischievOus ones among them as
there are every where, there was some frc.
ton, as there was bound to be when the
change was made from Mr.. Bingham and the |
ways with which REPLACE had been famil- |
lar for quarter Of a century to entirely new |
ones. but we repeat with all the emphasis
possible that there Is not remarkable |
state of insubOrdination" such as the Herald |
depicts, but that to every outward appear
ance the High School is as orderly and we'll
behaved as any In the country.
The Herald's informapts nave picked up |
some little things that might be paralelleL In I
twO.thirds of the schools OF the country, and |
with the gossip of exaggeratiOn, distorted
hem out Of all reason.
some good will come from this unfortu.
1ate affair. but in altogether different way
han the Herald calculates. It. will silence
gossip of the mesnest kind about
10Th living and dead. 1t will lead to the cor
'ection of one mistake which has had some
light effects of evil. and replace the new
angled ideas of discipline with those OF
more wholesome and Old-fa shiOned kind.
And IL will clarity the minds Of parents and
'iizens and lead to more cordial support
II the authorities, teachers and schools that
rave been SO unjustly maligned.
|
Death of r. y. Green.
Dispatches Wednesday announced the
leath at Jacksonville, Fla, OF Haxall Purple
ireen, former well known cit zen and