The Londonderry sifter. (South Londonderry, Vt.) 1883-19??, 1892-03-18

ing of it into effect has been a misftter.
What the future possibly still holds in
store for us in the same line may be
easily guessed from the three following
recommendation of our state school
superintendent in his report to the last
legislature:
First. THAT the selectmen shall alter
the boundaries of school districts on the
written recommendations of the supcrvi-
sor."
"Shall," not may. With such a law
the boundaries of every school district
in Vermont would be in danger. Mr..
Supervisor would be bigger than any
town six miles square more or less in
the commonwealth of Vermont and all
the inhabitants therein. In case Of
fractional districts he would be bigger
than all the towns of which any one of
them is composed provided they were
in the same county. That is he would
be bigger than two towns at least and
sometimes bigger than three, four or
more towns, The squirting magnifer
that shows mustache on mosquitoe' S
bill is a small wonder compared with a
law that would initiate a supervisor like
that.
Secondly "That a supervisor be au-
thorized to furnish maps, charts, globes.
reference books, etc, for a district at the
expense of the district, to an amount not
to exceed 500 per year"
There are 2,276 school districts in
our state-many Of them small and
very poor, and this would authorize an
investment for their benefit and against
the wishes Of the majority Of $40, 420
annually. And for ought that is said
as long as "wood grows and water runs"
Nothing to do about the purchases only
to pay the bills. Such recommends
tions need watching at home and upon
the Onion or Winooski river. The
superintendent recommends, thirdly,
that supervisors and teachers should es-
tablish course for giving instructions
in morals and manners. 1t should in
clude, he says, "lessons on cleanliness
and neatness, gentleness, politeness,
kindness to others, kindness to animals,
love for parents, benefactors, ETC., res
pect and reverence, gratitude, thankful
ness, obedience, truthfulness, purity,
honesty, courage, honor, reputation,
self-control selfdenial, confession of
wrong, forgiveness, industry, evil speak
ing, profanity, good habits, temperance,
frugality, and civil duties, including
love of country, obedience to law, re-
spect for civil rulers, fidelity to official
trusts, nature and obligations Of oaths,
the ballot and other duties involved in
good citizenship" 1t would seem use
less to combat this recommendation but
such recommendations begin in high
places and first we know they material
ize right in our schools. They have
done so too often already. 1t would
seem sufficient objection that teachers
of common schools are not competent to
protitably. But further objection is
that the schools are already overloaded
with studies. | asked one of our school
girls how many studies she had and she
said twelve. | asked another what she
was studying and she ratified off such a
lot of subjects that l took pencil and
asked her to repeat. They were as fol-
lows; Geography, arithmetic, grammar,
algebra, bookkeeping, history, civil gov
ernment, reading, spelling, writing and
physiology. The question here touched
upon is being argued beyond our borders
by school boards and citizens and here is
what the citizens of Fall River say:
"The undersigned hereby wish to enter
their formal protest against the course
of studies approved by you( (school board)
for the public schools of Fall River par
ticularly the Grammar. As parents,
knowing something about what is being
taught we wish to say that we think too
many studies are given in grammar
schools and that too much is thereby ex-
pected of children ranging from 10 to II
and 10 years of age. We think it much
better that our children should come out
of school at the end of their school course
with fair amount of learning and goou
healthy bodies and minds, than that they
should be graduated with minds cram
med with knowledge, but nerves unstrung
so that what knowledge they may have
acquired will work to their disadvantage
rather than aid them in the struggles of
life" Our children are required to learn
reading, writing, arithmetic. geography,
grammar, physics, civics, composition,
defamation, bookkeeping, physiology,
drawing, music. stimulants, narcotics,
morals, etc. We think the system in
vogue, in our grammar schools especially,
is faulty and tends to discourage rather
than encourage The scholars in a healthy
interest in their studies. Most of the
studies are interesting and have there
fore, been taught only in high schools
and colleges To try and cram into the
minds of children problems hardly intel
ligible to their teachers appears to us as
deserving of protest of all parents and
others who have the best interests of the
rising generation at heart. 1t would ap-
pear that our children are being taught
to have superficial idea of everything
and not to be proficient in anything.