Bennington semi-weekly banner. (Bennington, Vt.) 1894-1902, 1895-02-15
Our Graded Schools.

Last weeks Reformer made malicious
reference to the Graded schools. Among
other things it said, in substance, that
the room north of the high school room,
the small rooms off the large hall, and
the tank room, are not now in use, and
that these rooms could be made to &C
commodate a hundred and fifty pupils.
If the Reformer had gone to its great
est enemy and asked that enemy to write
brief paragraph tending to put the Re-
former in foolish light, nothing could
have been written bearing upon It's face
such evidence of ignorance and malice
as that which the editor wrote for
himself.
All the rooms mentioned in the article
referred tO,-excepting that off the
northwest corner of the large hall, and
which is not large enough to accommo-
date more than six or eight children, and
which is without heat, ventilation or
sufficient light-are now in constant use.
The room formed by combining the reci-
tation room off the high school with the
room during the past three years, and
large classes now recite there during the
entire day. The tank room is still used
for its original purpose, as stributing
reservoir for the whole building. To do
away with this tank would be to put the
district to an expense of hundreds of
dollars, as the building would have to be
piped throughout with pipe strong
enough to resist the pressure of the Put
nam reservoir, or the children would
have to be deprived of water in the
school building. The only one OF the
small rooms of the school hall that is
large enough for class purposes has been
in use for nearly five years past.
A word about the present office
When the room was taken for Office pur-
poses, another of practically the same
size was given in exchange for
it. The growth of the high school
from membership of about
twenty pupils, five years ago, to nearly
seventy at the present time, made large
recitation room necessary for use in con-
nection with the high school, and it
seemed wise to give the students a room
on the third floor rather than compel
them to run up and down stairs several
times day for their recitations. Be-
sides, the present Office has been in the
past, and will be in the future much used
as class room as we'll as for much other
work that is Of the greatest benefit to
the students, and absolutely necessary to
the success of the school.
A public school, like other public in
stitutions, may sometimes be benefited
by fair and manly criticism, but to sub.
ject such an institution, admitted to be
one of the best of it's kind, to constant,
wilful and malignant lies, just to crafty
the personal malice of a creature univeI-
sally recognized as a mildew and a blight
upon the community, is not only villain
Gus, but criminal. Our school is pros
porous in an unusual degree, both as to
membership, attendance and scholar
ship. The number of children of school
age in this district is not greatly larger
than three years ago, yet the attendance
in the Graded school is nearly twenty
five per cent more. In five years the
high school has increased in member
ship more than three hundred per cent
The requirements for admission, the
standard of scholarship, and the courses
of study equal those of the best high
schools in the country. Oar graduates
are received into the best colleges with
out examination. We venture the opin.
ion that larger proportion of our stu