St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1895-11-29
VOL. LIX NO. 3O44.

usefulness of this lecture can be given in
print, for the illustrations on the board
were component part oft.
AT ATHENEUM HALL.
A number of the teachers gathered in
AthenGum Hall at 8: Is on Friday ymorn-
ing. Prof. c. II. Morrill, of Bakersfield,
presided, and the first paper on the pro-
gramme was "Scen Through Other Eyes"
by Miss Metela Paine of Bradford, In
this paper Miss Paine gave boys idea
of two teachers, in the form of conver-
sation. The boy, whom she called Fred,
disliked school very much when Miss S.
was the teacher. The recitations were
carried on in the same old way day after
day, they were taught the same songs
and sang them over and over, the teacher
was always cross, and the school-room
seemed like a prison. But with Miss B.
for teacher, going to school was
pleasure She was always cheerful and
bright, and she kept the children inter-
ested in their work by giving them con-
stant surprises. No two days were the
same, she had new songs, new stories for
them to read, new recitations and quo
tations for them to learn, and even in
her punishments, she was constantly de-
vsng new ways to awaken their curios-
ity and interest. Miss Paine brought
out the idea that if teachers could but
see themselves through their pupils eyes,
it might revoIutionize their methods of
teaching.
An address followed by Hon. Frank
Plumley of Mortified on the "Relation
of High School to Common School Sys-
tenn His speech was witty and elo-
quent, cnliyened with anecdotes, and re-
ccived with much applause 1t was in
substance defence OF a law passed by
the late legislature, empowering high
schools which fulfil certain requirements
in their curriculum, togrant second grade
certificates to their graduates. This
law has been severely criticised, and Mr..
Plumley proceeded to defend it, The
normal schools give the best training for
teachers, but only few of our teachers
ever attend the normal schools. Out of
300 teachers in the state only about
| 700 ever attended a normal school, and
only 400 were normal graduates.
Teachers will not expend the money to
attend the normal schools until they are
offered better inducements than an aver
age pay of Sc 20 week for twenty-sx
weeks in the year. Our towns are called
stingy and niggardly because they pay
their teachers so little. As a matter of
fact, many of them cannot afford to pay
more, as they are so heavily taxed our
population is being driven away from
them. Here the high school with the
normal attachment can come in and fit
teachers for our common schools. Mr..
Plumley closed with a patriotic eulogy
on our schools, their history, their
growth and their necessity for the devel-
opment of our citizens.
The discussion to follow was omitted
to give Mr.. Plumley more time, and the
next subject Immediately followed, "Es-
sential Work in Teaching" by Prin.
Homer c. Bristol, of Saxtons River. In
the speakers opinion, the one essential
work of the teacher was guidance. That
included all that a teacher could do,
simply to guide the vital, intellectual and
moral powers of the pupil. In the mat
ter of control, the right way was not to
empty the pupils minds, and make them
like machines, but to guide their IRE
pressible activity into the right direction.
They would be good when they realized
1t was tor their own welfare. In the
matter of instruction, teacher could
not put learning into a scholars head.
The pupils had the desire to learn, and
they must do the learning themselves.
All the teacher could do was to guide
them to learn the right things The
! lSdCliCl IluSI NOIk from the llSlue out.
He must guide the scholars in such
way that growth will follow. The
speaker believed that teachers should
study life, as they worked with minds,
and had the guidance of vital processes.
Many OF his ideas were new and very
sensible and practical. This closed the
mornings programme
Friday Afternoon.
Miss Harriet E. Savage of Montpelier
read paper on Expert Supervision of
Common Schools She told how YER
mont has taken two steps in school
work, and is now confronted by third.
Massachusetts knows more about it
than any other New England state, and
so we can learn from her The efficiency
of school system is measured by the
efficiency of its superintendents. The
salary OF supervisors is too low to induce
anyone to give themselves up to the
work altogether. What shall we hope to
gam by expert supervision 1t will edu-
cate the people to see that the school tax
is the best expended money in the year,
teachers will be chosen wisely, school
houses will be properly built The model