The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1896-02-26
AGRICULTURAL.
The Library as an Educator.
BY J. W. NEWTON.

There are great many people past
school age who have had limited oppor-
tunities for education, but who have
thirtt for knowledge. There are many
young people who cannot attend high
school more than one or two years, If
at all. There are some who have to
leave the common school before they
have finished the course. To all such,
as we'll as the student in school, the
library offers the most ready, and in
many cases the only possible means of
obtaining knowledge and acquiring an
education, or experimenting the edu-
cation they have acquired. The peo-
pie Of Vermont need waking up to the
great value Of the library as an educa-
tor. There should be public library
in every town, a school library in every
large school, and it would be well to
have at least q few supplementary
books in every school, no matter how
small. There are towns in the state
which have fine and well.managed Ii
braries. There are too many towns
which have no public Libraries what
ever. The state stands ready to help
the latter class of towns to the extent
of one hundred dollars worth of well.
selected books. The only conditions
attached to such gift are that the town
shall elect local library trustees, who
shall provide place for the books and
see that they are properly cared for,
and also that the town appropriate
small sum of money each year to pur-
chase more books. Under the present
law the poorest town may have good
and well kept public library.
One hundred dollars a year or even
half that sum will not only supply the
readers of the town with good books,
but will also secure the accumulation of
an invaluable collection of books which
will in few years be of the greatest
educational service to the community.
Probably few of us realize the great
value of education, especially when it
is rightly used. The great need of our
agricultural towns is better educational
facilities. That which we call enter
prise is not always the result of educa-
ton, but as rule, the most successful
and enterprising farming communities
are those where there is study and skill.
The educated farmer adapts himself to
new conditions, does not cling to anti
quated ways through prejudice, is
more open to receive instruction than
the uneducated one. DIR. William T.
Harris, United States commissioner of
education, says that "next after the
school and the newspaper comes the
library in educative power. These
three institutions are the great secular
means which our people have to pre-
pare themselves for their singular dee
tiny. The school, for the most part,
finds its function in teaching how to
read. The newspaper and the library
furnish what to read"
We 60 to books to learn the expe-
riences of other men, of their lives.
We 60 to books to learn the history of
the rise and fall of nations, the growth
of good and bad principles. There are
vast treasures of knowledge stored up
in books. The use of books broadens
our view. To those whose daily lives
are bounded by the farm, or the work.
shop, or Office, books are windows
through which they may view the past
ages of the world. 1t does not matter
much how circumscribed ene's path
may be-the library and the newspaper
give him an outlook over the whole
world, past and present.
In every town where there is no
library, steps ought to be at once taken
to bring the matter before the town at
its annual meeting, and vote secured,
if possible, in favor of establishing a
town library.