Windham County reformer. (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1901-1906, 1903-07-17
EDUCATION THE QUESTION.
HOW SHALL WE BRING UP THE MEN
WHO WILL SUCCEED Usl

!
Annual Meeting Of the School Board, Mex
Tuesday Night, suggests Some interesting
Problems Complaint ID Made Of the Prssen
System and Management Of Affairs.
Education is the chief issue OF thu
hour-here, in the South, in the Phil
ippines, in the world. Paramount il
the question, ''How shall we teach oul
youngY" What must we instill intt
their minds, that they may at menta
maturity be in sight Of the field Of
knowledge, be on its borders, so tt
speak, be at hand, with map and com
pass, equipped for the explorations Of
the years to. come?
Surely, this vast and perplexine
problem should not be shirked by the
grown ups, the men who have gone
through the halls OF wisdom and come
out bristling with untried sums in the
arithmetic Of human progress, espec-
tally as we of older growth are con-
stantly, daily, hourly, rubbing out and
correcting the affairs of life as they
come up and are tested. We, all of us
over 81, know that we don't know,
and the aim Of us all is to eliminate
our own mistakes and false findings in
the rearing of our successors. Ism t
that the truth?
Very we'll, then, to get back to earth,
and to Brattleboro, the legal voters in
school district No. 2, in Brattleboro,
are hereby land elsewhere) notified
and warned to meet in the schoolhouse
in said district on Tuesday evening
next, July 81, at o'clock, TO decide
school questions for the coming year.
The warrant for the meeting contains
six articles, as follows: To choose a
moderator; to hear reports Of the treas
urer and prudential committee on ex-
penses of the past year and present
conditions of the schools; to elect Of
ficers for the ensuing year, to see If
the district will continue to receive
tuition scholars, and on what terms;
to raise money to defray the expenses
of the coming year; to transact any
other business that may legally come
before said meeting.
| Now, it will do no harm to read that
twice. 1t means great deal to every
man in this town who is rearing
child, it means much te every taxpay-
er, even the few bachelors among US:
it carries interest to everybody in this
community, for it simply says, How
shall we teach our young"' and have
we anything to say, any suggestions to
offer, any advice to give, on that ques-
tion?
If there be man or woman in this
town regardful of the future, uncer-
tain as to present conditions, doubt
full as to methods now employed in the
public school system of Brattleboro,
now comes the time to applaud or pro
test. Opportunity is afforded at the
meeting next Tues9sy evening at the
High school building at 8 O'Clock. All
will be respectfully heard, complaints
will receive full attention, recommend
ations will be received, the whole
ground will be gone over thoroughly.
1t is the duty of every voter in the dis
trict to be present at that meeting. |
The information which he will receive
will be valuable, and it is possible his
eyes may be opened wide as to unsus-
pected defects.
There is complaint of the present sys-
tenn and management of our schools |
there can be no doubt of that There
is feeling of unrest, not to say inse-
curity, in the way things are managed |
at present.
At any rate, pushing all these uncer-
tainties aside, there is every reason |
for urging a very complete attendance
of the voters of the second school dis
trict at their public meeting, to hear
reports "on the expenses of the year,
and the present condition of its
Schools That is sweeping, and can
not fail to prove vastly interesting. If,
as currently reported, there are too
many "fads'' in the schools as now
run, we shall hear of them. 1t is also
alleged that the pupils nowadays learn
ever so many things about ever so many
things, but not one thing about one
thing. Just like the man who knew the
first verse of every song that was ever
sung, but couldn't sing the second
verse of any one of them to save his life.
Attend the meeting. 1t will do you
good, now, and hereafter.
A member of the school board gives
the following summary of the present
state of affairs:
SIN 1896 the membership in the
Brattleboro High school was 121. In
the year Just passed it has risen to
16S. During that time over GO gradu-
ates have gone to different colleges
and over 20 are still taking a college
course.
1.-THE drawing department has been
largely increased, new room 45 by 60
feet being erected in the third story
of the building, which gives the pu {
pills an opportunity of making much of
this work
1.-THE physical laboratory. has also
been enlarged by the addition of an
other room 40 by 60 feet. There has [
also been put in them practical dem
onstration of the electrical department I
and also practical exhibition of bot I
any work.
Beginning the year 1896 payment of {
$500 has been made on the bonded |
debt of the district, this amount be- {
ing paid every year, amounting in all !
to a reduction of debt in these years I
Of approximately S15. 600. (
much also might be said about the [
increased work in the graded system
during the year, as the standard has ]
been raised from year to year. We
feel confident that we are not boast
ing when we claim that the present
of the schools places us sec {
1nd to none in the state. -
Death at Marlboro of W. L. Winchester !
William l.. Winchester, for more q