Herald and news. [volume] (West Randolph, Vt.) 1878-1943, 1906-02-15
supt. Stone on Public Schools.

0uPt- Stone on Tupitc SCHOOLS.
The state superintendent of education,
Hon. Mason 5. Stone Of Montpelier, ad-
dressed the Changers Saturday evening on
"Our Schools, Their Present Needs and
Future Condition"
After a selection by quartet composed
OF Glenn and Miss Lettie Bailey. Mrs. e..
s.. Booth and Arthur Vaughan, the
speaker was introduced by John l.. Hutch
inson, master Of the Grange, and proceeded
TO place the educational conditions OF the
state before the locsl branch OF what he
designated as one of the greatest educa-
tional agents in Vermont.
| Our present system is so disjointed and
shows such great gaps that il is almost
impossible to carry any policy out. There
| is too much inequality between the graded
districts with their we'll built, we'll
| equipped schoOlhouses, carefully trained
teachers, special instruction in music and
drawing and 80 or 40 weeks OF school, and
the rural districts with their poorly con-
structed houses, often inferior teachers, no
music or drawing and only rs weeks OF
school in the year. Why should the hill
side children be denied the advantages the
village children have SINCE all are fairly
entitled TO equal opportunities OF develop
mept at the hands Of the state
II has been proved that schools of ten
pupils or less are unprofita BILE for the chill
dren. They should be closed and the
pupils transported to convenient center
for large graded school in which the
children from the farms and the children
from the villages can have the same oppor-
tunities OF mental growth and the same
advantages Of educational environment.
1t sometimes seems as though man will
give more careful attention to the training
of colt than he bestows on the education
OF his child. The colt has one instructor
skilled IN the business OF breaking young
animals to harness and making them way
wise, while the child is allowed to have
from 20 to 30 different teachers more or
less poorly prepared to undertake his mem
tai training, and what he succeeds IN
learning, he appears to learn In spite OF
his teaching. The teachers, as a rule, re-
ceive less pay than a mill girl a clerk or
stenographer, and under the circum-
stances the best talent is not attracted to
pedagogy as a means OF livelihood
School boards as a whole are composed
OF able men, but no man can be expected to
neglect his business to supervise a little
back hill school as a trained supervisor
would do it. Nine times out OF ten the
superintendent doesn't know as much
about how a school should be run as the
teacher does, whereas he should know
good deal more.
Vermont has the smallest permanent
school fund OF any state, and where she
needs at least =, 100000, she has only the
Huntington fund of s2l1 900. Large sums
that should have been devoted to the
schools have been covered into the state
treasury for other purposes to the amount
OF nearly a million and quarter.
Mr.. Stone advocated the introduction oil
some system OF industrial training. Nine
ty- five per cent OF the children, be said,
have no further education than they re-
ceive in the public schools. Practical ex-
perience with them is vital thing and
gives them better knowledge than they
can get from text books, which are fire.
auently not adapted to rural life. The
old mental arithmetic that gave our
fathers their firm analytical fibre OF mind
should be restored, and this with better
advantages in rural districts, consolida-
ton OF small schools and industrial train
ing would equip our youth Tor gallant
part in the enlarged opportunities that
will come when the Panama canal puts
our country in close touch with the mar
kets Of Asia. and makes the west side OF
South America nearer of access than the
east.