The united opinion. [volume] (Bradford, Vt.) 1881-1970, 1907-01-18
EDUCATIONAL MEETING.
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lOontutued from page II
for much of the state to take adj
vantage of the law, because we
are very cautious and we do not
leap before we look, but it is sure
to come as it is based upon right
principles and sound logic. When
this Gay uOes dawn, we, IN YER
mont VIII be on the way to bet
ter school system and our stand
ara VIII nave been raised. This
law helps the small places to give
the cnIluren as good advantages
as the large towns most OF which
already nave expert supervision.
In the evening, the session was
a public one ana was held IN the
Village Hall. Mr.. Hatch of STRAIT
ford tlred the opening shot, and as
he was member of the recent leg
islature, he spoke somewhat OF the
work accomplished at the session.
He spoke OF the hesitancy OF the
average Vermonter, how he looked
around to see all sides. He looked
out for taxes and he wanted to
know if he was getting his moneys
worth for taxes expended, which
was commendable, but he was
certain that this grouping of towns
for supervision would yield re-
suits that would be satisfactory
from that view point. This mat
ter of the public school system
was the most important before
the state today.
Frank L. Green, editor OF the
st. Adams Messenger, followed
with talk which brought many
things of the past wildly to mind
and gave the audience something
to think about for quite awhile.
He asked how many had ever been
inside the schoolhOuse since they
themselves left it? He asked
what view we took of the school
house? The old time conception
of school was that it was a neces'
sary drudgery, which all children
had to endure. Probably our
children take much the same view
of it. Do the parents take the
schools seriously? Of course they
are all ready to declare them
selves on public occasions and IN
fine sounding resolutions but 90
they have working knowledge OF
the schools. We owe it to our
children to give the schools the
same intelligent attention as we
give to the other duties in life.
Who understand the little differ
ences of temperament better than
the mothers and fathers? They
know how these variations cause
them worry and anxiety, how
they counsel together to overcome
this and that tendency, how much
thought they give to what is the
best way to shape their little char
acters so that they may make
good men and women. With just
a little family they know what the
responsibility is, yet they leave
the teacher with|so many little
family groups around her without
their help or advice to shape much
of their little characters. We re-
member our own days at school
when we did our utmost to make
life miserable for the teachers set
over us, yet now that we under
stand we do nothing to help the
teachers of our children do their
God-given work. Yet upon pub
lie schools we depend to save this
nation to it's Anglo-Saxon ideals.
He also spoke of the kinds of
education we we're drifting into
that which made gentlemen and
ladies rather than useful men
and women. We are educating
our boys and girls that it is not
nice to soil their hands in manual
labor and so we are spelling many
a good tradesman by making him
a cheap and useless professional
man. We are pointing to some
great historical figures and say
ing to the boy "stu1y and you
can make yourself anything you
want to-" when the fact is we
should be shaping him to do the
work he is best fitted to do in the
best way. We say there is room
at the top, but there is room at
the top only for the men who be-
long there, and they will get
there whether they 90 to school
or not.
We are proud that Vermont
has so much of the native stock
left and we are apt to think we
are keeping up with the process
sion because ve are doing as our
fathers did and because we are
bound to think hat we are all
right, but there are strong indica-
tons that this method of think
ing things into existence has its
drawbacks, for in 1893, when Ira
Allen wrote history of our fore
fathers, he said that there was
scarcely a man or woman who
could not read and write, yet to-
day with all the improvements of
the twentieth century, we have
the largest per cent of iIliterates
in the New England states, and
this does not apply wholly to chill