News and citizen. [volume] (Morrisville, Vt. ;) 1881-current, 1908-12-09
Vented! A Nav Normal Building

three normal schools was represented by
its principal, who made strong show
ing for the old schools, and by Mr.. Boy
den of Randolph and Mr.. c. II. Stearns
r of Johnson, who pointedly traced the
history of these institutions, their growth
and support by the communities in which
they are located, and appealed for more
liberal support from the State on the
grounds OF merit, justice, and economy.
4 But the climax came directly after Chair
man DeBoer had drawn from DR.. Collins
the opinion that the time had come when
the State of Vermont should build some
where a fine, new, modern, normal plant,
when Mr. Stearns rose and proposed
that that new plant should be built at
Johnson, and said that bill Healing for an
appropriation of $4,000 would be in
PRODUCED for this purpose.
There are special reasons why Johnson
should he the site of the new school,
The building at Johnson is the most III
| adequate of the three present plants. 1t
is the smallest, the flimsiest structure,
the most poorly designed, is without
ground save a slight lawn, is at an in
convenicll. distance from the training
school, allows no further expansion to
meet new needs. The school enjoys an
enviable reputation throughout the State.
| Its Summer Sessions have drawn to it
teachers from all sections of Vermont
and from Canada, New hampshire, and
Massachusetts. The town furnishes am
pie training school facilities, both in re-
spect to present numbers and possibility
OF further growth The training school
building is modern and well equipped
beautiful site, with ample grounds, can be
obtained near the training school. A
fraction of the expense of the proposed
1925 900 school would here furnish plant
and equipment for years to come. Much
of the equipment of the old building, IN
fact, can be readily transferred to the
new plant, having been purchased or
moval to new building. The work OF
the school has grown with the years and
the support which the State has given.
The Superintendent of Education in his
last Report, in speaking of the old
schools, established in 1867, says, They
fully met the needs of the time and the
demands of the State They set forth a
superb army of well trained men and
women" AS matter of statistics, the
four classes sent out during DR.. Collins
principalship outnumber the first fifteen
classes graduated at Johnson. The ""su-
perb armies" in the COS and '7Os CON
sisted of classes of 2, +, 5, and occasion
ally 10, r. and 10, while for the past |
ten years the school has never graduated |
a class of less than 20, and has maintain |
ed an average of over 30 graduates. The
work of the school measured by the ordi-
nary normal school standards warrants
the erection of new plant.
The argument to which the invcst-
eating commission reverts again and
again, and which is now used as an ar
gument of last resort against the old
schools, is that of their location. Agri-
culture, torsooth, to be of any virtue,
must be taught i'll a city. The schools
must be in a railroad center no mat
ter what the moral surroundings. But
parents who have daughters to send
away to school sometimes think more of
the daughters than they do Of the pre- S
Use location of the school, 1t is what |
he school is rather than where it is that '
Statistics show that the John 1
son Normal School is not so inaccessible l
hat it does not draw students year after {
'ear, from nine or ten of our fourteen S
ounties, Legislators suffer more incon- /
,enience in getting to the State capital
md back every week than girls do in
oming to these schools thrice a year, e
nd vet the legislators seem strangely t
Wiling to take that trip. AS a matter i
f fact Johnson offers as healthful moral
nd physical environment as any place r
4 which new normal school would be .
kelly to be located. The village is neat, V
veil kept, progressive, and up to date. y
t has threshed out the many problems =
which arise in connection with the estab- a
of such an institution in its a
lidst and which may offer the most v
erious obstacles to the success of a new r.
lstitution. t
There is growing undercurrent of II
ointment that it is not BETTING the u
ignity of the State to repudiate the o
tatute establishing these schools until b
900. And yet, the Johnson Normal 81
,hool cannot go on for the next twelve :
ears in its cramped and crippled condi- ii
ion and give its full measure of service
0 the State. The institution is alive.
cry much alive, and it only needs a suit
BILE roof over its head. There is a feeling, y
%, that the poor, but self reliant farm t,
rs girls who are drawn to these schools a