The Newtown bee., 1909-12-10
The Newtown Bee Newtown, Friday, December 10, 1909.
A sECRETARY's REPORT, LOOK.
 ING AHEAD.
Read Before The Home and School Association at the Monthly Meet ing. December l. by the Secretary Mrs Arthur c. Titus.

Mfs AItlluf l' lltus,
 The home and School Association of Washington was organized 20
 years ago on November 8, 1909, in
 what was then called the new grad
 ed and high school. At that time
 the four lower floor rooms were used
 for the first eight grades and the up-
 per floors for High school purposes.
 Our town growing so rapidly in size
 with the influence of the Aviation
 manuRaCtorles caused the erection of
 new school buildings so that now
 we have the school grounds covered
 with buildings, one for each grade.
 The building we met in 20 years ago
 tonight is now entirely a primary
 and kindergarten school. At the
 time of the erection of this building
 1t was thought what a great change
 from the old district school system
 to the system of consolidation.
 Everybody was proud and happy of
 the advancements. MT Smith, the
 genial editor of the Newtown Bee,
 gave up columns in his popular pa- per to a description of the building and the speeches of the great men
 who took part in the dedication ex- ercises, September 4, 1909 The ef- forts of the Home and School Asso- citation in adding til3 auditorium to the number of new buildings has been greatly appreciated by the Community. This beautiful build ing was planned by the now famous architects, Parcell and Wilson. The builder, a member of the Home and School Association, became so well known as a contractor that his time is all occupied in flying in his air ship from one place to another giv- ing orders to a large corps of men under him. Another important work of the Home and School Association was the equipment of the kinder garten. No expense was spared to furnish t in the best taste and with all requisite material and appliances. In the spacious garden to the north of the building are flower beds for each child to look after in the springtime. The little people are exceedingly happy in their school life and the Association feels more than repaid for its assistance to the school board and town in thus es tablishing such department. On the tenth anniversary or the starting of the kindergarten the Association celebrated what they called Froe- bel Day. An immense gathering was present. Speeches were made by prominent men, telling of tn. life of Erie drich Froebel, founder of the kindergarten system of education. Froebel followed various occupations ere he discovered that his real strength lay in the creation of bet ter ways for teaching the young, and making the schoolroom place of joy and happiness. In his day children disliked going to school. A group of children were on their way to school, a man met them and tod them the schoolhouse was burn. ed. They danced and clapped their han6s. One said, Was the school teacher burned too?" When answer ed in the negative they grew sad again, feeling that their misery would be perpetuated elsewhere This event made Froebel determined to work for the interests of the school children and to make them happy. How well he has succeeded is testified to by the bright .ud joy ous faces of the children in the thousands of kindergartens through out the world. A clipping from newspaper of 1917 reads, Of all the kindergartens in Connecticut it is stated on good authority that the one in Washington stands at the head of The list. me parents are as interested as the teachers and CO., operate heartily with them ih every 
 Washington has been greatly helped in reaching high ideals in it's public educational development by the presence in it's midst of such fine standing private schools as the Gunnery, Ridge and WykehaM Rise. these schools always stood ready to encourage efforts in the right direc- tion on the part of the public school auth ities An important factor in the eilarging of the membership of the schools was the tremendous change from what was once known as the Shepaug River winding in gentle curves through the valley to the TOW wide and deep moving cur rent of water called the Mass. and Waramaug canal. The people in Massa usetts, anxious to get a nj K route to Long Island, put thousands of men at work digging a canal as far as Lake Waramaug and from there the Come. ticut people finishe' the work to the Sound. When this was completed and the great palatial steamers commenced to travel the distance the celebra- tions were such that they will go down in history as marking one of the greatest achievements ever ac- complished in Connecticut. Of all the towns that rejoiced none were so happy as Warren. Warren could now see its own name in print on the map.
 The school. were closed on the day the first steamers passed through Washington so that the school chil- dren could participate in the big State and National parade that took place in the morning. In the even ing fireworks were displayed on the Green and sl eeches made by notable mi nf tnmn man ac mnl1 nc c11nh