The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1910-02-24
THE MONTPELIER SCHOOLS

port of Superintendent +. J. Browns
combe--Girl Pupils Surpass the
Boys.
Some of the important features of
the annual report of Superintendent
of Schools f. j. Brownscombe are
given herewith:
y Some Statistical Enquiries.
The manager of a business or factory
must know not merely the general
theory and practice of his business
but the details of the business he
controls. He must know the cost of
the raw material, the cost of produc-
ing the finished article, and the price
for the same. He must show pro-
fit to the company, or If not, why not
for the directors are interested in
/ making profits that they may pay div
idends ito the stockholders. Now the
people of the community are the
stockholders of its schools which pro-
fit means the preparation of their
children for success in life. On this
basis are the schools of this or any
other community being carried on
with a profit. ,srr o.
1t is comparatively easy to calculate
| the, expenditure. We have plan:
worth 100000 and the annual eV-
penditure per pupil is $2S; the 10
schools years of a pupil therefore
costs the community about 1864, eX-
elusive of the sacrifices of many par
ents have to make for the sake of ed
ucating their, children. In reality it
costs more than the sum mentioned
when we consider the number drop
ping out and the fact that the upper
grades and High School costs more
! than the average. And how about the
number that complete the High School
course, the finished product? Writer'S
of educational articles in magazines
and newspapers generally estimate
that less than ten per cent of the pu
pills entering the first year of school
finish the High School course. | think
this estimate too low and am Happy to
| state that our proportion is more
than three times as great OF tho $40
pupils in the first grade 90 are newly
entered this year and We have 80 stu
dents in the High School senior class.
Twelve years ago there were about
so newly entering, making our sradu
ates about 40 per cent. Allowing FOR
| the growth Of the city ana @ IL side pu-
| pulls we still may count Oh over 90
per cent graduating, percentage
considerably above the average. But
y lat of the 10 per cent who have new
Ell reached 1.-The finished product"
stage? Here | think that partial fail
ure is to be charged, whether to par
! ents or to the school system, but | be-
lieve that the State, the trust which
controls the school corporations, can
and should help by raising the COM
pulsory age of school attendance to
sixteen years.
1t is safe to say that none Of the
| fifteen year old pupils in the third,
fourth or fifth grades will enter the
High School, and scarcely any in the
sixth grades. And of those sixteen
years of age and over in the 7th grade,
few if any will reach the High
School
Enquiry as to why these pupils are
retarded show that about . per cent
is due to the late entrance into school,
20 per cent to Irregular attendance,
and 60 per cent to slow progress. The
item of % per cent for retardation
due to irregular attendance is a SER
ious one because close enquiry shows
that more than one-half of this is I'M
necessary. In many cases children
are allowed to sit up or stay out late
at night, do not get up in time for
school in the morning and are excused
by their parents on the plea of ill
| ness, and many other utterly trivial
causes, suffice to keep children out of
school; and what is worse, parents in
some cases condOne actual truancy
on the part of their children. Thus
We have from 10 to Is per cent of
cases of retarded children due to Grim
inal negligence on the part Of the par
ents, number of children vino are
denied complete education because
OF this negligence.
A thorough study of the failures in
our schools was made last spring
and the results showed that most of
7 the failures in any subject stood low
! in that subject Throughout, the course.
Thus in the High School second year
English great majority of the fail
! ures were shown to have been near
i the failing points in the grammar
/ grades, land the same results We're
\ disclosed from an investigation of the
| failures in arithmetic and other sub
Pjeets.f 81 81 a1%uq ~ i.-...
| My proposition to remedy this is u
promote children, in the intermediate
and grammar grades, not by grades.
/ but by subjects as we do in High
School. Wenowl have the department
/ plan from the fifth to the eighth
7 grades inclusive' and to some extent
in the fourth, and the plan suggested
would mean an. adaptation wherein