The Bennington evening banner. (Bennington, Vt.) 19??-1961, 1912-07-22
FoR A GREATER VERMONT

Extract From Paper on Education
Read by Hon. Mason S. Stone, Be
fore the Greater Vermont Associa
ton at Rutland, Vermont, July II
1912.
Mr. Stone began his paper with a
brief inventory of the education laws
passed beginning with the General
| Assembly OF 1906, which have inaug'
urated a new educational era in Yer
mont. This is an array of public
school legislation that is equalled in
few states, If any, and unsurpassed
by none.
But disregarding legislation, it is
no small thing that Vermont has a
thriving school of agriculture.
1t is no small thing that the people
of the state are more alive and re-
sponsive to educational matters than
, they have been in half a century.
1t is no small thing that the an
nual disbursement of State aid, not
including rebates for advanced in
struction, has increased from $780,
600 to more than 100000 in six
years.
1t is no small thing that the num-
Der of teachers retained in the same
school one year or more increased
from 1,O44 in 1905 to 1915 in 1910.
1t is no small thing, that the aver
age monthly wage of women teachers
in elementary schools increased from
$29. GO in 1906 to $37.76 in 1912.
1t is no small thing that the per
centage of trained teachers in ele-
mentary schools of Vermont increas-
ed from II in 1906 to % in 1912, and
that the migration of such from the
State has practically ceased.
1t is no small thing, that, in this
year of grace, 1912. one hundred and
fifty additional and especially pre-
pared teachers enter upon rural
school work.
1t is no small thing that within six
years the number of towns under
professional oversight has increased
from per cent to nearly 20 per
cent
1t lis no small thing that the aver
age daily attendance of school chill
dren has leaped from 4S,34S in 1906,
TO 81, 104 in 1910.
1t is no small thing that Vermont
today is in the first place, with Kan
sas, in per cent of daily school at
tendance.
1t is no small thing that of all of
the States north of the Mason &
DiXon's Line, Vermont has made the
greater per cent of gain, during the
past decade in eliminating illiteracy
and today has the smallest per cent
of any New England State.
Without danger of contradiction it
is safe to venture that Vermont
bases its educational faith upon the
following:
First. The school exists for the
child and not the child for the school.
Therefore II believes that the pro-
cesses employed should not ALLEVIATE
him from his natural aptitude, but
should fit him to do the thing he is
best fitted to do, that the material
used should be the material at hand,
and that, in its use, the opportunities
for a worthy and useful career in his
home state may be revealed.
Second. Education should be AMI
investment and not tax. There
fore. the system and its ends should
meet by making the child and its OPP
portunities meet. Only good schools
can do this. Therefore good school
is an investment, a poor school is al
tax.
Third The child should be an as
set and not liability. Therefore,
individual and social efficiency
should be secured through trainingl
him to do the best he can the thing
he can do best, and by making him
4 power for social and civic righte
BUSINESS rather than a puppet or pawn
in the body polite
Fourth. An educational systeml
should be just. Therefore 1t should
be approximately equal in its levies
for support and inthe educational
advantages afforded Consequently
aid should be given towns inordinate-
ly taxed, and adequate supply of
trained teachers provided for the ru-
raj schools as well as for the graded
and skilled oversight made useful
and effective.
An incident to the tenets submit
ed, il is generally accepted today
that the chief disideratum is revenue
that the chief essential is a teacher;
that the chief object is the child
that the chief aim is social and civic
Righteousness.
That school life shall be real life
that the outside physical world
should be more extensively brought
into the inside school world, that the |
concrete rather than the abstract isl
the naural material, that subjects
should be taught rather than texts, !
that thought power should be culti-l
waited rather than texts, that thought |
power should be cultivated rather
than memory, and that facility of
original expression should be devel- !
oped rather than mere monosyllabicl
guesses.
Also that work outside of school |
hours should form a part OF the
school course, that credit be given
therefor that what is taught in the
school should be applied in the home, |
that school life and home life inte-
crate. and that a reduction of school
hours through such indignation be eff.
fected.
Also that marks be given for ef- |
fort rather than for brilliancy. that
recognition be made OF endeavor,