The Barre daily times. (Barre, Vt.) 1897-1959, 1912-07-18
EDUCATION" DISCUSSED
BY GREATER VT. ASSN
State Supt. Stone Presented a Paper on
the Subject and S. HOLSTER Jack
son Prepared Paper on
RAILROAD Transportation


Rutland, July ls.-At the meeting o
the Greater Vermont association in thi
city yesterday afternoon, Superintendent
Of Education Mason s. Stone presented
paper on Education"
Mr.. Stone began his paper with a brie
inventory of the educational laws pssset
beginning with the general assembly o.
1906, which have inaugurated a new edu
cational era in Vermont This is an
array of public school legislation that i,
equailed by few states, If any, and un
surpassed by none.
But disregarding legislation, it is nc
small thing that Vermont has thriving
school OF agriculture.
1T is no small thing that the people
of the state are more alive and respon.
sive TO educational matters than they
have been in half 4 century.
| 1T is no small thing that the annual
disbursement of state aid, not including
rebates for advanced instruction, has in
creased from $4,000 10 more than $780,
COO in six years.
1T is no small thing that the number
OF teachers retained in the same school
one year or more increased from l,044 in
lbUD 10 lyolo IN lJlu.
ut is no small thing that the average
! monthly wage of women teachers in ele-
mentary schools increased from S29.B3
in 1905 to 1916 in 1912
1T is no small thing that the percent
age of trained teachers in elementary
schools 3; Vermont increased from II
in 1906 to % in 1912, and that the mi
grafton of such from the state has prsc-
tcally ceased.
ut is no small thing that in this year
OF grace 1912 one hundred and fifty ad-
ditional and specially prepared teachers
enter upon rural school work.
ut is no small thing that within six
years the number of towns under profess
sional oversight has increased from per
cent. to nearly 70 per cent
at is no small thing that the average
daily attendance of school children has
leaped from 4s,34s in 1906. to 42,l04 in
1910.
ut is no small thing that Vermont to-
day is in the first place, with Kansas, in
per cent. of daily school attendance.
at is no small thing that of all of
the states north of the Mason & Dixon
line, Vermont has made the greater per
cent. of gain during the past decade in
eliminating illiteraey and to-day 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 follow
ing
First The school exists for the child
and not the child for the school. There.
baIs hat
plcyed 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 oppor-
tunities for worthy and useful career
in his home state may be revealed.
Second Education should be an in. /
vestment and not a tax. Therefore, the I
system and its ends should meet by max |
ing the child and its opportunities meet.
Only good schools can do this. There
fore a good school is an investment, II
poor school is a tax
Third. The child should be an asset
and not liability. Therefore indi
yidual and social efficiency should be Sc
cured through training 'im to do the
best he can the thing he can do best, and
oy making him power Tor social and
,ivic righteousness rather than puppet
Or pawn in the body polite
Fourth. An educational system should
DC Just. Therefore it should be approx
nately equal in its levies for support
md in the educational advantages af
'orded Consequently aid should be Civ
N towns inordinately taxed an adequate
upply of trained teachers provided for ,
he rural schools as we'll as for the grad
ID, and skilled oversight made useful
md effective.
IAN incident to the tenets submitted, L
t is generally accepted to-day-that the
hief desideratum is revenue, that the