The Brattleboro daily reformer. (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1913-1955, 1913-04-24
EDUCATION
IN VERMONT
Carnegie Foundation Asked
to Choose Men to Study
the Subject
DO SCHOOLS HAVE
A CONSISTENT PLAN ?
Fundamental Questions Will Be Inves-
tigated and Individual Schools viii
Be Visited-Importam Step Taken
by Vermont Commission.

Be Visited-Important Step Taken
by Vermont Commission.
The statewide interest in the work
undertaken by the Commission to In /
vestigate the Educational System and .
/ Conditions of Vermont is an indica- .
ton of the genuine interest which the /
people of Vermont have in their insti- .
tutiOns. The schools of the state and
the school system mean more to the
whole people of the state than any
other institutions whrch the state con
trolls or supports. The school touches
every village, every family, every in
diVidual. however remote his life may
be from the crowd or from the city.
Some explanations, therefore, may be
of interest as to what an educational
survey undertakes to do, as to how it
is made, and what agencies the com
mission has chosen in order to prepare
machinery.
The idea of having an educational
study of the schools of given state
or county prepared by some outside
agency familiar with education is a
comparatively recent thing, Perhaps
the most admirable example of such
efforts are the studies made by Sir Mi
chael Sadler, now administrator of edu-
cation in the Victoria University of
Manchester. Sir Michael Sadler is one
of the most eminent men in education-
al work III England. 1t has rarely
been the good fortune of a community
to have its educational problems re
ceive the study of man so able and
so familiar with the educational effort
of the whole world.
His surveys of the education of va
rious English counties form a most
classic model for such work. The or
binary English county, such as Essex
or Hampshire, while smaller than the
state of Vermont, has a much larger
population. For example, Essex and
Hampshire, of which Sir Michael made
studies, had respectively a population
of l,085,771 and 797 ,634, with an area
only about one-sixth that of Vermont
Sir Michael 5 study of these counties
took up, first, the general Topographic
cal and geographical conditions of the
6 region, the proportion of the people
who lived in towns and villages and
i those who lived in the more remote
country districts, and the occupations
of the inhabitants.
He took up in addition not only the
4 existing condition of the school, but
- he went into the more fundamental
question as to what the elementary
- school is intended to do. what is the
-. purpose of the secondary school. what
Y sort of results does a community ex-
> pect to obtain when it sets up a school
of a given sort?
These questions are Fundamental
ones. They are the most important
which can be asked, and vet they are
the questions which are seldom ad
- dressed by a community to itself. Most
communities adopt as pure matters OF
imitation the schools which are con
6 Quoted elsewhere. 1t rarely happens
" that the attention of a community can
nd be brought to the primary question
. What are the public schools which i
ice maintains expected to do and whethe
20 they are carrying out this purpose
- With this fundamental inquiry as
a. basis a survey then undertakes t.
so study the individual schools, to exam
-.- inc enough of them to know how wei
D. they are conducted, what character o
le- teachers they have, what sort of su
- pervision of the schools there is from
IN. above what relation the elementar'
n, school has to the high school, wha
relation the high school has to tn
M. cOllege ana university, ana WHeJne
D. there is through all these institution
81 any consistent educational plan 0
. whether each is conducted as isolate
'si- efforts.
's 81 1t will be seen that any such survo
"a may be extended to the most insig
ri. nifcant details of school life an
70, school administrations. In fact, on
nd of the dangers of such studies has bee
Is that in many eases attention has bee
= so directed to details that the esSeT
aoe tial principles of administration an
m school management have been los
,ial sight of. 1t is a part of the probleI
. of those directing the survey to stee
lie between the danger of too great after
o ton to detail and the danger OF
81 superficial examination of existing COZ
nj. ditions. No set Of men. however Il
/. miliar they may be with educationf
,at, problems, can understand the view
lay point of those who have to do wit
bv local schools without actual visitation
5f An understanding, therefore, OF tn
ck schools will require a visitation Of
sufficient number to be sure that
I'd true viewpoint and comprehension {
. the problem has been obtained.
md All depends in such a study on 81
. lecting men who have not only ha
A"' experience in the particular phase {
: education which they are asked t
AZ" study, but who also have the powt
mite to appreciate the point of view {
those directly concerned with tt
4. problem. IN undertaking the stud
the commission invited the Carneg
and Foundation for the Advancement
%; Teaching to charge itself with the d
I tail ty of selecting these men and of carr
ing out this study.
cot It may be of interest. to those WI
36tf are concerned with the schools of We
Con- mont to know why this action WI
NV taken and to know something of Il
. educational agency which the commi
IR sion has awaited itself of IN brihgh
!. = together the facts for its cnnSidfratin