The Barre daily times. (Barre, Vt.) 1897-1959, 1914-12-14
VERMONT EDUCATIONAL REPORT.
Brief Summary of Vermont Commissions
Findings Given.

The following Is brief summary Of
the recommendations of the Vermont
commission in its report TO the governor
covering their suggestions of the needed
changes in the Vermont school system, N
order that the schools may more nearly
meet the conditions for which they exist
Under our constitution schools must be
competent in number and In instruction
convenient for the youth, sovereign
duty of the commonwealth TO all its
youth, a duty always recognized by the
judicial department of the government
and in a large measure performed by the
legislative department of the govern.
ment. With the changes in the social and
economic life OF the people that have oc-
Cured since the founding of the state
these fundamental requirements of law
respecting schools have been to some de-
gree overlooked, and present defects in
the system of public schools are due al.
most wholly to the failure to adapt such
Requirements to modern conditions.
Elementary schools.--In the elementary
schools want of adaptation is especially
apparent in the rural schools, not only in
their distribution throughout the state
but in the quality of their work, The
commission recommends that rural
schools so far as practicable, be consoli-
dated and that their courses of study be
revised to the end that the instruction
given, not only in method but in content,
may be suited to the daily life and en-
vironment of the youth.
Secondary schools.--This lack of adap-
tation appears more prominently in the
states secondary schools, due to the fact
that the secondary schools are not close
ly related to the elementary schools and
that, for the benefit of about one tenth
of the youth of secondary school age,
they are chiefly preparatory schools for
higher education and not for the benefit
OF the remaining nine-tenths of the see
ondary school youth, finishing schools for
life. To restore the secondary schools to
their rightful place as part of the pub
lie school system, closely related to the /
schools, and agencies for the
convenient instruction of all the youth of
the state the commission recommends
change in the point of division between |
them and the elementary schools as fol- :
lows: i
(a) That there should be a Junior
school maintained in every town town
ship in the state where the num-
Der of secondary school youth to be colt
accommodated shall reasonably T
warrant it, having "a four-y year cur
riculum, elastic in administration, but
limited in scope by the numbers and
needs of the local boys and girls IL to l6
years OF age, covering the seventh and
Eighth grades of the present elementary
school and the first two years of the
high school" -
tbl That there should be as many cen
rial and readily accessible senior high
schools, articulating directly with all the
leighboring junior high schools, as the
number of pupils desiring the advanced
given only in this class of
ehools shall reasonably demand, the
lumber and locations to be determined
" the board of education These should H
ave: ta) A four-year junior curriculum
3 in the junior high schools, "but inclnd- 1
ne special vocational opportunities, par
icularly in agriculture for pupils from l
2 to 10 years of age, drawn from the