The Manchester journal. [volume] (Manchester, Vt.) 1861-current, 1914-07-23
EDUCATION IN VERMONT
lContInued from pare ID

registered in the town lists. Our
compulsory education law, requiring
children 10 attend school between the
ages Of eight and fifteen inclusive, is
not enforced. and in many eases, tru-
ancy reported repeatedly by the teach
er is ignored.
The typical rural school teacher is
young woman Of twenty-five per-
haps, inadequately trained in method,
without the sympathetic support Of
professional employers or supervisors,
working bravely on, in an attempt to
do her whole duty wisely. Her salary
is an uncertain quantity, determined,
! not by the town, but the committee
man, who controls the school funds.
She is assisted" by Manuel for
Teachers in Rural Schools, but no
recognition CT the needs of her pupils
can be found, cave in the title. The
Curriculum is too formal. Arithmetic
is taught by rote, and the student, as
a rule, is unable to compute the SIM
plest problem Of practical life. The
grammar studied in the last three
grades deals with parsing, analysis
of the sentence, and diagramming.
This is due to the necessity for pre-
pairing students for the free tuition
examinations, although statistics show
that less than one-fourth of the chill
dren in the state are attending second
airy schools. Dr. Hillegas sounds the
death-knell of the free tuition exami-
nations. He urges closer articula-
ton between elementary and second
airy schools, enabling the student to
pass from the eighth grade to high
school, on the satisfactory completion
Of the work demanded in the grades.
'The free tuition examination must
60" He recommends that teachers
already in service be given apportun-
ity for further professional training,
through summer school courses in
central state Normal School, with in
crease in salary commensurate with
increase in efficiency; and also through
a yet more important agency,-name-
ly, highly-trained supervisors employ
ed by consolidated towns or districts,
supervisors who would spend their
time in the schools, assisting and
demonstrating correct methods. These
supervisors should be women.
The information forming the basis
of the discussion of the secondary
schools is drawn from series of ques-
tionnaires issued to the n high
schools and 10 approved academies,
and personal visitation of &c high
schools and 7 academies. The report
deals chiefly with the former.
The state has 24,939 children of
secondary school age to educate. As
suming that age to be Is to Is inclu-
sive, 5,722, or % per cent of the fatal,
appear actually to be in such schools.
There are, then n per cent of the
children of secondary school age,
whom our secondary schools do not
reach. What does this mean for Ver-
mont? If kind of school can be de-
vised, where every boy and girl may
be reasonably sure of achieving sue
cess in certain profitable directions
where they may have the attitude of
success bred in them as habit, it is
worth while that every one should at
tend" Secondary education should
be so vital, so indispensable to each
child, that it will become general of it.
self. The fact that the physical equip
ment, janitor service, and library OPP
portunities throughout the state varies
from the fairly good to the very poor
is in itself indicative of an equal
variability in the character of educa-
ton.
The secondary school principal in
Vermont must fill the double role of
principal and head teacher. This is
not fair to him or his work, since it
robs him of the time necessary to
carry out the administrative duties Of
his position. Furthermore he is fore
ed to teach subjects for which he has
not had adequate preparation. "There
can be no doubt that the greatest need
of American secondary education to-
day is thorough reconstruction at this
point,--the preparation of the teach
er,- and Vermont should meet it
vigorously The work of principal,
properly done ensures that, within the
limits of his appropriation and in
cooperation with the superintendent,
the education given fits the cummuni-
ty in kind and quantity, that each
teacher is working as effectively and
happily as his ability permits, that
each pupil is so placed as to feel a
sense Of power and achievement, and
that each parent is in sympathetic and
intelligent cooperation with the
school, This is an arduous, difficult,