The Brattleboro daily reformer. (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1913-1955, 1914-12-30
Member of the Associated press.
WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 80, 1914
MORE ABOUT EDUCATION.

OF v ermOnt educators approve Vi tHe ISS-
concentrations of the state educational
commission. The outcome of the confer
ence held at Montpelier Monday afternoon
and yesterday indicates that the changes
which the commission propose will have
the support of a considerable portion of
the teachers and school superintendent of
the state This attitude is one which
augurs well for the success of the new
plan, for it shows that those whose duty
it is to teach the youth of Vermont real
ize the shortcomings of the present sys-
TEN. 1t is idle to deny that shortcomings
exist There can be evasion of the fact
that 90 per cent of the boys and girls of
the state do not receive in their ''educa-
ton" a practical training for the duties
| which they take up after leaving school.
Here in Brattleboro, for example, we
nave been wont to judge the efficiency of
our high school by its standing with the
New England college entrance board not
stopping to think that only very small
per cent of the schools pupils ever have
occasion to take examinations for college.
Adequate preparation for those who wish
to go to college should, of course, be pro-
vided, and indeed there is no intention
that it should not be provided, but what
should also he included in our high school
curriculum is more in the way of useful,
applicable training for the boys and girls
who do not go to college. They are the
ones who are not getting what they should
out of their school years
In this connection it is interesting to
consider briefly what the commission rec
ommends in the way of change in the
point of division between elementary and
high schools 1t favors the establishment
in the smaller towns of junior high schools
embodying the last two grades of the pres
eut elementary system and the first two
years of the present high schools; the
junior schools to present curriculum suit
able to the needs of boys and girls between
the ages of II and 16 years. But in
town the size of Brattleboro the commits
SION would have a senior high school Will
a touryear junior course as Ill the junior
high schools and another course of sf1
years for pupils who are fitting for colleg
or are completing a course of general edu
cation. Such an arrangement would meal
the embodying of the last two years o
the grades i'll the high school course, am
would make it possible for graduates 0
junior schools in smaller towns to take a.
additional two-year course here, either 70
college preparation or general education
There are a great many things to
said in favor of this reorganization. Th
increased attractions in the way Of voca
tional training that would thus be offere
to boys from II years upward would n
doubt tend to stimulate their interest i
school work. The influence of male teacl
ers would be given them at u time whe
it is most needed. In short, the divisio
between elementary and secondary educ;
ton would be placed at the point wheI
there is natural change in the life of I'll
normal child
This change is one of the most ilnpo
tant of the many which the commissio
recommends with view to making We
" mont's educational system serve mo-
ot useful purpose. The Reformer belev
N; that all of them deserve favorable consi
" Grafton from the legislature.
Ill