Middlebury register. (Middlebury, Vt.) 1886-1937, 1915-02-12
FRIDAY, FEBRUARY IL, 1915.
HIGHER EDUCATION IN VERMONT

HIGHER EDUCATION IN VERMONT
In the general educational confusion
the problem of higher education occu-
pies peculiar and unfortunate position.
Elementary and secondary education
can be discussed impartially from the
viewpoint of the united interests of the
people and State. But when higher
education is DISCUSSED, the matter is re-
solved at once into question, not OF
the public interest and of the relation
of higher edu cation to the whole sys-
TEN of education, but of the private and
detached interests of rival colleges.
Hitherto the struggle for legislation at
Montpelier, nominally for higher edu-
cation. has been virtually lobbying
scramble for votes in the interest of one
college against another. This has been
the greatest misfortune of higher edu-
cation in Vermont in the past, and will
become thu chief obstacle to progress
in the present conflict, unless large
minded representatives of the college
agree to put an end to the squabble
forever.
1t is now matter of history that the
whole educational upheaval had its
origin in this deplorable college
rivalry-in the desire of one col
lege to get an advantage over the others
by securing monopoly of State patron
age. Stripped of its sham and pretense,
this was the naked purpose of the
Investigation" at the outset. The adj
dition of the public school system to the
program was political afterthougnt of
the late Gov. Fletcher The Carnegie
Foundation was brought into the State
to execute the scheme. TO those who
first embraced this instrument it has
proved to be d boomerang, and to the
State at large, qualified calamity. For
it was soon apparent that the Founda-
ton had fish of its own to fry, and found
in Vermont just the fat it needed. No
educational body in the State wanted
this investigation. The people did not
want it, 1t was no more needed than
in New Hampshire or Massachusetts.
The impression created by the Carnegie
report, and spread broa cast over the
country by the Foundation for the pur-
pose of its own advertisement, that
Vermont is a backward, degenerate,
and we'll nigh bankrupt community in
respect to education, is a Islander upon
the State and an irreparable injury to
the State.
But the mischief has been done, and
the supreme question of the moment in
respect to higher education, is how to
secure out of the chaos wrought by the
Carnegie invasion clear understanding
of the proper relations of the colleges to
each other and to the general system of
education, and definite and permanent
settlement of these relations.
In discussing this question it is neces-
sary to keep in mind the nature and con-
stitution of a system Of education. Such
system is an organized whole, like a
physical organism, with all its parts in
terrelated and interdependent, no part
of which can be sacrificed without injury
to the whole. Like the hum n body, an
educational system has its feet, trunk,
and head. no one of which can be
amputated or injured without peril to
the whole system. From kindergarten
to college and from college to kinder
garten there is a complete circle of in
terrelations. Break the chain at any
point and the whole system is weakened.
This is the modern, present day concep-
ton of an educational system, the con-
ception toward which the best educa-
tional thought and effort have been eX-
erted in recent years.
Three stages of development have APP
peared in the relations of colleges to the
lower schools At first the colleges
were entirely isolated, sustaining no
organic relationship with the lower
schools and recognizing no obligations
toward them. They established their
own standards and imposed them upon
the preparatory schools; they benefited
only select few. and were regarded by
the general public with jealous suspicion;
upon the educational character of the
community they exercised little or no
direct influence. affording no aid or
sympathetic counsel, no fruitful stimu-
lus or inspiration. This conception of
the college relationship to the schools is
the medieval conception, which ex-
listed for centuries. Today no educa-
zionist except the Carnegie Founda-
ton would think of supporting or
commencing this isolation of higher
education.
Secondly, we have the Western State