The Brattleboro daily reformer. (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1913-1955, 1917-01-23
PLEA FOR NORMAL
SCHOOL TEACHERS
Only Through Them, Says Contributor
Can We Hope to Raise Standard
of District Schools.

4 short time ago there was a state
mcnt in the Post relative to the fact
that an amazing number of children.
having finished their grade work, DO
not enter high school.
Whether this IS true in the citv
school or not / am not prepared to
discuss, but it IS true in the district
school. Very few Of our country bows
and girls ever go TO high school. Whv?
Let us consider few points:
Ist. There is a lack Of cooperation
among the parents.
I'd. There is lack Of cooperation
between the parents and the teacher.
3D. There is q lack Of cooperation
between the directors and the parents.
Antagonism is the keynote of fail
ure in the developing of the school for
the welfare Of the child.
You say thcy are trying to improve
the standard Of teachers in the district
school by employing only normal school
graduates?
Is this true. are you prepared to
state positively that this is so? I do
not think that teachers who have only
an ordinary education, and take but a
| few months training in q summer
school, can be entitled to hold the posi-
| tons and demand the same salary that
a teacher does who has given three or
| four wears toward q special prepara-
| ton for her life work. Consider the
child. The teacher undergraduate gen
orally takes 4 school for her own sell
fish convenience, perhaps to earn lit
tie pin money, or help provide for her
| husband If she has one. She mas not
the interest Of the school at heart. She
viii take 4 school for one term, pos
sibly two, then there must be a change.
She cannot teach the winter term be-
cause il IS too cold, or inconvenient,
or household duties are too pressing.
etc
How far has the child progressed
lie has made a fair start. and there
the interest is dropped, as the next
teacher Will not take the trouble to
find out in just what grade Johnnie
aud Mary belong and they begin all
over again. By the time the boys and
girls are - or lG wears old thew are
in about the same grade where they
began. There has been no one who has
aken an interest IN their play-to su
peryise it and the results are ap
palling. BOYS and girls who have never
heard swear words at home have
learned every swear word in the Eng
lish dictionary. Besides they have
learned other things, which any self re
specting mother would feel ashamed
10 have her children know in the way
they are presented to them.
Now just what is the trouble?
said, first, there is lack of cooper
alton between the different factions
teachers, parents and directors. - TIL,
power to hire and discharge teachers
is left practically with the directors
In the husv season they seldom visi
school. The most that concerns them i
t the hiring Of someone to teach. The,
< do not look up her credentials to know
. whether she has had any normal schoo
training.
/ It seems to me. if the superintendent
0 had more power to hire and discharg
teachers according to his discretion
F. the school would be better. He has
. chance, or makes il point, to visi
: each school frequently, and he know
what each teacher IS doing. lie doe
4 not take petty criticisms from anyone
c bat judges for himself
e The directors may be good farmers
S and good citizens, but they are no
n progressive enough. They are % year
c behind the city schools in their mctl
DDS Of running things.
The scholar by the time he is Is {
t, Is, rs said before, is no farther a(
vanted than he was when he starte,
t, and he is so discouraged and so du
that he could not get into high sehoo
even if he wanted TO, for the reaso
4; that he had no one to push him alon!
Let US have normal school gradual,
i'll our country schools, and keep the
At least year OF two. IN this va
e only can we hope to raise the standal
# of the district school and make lay
,e abiding citizens of our children.
TO 4 MODERN EDUCATOR.
is -