The Brattleboro daily reformer. (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1913-1955, 1917-02-16

The floor of the Auditorium was well
filed with a representative audience last
evening at the educational meeting un-
der the auspices of the board of trade,
at which Milo B. Hillegas, state com
missioner of education, and Col Ira l..
Reeves, president of Norwich uniyer-
sity, were the speakers. Dugan S or
chestra provided an instrumental enter
tainment from 80 to clock, fol
lowed by choral selections by ninth
grade pupils under the direction of
Frank NJ. Cram, supervisor of music
Of the public schools. Horton d. Walk
er, president of the board of trade, in
troduced the speakers, who were heard
with great interest and gave the audi
cn,e a much clearer comprehension of
the educational system of the state than
they had possessed before.
Mr.. Hillegas said that he intended 20
4 speak from the attitude of taxpayer
and try 10 answer questions a tax
payer would ask.
He took up first the new transporta
/ tion law He said that he could cite
+ instances where some farmers outside
i OF the mile and q half limit had boosted
of the fact that they had held up the
I towns for the cost of the education of
their children and real estate agents
4 had advertised that purchasers of farms
outside the limit could pay for the
farms by transporting their own chill
i dren to the schools. He mentioned
4 those eases 10 show that he knew them,
/ he said. Much criticism is based on
isolated eases like those mentioned.
+ He said that the average pay to trans.
port a child to school was Is cents 4
day and for ever ease of graft he
could cite two where the parents had
refused 10 accept cent for carrying
their children to school. Beginning
with 1916, il was made compulsory up
on towns to transport children to school
who live outside of limit of q mile
and a half from the school building;
before that ii was optional with the
town.
Under the new law there is the pos
sibility Of increases of from 81 to 81 4
week to rural teachers and last yehf
this increase represented an eXpendl-
ture of about 100000. But the total
/. ancrease in. the. cost Of rural school
teachers was only III per cent.
The quality of instruction has inn
proved as shown by the fact that state
s superintendent Stone. the speaker =
predecessor, in his last year granted
i2l6 teaching permits, indicating that
number OF teachers who could not pass
high school examinations, as against
, 1--WE similar permits granted last fall for
this wear. He said that voters need
not waste sympathy on rural teachers
for he can promise a teaching appoint
! ment to amy person who can show q
high school training and two years in
, normal school ut $l5 week at leas,
: and he had received over 20 calls fol
SIC a-wcck jobs.
lie said that III 1914 there were 90
schools not taught hy certificate teach
: ers, bit from the inception Of the new
:. law no person has begun teaching il
! Vermont without at least one year o.
y professional training.
:. He declared that there was no rev
! plution under the new method but mere
" the adaptation Of new ideas to &c
boys and girls to understand the con
4 ditions that govern Us.
The speaker then took NJ in Illus
trativc form different features of Yer
7 mont educational methods that hay
4 been successfully cNemplifed bv school
; in the state, basng the illustrations o
u she premise that the surcst way t
drive boy AVA from a farm is I
= tsy TO teach him nothing but what cor
rerns the farm.
He particularly emphasized the VAIN
ct speaking modern languages. II
said that he had learned to read Frene
and German, but that learning to rca
Il language was not the essential
speaking il was what counted. In TIL
aonEection he expressed pleasure n b.
ing present AZ Il session Of one Of II
freach classes iii The local high schot
where the lesson was conducted in iii;
language.
No greater Vermont meeting Shout
bc held without someone to tell the
" education. The educational dcpar
meut does not need cent more n,
preparation to properly conduct it,
declared. The problem is not none
law or machinery; merely the need
al interested in education putin
thcir shoulders TO the wheel for the il
yrnycment in the schools as they an
81. Ira l.. Reeves, president of No
wiol university, paid Commission
Iillrgas high compliments and sa
ihat - years from now we would wo
dct whv wc had not realized in advan
n what was 10 come. Most OF his a
dress was devoted 70 tho relationsh
= ~ military Schools to the education
yst"u. lie said that ono Of the mo
important things was 80 have train
K officers TO handle men. War today
intensely scientific. II is now bait
of artisans aud machines. He sketch
r rapidly the history OF the military
situations Of the country, dwelli
|. especially on that Of Norwich univ,
sity, and pointing out that when a M
> had graduated from West Point he h
the practical side OF the war busn,
70 learn
He said plainly that he did not !
lieve in a large standing army, b
that he believed in universal militia
training. Such training, howev
should be done by states and not unt
federal domination in order to preser
the esprit de corps.
An army OF 100000, small compal