The Brattleboro daily reformer. (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1913-1955, 1920-10-28
THURSDAY, OCTOBER IS. 1920.


There are Indications that the whole
revised at the coming session of the
legislature. 1t has been announced that
Charles II. Stearns of Johnson is head
ing a fight to restore the normal schools
at Johnson and CaStleton but much more
is involved in the discussions in prog
ress throughout the. state.
Mr.. Stearns in a letter to the press
says he viii attempt to show the late
normal schools have been unfairly
treated by recent heads of our cduca-
tional system, that the normal schools
have furnished thousands of trained
teachers at less cost 'per capita than
any other state and that the offer of
100000 by the Carnegie Foundation is
just bait to foist upon the state The
Columbia Idea for the training of
teachers, which method has been tried
out in other states. also in New York
city, and abandoned" He further hints
that one of the conditions of the Carne-
gle offer is that the state shall make
yearly appropriation of 100000 for the
maintenance of a central teachers col
lege. He believes the employment of 10
or IS high salaried instructors and as
Sistants for less than % students for the
past three years at the Johnson normal
schoolS was a deliberate and premedi-
tated move on the part of the admins
tration to squelch the school by making
lit so expensive that the state would not
stand for it,"
Helen NJ. Winslow of Boston, who
was trained at the johnson normal
school, says in a letter to the Burling-
ton Free Press: There should be more
students and fewer teachers. Nineteen
teachers for % students are too many.
= In the days of S. III. Pearl.
Edward Conant, c. w. Crippen and
such men, Johnson had only three teach
.ers to more than hundred scholars,
and the results would well stand COM
.parison with those of today"
The Newport Express and Standard
says in part: "Dscarding the schools
at Johnson and Castlcton was on the
ground of excessive cost The abandon
ment of the Vail agricultural school
was on the same ground. The magni-
icent gift of the late Theodore N. Vail.
which meant so much to the education
of Vermont boys, went to the discard
because the state could not afford to
keep this school, fully equipped with
buildings and the best apparatus. worth
$250000. How, then, can the state af-
ford to finance a normal school or
teachers training college of a $500. 600
size? If the S2J0.OOO gift
of Theodore n. Vail was a white eIe-
plant, what viii the 100000 Carnegie.
or whatever beneficiary, school turn out
to be?"
In these quotations some serious ques-
tions are presented to the people of Yer
mont. Tt would seem to be incumbent
on the state board of education to ex-
plain why such an expensive teaching
force was maintained during the last
three years at the Johnson normal
school, whether there is a demand for
teacher training in this state that would
warrant an annual appropriation of
100000 for the support of teachers
training college and whether or not ex-
pensive management of the Vail agricul-
tural school by the department of edu-
cation is responsible for it's abandon
ment by the state.
These statements tend to confirm the
claim made by this paper that the pres
ent educational system of the state is
overloaded with overhead expenses and
that too much money is spent for those