Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1920-12-01

err by his job, to put it bluntly. Com
para lively, we mean.
/ Two generations ago the avenues
| for able young men to get start IN
the world were few. Few of them
entered college where thousands, sup
ported by wealthy parents, now do,
and very often those who did were
compelled to teach betimes. Ditto
those who sought the old-fashioned
methods of entering the professions.
There was no Unsuitable demand, as
now, by business for young men and
women as soon as they learn the
typewriter keyboard.
In fact, teaching of necessity be-
came the avenue UP through which
jOurneyed host of young men who
left q splendid mark behind. OF
these, the schools, especially rural,
are now bereft. The same type OF
young men doubtless exists, but ru-
raj school teaching has no attractions
for them. They don't have to teach.
Dad can foot the bills for their life
preparation, or If not they can choose
from q wide selection of opportun-
tiles more to their taste and fitting.
The rural schoolmaster is almost a
species extinct.
Enter the young lady school teach
e. 4 E~AG~lS IAcb g. NGA4 44AAAAAGA
enthusiastically, even better trained,
but for all that she does not and can
not make the same impression And
the whole situation has changed from
former times.
This girl, either a village resident
or a farmers daughter with four
years of village high school life fresh
in mind, and often out of touch and
out of sympathy with the lot that
falls to her
She lacks that sense of keen inter
est in her work needed to upbulld an
institution none too dourishing at
best. 1t is for her, too often, merely
a job, at so much per week, endured
until she can better herself.
The quietude, the lonliness, the de-
pressing dullness of it revolt to one
suddenly and almost completely re-
moved from the modern life in town.
There are actual hardships to be met.
In many rural communities a COM
Portable boarding place for the teach
er IS not available. What some of
these girls encounter, in occasional
cases, does not tend TO stimulate their
courage or interest.
Generally however, the perseverance
of the sex helps them through. But
they are apt to seek a change, either
IN lOca ton or IN Work, and are soon
lost TO rural schools.
The problem of the rural school
teacher is perhaps the greatest one
the confronts those engaged in edu-
cational work How TO get teachers
well qualified for the task, imbued
with sufficient enthusiasm to produce
results, and adequate in number to
man the schools already open, is tax
ing the authorities in every state In
the union. The most feasible solution
is first, to offer q scale of wages
quite beyond that Of the present, even
with its recent material advance; sec
ond, 70 stimulate . desire for service
where service Is most needed; third,
to encourage 4 kindly attitude toward
the teacher, and this applies to all
communities, rural and urban; fourth,
to establish some professional goal
ahead toward which the teacher may
work. These agencies, singly or
together, may not achieve al that is
desired, but they VIII help.
Next TO the teacher the second re-
guisite for a successful school Is pu-
pills who are students. Some pupils
are merely school attendants, others
are students. A teacher may stinu-
late and inspire some children; the eff
forts Of the best teacher are lost on
others. Some simply cannot respond.
Others might readily If they received
the right direction at home. The
school and the teacher cannot dot
al. The home, n these modern days,
neglects the dEty il formerly per-
formed, and which so Well supple
meEted the work Of the little red
schoolhOuse"
Other things being equal, a good
sized school viii outstrip one few in
numbers Psychological, of course,
the influence Of mind upon mind. Here
IS where the rural school of our fore
fathers had an immense advantage
over the typical present one.
The larger families, the greater ru-
raj population, the older age Of pu-
pills, all combined to make the large
and active school. The tide of immi-
school as Drofted, but the rural school
has suffered.
We hear a great deal about restor-
ing the rural school. If we could
only restore the rural population,
there would be no difficulty on that
score.
The rural school has such hold
that it will almost always continue
until a community disintegrates. And
it viii revive, with half chance of
usefulness.
Whenever economic conditions
change the people flock back to the
farms as they have fed from them,
the rural school will move on ahead
of the procession
Like the rural church, it is now
weakened. By every natural and SEN
sible means it should be aided to car
ry on, for the sake of the young yet
remaining who must depend upon it
for their needed elementary educa-
ton.
So long as the number and location
of the public schools are left with
the local authorities, We may be sure
that the most responsible agencies
will look out for the welfare of their
several communities.
The fact that there are at present
1857 rural schools in operation in
Vermont-an average of about seven
to each town, not including the cities
or large towns without rural schools.
shows that the state is well served in
respect to their number and distribu-
ton.
The closing of rural schools and
transporting of pupils to central
Schools fS NOT rancro1 br1%