The Brattleboro daily reformer. (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1913-1955, 1920-10-30

afiliation with the Carnegie corporation
or Columbia-if this statement will re-
move any blgbears. Vermont should
be-and is-a law unto herself in this
matter and acceptance of the tender
carries no obligation in regard to teacher
training system or methods. There Is
nothing, for example, in the terms of
this gift to prevent using the proceeds
toward the erection of a central insti
tuition in johnson, and carrying on just
the kind of training that Johnson APP
parently wants, if the state board of ed
ucation determined upon such course
as best for the educational interests of
the state. Looking gift horse in the
mouth is always advisable, but it is
sometimes poor policy to rein him around
and boot him. This proffeT of a princely
sum is exceptional, unprecedented and
comes to Vermont because the Carnegie
corporation believes 1t will be helpful
to the cause Of~educatlon where help Is
sorely needed. Nothing else can be
made of it and sinister attacks will not
harm it.
f. Governor Stearns may have infor-
nation that the state board has not, but
the board does not understand that the
Carnegie corporation requires as a con-
dition of its gift that the state shall
for the maintenance of the central train
ing college. 1t could not, of course, OBJ
ligate a sovereign state in any such way.
Nor could it impose any penalty, once
its money were expended in the plant,
if the state should refuse to maintain
the college in keeping with its purpose.
This latter the corporation doubtless ex-
poets. 1t apparently has more conf
dence in Vermont than some Yermonters
have in their state.
5. In assailing the proposed college
as impractical for the training of rural
teachers. Governor Stearns makes no
reference to the particular agency that
is designed to reach these students-the
one-year extensions courses in cOnnec-
ton with high schools and if necessary
other schools corresponding to the pres
ent teacher training courses In high
schools, from which substantially all of
the recruits for teaching in the rural
schools have come IN recent years, and
of whom there are about three hundred
in training at present. A second or fin
ishing year at the college, especially
after intermediary teaching experience,
would scarcely be more likely to edu-
cate the girl away from the rural school
than two years straight in a normal.
This plan has other merits that cannot
are not to be left unprovided with teach
ers. pertinent question might be
would the normals. If restored. provide
them? Governor Stearns ignores the
fact that the plans of the state board OF
| education make it possible to use the
equipment of the normal schools for ex-
/ tension courses located there, and that
the board has established a teacher train
: ing class at Johnson this year, and
! would have done the same at Castleten
! except for a legal obstacle.
| 6. Every legislative committee OF
! commission that has been directed tc
/ investigate the normal schools in years
! - 81 oil E1l4 hor
ported in favor of a single institution.
| When these reports came in the retOrt
was, You are dealing unfairly with the
| normals. You are expecting too much
/ for too little. Instead of abOlishing
! them, give them more money and &
/ chance to prove themselves" Yielding
! to this argument and to a strong pres
sure always bound to be e1erted, the leg
islature re-chartered the schools and in
creased the appropriations. Now, be
! hold the cry has changed. Money ha,
/ been used lavishly for the deliberate
and premeditated' purpose of disgusting
| the state with the whole proposition. 81
! that it would cut of the schools. An,
! it was this that led the last Legislature
! to take that very stepl From starving
the patient came to be overfed-stufeC
by the educational department in Orde
I to kill it. And the legislature fell fol
the plot, instead of changing nurses ol
| emitting down the feed to a point where
! it could not be used lavishly
| One thing is clear. If the educationa
| authorities have been engaged in sucl
| a plot and have wantouly wasted tn
| nublic money in its furtherance, there II
! but one fit place for them-Nindsor
! And Mr.. Stearns can do no better pub
| lie service than to establish the fact o
| their criminality. Does it occur to thu
| casual reader that in his zeal the worthy
! e1-lieutenant governor, in his Openin:
| statement to the court of public opinion
| has made charges which there is no evi
| dence to supportf