News and citizen. [volume] (Morrisville, Vt. ;) 1881-current, 1920-11-17
WOULDKEEP TWO NORMALS
Helen. Wins,ow, Author, Advo-
Gates Them Instead of New
Plan

|
| Helen M. Winslow of Boston, a nativ,
of Orleans county and author of som,
note, has contributed letter to the Bur
lington Free Press on the normal schoo
question in Vermont which will be OF spec.
ial interest because of the writer's aquaint
ance in this part of Vermont. The lettel
follows:
I cannot understand what the people
of Vermont are thinking of when they sill
patiently by and allow their two excellent
state normal schools to be closed for the
sake of establishing an experiment station
for university located in an outside state
however great that institution may be-
| was Vermont girl whose privilege it was
to be educated and specially trained in the
Johnson normal school. If it had not beer
conveniently located and peculiarly adapt.
ed to the needs of country girls with but
little money, but plenty Of ambition. !
would never have been there. As it is |
am sure today that whatever success that
| have achieved ina literary career of more
than thirty'years is largely owing to the
careful and specialized training obtained
in English grammar, composition and
rhetorical more careful training than
most schools give because it was meant for
training to teach those branches rather
than superficial knowledge too often
considered sufficient for the average high
school student.
The Johnson normal school has al
ways been one of high ideals where the
young Vermont girl or boy could get a
sound education without too many frills or,
experimental notions, and it has turned out
hundreds, yes thousands of splendid teach
ers,-so good, indeed, that they have been
called out into other states all over the
Union. In fact, it was stated in Boston
last winter that when an attempt was made
to geta larger appropriation-for that Mas
sachusettes' normal schools, onelegislature
openly remarked: Why should we ap.
money? We can get plenty of
good teachers from Vermont. Let Yer
mont do it
In Johnson and doubtless in Castleton,
the student from small towns has always
been warmly welcomed and made at home
in the best society OF cultivated, self-re-
specting Vermont town and have there
made acquaintance that have been of
value all their lives; and they have taken
back into their homes and out into.tl1e re-
mote rural districts something of the at
mosphere of culture and refinement which
are characteristic of the normal school
towns. The influence of these graduates
from the states normal schools which has
thus been been spread through the country
districts of Vermont cannot be easily es-
ii ated. 1t seems to me that this is one
Of the chief factors of the change that has |
come over the back towns, in the past
30 years,-a change which we who go back |
rom time to time probably notice more than |
you do who live in the state.
AS understand it today, it is proposed |
20 abolish these schools which have done |
and could still do so much for Vermont, |
n order to set up somewhere at one side |
If the state Central Training School
where the Columbia Plan can be tried |
rlt on the young Vermont teachers. Do
he people know that this plan has already
been tried in New York and failed ? That
he recent election of Mayor Inland of
New York City hinged entirely on that
ssue? That in several other states, some
If them New England, it has been tried
md abandoned? Does Vermont want to
appropriate nearly four times as much
money as ever before merely to become an
adjunct to Columbia University of New
York? Would it not follow that the girls
who would attend such training school
would go principally from the larger and
icher families Girls who would aspire
o teach in the larger towns in OF out of
he states rather than from the up country
lamlets where the need of better schools
S sopressing? Perhaps it is fattering
bought that other states appreciate Ver-
mont teachers, but you are educating your
iris for your own country schools or not?
80 far as my knowledge of the average
armer's daughters goes it convinces me
hat there are still many girls who could
ford to go to Johnson or Casleton and to
i've there cheaply while fitting for their
ife work,-girls brought UP in small towns,
Who are content to prepare to teach in the
ural district where there is a crying need
# better schools. Would these girls be
BILE to go to Burlington or Rutland, say at
dded expense to the cost of living, where
hey must have more and better clothes,
reater personal expenses and outside dis
higher railroad fare and more
utside interests We might add, where
hey will get a taste of city life which
'ould wean them from their quiet country