Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1920-11-03
WOULD KEEP TWO NoRMALs
Helen Winslow, Author, Advocates
Them Instead of New Plan.

Helen NJ. Winslow of Boston, a ma
tive of Orleans county and an author
of some note, has contributed letter
| to the Burlington Free Press on the
normal school question in Vermont
which will be of especial interest be-
cause of the subject discussed and be-
cause of the writer's acquaintance
| in this part of Vermont. The letter
: follows:
81 cannot understand what the peo-
iple of Vermont are thinking of when
they sit patiently by and allow their
two excellent state normal schools to
be closed for the sake of establishing
an experiment station for unlver-
sity located in an outside state, how
ever great that institution may be.
was a Vermont girl whose privilege
it was to be educated and specially
trained in the Johnson normal school.
If 1t had not been conveniently locat-
ed and peculiarly adapted to the
needs of country girls with but little
money, but plenty of ambition would
never have been there. As 1t IS am
sure today that whatever success that
I have achieved in a literary career
of more than thirty years IS largely
owing to the careful and specialized
training 1 obtained in English gram
mar, composition and rhetorlc,-a
more careful training than most
schools give because 1t was meant Tor
training to teach those branches
rather than a superficial knowledge
too often considered sufficient for the
average high school student.
ssThe johnson normal school has al
vays been one of high ideals
where the young Vermont girl or boy
could get a sound education without
too many frills or experimental no
tons. and it has turned out hundreds,
YES Thousands of splendid teachers
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 at
tempt was made to get a larger ap-
propriation-for that Massachusetts,
normal schools, one legislator openly
remarked: why should We appro-
riate money? We can get plenty OF
good teachers from Vermont. Let
Vermont do it.
"In Johnson and doubtless in Cas-
Teton, the student from small towns
has always been warmly welcomed
of a cultivated, self respecting Yer
mont town and have there made ac-
quaintances that have been of value
all their lives; and they have taken
back into their homes and out into
the more remote rural districts some
thing of the atmosphere of culture
and refinement which are characters
tic of the normal school towns. The
influence of these graduates from the
states normal schools which has thus
been spread through the country dis
riots of Vermont cannot be easily es-
timated 1t seems TO me that this Is
one of the chief factors of the change
hat has come over the ssback towns"
in the past so years,-a change which
we who go back from time 70 time
probably notice more than you do
who live in the state.
Gas l understand it today, it is
proposed to abolish these schools
which have done and could still do
so much for Vermont, in order to set
up somewhere at one side of the state
a Central Training School where the
Columbia Plan can be tried out on
the young Vermont teachers. Do the
people know that this plan has al
ready been tried in New York and
failed? That the recent election of
Mayor Inland of New York City
hinged entirely on that issue? That
in several other states, some of them
New England states, it has been tried
and abandoned? Does Vermont want
to appropriate nearly four times as
much money as ever before merely