The united opinion. [volume] (Bradford, Vt.) 1881-1970, 1921-01-07
COMMUNICATION

Opinion: When the Legislature con-
vened January 2, 1916, soon after the
surveys made by the Carnegie and
the Vermont commissions, there was
little evidence that the public was in
terested in the educational situation.
There was hardly ripple in public
sentiment although the changes
recommend were extremely radical
and mostly in line with what DR..
Nicholas Murray Butler in a recent
article in the New York Herald,
termed modern paganism in edu-
cation" Then, our rural people who
were most concerned with our ele-
mentary school problem, expressed
neither approval nor disapproval.
Today the interest is quite different.
Everybody is thinking and talking
about the school question. An open
forum exists. The press is en-
deavoring to shed light on the situa-
tion. There is crisis in our educa-
tional affairs and the problem is to
be settled through the Legislature
and by the people.
Demand For Better Schools.
Our state board of education says,
There is an insistent demand for
better schools in farming districts"
Why the demand? What is the
present state policy toward the
rural school? Briefly stated it is:
No standard elementary course of
study, no required qualifications for
supervisors and for teachers, those
whose professional training, accord
ing to the standard based upon GUS
tomary practice in other states, is
below standard. l refer to the
graduates of the high school teacher
training classes.
When we consider that "a per cent
of the $4,000 elementary school chill
dren in Vermont live even outside
our rural villages we must be i'm
pressed with the seriousness of our
problem. Is it to be wondered at
that our farmers are dissatisfied?
But how is the cause of dissatisfac-
ton to be remedied? Our state board
says by the establishment of state
college for teachers at Burlington in
stead of the state appropriating
money for the maintenance of rural
state normal schools and for a col
legiate course at Middlebury college
for secondary teachers they wish the
combined appropriation of 100000
given annually to that state teachers
college.
They also will recommend a CON-
paratively small appropriation for
the teachers training courses in high
school although to these classes is
given the big task of supplying with
teachers 1854 out 1900 schools in Yer
mont
City Girls in Rural Schools.
The training classes in high schools
are designed to function with the
teachers college, but will they func-
tion for the benefit of the one-room
rural school? 1t is highly improbable
as it has always been difficult to in
duce girls trained in cities to teach
in rural schools. So much for the
elementary department of the teach
ers' college.
Will the collegiate course benefit
rural Vermont? We have been told
by experts that the students of col !
legiate rank who are preparing for
rural school teaching in the United
States would probably not number |.
five hundred all told Therefore the
function of the college would be to
supply teachers for our secondary /
schools, at the present time we have
two colleges preparing teachers !
through state aid for these schools.
Why give up two collegiate courses in
favor of one?
If we could afford rural normal
schools and a Teachers College we
might be willing to take a chance.
Appropriating all our money for a
Teachers College and having none
left for normal schools would place
us in a predicament similar to that |
in which the school boy found him.
self after spending all his money for
ice cream and having none left for
his noon day lunch.
Should Conform to Other States.
The responsibility for the adequate
preparation of teachers for element
airy schools rests exclusively with
the state. The purposes for which
teachers should be especially trained
are virtually the same throughout
the country and it is greatly in the
interests Of a national solidarity to
make this idertity complete and en-
phatic. For this reason wouldn't it
seem wise for Vermont to adopt a
teacher-training policy which would
conform with the policy accepted by
other states? Reports from the de-
pdIlHeHlS VI pubic lnSITuCIlOn III
other states and letters from COM
missioners of education tell us that
they consider normal school system
an important factor in the develop
ment of a sound state educational
policy. We are also told by states
conducting Misunderstanding courses
in high schools that these are used
only as a temporary expedient not
as a fixed state policy. Some
states having tried these courses have
already abandoned them because they
were not meeting the need and others
hope to as soon as 1924 II
New York state has discontinued
teachertraining classes in high I
schools and although now having ten
state normal schools has made an APP ,
preparation for the establishment Of
a new normal school, DR.. Thomas
Fnegan, formerly Of New York state,
now commissioner Of education in
Pennsylvania writes in a personal
letter to our committee:
What Flnegan Says.
tfElOv r-aarc II lol n -.