The Bennington evening banner. (Bennington, Vt.) 19??-1961, 1922-06-16

little like seeing a diamond ring on a
hand, with black-rimmed finger nails,
of seeing house with a fine, shiny
set Of parlor furniture. and dirty,
delapidated kitchen with no sink and
no running water. And does that
sound like the way Vermonters keep
house? You know It doesn't! It's
not characteristic of Vermont, and it
has happened in Vermont only be-
cause Vermonters do not know 1t.
And am here today to tell them.
For, note well, as rule, the schools
which have no decent toilets nor good
blackboards nor clean floors, nor
enough textbooks, the multitude of
forlorn, down-at the-heel schoolhouses
are not those along the main-roads,
are not those past which we come and
go on our way to the next town. They
lie in the back corners, in the innum-
cradle "hollows" off on steep side
roads where there is nothing to take
main-road crowd, where the school
directors seldom or never go, where
nobody goes except the few families
whose farms happen to lie around the
schoolhouse. Until the state system
OF District Superintendent was organ
lied and you know how recently that
is, nobody outside the district had
laid eyes for years on these back
road schools. That, by the way, is
one OF the many, many reasons why
a decent state system Of education
cannot be run without superintendent.
The people in these poorer noun
tain districts naturally have less mon
ey than main road people; being more
or less shut up in their distant mac
cessible regions, they have not come
In contact with the growth of higher
and finer and more exactng ideals In
education, and till very recently no
body has gone there to put them and
their schools in touch with the modern
schools. There are such back schools
in every town, represented by every
woman here today, which we have
| literally never seen, about the condi-
lions of which we know less than we
do about the conditions OF the high
ways in China or the weather in
France. These are the schools which
bring down the recorded average OF
our Vermont schools. These are the
eighty-seven per cent which must be
graded below three-quarters of eff.
Client
And who are receiving their educa-
tion in these schools today this
morning as we meet here? The fu
ture citizens Of Vermont Ten years
from now, only a decade, which we
shall hardly notice as 1t passes along
and boys and girls whose entire educa
tion has been received in those schools
will be voting all over Vermont, decid
ing the future advance or retreat OF
Vermont along the road TO higher, bet
ter things. II they do not vote for
advance. 1t will be due to no fault OF
theirs, but of ours, today.
For, this taking account of stock IN
Vermont has brought out another fact
a thrilling, splendid fact. that ought
to make US both proud and ashamed
II has brought out the fact that Yer
mont is still for the most part ,nhab
tied by Vermoters, that we may hG
proud OF the teachers and children
who are struggling to give and receive
an education with the inefficient NEAR
we provide for them, just as we may
be ashamed OF how we handle the fine
human material We have This fact
does not by any means go for granted
you must understand. In some New
England states, in parts OF the south
in parts of New Jersey. in occaslona
sections Of even a prosperous stat,
Ike New York, close investigation
OF actual conditions reveals districts
almost returned 70 savagery, with
, poor, degenerate, moron population
, interbred until there is no health O.
brains left, with standards OF lIylnI
that would horrify a Hottentot. Sine,
there was little exact information
, available about what was going on a
| the back school districts Of Vermont
{ there was no way OF knowing wheth
}. er spots on our own state might no
I also have rotted in the same way.
g What has been shown by this TAX
ing account Of stock? In almost ever
[ case the low rating of our schools re
4 suits from poor housing conditions an
equipment, also from lack of con
< munity interest. In the main. bot
Q teachers and pupils are OF fine quality
t sturdy, sound, Vermont stuff, than
Heaven!
/. Consider the meaning of this, vel
h 1t means first of all that we have
II right to be proud and thankful b,
n cause we still have such children can
t ing up to populate eur beloved stat,
|. IL mehns that we have a right to b
: infinitely hopeful because to bring
d degenerate human stock up to normi
Y it Is thousand, thousand times har
Il err, longer, more trying task than
e lay hardwood floors and cora.ru,
N decent toilers, But Ia means ais
"a that We ought to feel an even deepe
shame that our negligence has lie
4, that fine human material with les
far less than its rightful inhertsn,
of opportunity For Of course IL is d