The Caledonian-record. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1920-current, 1922-05-22
SCHOOL CHILDREN
OF VERMONT IN
GRAVE DANGER
Ide G. Sargent, Former
VermOnter, Sounds
the Alarm


public schools in Paterson, N. j.,
a native of Vermont has this
forceful appeal against cheaping
the standard of Vermont schools:
Vermont is my native State. /
have confidence enough in her fu-
ture to invest in her real estate.
| spend a portion of each year
within her borders. | sent my son
to one one of her colleges. These
facts, together with the other that
| an a considerable taxpayer in
one of her smaller towns, entities
me to voice in relation to her
school affairs.
At Easter time | was back in
my home town and visited sew
eral others. To say | was sur
prised and panied to hear school
directors talk of lower wages for
teachers is putting it mildly. What
are these men and women think
ing of? Several of them are par
ents with little children of school
age. In a majority of instances
all they will ever be able to do
for their children in the way of
helping them get start in life
is what education they can give
them. Yet they are advocating a
policy that will drive the best
teachers from their communities
and the State. Any farmer with
a grain of common sense knows
he is an ass to breed to a scrub
bull or scrub boar and yet some
of these same farmers are advo-
eating lowering of wages that
will put scrub teachers in their
school houses and hamper their
children for life. Don't these peo-
pie know they are bringing
curse upon their children in Civ
ing them cheap teachers? | am
using my words advisedly. After
more than twenty-five years of
teaching and supervising | say
that a cheap teacher is a curse to
the community. Hire a teacher Of
good ability, properly educated
and properly paid, or nail up the
school houses and let the farms
become forest again. 1t would
be better for the fame and we'll
being of Vermont. If stingyneSS
and littleness of soul has so Ie-
duced Vermont manhood that we
can only breed the ignorant and
the renegade lets give back the
fields to the wilderness and the
storm. Cutting teachers wages
will give Us a low type of teachers
that can only mean ignorance and
laWlessness. The shortsighted
ness of some well-to-do people is
hard to understand. | have seen
such men deplore the growth Of
rowdyism and disrespect for law
and right and in the same breath
advocate lower pay for teachers.
Fools; don't these men know that
"a we'll trained teacher of high
ideals can do more to bring
about a respect for law, decency
and protection of property than
any other agency? O the tragedy
Of some OF these things. In my
weeks vacation | found one Of
my friends, the father of some
beautiful children, mortgaging his
farm to buy an automobile and
then urging a cut in the teachers
pay In a word, by this act plan
ming to cripple the outlook of his
dear ones, long after the pleasure
machine would lie in the junk pile.
1t is a critical time in education.
\ time when the best men and the
best women Of the Green Noun
tain state should say: "HandS Off
the schools. Have Injuries, if you
can afford them. Economic if
you must Jut not at the expense
of public education. No lowering
of the teachers wage as with it
will go the lowering of the school
standard" | have spoken plainly
but it is time for plain speaking.
My children are above school
age. Like many others | have no
money or property to waste, but if
| am ever heard to advocate
lower wage for the teacher be
cause it will keep taxes down |
hope my fellow townsmen will
brand me as Il Judas to American
institutions as | would deserve to
be branded, and as any other who
advocates such thing deserves 10
be branded Vermont children are
as beautiful and talented as any
in the world. They deserve tho
best teachers in the world, which
means higher not lower pay
Shame on the father with chill
dren to educate who would lower
the teachers pay,