Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1922-02-22
Thoughts About Rural Schools in
Vermont.
Dorothy Garfield Fishs

y
were deprived of modern improve
ments for their work, like manure
| spreaders, the silo, the disk-harrow,
| the sap evaporation. What chance
would they stand against other farm
| ers, provided with 10th century
equipment? You don't see in your
minds eye, one of them saying con-
tentedly as he boils his sap in big
/ open iron kettle, full of bits of bark
and ashes, ''This was plenty good
enough for my grandfather, and he
I was a fine man. / guess it's good
enough for me-" No, of course you
don't.
Equally of course every Vermont
country child who grows up without
| a good, sound, fair, modern educa-
| ton, is at as great a disadvantage
among his better-trained rivals in
life, as if he were forced to NOW his
| hay by hand and plane all his boards
| with hand-plane.
This is the plainest statement of
fact, which nobody would dream of
denying. Our Vermont country chill
| dren must have better schools than
they have had, if they are not to be
hopelessly handicapped in the world.
But the last census shows us that
country districts in Vermont have
fewer people in them than before.
That means less money, less reserve
stores of cash and strength to draw
on. There's the situation Look
squarely at it. Absolute need for
better schools and fewer people to do
the work of getting better schools.
Well, that's not nearly as bad as
it sounds. The redeeming feature of
the case is that Vermont is still
largely populated by Vermonters, not
by foreigners ignorant of American
traditions as IN many states about
US. And Vermonters have shown
during all their history that they are
capable of rising to an occasion when
rising is needful.
| The state board of education has
| tried, on it's part, to do it's fair share
/ of rising to the occasion by doing
three things; they have set aside a
fund of ten thousand dollars to help
| in this work; they have created the
position of supervisor of rural
schools and they have put in it the
! very best person they could find,
Miss Rose Lucia, of Montpelier; and
they have planned program for i'm
provements arranged so that there is
a clear, definite and simple method
of obtaining the state aid.
| But state aid, like any sort of help
! from the outside, is a remarkably
poor stick to lean on, and never gets
anybody very far. What is needed
is a renewal of the sacred American
feeling of personal responsibility
| about public affairs and our schools
! After all, the very name district
school" means that it belongs to and
should be protected by the district
where it stands. If we saw our dis
i trict school going up in flames, we
] would tear out and get together to
| put out the fire. But we do not see
| the "slow smokeless burning of de-
cay which goes on slowly before our
! eyes, year by year, and which re-
| duces our schools in value and eff
| cheney. If we saw a tramp snatch
| ing from a school child his lunch for
that day, we would boil with indig-
nation and feel it our plain duty to
| protect the defenseless child. But
we do not see ignorance, robbing our
children of their fair equal in life,
not for a single day, but for all their
| years to come. And yet we have
arms with which to protect them
against this danger.
Those arms are within any Yer
| monter's reach. They are the same
energy, inventiveness and persever-
ance with which we keep our personal
| affairs going, and our homes safe,
| cheerful and worthwhile.
With our energy we can turn to
and improve the material side of
our educational outfit. We can easily
solve this problem and transform
any dreary, depressing schoolhouse
into bright, attractive school
home, which will inspire both teach
er and pupils to a quickened, more
active school life. Without ingenui
| ty, our Yankee Vermont inventive
ness, which does not fail us in diff
cult moments in our personal lives,
we can, each in our own way, devise
ways for making country teaching in
teresting and dignified and worth
| while, so that our girls graduating
from their normal courses will be
eager to undertake it, instead of
dreading and fearing it; so that our
boys and girls will be drawn toward
the school as toward magnet of in
| terest, so that we ourselves will feel
! it is as it ought to be, as the very
center of our neighborhood life. With
our perseverance, that steadiness of
purpose which was so marked a
characteristic of our forefathers in
their struggles with problems much
harder than this, we can stick to this
campaign for better schools in coun-
try districts, till we have in each of
our country districts, clean. bright,
pleasant-looking school building, ra-
dating intelligence, faith in country
life and hope for the future, to ev-
erv child depending on it.
The schoolhouse is our fortress
against evils which threaten the best
in American life. We have not kept
its defenses up to date. We have al
lowed rust and damp and neglect to
impair it's efficiency. Every child we
pass on our Vermont roads, should
be a challenge to us, to provide him
with better schooling. We can if we
will
| e;z e Tho h,c+orxy ~ Uo,,