News and citizen. [volume] (Morrisville, Vt. ;) 1881-current, 1922-06-21
Rural Schools
Address to the State Federation Of
Women's Clubs June 8

speaking to this same gathering Oh
VermonI clubwomen, 1 announced
the new movement just conceived ana
lnaugurated by the State Board OF
Education, for improving our rural
schools. Now, after years actlvl-
ties Il feel that 1 ought to make a
report to you, on what has been
found out about rural schools and
how much of start has been made
towards improving them.
In the nature Of things, the be-
ginning of my activities is to find
where you stand, accurately ana IN
detail. Before you can improve
things you must know what they are
like now. Before doctor tries to
prescribe for sick person, no matter
how sick he is and how great the
need for haste is, he must lind out
what The trouble is.
Now, because an adequate organ
ization for the State Department OF
Education is comparatively recent in
Vermont, there has been little detail
ed information about rural schools on
file where anybody could get at it to
, use it.
There was nowhere in Vermont
any orderly arrangement of informa-
ton which would enable anyone to
form sound Judgment based on
fairly complete information. Each
Vermonter knew only too well that,
whatever the condition might be in
other towns, in his town there were
rural schools far below a decent
standard of efficiency. And the De-
partment of Education knew only too
well that all over the state there
were such school-houses. But how
many, or how bad the conditions
were, or which were the aspects most
needing immediate help nobody knew.
The first work, therefore, of the
new supervisor of rural schools has
make an inventory of the educational
, resources of the state in, rural dis
| tricts. 1t is on that inventory that
| wish to report to you today.
Now to make an inventory, you
/ need to grade the schools, some as
good, some as medium, some as poor,
some as wretched, just as an examin-
alton paper is graded. The rural
schools of Vermont were to undergo
an examination, and it was necessary
to find some way to mark them.
Luckily such way has been known
to education, such method of mark
ing or grading schools has long been
worked out in other states.
The method is this. A plain, de-
cent, efficient rural school is i'm
agined, such a school as every Amer
lean child ought to attend, a school
with a fairly good teacher, with
enough light, enough blackboard space,
enough textbooks, enough comfort
able chairs, with ordinary cleanliness
such as any fairly decent home has,
with decent and hygienic toilet facili-
ties, with an American flag to look
at, and a few good books mot text
play, out of doors, and ordinary
facilities for comfortable living in
doors. Such plain, efficient coun-
try school, if it were ever encoun-
tered, would be graded 100, or per-
feet.
If school were all of that except
one item, such as a good playground,
it would be classed less than 100. If
it had only one half of those condi-
tions, it would be graded so. If
three quarters, rs.
You see how simply information
could be arranged in this way. The
new supervisor of rural schools went
herself to examine innumerable
schools, and saw to it that an exact
report on every school was sent in by
the district superintendent, who, of
course, see every school many times
in the course of every year.
The report on the condition of the
patient, is what | am going to pres
ent to you, the doctors, for nobody
else is the physician to any public i'll,
save the public itself, and we are,
each and all of us the public.
What was found? What percent
age of Vermont rural schools do you
suppose came up to the complete
standard of efficiency? How many
rural schools in our pleasant home
state of native American stock do
you think were about what a. rural
school should be-? Oh, you know
without my telling you that there
weren't any at all, none that were
all that an ordinary good school
ought to be. No none at all.
Well. how many were three-quar-
IeTS VI WldJ rural SCIlOOl SIlOulu
be? How many were a quarter bad
and three-fourths good? For the
mark Of rs or three-fourths of stan
dard, was set for the passing mark"
Any school which had IS percent of
what it ought to have, was to be con-
sidered STANDARD school," all we
could try for, as vet. How many of
them are there in Vermont?
There are about 100 one-room
rural schoolhouses in Vermont.
Make a good guess how many have
been awarded the STANDARD" name
plate up to the present time? Do
you guess perhaps 33 percent, or $40
schools? Wrong? Well, perhaps
ten percent or ITO schools. No, not
so many? Well, surely, at least five
percent, or s. schools? No, not five
percent.
I'll tell you with no more guessing.
Out of LOO rural schoolhouses in
r l. 10