Page images
PDF
EPUB

afternoon, or six, till seven or eight in the evening. Every business man knows the vexatiousness of such habits. I will, therefore, only add that the formation of correct habits should begin in the home circle; should be nurtured in the common school, and be matured in active life.

Akin to the fault just noticed, is the practice very common in the schools, for pupils to get dismissed before the close of the exercises. The extent of this evil has not been so apparent, until the Register required such cases to be marked by teachers. Parents would be surprised to see how the Registers, in some of the districts, are defaced by marks for tardiness in the morning, and dismission in the afternoon. Some such cases, we know, must occur; but they might be, they ought to be, they would be, less numerous than they are, if parents properly considered all the bearings of this evil.

A word ought to be said respecting the care of our school houses by the scholars. There are several reasons why children should be required to avoid all unnecessary injury to these buildings; nay, why they should be taught to protect them from injury. The lesson is invaluable, as helping to form habits of care. It is invaluable, too, as tending to encourage a wholesome respect for public buildings, without which they can never be preserved in good condition. Let our school houses be well finished, and let every child be taught that he is no more to mar them than he would his mother's parlor.

There are two topics to which I wish to call your attention before closing this report. On both of them I have dwelt in a former report, but we need "line upon line, precept upon precept, here a little and there a little," until our practice shall become conformed to the requirements of duty.

The first of these topics is the neglect of parents to visit the schools. There is no thing, in reference to which, teachers oftener express regret; true, there has been some improvement, in this respect, within a year or two, but the neglect is still such as no parent practices in reference to any other matter in which they have concern. Is it not inexplicable that so many parents, who cheerfully tax themselves to any extent to purchase necessary school books, and support good teachers, manifest no interest in the schools when once in operation, taking it for granted that all is right, without an attempt to ascertain the truth by personal inspection. Parents! shall we not, for one year, attempt a reform in this matter, and observe the effect which will be produced both upon ourselves and our children.

The other topic to which I allude, is the more liberal appropriation of money for the support of schools. A good beginning has been made in some of our districts, but we need to engage in this work from the conviction that not merely the best good of our children is involved, but that in so doing, we are actually enhancing the welfare of our real estate. Every man's farm is directly affected by the education of the community in which it is situated. Where intelligence and the kind offices which commonly attend it pervade a community, there the good citizen, who is seeking a settlement, will fix his location, if possible. There he will be willing to pay for real estate in proportion to the privileges to be enjoyed; while such a citizen will as certainly give a wide berth to the neighborhood where ignorance and its usual concomitants prevail. Nothing is more obvious than that it is for the interest of every citizen, whether he has children or not, to aid liberally in the thorough education of the community. He is safer in property and in person; and if he has children, they are less tempted to dissipation and vice. The Secretary of the Board of Education has kindly complimented our school houses. Why may not, why should not our schools merit a still higher compliment? LYMAN MATTHEWS, Cornwall

The schools in this town are supported principally on the Grand List, the only true way, in my opinion, giving all an equal chance for an education, although it causes considerable fault-finding on the part of heavy tax payers that have no scholars to educate. The teachers, with one exception, have given good satisfaction, the scholars having made rapid progress. The parents and committees take too little interest in their schools. The only knowledge they have of them is what their children say. There has been but one instance of parents or committee visiting schools this winter. There are four school houses in town, three of which are of stone, decent, but not nice, and have no way of ventilation except by doors and windows. The other one was built recently, and is tastily planned for convenience and comfort. All stand in the highway, and have playgrounds the whole length of the road.

WM. H. TENBROECKE, Panton.

It gives me pleasure to report that, in many respects, our common schools have been attended with a marked degree of success, which is indeed encouraging; still I find them, in some important points, most sadly deficient.

Our school houses, with but two or three exceptions, are located in the highway, and some even in so close proximity to the road itself, that the safety of the pupils, while at recreation, is greatly endangered.

Though most of the buildings are comfortable, still they are far from being attractive and pleasant to the student, and are calculated rather to repel than attract the scholar.

Our teachers have generally been intelligent, and have discharged their duties with commendable zeal and fidelity. There has been, in some of our schools, a decided lack of thoroughness in the rudiments of learning, and I have found students in Algebra, Geometry, Astronomy, and studies of equal grade, who did not understand the spelling book, and to whom simple interest was a profound mystery. This I conceive to be a great defect, and one which demands serious attention.

I believe that pupils, in our common schools, should not be allowed to pursue the higher branches of an education until, by strict examination, they are found to be perfely acquainted with common school studies. Some of the schools, during the past ater, have been seriously impaired by the introduction of the higher mathematics, thereby commanding too great a portion of the teacher's time and attention which should be given to other studies.

I have been utterly astonished, in visiting schools, to find so little order, and an entire lack of discipline, as has characterized some of our schools during the past year. We have had three female teachers in town during the past winter, and they kept the three best schools we have had. Our female schools have excelled in good order, thorough discipline and correct instruction.

I am extremely sorry to report so many instances of tardiness, and I cannot account for the great number there seems to be. I certainly trust there is no other Superintendent who is compelled to set down such large figures, in this respect, as I have.

One great hindrance to the prosperity of our schools, is the entire lack of interest manifested by parents, and others, intimately connected with the school. Most of our schools, the past winter, have not been visited by parents, committee, or anybody else, interested at all, except the Superintendent; as long as this is so, we shall not gain a very high stand point, I fear.

The schools throughout the town are entirely supported upon the Grand List, which is, I think, the only proper way.

The study of music is being introduced into some of our schools, which I most surely encourage, for if there is any one thing elevating and enlivening in the schoolroom, it is certainly the joyous happy song.

I believe, on the whole, our schools have improved during the past year, and I hope, during the coming year, to be enabled to remove many of the defects from which we now suffer.

E. T. THOMPSON, Shoreham.

As a whole, I think the schools of the past year, in our town, have been good. The effect of the present system in the schools of the State, (though hooted at by many,) is every day becoming visible to those who watch its proceedings, and even its enemies begin to yield the point. The schools of this State needed a thorough renovation, and in my opinion, this system will bring it about.

S. BUSHNELL, Starksboro'.

The schools in Vergennes are supported wholly upon the Grand List, and are therefore open to all, without expense. The scholars, however, are sadly deficient in their regular and punctual attendance on school. One day you may find fifty or sixty in the school-room,the next, not one-fourth of that number. Improvement, therefore, in such a school is impossible. The teacher may be qualified, in all respects a model teacher, and may labor most assiduously for the advancement of his or her pupils, yet there can be no order, system or permanent improvement. The barrier to the correct and rapid advancement of the children in our schools, is the fault of the parents; as they have nothing to pay, their children are kept from school on the slightest pretext. I should consider it the dawn of a happier era if I was certain that a single parent had visited our schools the past year. It would seem, if they have any interest in the district school, it is nothing more than this,-when their children become troublesome and

ungovernable at home, they send them to the school-room to be managed by the teacher, and if, after all other means have been exhausted, he should apply, as a dernier resort, the salutary and very appropriate discipline of the birch, you would suppose the day of general doom had come, and the last vial of wrath was about to be poured upon the head of the trembling and awe struck teacher. It is then and only then that you will find the parents visiting our schools. The good and sovereign people will talk fluently and ardently on almost every theme, their farms, their merchandise, their cattle, their horses, and even on the frivolities of fashion; but common schools, where children are to be trained and prepared for doing good or evil in this world, and for happiness or misery in the world beyond the grave, is the last subject that is mentioned, or that finds a place in their affections. We hope, however, by the beneficial workings of our excel· lent school system, and by the unwearied labors of all the friends of education, to arouse and bring every parent in the State up to their duty in this great and benevolent work of improving and perfecting our common schools. We have good teachers, and they have labored assiduously, early and late, for the advancement of their pupils, and yet many of them have not made that proficiency which they would have made if they had been constant and punctual in their attendance. But this has not been the fault of the teachers, but of the parents. We need much a new and commodious schoolhouse, and have purchased a beautiful site for such a building. But the unhappy state of the country has so augmented taxation that it precludes the possibility of erecting such a building the present year as we need. Our anticipations, however, of a better future are bright, our hearts are strong, and our determinations cannot be thwarted. We must and shall have a school building soon that will be an honor to the city, State and humanity.

B. B. ALLEN, Vergennes.

Schoolhouses should be sound, clean and comfortable. If not, the scholars are inclined to mar and disfigure them, or otherwise show their displeasure so much as to disturb the school. The most skillful and successful teachers are always the cheapest at the prices they usually ask for their services. I insist that the fuel for the use of district schools should be provided by a tax on the Grand List.

D. N. CASEY, Whiting.

I think the present school law. in the main, is a good one, if the people would take interest enough in the education of their children to carry it out fully and entirely.

cate.

The people do not attend the public examination scarcely at all.

Half the teachers hire out and begin their schools before they obtain their certifi

I think that if the Town Superintendents were dispensed with, and a County Superintendent made in their stead, with a regular salary, sufficiently large to pay him for giving all his attention to the schools, we should have better schools, and it would be less expensive to the State.

HARRISON PRINDLE, Arlington.

My report, herewith submitted, shows a decided advance on former years, in the matter of the attendance of scholars, and a more general attention of our people to the important subject of our common schools.

The Registers have never been as well and carefully kept as the past year; and while one or two have been somewhat negligent in attending to this part of their duty, yet, for the most part, our teachers have shown a laudable ambition in the neatness and accuracy with which they have registered the condition of their several schools.

The feeling, that all this particularity called for, was unnecessary, and which very generally pervaded the minds of teachers and others, at the time our present system was first introduced, is, I am happy to say, fast giving place to the true view, that this part of our work absolutely underlies all the advantages hoped for from the system and labor of our present Board of Education.

We are beginning to see that without this array of facts, which the Register of each district school discloses, we should be destitute of those data which give the great interest to the very able reports which are annually made by the Sacretary of the Board to our Legislature. Lay aside these "dottings down," called for in the Register,—and which have been called useless machinery"-and you eviscerate the

whole system and paralyze every effort to improve the condition of our schools, and for the palpable reason that you know nothing about them. I am aware there is nothing new in all this, and yet this very subject has hitherto been a great drawback with many, because it was said to involve complication, and called for useless care and

labor.

But the second thought, I am glad to believe, is setting the matter right, and what was at first a great objection to any change, is now seen to be the only instrument to awaken the minds of the people to the necessity of a radical reform in our schools.

Who knew, ten years ago, that the amount expended about our district schools in Vermont was larger, by hundreds of thousands of dollars, than all the other expenditures of our government combined? Who knew anything about the common schools? Who knew the number even of children? Now, I am happy to believe, that our teachers are ready to co-operate with the Board, by giving faithfully and accurately all that important information which a due attention to their Registers can alone farnish.

To my mind, a very important point gained-for, as before said, this was the popular objection urged against the establishment of the Board and the change conse. quent, at least in some portions of the State, and perhaps to a greater or less extent in all.

We are just beginning to see some of the advantages of awakening the popular mind to the importance of a thorough investigation of a subject which has hitherto been strangely neglected, and yet of most vital consequence to all our interests present and future.

GEO. B. MANSER, Bennington.

It is a fact known to every intelligent citizen who has taken the pains to inquire into the real causes of our slow progress towards perfecting our present system of education, that one of the greatest obstructions to the success and prosperity of our schools, is the everywhere manifest indifference on the part of the parents. Until, by some means or other, parents can be aroused from this deep lethargy, in respect to the subject of education, and so be brought to see the important position they actually sustain to this cause, by virtue of their parental relations; until they can be moved by some incentive to co-operate with the teachers, in the government and discipline of their children, and thereby be induced to look upon them as friends who need sympathy and aid, rather than aliens, wao are to be impartially criticized in every honest effort to benefit the pupils under their care, we must expect the inevitable consequences,-bad schools, discouraged teachers, and bad, unruly scholars.

Now to remedy these principal defects, which, at present, so much retard our suc cess, should be the highest aim of all friends of education; and this should cause them to adopt some appropriate plan, which, if it does not succeed in interesting parents, by appealing to their better judgment, will, without fail, be an appeal to the pride of their hearts, incite them to some earnest efforts in behalf of our schools. If we can once get parents to co-operate with teachers in the government and discipline of their children, even though it be effected by means of selfishness, it is far letter than to have (our schools continued, year after year, without any real progress in the cause of education. This is my motto, if we cannot interest them in one way, let us take the other and only alternative, and appeal to their pride. Availing myself of this oppor tunity at the last March meeting, I drew up a resolution, to the effect that the Town Superintendent should be permitted, by consent of the citizens, to report the conduct of bad scholars in his annual report. The resolution, was in substance, as follows :— "Resolved, That the Town Superintendent is hereby requested to take cognizance of the deportment of obstinate and willful scholars, who have come to years of discretion, and report the same personally in his annual report at March meeting." Although it is not the law, in the strict sense of the term, yet as the sentiment of the people ex. pressed, it was passed by a unanimous vote. With this cons nt of our citizens to a matter so intimately connected with the progress of our schools, if succeeding superintendents will be firm in their course, and carry out this resolution embodying the desires of the people, in all its strength and virtue, it is my candid opinion that parents will no longer live in a state of educational apathy, but will be aroused to take sufficient interest in the subject of schools, to know, beyond a doubt, whether their children are respectful and obedient, or guilty of "obstinate and unruly" conduct. For to obtain this satisfactory knowledge it will be necessary for them to visit the school, and to accomplish that object which will be encouragement to the patrons of education and which alone will give us permanent success. In the accomplishment of this end, it

must prove effectual in reducing very many, if not all, of the unjust complaints entered against teachers by prejudiced parents, who are always willing to credit every exaggerated report which their children bring home, in regard to the teacher, and if they have suffered corporal punishment for disobedience, of which they, the parents, are kept in ignorance, are also willing to urge them on in other acts of misdemeanor as a sort of revenge. This faithful report of their children's conduct ever staring them in the face, will make them visit the teacher and hear his report; and if parents discover by this course that their children have been in the wrong, they will either assist the teacher in making them obedient or remove them from school.

An amendment to this resolution, giving the report of those scholars who have been faithful, upright and studious. might be an additional incentive to parents, and also have a tendency to increase their interest in the success of their children through the desire of emulation, and thereby prove very effectul in advancing the cause of education by giving an impetus to the progressive improvement of our district schools. In this case, every parent will work with that interest in the instruction of his children which is prompted by parental love and pride, and strive to give them that moral, physical and intellectual development which alone tends to make them good and influential citizens. Indeed, it is my sincere hope, if all other means shall fail, that this plan may prove successful in producing a co-operation on the part of teacher and parent, and so cause the latter to render every assistance needful to give encouragement to the teacher, and scholarship to the sons and daughters of Vermont. JOHN B. HOLLEY, Dorset.

In one or two of the districts in this town, every year since I have been officially connected with schools, the usefulness of the schools has been seriously injured because of an insufficient supply of unsheltered wood. Believing that the difficulty arises from the system of raising the wood by a tax on the scholar, I ventured to make the following suggestions, in my annual report to the town. He who will take the trouble to examine tuis matter, will find that, with two or three exceptions, the several districts have not provided a suitable place in which to keep the fuel for the school-room, and that it is paid for by a tax upon the scholar. He will also find, as a result of this method of procuring wood, that frequently, nay, generally, the wood is green, of an inferior quality, such as can be got most easily and cheaply, and that sometimes there is not enough of any kind, and so the school must suspend until somebody brings another load of wood. He will also find that where any place is provided for the wood other than the highway, it is generally kept in the front entry of the schoolhouse. Now, undoubtedly, this is better than no shelter, but allow me to ask, in how many of the homes of those who hear me, is it the custom to keep the wood for the house in the front entry? And if the practice is not fit and becoming in a dwelling house, is it more fit and becoming in a schoolhouse? The system of raising wood by a tax on the scholar, works very unequally upon those who furnish it, as well as injuriously upon the school. Often have I heard it said of certain members of a district, that they furnished more than their share of the wood every year, and of certain others, that they shirked their duty and furnished none at all. Tax the wood upon the Grand List and there is an end of all this. Proably the amount of wood consumed by each school, on an average, is not more than five or six cords, which can be bought at a cost of $12 or $16. Add this sum to the amount to be raised on the Grand List, and there is hardly a man who would realize the difference. The result would be that each district would have constantly on hand a good supply of dry wood. To those who are accustomed to the daily use of dry wood in their houses, it is hardly necessary to argue the superior value of a school thus furnished with a good supply of well housed fuel when compared with one furnished only with green wood of an inferior quality, unsheltered and gathered out of the snow by the scholars as it is wanted for hourly use. I therefore respectfully and earnestly recommend that the wood for the schools be raised by a tax upon the Grand List, in all the districts, and believe that after this plan has been tested by experience, it will be uniformly adopted.

The winter school in district No. 6 was commenced by Miss ―, continued a few weeks and closed. It bas been charged by some, and believed by others, that this teacher was dismissed by the Superintendent. The only way in which a Superintendent can discharge a teacher, is by revoking his certificate. In this case the certificate was not revoked, and besides, the teacher has published an article, over her own signature, wherein she has clearly stated the reasons why she closed the school. One of the strongest reasons stated for leaving the school, was an insufficient supply of wood, which was always green and under the snow, and it frequently happened that the forenoon was half gone before the house could be comfortably warmed, and for several days

« ՆախորդըՇարունակել »