Page images
PDF
EPUB

The eleventh Institute was held in the Academy at Townshend, for the County of Windham, on the 3rd and 4th days of June.

Rev. C. L. Cushman, the Superintendent of the town, had made every exertion to provide excellent quarters for members who might be present; and although the weather was rainy and unfavorable, the Institute was very fully attended.

A large number of Superintendents from the various towns was present, and more of the teachers actually engaged in the schools than were ever before gathered at an Institute in the County.

The Principals of the High Schools at Brattleboro' and Bellows Falls were present during the session, and the Institute may be considered very successful.

The twelfth Institute began its session in the Baptist Church at Fac tory Point, in Manchester, for the County of Bennington, on the 6th and 7th days of June, 1862.

The audiences at the Institutes have always been large in this County; and the Institute at Manchester was the largest that I have ever seen in Bennington County.

The Superintendent, Mr. Hollister, was active and efficient in whatever could be done to promote the comfort and success of the Institute, and all present seemed interested and gratified.

The thirteenth Institute was held in the Baptist Church in the village of East Poultney, for the County of Rutland, on the 10th and 11th days of June.

There were from 175 to 200 teachers actually engaged in the schools in attendance, and a large concourse of citizens. Every teacher in the town of Rutland, with their Superintendent, was present.

Mr. Moore, Principal of the Rutland Union School, which may be considered one of the best schools in the State, discussed the subject of Geography, particularly with reference to map drawing, and various specimens of the maps drawn by the pupils of his school were exhibited, and received great commendation.

Mr. B. F. Bingham, Superintendent of Rutland, addressed the Institute on the topic of Reading, with great power and effect.

I have seldom seen so profound an impression created in an educational gathering, as was produced by Mr. Bingham's address.

Mr. Henry Clark, Superintendent of Poultney, stirred the minds and hearts of those present, by an appeal for more and more specific instruction in the common schools, in regard to the History and Geography of Vermont.

The village of Poultney was thronged with the members of the session, but all were kindly and hospitably provided for, and this, probably the largest Teachers' Institute that was ever held in the State, was characterized throughout by earnest and thoughtful attention, and closed with expressions of great good feeling and satisfaction.

The fourteenth Institute, and the last of the series, was held in the Congregational Church in Shoreham, for the County of Addison, on the 13th and 14th days of June, A.D., 1862.

The Rev. Mr. Chamberlin, and Mr. Thompson, Principal of the Shoreham Academy, had previously given public and urgent invitations for all to attend, and the result was the collection of a larger audience than I have ever seen at a Teachers' Institute in this County.

Many of the clergymen of the County from the various towns, and many of the elder citizens, as well as large numbers of the teachers and of Superintendents, were present and participated in the discussion of practical questions regarding the teaching and management of schools.

An unusual interest in education seemed to be aroused, and resolutions, after discussion, were adopted, pledging the endeavors of those present to secure a thorough improvement of the schools, and indicating cordial approval of the measures adopted by the Board.

REMARKS UPON THE INSTITUTES.

The sessions of the Institutes for the year, have been remarkably well attended. Indeed, from their commencement, in 1857, each year has shown a steadily increasing interest in them. The attendance upon them has been regularly growing larger, and while, as a whole, the attendance, both of teachers and citizens, has been uniformly good, some of the Institutes for the past year have been larger than ever before.

Again I find myself warranted in claiming the Teachers' Institutes as the most economical, the most acceptable, and the most efficient instrumentalities for stirring in the general heart a deeper interest in popular education. The sessions, while too short to interfere very much with the regular employment of the teachers, or to become wearisome to the hospitality of the citizens, are long enough to afford opportunity for a general discussion of the best methods of teaching and discipline, and in this way to be of great benefit to the younger class of teachers, so largely employed in our schools.

The Institutes, during the year, as in previous years, have been every where received with warm welcomes in the localities in which they were held, and have been entertained with universal and kindly hospitality. The fact that such gratuitous entertainment has, for so many years, been extended, speaks equally well for the general and prevalent interest of the citizens in the cause of education, and for the acceptable character of the Institutes.

The labors of the sessions have been participated in by practical teachers whenever they were present and willing to assist. Discussions of the many practical questions in regard to modes of teaching and meth ods and principles of discipline, have constituted a leading feature, and appealing to the experience of intelligent citizens present, who were not actually engaged in teaching, have contributed largely to enhance the interest and add very materially to the usefulness and efficiency of the meetings.

From the first, a constant effort has been made to divest the Institute of a certain tendency towards abstract and more theoretic disquisition, which has been alleged to be a general characteristic of educational meetings. The existing condition of the schools, their more pressing wants, their capacities most susceptible of rapid and feasible development, and

the state of public sentiment in regard to them, have been kept steadily in view; and all the force of all our educational meetings has been expended in making them conducive to the practicable and essential improvement of the schools.

This manifest effort, and the degree of success in this direction that has attended it, have commended the Institutes particularly to the good sense and sound judgment of our citizens. Thus avoiding all attempts at the display of brilliancy or genius, in which they might and probably would have egregiously failed, and directing themselves entirely towards the improvement of the schools by means of carnest and determined hard work in a plain and practical way, they have been continually winning an increasing favor, and are now quite generally recognized among the intelligent as useful and efficient instrumentalities for educational improve

ment.

The practical discussions of points of school law, of methods of instruction, of modes of government in schools, that are held in the Institutes, together with the Town and County Associations that have sprung up, have stirred the public mind and given rise to a general agitation, and thus have created a more wide-spread and more vivid and useful interest in all matters pertaining to the schools than has ever before existed in the State. And hence, during the last year, while the hearts of all have been filled with anxiety in regard to public matters, and while every other business occupation or interest has of necessity languished, our common schools have suffered little, as a whole. The higher schools have lost a large proportion of scholars by enlistment, but the general manifestations of interest in the common schools have been quite as decided and encouraging as in any year since the organization of the Board.

These statements are made, not only as the results of my own personal acquaintance with the condition of the schools, and of the public mind in regard to them; but are amply corroborated by the concurring testimony of the Superintendents of the various towns in the State, as will appear from an inspection of their official returns to me, herein incorporated.

CONDITION OF THE SCHOOLS.

It is by no means an easy task to give, in one general statement, a clear and comprehensive view of the condition of the three thousand schools in the State. And yet such annual survey is at once the most useful and most interesting portion of every educational report.

In order to an adequate discharge of this necessary and important work, recourse must be had mainly to three sources of information. The official returns of the various Superintendents, with the remarks accompanying them, conveying the knowledge and impressions of those who, in each particular locality, are most conversant with the condition and wants of the schools under their immediate care and supervision, give the most particular and reliable account that can be had. And by a comparison

of these local impressions from reliable sources, in regard to the prominent points of greatest interest, a very good general idea may be obtained.

I here append, therefore, a selection from the official returns of the Town Superintendents of Schools, which will furnish ample material for the formation of a general opinion of the condition of our schools, so far as may be gathered from a comparison and aggregation of the individual views of the different local officials,

REMARKS OF TOWN SUPERINTENDENTS.

That we need, in our town, particular attention to the comfort and convenience of There seems to be our school-rooms, not to say beautifying of them, I am well aware. a lack of interest on the part of the citizens, in this respect, as well as in visiting schools. My experience, as teacher, has taught me that the interest of the pupil is increased or diminished according to the interest expressed by parents and guardians. Hence, I think, in order to have good efficient schools, the matter must not rest with the Superintendent and teacher; but every one must take hold and help forward this great work of effectively enforcing our school law.

D. C. BARBER, Bridport.

It is but just to remark that our teachers are every year improving in the mode of keeping the registers, and that District Clerks are more and more intelligently answering the interrogations proposed to them. Our people more highly appreciate the school system of the State, in proportion as they become familiar with its details.

No one of our districts is disposed to evade the law in regard to the support of schools, or the examination of teachers. Indeed, I am confident that no teacher would be tolerated who had not been examined and approved.

I am happy to be able to report a growing interest in our community, on the subjet of common schools. The smaller districts manifest more concern to secure competent teachers, and a greater readiness to appropriate more liberal sums for their support.

The topics which were most urged, in my recent report to the Town, were :-The importance of more prompt attendance in the morning, and through the entire exercises of the school each day; the care of the school houses by the pupils; the manifestation of interest by the parents, by frequent visits to the schools; and the still more liberal appropriation of money for their support, so that even the smallest schools may have the services of well qualified teachers.

As the Report has not been printed, I venture to copy a few remarks upon these topics.

It is obvious to any one who examines our school registers, that want of prompt attendance is a serious defect in our schools. Late attendance, though better than absence, is every way injurious to the delinquents themselves, and to the schools to which they belong. The regular exercises are interfered with; the teacher's plans are thwarted; confusion and waste of time inevitably follow. In many cases, no doubt, parents are more blameworthy for this defect than their children. This topic is one which has numerous and important bearings on the formation of character. We all know that the prompt man is usually the efficient and successful business man, and we all acknowledge the truth that, "just as the twig is bent, the tree's inclined." We do not expect that the boy who grows up with dilatory habits, will, when he arrives at manhood, be prompt and ready when called to act. He is the man who always keeps the committee, of which he may happen to be a member, waiting-with whom it is always sight o'clock till nine or ten in the morning,-one o'clock till two or three in the

« ՆախորդըՇարունակել »