The detailed studies that follow show that of the nearly 1700 schoolhouses in the state, nearly 1400 are one-room school buildings nearly all of these rural schools. Of the 83,000 children between the ages of five and seventeen, 57,000 are attending the elementary schools. Few of these children enter the school before six years of age, and practically none remain after sixteen. For these elementary schools there are required about 2400 teachers, whose pay is between $8 and $9 weekly. The future of Vermont and her citizens is to be wrought out in these schools and by these teachers. In a similar way the detailed study elsewhere presented shows that the problem of secondary education in Vermont has the rural situation as its essential factor. To make these two agencies, the elementary school and the secondary school, effective in forming the lives of the children is the fundamental problem which confronts the state. A study of the detailed reports will make it clear that, notwithstanding the great amount of devotion put into the separate schools, and notwithstanding also the intelligence applied by this or that supervisor, the elementary and secondary schools of Vermont have for years been conducted upon a curriculum whose tendency is to draw children away from the homes in which they were born. Notwithstanding certain improvements, the school still fails to interest them directly and efficiently in the life about them. This condition is dealt with in the two sections relating to the elementary and secondary schools. These sections carefully discuss the fundamental questions, What is the elementary school for? What sort of school can serve fruitfully and efficiently the aspirations, the needs, and the vocational wants of a rural population? Whether the answers to these questions have been completely worked out or not, it seems clear that at least four things must be done in order to bring the elementary and secondary school system of Vermont to the point where, as an agency of civilization, it will meet the requirements of its people. First, there must be adopted in the elementary school, and later in the high school, a course of study related to the life of the child. This does not mean that the strong intellectual motive of the elementary school must be abandoned. The value of studies like the mother tongue and elementary mathematics can never be questioned, but it is clear that the domination of the college and of preparation for college has had an undue effect upon the courses of study and the methods of instruction even in the elementary schools, ninety-five per cent of whose children are never to enter college. The difficulty arises partly out of the fundamental con ception of education and partly out of a failure to accomplish practically the result aimed at. That human being is educated who has been so trained as to make the best out of the place in life in which he finds himself, taking into account his full capacity -spiritual, intellectual, economic. Education is therefore a relative, not an absolute term. The school as the agency of education is founded upon this conception, but traditional school methods tend constantly to obscure it and to harden into specifics unrelated to the life experience of the children. As a minimum the school should do at least three things for the child teach him selfdiscipline, teach him to think, and strengthen his relations to the social and industrial interests of his community. It is not too much to say that not alone in Vermont, but throughout our states, in the country-side schools the children are put through the grades under a régime which gives them little self-discipline, dulls their minds with artificial repetitions and routine tasks, and, so far as it educates them at all, educates them away from the life in which they have grown up. Any form of school that weakens the child's interest in the life of his community is deficient in the elemental requisite of the school as an agency of civilization. Something is radically wrong with a school in an agricultural community that develops motormen, stenographers, and typewriters, and fails to develop farmers, dairymen, and gardeners. A course of study prepared with the view of correcting this condition is the first step in reform. As a part of elementary and secondary instruction there should be included the gradual development of vocational facilities. The chief industry in Vermont to-day is agriculture, and while manufacturing is also making strides, it may fairly be assumed that for many years to come agriculture will remain the chief vocation of its citizens, and the development gradually of a sufficient number of trade schools or courses in agriculture should be a part of the school program. Such schools will naturally form a part of the regular system of schools, and their development will be a part of the work of the board of education and its experts, working in unison with the towns. Secondly, there should be provided for the school system of Vermont an educational administration that shall supervise the schools as a whole, and that shall bring to every high school and to every elementary school genuine, sympathetic educational advice. It has been pathetic to see the eagerness with which the rural school teacher reaches out for educational help. One's respect for womankind (the typical rural teacher is a young woman of twenty-two or twenty-three) and one's respect for the rural school deepen when one sees the devotion, the energy, and oftentimes the great natural teaching ability that are displayed by a rural elementary school teacher. Any system of educational administration that is to be successful must provide the means by which these isolated teachers may be visited by experts who can sympathetically, intelligently, and skilfully help them to correct mistakes and to strengthen their own good qualities. This means adequate administrative organization at the top. Finally, agencies must be provided by which the requisite number of trained teachers can be obtained for the elementary schools teachers who shall have had some training not only in arithmetic and in geography and in English, but shall have had a training also in the social point of view from which they must approach their work. The future of Vermont lies in the hands of these teachers, and no single act that the state government can perform is more important than that which seeks to provide the means for training in the right way an adequate supply of teachers for the elementary rural schools. As a practical matter this means that a twenty-two-year-old young woman, paid at present at the low rate of about eight and a half dollars a week, must be fitted for this task, and that her education for the teacher's calling must be had within easy reach of her home. So far, therefore, as the results of this study concern the general public school system of Vermont, they are contained in the recommendation: Establish a competent educational administration; free it from political interference; give it a free hand to work out a course of study that shall meet the people's needs, to train teachers who are able to deal with its life, and to develop those vocational schools which may minister most directly to the opportunities which offer themselves to the Vermont boy and the Vermont girl. CHAPTER XI STATE EDUCATIONAL ORGANIZATION THE material of this chapter will relate to the State Superintendency, State Boards of Education, and state educational organization. I. EVOLUTION OF THE STATE SUPERINTENDENCY The first chief state school officer provided for was in New York, in 1812. Since then every state in the Union has provided for such an officer. The title of the chief school official is usually State Superintendent of Public Instruction, or Commissioner of Education, the latter term having been adopted in all recent reorganizations. The evolution of the office may be seen from the table on pp. 283-287. II. DUTIES OF THE STATE SUPERINTENDENT The enumerated powers and duties of the State Superintendent of Public Instruction of Oregon are typical for those states in which the office is filled by popular election, and relate chiefly to the common school system. SUPERINTENDENT OF PUBLIC INSTRUCTION [From Oregon School Laws (1913), Chap. I, pp. 9 ff.] 1. Superintendent of Public Instruction a Distinct Office. The office of Superintendent of Public Instruction in this State is hereby declared to be a separate and distinct office, and the present EVOLUTION, APPOINTMENT, AND TERM OF OFFICE OF THE CHIEF SCHOOL OFFICER OF EACH OF THE STATES EVOLUTION OF THE OFFICE Superintendent of Education, 1854-67; California Superintendent of Publ. Instr., since 1870. By people 2 Connecticut Secretary Board of Commissioners for Common Schools, 1839-42; mon Schools, 1845-49; Principal normal school, ex officio Supt., 1849-65; By board Indef. Delaware State Superintendent of Schools, 1875-87; State Auditor, ex officio Sec. State, 1898-1912; Florida Bd. of Education, State Commissioner of Education, since 1913. By board 2 Registrar of Public Lands, ex officio State Supt. of Common Schools, 1850-61; State Supt. of Publ. Instruction, since 1869. By people 4 |