The Daily Green Mountain Freeman

Montpelier Union School.

The year which has just closed in our Union School has given additional proof, if any were wanted, of the entire success of the system of instruction adopted in the school, and of the really thorough education which can be obtained by all the scholars in the district, under the best teachers and by the most approved modes of instruction.

The annual examination commenced Friday, the 18th, and closed last Friday with rhetorical exercises by the students in the Grammar School, and in the highest grade of the Union School. We haven't space to speak of this examination with the detail necessary to give a complete idea of the graded system and its results, but we cannot refuse an institution so important to the best interests of our town some space in our columns.

In rooms Nos. 1 and 2, under the charge of Miss Sweet and Miss Camp, the examination proved what patience, care, attention and good order can accomplish in commencing the education of small children. These rooms have each many more scholars than are found in any of the higher departments, Miss Sweet having sometimes more than 100 under her charge. In the management of so many little children great judgment, tact, patience and firmness are required. It seems quite wonderful that these teachers succeed in making so orderly and well trained scholars in these primary departments, and the result is highly creditable to them.

Of the next room in the ascending grade, No. 3, the behavior and scholarship exhibited, gave evidence of the fitness and competency of Miss Hobart, who has the department under her charge. The scholars had made good progress and, as they say in the army telegrams, the teacher had them "well in hand" and was "master of the situation." The foundation having been laid in the two lower grades, here the structure of what we call a good common school education begins to appear and take shape, and the boys and girls begin to exhibit the quality of their intellects; and we regard Miss Hobart as well qualified to manage these budding intellects and fit them for the higher grades of the school.

Of the next room, we regret to say that the examination proved not so satisfactory. The teacher in this department is quite likely competent to teach in less difficult situations, but she has proved hardly equal to the work here. Neither the order nor the scholarship was what it should have been, and the department, at the commencement of next year, will be put in charge of a new instructor.

Miss Bronson, who had charge of room No 5, gave an excellent examination. She is evidently a thoroughly competent teacher, understanding her work in all its branches. Her Grammar classes and classes in Arithmetic gave the best evidence of thorough drill, not only in the text-books, but in the principles of the sciences they were pursuing. The masters and misses, who gave a taste of the quality of her instruction in Reading and Declamation, established not only the excellent character of their instruction in these exercises, but their own aptness in profiting by good teaching. Miss Bronson leaves the school now, and we trust the Prudential Committee will be fortunate enough to secure an instructor equally competent to take her place.

The next department, the Grammar School, was examined during the whole of two days. The examination the first day was conducted by Miss Spalding, and embraced Arithmetic, Algebra, French and Rhetoric. We were very much gratified at the character of this examination, both as evidence of the good work the teacher had done, and of the good material she had had to work with. And while the examination was a success in all the studies, it is still due to Miss Spalding to say that she did not take the department until the latter part of the winter term, and did not then find it in the highest condition, the teacher who preceded her not having kept the school up to that point. In spite of this drawback, however, her examination was highly creditable, and proved her proficiency as a teacher.—(On Thursday, the examination in Mr. Gorham's department was devoted to Latin and Greek, and occupied the entire day, beginning at the rudiments of these languages and including Cicero and Xenophon's Anabasis. The peculiar excellence exhibited here is undoubtedly due to Mr. Gorham's familiar and thorough method of instruction. He knows all about what he teaches, and he means that his pupils shall advance no faster than they can and examine every inch of the way. The grammar and the construction of the languages, are with him the first thing, and he believes truly that when these are attained, the other things will be added. We never witnessed a more exhaustive examination of scholars on the foundation principles upon which all accurate acquaintance with the classics is based, and the very general readiness of the students to answer questions, proved that the examination was but a repetition of an every-day method of instruction in his school. We were especially pleased with the class in Cicero, composed of young gentlemen and ladies, and the class of young men in Xenophon, who gave smooth and elegant translations, and were thoroughly at home in the grammar of the languages, and we believe no school in the country anywhere can show better or more promising students of their age than these.—The class in Geometry was not examined for lack of time.

Of the rhetorical exercises, Friday, we cannot speak, as we were unfortunately compelled to attend the other and less interesting rhetorical exercises of the Democratic party,—though we understand that these exercises,—the former, not the latter—were in the highest degree creditable to the school and to its instructors. In the evening the scholars enjoyed a reunion in the Hall of the Union School building, and, with this festive occasion, closed the labors and delights of the school year.