Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1888-02-23
The State School System With Special
Reference to Free High Schools.

tue FREE Il2u OIuoOts Will Nv ihoAo W.
ward developing the latcut brain power
of the majority of her population than
which her Legislators may have
heretofore done or may do hereafter in
the line of educational progress. The
District school has its mission in giving
a crude and rudimentary education TO
every boy and every girl in the state
situated outside of the immediate in
lluences of schools of a higher character
or debarred therefrom by reason of ex-
treme poverty or parental sel6ssness
many ways our district schools are the
most important and il IS here that the
bulk of our educational work must be
done, but it is equally true that children
who attend only those schools receive
in the main but very meagre instruction
in the rudiments of an education and
the development of the mind is almost
entirely negative quantity. Anyone
who will take the trouble to peruse a
county superintendent examination
papers, collected in his semi-annual
tours, can easily convince himself how
foolish it is to expect much mental de-
velopment in district schools, when
these papers demonstrate the fact that
an alarming proportion of district
school teachers are mere inadequately
stuffed machines with scarcely any idea
of development and no proper compre-
hension of the grave responsibilities of
their profession. And yet county super
intendents must certificate these appli-
cants. for the schools must be supplied
and the paltry salaries offered drive the
more deserving teachers out of the pro
fession or higher up in the line of school
work.
Passing from the consideration of the
District school to the other end of the
educational rope--the University end
we find even fewer advantages for the
great mass of the people. Here the
rising generations find the opportunity
for obtaining a finished classical educa-
ton, but what an infinitely small por-
portion can and do take advantage of
the opportunity? MANY who are tinanci-
ally able to pursue University course
lack the energy and ambition to do so,
and far greater number who might
have longing in that direction are
prevented from satisfying their desires
on account of mutitudinous reasons that
are apparent to all.
The Normal schools are supposed to
have as their special function the train
ing Of teachers, and much of the routine
work therein, while it may be necessary
for the proper education of students for
the profession of teaching, is not of the
character that any great proportion of
the people care to be dri He'd in. Most
of the work done has for its leading idea
systematic instruction and as peiut
showing that intellectual development
is not very prominent feature, may be
cited the fact that Normal professors
acknowledge that large proportion of
the flowery and classical finals delivered
at the annual commandments are rank
plagiarisms. The courses of study are
but little if any in advance of those of
many Free High Schools, aud taking
out the factor of professional training,
the main work of these schools in the
line of general education is to supply
the regions in which they are located
with first class High school adva utages
at the expense of the state.
1t is not the purpose of this paper to
attempt 10 depreciate the value of the
Normals in our school system, for the
necessity of trained teachers is apparent
10 all friends of education, but the point
to which your attention is intended to
be directed is the fact that the University
and the Normal schools do not and can
not supply the great middle class Of our
population with the practical education-
al facilities necessary for the happiness
enlig htenment, and prosperity of the
people and an intelligent understanding
of the spirit of our political institutions.
Il is to the Free High School that we
must direct our attention as the foster
ing mother OF the great mass of the in
telligent portion Of our population.
Standing us mean between the two
great educational extremes the District
school and the University-the High
school sends forth a generous and easily
accepted invitation to the more emerge
tic and studious pupils of the former to
come and partake of its practical fruit,
while to the latter it sends OF, its finished
material, those who are financially aud
intellectually able. and who are endowed
with sufficient energy and ambition, to
obtain that finished and classical culture
and educational refinement to which
many aspire and which but compare
lively few attain. These schools are
located with pleasing diversity in all
POI tons of the state, and so situated
that they appeal directly to the educa-
tional impulses of the people. They
are within the reach of all and the
character Of the work done therein is
such as TO ilt the average youth with
reasonable degree of proficiency for the
active duties of life, and at the same
time sufficiently developing his intel
lectual powers so that as he passes down
lfe's thorny path be can by his own
efforts intelligently improve his capa-
bilities and understandingly grasp the
problems of existence.
With reference to tho support of the
High Schools, it might be said that the
State has done little, compared with her
iberality IN other directions, and con-
sidering their immense benefit and the
burden of their support upon many Of
the communities upholding them, it
seems that it might reasonably be eX-
pected that the state should do more.
In order to MAINTAIN the requisite stand
ard of the High schools to their maxi
mum usefulness, it is necessary that the
instruction should be of superior grade
and those who have the qualifications
for properly managing and conducting
these schools cannot afford to remain 10
the profession for much less than an
annual salary of a thousand dollars
1t is true that many do remain for a
time, but it is only temporary expedi-
ent and the schools must suffer from
experiments in consequence. In order
to MAINTAIN these schools in villages Of
less than thousand inhabitants, where
the educational current is often stronger
than the financial resources, the state,
as a whole, instead of giving the insig-
nIticant support it does at present,
should pay at least one-half of the
principals salary and thus relieve these
communities from their often burden
some local taxation and at the same