River Falls journal. [volume] (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1872-2019, 1889-02-28
The Normal School Question.

/ e see Dy the Edu IlalE6 fIe6 PTeS
that some of the good people of tina
city have at length discovered the ad
vantage of having a Normal Schoo
located in their own city, a fac
which our city discovered long ago.
Now, however, our friends are
pushing the matter somewhat and a:
the movement seems to be fraught
with some danger to our own institu
ton it may be well to call attention to
some facts:
And first: The funds in the hands
of the Board of Regents do not now
warrant the erection and support of
an additional school. The example OF
Minnesota proves conclusively that to
have good schools of real advantage to
the State they must be quite expen-
siye, and that it is poor economy to
try to stint them in this direction.
Hence, it is not now the time to agi-
tate erecting another building and
running a school.
Second. 1t might be a question
whether placing two schools in com
paratively sparsely settled country so
near as River Falls and Eau Claire
might not result unfavorably to each.
Next to good teachers and a well
supplied school comes the question of
pupils. and there should be enough Of
these to warrant the former. Divid-
ing the patronage of the school might,
we do not say positively that it would,
result in so diminished attendance
that one or the other school would
lose its value. OF course our Eau
Claire friends think that it would not
be their school which would suffer.
But the question is not nearly so
much one of locality as of advantage
to the state at large SO far as the mere
question of school itself is concern.
ed.
The history of the past shows con-
clusiyely that all Normal Schools To-
Gated in large places are simply train
ing schools for the immediate locality;
that is, for the city itself. The coun-
try at large gets no benefit.
Few young people from the country
having in view only few months
training in these schools desire to go to
the large places where they come in
immediate contact with those who
have had nothing 10 do but study
books from earliest childhood. This
fact almost absolutely cuts off a very
large proportion of the country pat
ronage and practically reduces the at
tendance upon the school to those re.
siding in the city.
While Eau Claire cannot be classed
among the very large cities, still the
result would be very nearly the same
in case of a school located there.
We may conclude therefore that
the only danger to River Falls from
locating a new school there would be,
first slightly diminished attendance
from some of the larger towns OF
those pupils who could attend the
city school, and second from the lack
of interest which might possibly be
felt by the management of the Nor
NAL School interest, owing largely tC
the necessity of more constraint in the
use of funds. This latter evil would
tend to cripple every school in the
state to a greater or less degree.
We do not desire to throw any stone
in the way of our friends at Ear
Claire obtaining a Normal School, but
we certainly do not wish to see the
Board of Regents compelled to refuse
necessary SUPPLIES, either of teachers Oh
material, to any school or to all o.
them simply because one locality, feel
ing the necessity of training schoo
for its own purposes, succeeds in foist
ing upon the state at large the ex
pense which properly belongs t.
itself, and this is simply what placing
the Normal Schools in the larger cities
means.
The establishment of State Norma
School at Milwaukee within five year:
released the city of Milwaukee from
maintaining a city training school anC
put the burden upon the state-re
sulting in the annual tax levy of thu
property of all the state of $4,000 fol
the support of the new schoOl-and [
like direct tax must result of sOmt
$4,000 upon the states property, TO
maintaining a state school at Eau
Claire. if such an organization il
erected there.
Our people are a unit against an
scheme that directly or remotely
tends to impair or jeopardize the Nor
NAL School located here.