The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1891-02-19
THE PUBLIC SCHOOLS
Superintendent Millspaugh on
Grades.
THE ROOMS NOT so CROWDED
The Superintendent not Only Favors Teach
ing Music but Will Urge the Employment
= of a Professional Draughtsman.

A HERALD reporter had a curiosity to see
what kind of man Professor Millspaugh
is and to size him up from an educational
standpoint. Since the introduction of
'Wonderland'' into this city, the curiosity
bump of searcher after truth-or rather
the abridgement or amplifcation of it.
In personal appearance the city superin-
tendent Is not an adonis, but as the English
say he ''is not bad sort of fellow
After some cross-questioning it began to
dawn on THE HERALD representative that
the superintendent knew more about
schools than the reporter did, and when
such man is discovered it is his paid bust
ness to tap him" pro bono publico, as the
Latin statesmen are won't to say with a
great swell of learning
1.-The schools are divided into eight
grades" said Superintendent Millspaugh,
beginning at the alphabet of the system.
The primary department includes l, 2 and
3; the intermediate 4, 5 and 6, and the
grammar and s. Each grade has two
classes. The two-class system was first
introduced into the schools of ST. Louis by
Professor William T. Harris, the present
commissioner of education for that city.
The advantage of the tWo-class division is
that examinations and promotions oc-
cur twice during the school year in
stead of once. Under the fold plan
the pupils who would fail to pass the ex :
animation at the end of the year would be
forced back an entire year and would have
TO study over the same ground that they
passed the year previous. This often led
10 setting pupil back one year when he
was almost ready for promotion. The pu-
Pill that barely failed would in many cases
be so discouraged that rather than
plod over the same ground for another
school year he would quit school. BY the
two class system the pupil has but five
months to wait for new trial for promo
ton. The two class division has been
adopted by all the best schools in the coun-
try though its general acceptance has been
retarded by the difficulty of making the
change after the old system has been in
use.
Superintendent Millspaugh took advan-
tage of adopting the two class system on
the start OF recognizing the schools into
grades
With the acquisition of more rooms the
crowded condition of the schools has been
to a measure overcome, though in many of
the schools teachers have to contend with
having several grades in their rooms.
While only two of the rooms have as high
as seventy nine pupils, it is impossible for
the teacher to hear all the recitations when
she has pupils of more than one grade. 1t
is easier for teacher to instruct sixty
pupils all Of one grade than thirty of three
grades.
AS the reporter went to take his leave
the superintendent expressed a desire that
the newspapers should take more
OF an interest in the public
schools and he was careful to state
that by taking an interest he did not mean
tnat they should criticise the policy of
schools until they were familiar with the
practice. Here he took occasion to refer to
the irrational abuse heaped on his head for
recommending the employment of music
teacher.
DO the best public schools employ music
teachers!' asked the reporter.
There is scarcely public school of any
merit in any city of over 5000 Inhabitants
that does not employ professional music
teachers.
The superintendent hooted at the idea
that there was debatable side to the ques-
ton, it being the nearly universal expert
ence that music was beneficial.
He talked away as if his soul was so full
of music that there was no place in it for
men who would do away with
it had all the freshness and melody of
their souls long worn out with only the
hard sound left.
Not only does Professor Millspaugh
stand by his music, but he will soon ask
The board to employ professional daughts-
man, that the children may gain knowl-
edge of the art of making lines in geomet-
rical symphonies. Drawing is a twin
sister of a great number of studies, and is
so useful in after life to all artisans, en-
gineer, dressmaker, ETC., that fair knowl-
edge of it should be within the reach of all
school children.