Willmar tribune. [volume] (Willmar, Minn.) 1895-1931, 1897-10-05
OFFICE IN TRIBUNE BUILDING.
TUESDAY, OCTOBER 5, 1897.
SUMNER IRA ! MING SCHOOLS.

Does itpay? The "summer schools
for this year cost the tax payers S21,-
634. The wages paid professors and
assistants, as published, looks pretty
steep, but perhaps they earned it.
some of the figures ran as high as $751;
for the four weeks.-Wase Radical.
1t pays those who have sufficient
"stand in'' to get positions as instruc-
tors at high salaries. They seem to
be the only ones benefited to any
great xtent.-Spring Valley Vidette.
Hold on there, Mr.. Vidette! Speak
ing of benefits you seem to forget that
the teachers of this country have al
ready left several thousand dollars in
Spring Valley during the two summer
schools recently held there. But per-
haps you show your appreciation of
this on election day. And who shall
say it isn't beneficial to the teachers
themselves to be relieved of their sur
plus earnings and set at work to re-
view the whole common school curricu
lum in the month of August when the
out door air is not good for them and
there isn't anything for them to do at
home? Then think of the opportunity
the summer school affords the minions
o. Shylock, both in Office and out, for
selecting timber for tools from among
the teachers, pushing those and the
other class who won't expose rascal
ity if they know of it, to the front, and
brushing others aside with the whisk-
broom Of "awthawrity" (usurped.
For this reason every political trick
ster in the state favors the summer
school. They also like it because the
state superintendent likes to appoint
their daughters as instructors at sal
aries of from 800 to 1857 as stated
above. The effect upon the country
school is also marked, in fact it is
marvellous. Children are no longer
kept porting over unimportant things
such as reading, writing. spelling,
arithmetic, etc., but they spend much
time in dissolving weeds, bugs and
butterflies into their anatomical ele-
ments and learn botanical and ento-
mologlcal terms for the same. You
have no idea children relish these
things, or how near it brings them to
the great heart Of Nature, this di*sec-
ton of pig weeds and tumble bugs.
the business college style of penman-
ship with it's rapid, running movement
designed to record thoughts as fast as
they are evolved by the brain, has
also been discarded for '<vertical writ
ing" the desideratum of which is the
all important thing, that letters stand
erect, like fence posts, no matter if it
take as much time to make the letters
as to set the posts. Yes, indeed, dear
Messrs. Radical and Vidette, the sum-
mer schools have done much for the
sacred cause of education. Why bless
you, don't all of the county superin-
tendents, professors and others who
have "been in the work. say so? And
how dare you set your Judgment
against those who get 1857 per month
for their opinions! w. E. C.-Natio-
nal Republican.
The above is more truth than fiction,
yet the chief danger lies in something
different. It does not matter
SO much whether or not the instruct
ors belong to the ''push" as long as
they are capable. The training schools
have been used to a great extent for
the purpose of brushing up for examin-
ations, while their purpose should be
to instruct in methods of imparting
knowledge. It is possible to so cram
that one who is not capable of pas
sing an examination with fair prep
aration of his own, can in four or six
weeks, under the leadership of a skill
full teacher, squeeze through. Let us
come back to one-week institute.
The teachers and the state can better
afford it and it serves a better pur-
pose. ~. - !,
!. .. !. =. : ..PoPuLlsM. ).
The Republican party is devoting
10 their editorial columns much more