Iowa County democrat. [volume] (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1877-1938, 1898-10-06
WHITEW AFTER NORMAL
Visit to One of the Seven Schools
for Training of Teachers.
NEARLY 500 PEOPLE AT WORK.

NEARLY 500 PEOPLE AT WORK.
Poor Youth Who Make Sacrifices to Fit
Themselves for n Profession-The Sup
ply More and More from High Schools
Natural Gifts and Success in Teaching
Things as Observed by "Orlando Bur-
nett"
Madison, Wis, Oct. 4.-There are sew
en- normal schools in Wisconsin engaged
In the business of training up teachers
for the public schools.
Not q few of the young women get
struck by matrimony before the dust
has fairly settled on the white gown in
which they rendered an able essay on
THE Difficulties in the Way of Ruling
India" or a lighter and more graceful
skit on over Obstacles to the Stars"
Death is ever busy, and some there
are who drift into other callings. The
tax payers are jealous that men and
women thus educated for teachers at
the expense of the state should become
teachers. 1t is naturally so.
I remember as a boy in Maine the
angry discussions in the legislature
over the state agricultural college. The
solons gave their money for the train
ing of farmers and when the boys got
off into other lines, especially the law,
there was a rumpus. The training was
not as good as at Madison; at all events
there is not the enthusiasm in agricul-
ture that one finds in Wisconsin, and
the logical result followed. Boys with
a fine education and glmpses into the
intellectual life became engineers, and
doctors and lawyers, and declined to
be content on a Maine farm, whose
rocks are many and whose opportuni-
ties few.
5000 Full Pledged Grads.
There seems to be no doubt the Wis
consin normal schools are turning out
teachers. 1t was twenty eight years
ago that the first of the system, the
Platteville school, began graduating
teachers and about 3,200-one- third of
them men-have completed courses of
from two to four and half years. "Of
all these persons 95 per cent. have dis
charged their obligations by teaching
after graduation. Nearly 40 per cent.
have taught in some capacity every
year since graduating. The average
amount of teaching done by all, living
and dead, married and unmarried, is
nearly five years after graduation"
AS school to visit, I selected White
waters, with which Principal Albert
Salisbury has been connected since 1873
barring three years when he worked
superintendent of schools for the Amer
lean Missionary association. Without
dlsparagement to the Oshkosh Milwau-
kec and other good normal schools
Whitewater's is probably as good as
any. For thirteen years he has been
president and before him We're Profess
sor Stearns and President Arey. White
water is a beautiful quiet city; it's
broad streets and big trees giving it
an academic flavor. 1t is the home Of
Edwin Coe, editor Republican leader
and pension agent and of ex-senator
Weeks and ex-senator Littlejohn. The
latter recently celebrated his fiftieth
anniversary, a glad event in which the
whole community Joined. The city has
a surprising number of saloons, some of
the side streets being damned with
them. AS Whitewater's influential peo-
pie are opposed to this sort of thing, it
is fresh reminder that there is one
public evil that does not readily
down"
a Factory for Brain Output.
The school itself is superb, great
building, a plant worth with equip
mcnt, S1S0,000. 1t is retired on a knoll,
and one approaches it through shrub
berry and groves of trees, and he walks
past plants and rare growths tagged
with their scientific name. The offices OF
an executive of great school like this,
in which are more than 500 pupils, more
and more become business headquar-
tiers. A type writer was at work; the
task of selecting and providing text
books is no small one; officials hurried
in to make their reports; the machin-
cry of the institution Converged here as
the nerve-ends of a locomotive center
in the cab. President Salisbury, how
ever, insists on reserving some time for
teaching, psychology, history OF edu-
cation, theory of teaching, etc, being
his chosen lines
A library of 5000 volumes. with a
lady in charge who does nothing else,
shows the growing Importance of this
adjunct. 1t is predicted that the coming
university will be little else but a Ii
brary. There are some fifty magazines
and periodicals the young people may
take home; and as subjects come up
in classroom, for instance, Habit" an
important function for teachers to muse
upon, reference slips are given to them.
There were. perhaps, forty-five refer
ences to forty-five standard works on
this subject of habit viewed from
heredty, instinct, and every stand
point.
Children ms Practical Material.
Beside the normal department. where
260 young men and women are fitting
themselves to teach by a course of from
one to four years 1.-TWO years If they
are high school graduates) there are
some thirty younger persons taking a
preparatory course to fit them to enter
as normal pupils, and $50 children.
These last are to practice upon They
are mainly from Whitewater, and while
there are excellent public schools in
that city the high school under Princi-