Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1900-03-29
TEACHING THE YOUNG IDEA,

lEACHING IhE YOUNG lula.
CRITICISMS, SUGGESTIONS AND OB-
sERVATIoNs OF A LOCAL SCRIBE.
A Reporter Man Visits the Schools Of
Grand Rapids and "Sees Things" in an
Entirely New Light.
Friday, a Reporter representative,
put in considerable time visiting the
various departments of the public
school in Grand Rapids, and as this
was not common occurrence with
| him, it proved very interesting and
enjoyable occasion. Supt. Geo. P.
Hambrecht kindly furnished all the
| information at his command and
| introduced US to all the departments
| and teachers.
| The first thing that Will attract the
attention of the visitor to the main
building is the worn and ragged
appearance of much of the interior.
The mating on the stairs is very
much worn and the walls of MANY of
| the rooms would present an unsightlv
appearance from patches and over
| much wear, were it not for the
elaborate decorations and artful
arrangement of the same made by the
| teachers to cover up the worst spots
and lend a more cheerful aspect to
the rooms. 1t would not take a great
amount of money to patch up and
| calcimine the walls of the building,
to re-paint the woodwork and put new
mating on the stairs, and the old
building, thus rejuvinated, would add
ZeSt to the work of both teachers and
scholars. This could be done during
| the summer vacation to good advant-
age. We invite the attention of
parents who take a pride in their
school to this feature of the main
school building, when they pay visit
| to the school, as we suppose they do
| occasionally.
One more suggestion and then we
are dOne with complaint in this
article. In going from the high
school building to the First Ward
school house Friday quite a bit of the
way we were obliged to wade through
| water and SluSh nearly over our
rubber tops, picking our way as best
we could, because there is no sidewalk
from the main thoroughfare to the
school house. The little children who
go there must get their feet wet every
time they go to school in such sloppy
ather, thus endangering their
health and causing much work and
anxiety to their mammaS, and in
muddy times the school house must be
the receptacle for a good part of the
surplus mud in that locality. 1t
would only require two or three blocks
of walk laid to overcome this difficulty
in reaching the First Ward school
and this should be done before the
beginning of next school year.
There has been great gr with and
improvement in methods in graded
school work in the past 25 years in
this country. First, the curriculum
has been extended, up and downtown
to the kindergarten and up to the
academic branches of learning-and
| d scholar who now graduates from our
best graded schools has the ground
work of a very good education, if he
| goes no further. In this respect the
Grand Rapids schools are up to date.
A very flouriShing kindergarten de-
partment is now feature of the
school, while in the higher grades four
years of Latin, German, some science
and philosophy are taught. More
| object lessons are used in the primary
departments and better paraphernalia
for illustrating ideas and obstruse
subjects are a part Of the teachers
furnishings provided at public
expense.
All the grades are now more under
the control of one mind than formerly
and d more perfect system of work
inaugurated. Anyone looking over
the work in the uperintendent's office
will find this statement verified by
the complete record kept of all the
work done by the scholars and teachers
under him. Even the peculiarities.
puniShments or other difficulties of
the scholars being noted so that it
makes very good and reliable history
of each scholars life in the school.
This enables the teacher and super
| intendent to work more intelligentlv
in assisting and overcoming the
difficulties in the path of a weak.
cratic or dull pupil, and is also a
safeguard for themselves in case of
unjust or malicious criticism. The
perfect system and good order Observ-
able throughout the Grand Rapids
schools is highly commendatoryt to the
superintendent and teachers, and of
itself indicates that a high class of
talent is employed.
The high school labratory, we
| believe, is the best and most
thoroughly equipped department of
the kind to be found in any school in
this section.
AS before stated a considerable show
of art work and decorations was
observable in the high school building,
serving a very practical purpose, but
this is also a feature of the Grand
Rapids schools even in the new
building in the First Ward. Bulletins
of current events are conspicuous in
a number of the rooms and the
illustrations show considerable care
and judgment in selection, and should
prove valuable educational feature
of the school. Besides a fairly good
school library. the scholars and
teachers have access to all the books
in the public library, special arrange
ment having been made between the
school and library officers to this
| effect.
The enrolment this year is about
500. the actual attendance of course
always falling a little short of this
number. 1t is estimated that not
more than per cent. OF the pupils
| have failed to pass in the examinations
which seems rather small number
and another fact showing the high
character of the work done in the