The Superior times. [volume] (Superior, Wis.) 1870-1912, 1907-11-09

One of the greatest educators of the
age is your Uncle Sam. School mas
Ter, indeed, he is with nearly 2O,00O,-
coo pupils receiving instruction in the
schools and colleges of the country.
And the fact that fully nine-tenths of
this vast army Cs students are en-
rolled in the public institutions OF
learning indicates how democratic
country we have. So strongly had
Uncle Sam developed his pedagogical
propensities, in fact. that no sooner
had he taken Porto Rico and the Phil
ippines under his fatherly watchcare
than he set about establishing schools
in those islands, so that to-day excel
lent public school systems are doing
effective work with the native child
rem of these outlying possessions.
When one stops to think of what
vast and complicated educational sys-
TEN has grown up, he is able to APP
preciate somewhat the tremendous
task involved in collecting the educa-
tional statistics of the country, and he
is not surprised that these statistics
when all gathered together make a
most vOluminous report. SO great, in
fact, is the work involved that the
commissioner of education has but
Just completed the work for the school
year ending in June, 1905.
The enrolment in the schools at
g
whom 100000 attended public insti-
buttons, while the balance attended
private institutions.
I've enrolment in the schools and
COLES was distributed as follows
Elementary schools, 17,019,259; sec
ondary schools, (high schools and
academies) S76,050 universities and
colleges 1873 544; professional schools,
1892, and normal schools, $1,000. To
these figures should be added 1881
pupils in special schools. During the
last Is years the increase in enroll
ment in schools and colleges, leaving
the special schools out of considera-
ton, has been one of 3,641 ,697-that
is, of % per cent.-while the
gain in population-almo 32.000000
amounts to 80 per cent. On the 9th
er hand, the percentage of the school
population tpersons between five and
IS years of age) enrolled in the
schools has increased from 81 per
cent to 70 per cent during the last So
years.
The total expenditure for education
during the year under review amount
ed to $576,996,472, a sum equal to
more than one-half of the cost of the
national government.
The aggregate Of school property in
creased almost $4,000 900 in value
during the year, reaching total of
$733,44G,S05, while the average ox-
penditure for school purposes grew
from 1875 to 16.S cents per day for
the instruction of each pupil.
The average length of the school
year has been steadily increasing.
namely, from 1872 days in 1870 to 151
days in 1905, while the percentage Of
male teachers in the entire teaching
body has been declining gradually for
number of years-in fact. during the
past five years there has been a loss
in the total number of male teachers
employed
BY reason of the recent activity of
the government in the direction of for
est preservation, considerable interest
attaches to the opportunities fur
'aished for instruction in forestry. We
earn from the report that of the A
institutions in which instruction in
forestry was given - were acricul.
tural and mechanical colleges estab.
lished under the land grant act Of
1862. Only six institutions. five state
universities and one agricultural col
Iege, had full four.year undergraduate
courses in forestry, while two, Yale
and Michigan, maintained graduate
courses.
In the report devoted TO the stats
tics Of state school systems, We are
told that several states expend an.
nuallv for schools so per capita of
school population. and several less
than three dollars per capita; that one
-tate maintains its schools 1914 DAYS
in the year, and another only IS; that
one state pays its teachers sG5 per
month, and another only SOS; that one
state errolls over 80 per cent. Of it's
school population, and another less
than IS per cent.
In the year under consideration 453
are classed as colleges Of liberal arts.
a.. !.
as institutions admitting women only.
o. the $40 socalled 2. a. colleges. 322
are open to 10th men and women and
I3I to men only while exactly half of
the II so--alled =. : colleges sre opcr