Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1908-12-09
They Represent the Progressive
Idea In Education.
Paper Read at County School Board
Meeting Last Week, by A. A. Ziegler
of Beetown.

trembled upon the lips of liberty 8
friends in other chimes. In every sea,
under every sky, in every land pressed
by the foot of civilized man, the care
full student of history, the careful
observer of transporting events, the
Jealous friend of liberty, the true
citizen. recognizes a deep and solemn
interest in the solution of the great
educational problems of his age. We
have indeed become a great nation and
in one sense have had no national in
fancy; no age of barbarism, no
antiquity with much primeval
degradation adhering to our career.
America, visited by the Anglo Saxon
race, like torch touched by heaven
IY fire awoke into adult vigor. In all
that is encouraging and elevating; in
spiritual religious and moral growth
together with our wide diffusion of
knowledge and our great educational
facilities for learning, have placed
us in the foremost ranks among the
nations of the world.
ORGANISM.
The school is an organism composed
of parts cooperating for the accom-
pishment of definite purpose, a final
end. The parts of the school as an
organism are the teacher, the pupils,
the school officials and the patrons of
the dis riot A right act on the part
of the teacher, pupil, patron or
school board member tends to bring
about be final purpose of the school.
A wrong act by the teacher, pupil,
patron or school board member
destroys, or tends to destroy, the final
purpose for which the school is
organized.
The law of the school is sometimes
corsideled as an external thing and
the pupil looks upon it as something
wholly foreign to himself. The
proper view is that the pupil is part
of the organism. the teacher is part.
the school board is part and the
patrons of the district are parts of the
organism and that the law of the
school, so far as it is law. grows out
of the organism itself and the largesj
life in the school can come only when
these parts work in cooperation in
harmony. If the .upil gets the idea
that he is no a part of the organism,
he may get the idea that he is merely
to exist and undergo a kind OF a
sweating process which will prepare
him for future lite. The teacher
himself must also have a proper idea
of the institution of which he is part
if the greatest good is to be accom-
plish d.
PURPOSE.
The purpose of rural school is the
dev lopment Of normal character.
harmonious development Of Id in
tellect, the senshili les and The will.
1t is the leading of one individual to
choose right in preference to wrong
although a p5rsonal interest may be
| involved. In other words it is the
purpose of. d rural school to assist to
the fullest extent of its ability in the
completest possible development Of
the physical, men al and neral powers
of the individual.
In the day of the log school house
the school master concerned himself
but little in the physical developm mt
of his pupils, believing that tn ir
home duties were Sufficient. Neither
did he allow himself to lie awake of
nights planning special courses of
morning lectures In elementary ethics,
nor in considering the comparative
worth of various texts IN rails and
magners''
He had an abiding faith in the
efficiency of his sometimes severe, but
never failing bir hen persuader IN
bringing abuot the proper mind and
heart conditions in his pupils, and
his rather frequent resort to its use
constituted almost the only effort at
moral suasion that he deemed neces-
sary to put forth.
In response to the demands of his
patrons he devoted the greater part
of his time and strength to the intel
lectual development of his pupils,
limited it is true. to "the three
RS" but nevertheless production
often times of men md women of
unquestioned character and learning.
But the environments of the school
boy and school girl of today differ SO