Vernon County censor. [volume] (Viroqua, Wis.) 1865-1955, 1909-08-18
NEW STATE NORMAL AT La CROSSE
Nearby School Will Prove Boon 10 ysf-
non County Students

In many cities of this state, boards of
education prescribe as a qualification
for public school teachers that they
shall be full course normal school grad
yates. The school systems of these
cities are of the highest grade and the
salaries paid to teachers are sSo high
est paid anywhere. Zach year more
cities are adopting this standard for
their teachers, and in other places
where the regulation has not been for
,mally adopted, superintendent act up
on the same principle in their selection
of candidates. The significance of these
facts will be apparent to those young
people of La Crosse and vicinity who
intend to becoi ne teachers. The open
ing of the new normal school at La
Crosse means for them the opportunity
to enter the teaching profession upon
the highest level of qualification and
salary.
In these years of business prosperity
the demand for good teachers has hard
" equalled the supply, because so many
young men and women have been drawn
off into lucrative commercial positions.
Those who are acquainted with the sit
uation say that graduates of normal
schools are certain to secure good
places. 1t has become a regular prac-
tice for school boards and superintend-
ents to apply to the presidents of nor
NAL school for teachers, and the presi-
dents in turn look out for their gradu-
ates to see that they are well placed.
In fact, many requests for teachers
have been refused necessarily by presi-
dents in recent years because their
lists Of available graduates W ire ex-
hausted long before the schools opened
in the fall.
Young men and women WHO have
spent several years as teacher some
times find it difficult to lea re their
work and attend a normal school in or
der IT, secure better preparat on They
do not stop TO calculate that fach plan,
if persisted in until they become full
course normal graduates, will almost
certainly add ten or fifteen dollars a
month to their salaric, at the very be-
ginring, and still more in subsequent
years. Thus the expense Of the time
spent at the normal school is easily met
within a reasonable period Besides
the material gain, the teacher who
stops to get more education receives
new inspiration for his work and finds
in 1T less drudgery and more enjoyment;
he finds life richer in every way for the
uplift that broader education invariably
brings.
Readers Of this paper will be interest
ed in the new normal school which the
state has established at La Crosse. 1t
opens its doors for its first terms work
on Tuesday, September 7th. President
Fassett A. Cotton, the new president
of the school, is an Indiana man. He
comes to this state after having filed
with credit every kind of public school
position, from rural school teacher to
the superintendency of public instruc-
tion in Indiana. The latter position he
filled for six years.
President Cotton is leader among
the school men of the country in his
advocacy of industrial education and in
his plea for equal opportunities for
children of rural and city schools He
is strong believer in manuul training,
in domestic science, in agriculture and
in courses of study that lead to training
of the hsnd as well as that Of the head
and the heart. The dignity of labor,
the sacredness of the privilege of work,
the attractions of rural life, and the
possibilities for success in scientific
farming, these are some of the things
in which he believes sincerely. More
than that, few educational leaders see
so clearly as he the schools opportunity
for relating its life TO the work and the
interests of the community. These are
practical ideas which win be worked
out in greater detail and spread through
the agency of the new school at La
Crosse
President Cotton has gathered about
him faculty of men hnd women of
high ideals, broad scholarship, and ex-
tended experience in professional work
Almost eyer member is graduate of
both college and normal school, and
most of them have done graduate work
to or beyond that required for the Mas
ter's degree. While more than half
are Wisconsin men and women, the
othere baye come to the state with new
ideas and experience. covering the
range from New York to California.
The young men and women of this
county are fortunate in havinga school
Of this sort brought almost to their
very doors. 1t viii lessen the expense
of attending school, whether to pre-
pare to teach or prepare for college.
Many young people ambitious for an
education win find it possible to alter
nate teaching and going to school. A
year spent in the Normal school, for
example, may make it possible to teach