Ladysmith news-budget. [volume] (Ladysmith, Rusk County, Wis.) 1907-1927, 1910-01-20
BUT FEW COMPLETE
COURSE OF STUDY
State Superintendent Cary Delivers
Another Blow az Established
System Of Education
Madison, Wis.,, January II, 1910.

Madison, Wis, January II, 1910.
To Supts., Principals and Teachers:
In my last letter | spoke of the de-
sirability-necessity, if you please-of
freedom for high schools to develop in
manner consistent with their own
proper genius and function. Up to the
present time university entrance re-
quirements, together with some sporad
ic and frequently half-hearted attempts
to meet the community needs, have, as
q matter of fact, shaped the high
school courses of our state. To test
the truth of this, try the simple exper-
iment of asking yourself how many high
school principals in the state would, in
your opinion, be willing to face the re-
suits of allowing their high schools to
be dropped from the accredited list oil
the state university or even from the
North Central list because of inten-
tional non-conformity with college re-
quirements. Not long since high
school principal remarked to me of his
own accord that the situation was bad
but that he had wife and children
and he would not endanger his position
by saying openly what he knew to be
true. did not ask him TO explain fully,
but inferred from the drift of his vol
untary remark that he was afraid of
the citizens of his own little city and
of his alma mater.
BY some hocus-pocus the citizens of
our cities have quite generally come to
believe that high school that stands
we'll at the state university is just
what is wanted; and all that is wanted.
1t is only natural for many superinten-
dents and principals to feel the same
way, for most of them are graduates
of the state university or other col
leges, and they naturally feel that a
course at the state university is the
chief end of man. Pupils that chance
to be cut on the bias and do not fit into
this scheme are then regarded as lack
ing ambition and mental power. They
are bother and the sooner hey Hgo
to work" the better. But the fact is
that many of these pupils that thus
drop out of school are not lacking in
either brains or ambition. They simp-
ly do not find it congenial to study
Latin or ancient history and pursue
course that leads in the direction of the
learned professions. 1t seems to me
fortunate that some cannot be coaxed
or wheedled or driven into the profess
sions; but regard it as most unfortu-
nate that such people cannot get in our
schools the kind of instruction suited
to their needs.
Why should a state or people be so
tremendously jealous about giving an
opportunity to every one who shows
any symptom of desire to enter pro-
fession, and yet will give little, if any,
help beyond the rudiments of q literary
education to those who prefer to make
a living in some other kind of social
service.
Some schoolmen will tell you q quote
the words of one; he is not college
graduate either), "We are entirely in
dependent of the university, but it so
happens that what we want in our
high school is precisely what the uni
versity wants" A remarkable coin
eidence! / wonder what the statistics
In that city would reveal as to the num-
Der of children that might enter that
high school but do not because they or
their parents feel that four years in
such school would be largely wasted,
and also as to- the number that enter
and then drop out in search of some
thing worth while. Come to think OF
it. have at hand the statistics for the
same superintendent high school as
to the number that dropped out for one
reason or another, and here they are
The second year of the high schoo
showed an enrolment 20 per cent less
CContinued on page II