Ladysmith news-budget. [volume] (Ladysmith, Rusk County, Wis.) 1907-1927, 1910-01-13
SAYS HIGH SCHOOLS
OMIT THE PRACTICAL
Offers Valuable Suggestions
for Improvement


The State superintendent has sent
out the following letter to Superin-
tendents, PRINCIPALS and Teachers:
Madison, Wis, December %, 1909.
The state superintendent has III
mind to send out within the next
few months number of circular let
ters bearing upon educational prob
lens and conditions in this state.
Doubtless some of these letters will
seem a bit iconaclastic to some and
occasionally they may wound sensi-
tive feelings. However, they will not
with malice aforethought wound any
body's feelings, or with hand rub
bling glee smash the cherished edu-
cational beliefs of any man. In fact,
it is the intention to make these let
ters plain, common-sense and direct.
So much by way of preliminary. The
following is the first installment.
l am of the opinion that the high
schools of Wisconsin, must awake
to a new situation, or they may ulti-
mately find Othello's occupation gone.
This is what / mean: The people at
large desire in kind of sub-cons-
cious way the high school to change
and develop to meet modern needs,
Generally speaking, they do not see
clearly what they want, but they ex-
pect, and have right to expect, the
schools to aid in discovering and
pointing out what is needed. This
they are not now doing efficiently.
The highest ambition of many high
schools is, if one may Judge by ap-
pearances, to get on the accredited
list of numerous colleges and uni
yersities. and not to study and to
meet the fundamental needs Of the
communities they claim to serve. ne
high schools In Wisconsin, even at
the height of their present success,
may. if they are sensitive to the
situation, discover that forces Of dis
integration are at work. A part at
least of this disintegration is evident
to anybody who will merely open his
eyes. For example, a good many
years ago the state legislature passed
a law requiring all free high schools
to offer courses in theory and art OF
teaching. This was a plain tip that
the state desired highschools to train
country teachers, but the schools did
not take 1t as such. The work was
performed In a perfunctory and In
efficient manner. At length the state
tired of this policy and established
the training school for country teach
ers. This institution flourished and
today is on firm foundation. There
has likewise been a call, trifle less
definite, perhaps, for highschools to
teach agriculture, but the schools
have been asleep and have not heard
the call. Accordingly the state has
established the county agricultural
school. Note how Jnis works. II
am correctly informed, the little
town in which the latest school was
established mad year ago some fif-
ty-five pupils in the highschool and
this year it enrolled some thirty-fiVe
pupils. The agricultural school, how
ever, had applications for entrance
from some one hundred and fourteen
pupils the first morning. The agri-
cultural school had found need in
the county that the high schools had
not discovered.
That the work of the county train
ing school and the work of the agri-
cultural school could have been done
in the highschools Of this state, If
the schools had risen to the situaelon
as they might have done, nobody
will question, unless it be partisan
of these institutions. Furthermore,
the course of study In the high
schools would have been four years
In length instead of two and the
work would finally have been con-
nected UP with the state university
CContinued on page u