Ladysmith news-budget. [volume] (Ladysmith, Rusk County, Wis.) 1907-1927, 1914-11-20
SCHOOL BOARD CONVENTION
Largest Meeting of the Kird Ever
Held in Rusk County

With the meeting of the count.
teachers and the School Board Con
vention, Ladysmith seemed to hav
the cue, the last few days. AM
from what the reporter heard of it
the latter might at least be said tt
have been one of the star per
formances. In spite of the rathe
uninviting furry in the weather, i
was the biggest convention of Rusl
county's school officers ever held
there being an attendance of 100
comprising a large per cent of tn,
teachers of the county, and only Ii
school officers being absent
The speech of Rev. G. H. San
ders, secretary of the board, was
adequate to his subject, one phase
of which was cooperation of parents
with teachers-a decidedly important
matter Relative to that point, Miss
Ida Tarbell and other commanding
sociclogists hold that the break
down. so-called, by some, in our edu
cational efforts, has been owing tc
the dereliction of parents during
the first eight formative years OF
the childS life.
The sample heard, at the close
Of the talk of County superintendent
Rice, struck the reporter as being
the big ideas of big man speaking
from a bewilderingly prolific exper-
ience, or almost equally informative
observation, along the line under dis
cussion.
The remarks of Principal r. H.
Burns, of the training school, were
most timely and his outlining of les
sons and duties deduced from pres
ent European conditions met with
frequent applause. Presented in
meagre and inadequate substance,
his line of thought was something
as follows:
He was glad toAbe here, now, un-
der 'Old Glory, rather than to be
alive 200 or 800 years ago some
where else, or in Europe under pres
ent conditions. What has that to do
with our schools? Why when, after
the war, the readjustment comes, we
in the U. S. and in Wisconsin, will
have our duty and work, in caring
for the refugees. German, French
man, Russian, Polander, what not,
regardless of what We're our ances-
tors, we are Americans. What is
it but our system of education that
has unified us SO much more than
most foreign peoples, making our cit
izenship almost unique, in that so
many constituent nationalities are
fused into a homogeneous whole? A
crying evil is the tendency of new
the cities; our consequent problem
is to devise some concerted plan
for their proper distribution, and
the solution of other social prob
lens
Cooperation, the speaker averred,
offered the most hope, as was shown
by the cooperation of the state for
popular welfare. The work of the
University of Wisconsin, in the de-
velopment of the dairy interests, was
here highly commended, and some
diverting side-lights thrown upon the
crude, hard and inefficient methods
pursued in the business in the primi-
tive era of the "cow with the crum-
pied horn" 1t was such, he said
that was largely responsible for the
boy being driven to the city, re-
sulting in so much land lying prac-
tically idle, with it's appalling train
of other consequences. On the 9th
er hand farmers who followed the
way pointed by the Agricultural Col
lege, prospered. The rest of the
speakers remarks consisted large
ly of an eloquent commendation of
the states 5-day free agricultural
and domestic science offer, his plea
that the farmers and their wives ex
hibit sufficient enthusiasm for the
project, to secure the lectures in
Ladysmith two years in succession
which is the limit granted any one