The Telegraph-courier. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1888-1946, 1914-03-26
NEED OF THOROUGH TRAINING
State superintendent of Education Ar
ranges Conference at Which Plans
for Training Teachers for City and
Rural Schools Will Be Discussed.

/ y
ent of the schools Of the city, and Toh1
| j. Kerwin, in charge of the county
schools, have received a letter from
State Superintendent G. ,. Cary, ask
ing that they give their cooperation
for a conference to be held at Madison,
April 10th, at which time the question
of plans to secure better teachers for
the schools of the state will be dis
cussed. 1t is thought that the confer
ence will be one of the most important
school meetings ever held in Wiscon-
sin.
Mr.. Cary's letter follows:
cit would seem 30 me that we are
just now at q point where a mild
crisis exists. We are aware that the
greatest problem of all at the present
moment in connection with education
is the securing and retaining of COM
petent teachers. If we are honest
with ourselves we must face the fact
that, in spite of all the efforts we are
making, including the expenditure of
of teachers, we are failing to secure
with a reasonable degree of uniform
| ity and regularity educational results
that are entirely satisfactory to the
more intelligent and critical portion
of the community. Witness, for ex-
ample, the communications that have
been appearing from time to time in
the Chicago Record Herald
1t is needless to say that this prob
lem is just as acute in other states,
but we of course are Immediately
concerned about Wisconsin. The great
est difficulty this department has
encountered in the past decade in it's
effort to improve schools has been
due to the fact that teachers are not
prepared to give the kind and quality
of instruction that is recognized to-
day as highly desirable. Teachers as
a class are young, inexperienced in
life have no intimate contact with or
knowledge of what is going on in the
world about them. Many Of them
carry on their instruction much after
the fashion of teachers fifteen or
twenty years ago; that is to say, in a
| bookish, abstract fashion W hich kills
the interest of children and makes
school life a burden, particularly to
boys possessing spirit and originality.
Schools Lack Efficiency.
Probably we have no institution of
learning today in the state Of Wiseon-
sin that would claim that it is measur-
ing up to as high STANDARD of eff
fciency with reference to the tech
nique of instruction, insight into the
problems of social efficiency, and fine
discrimination as to what is worth
teaching under existing conditions, as
could reasonably be desired It is the
belief of the state superintendent that
there are inherent difficulties in the So
luton of this problem that render it
extremely hard to solve satisfactorily,
but it is also his belief that far greater
efficiency might be reached than is at
present reached if we were all to
!
and go at the matter with an eye sim
gle to the securing Of the best results
circumstances permit us to reach.
Poverty, disease, and crime are OF
ten spoken Of as the trinity of TRACE
dies in human life. What can the
schools do to eliminate the causes of
poverty, to guard against disease, and
to minimize crime? Where is there a
school in Wisconsin that with deliberate
intention presents and enforces upon its
students such knowledge and compre
hension of these great drawbacks to hu-
man happiness as may properly be CIV
en- to teachers? Where is the school
that Systematically and regularly trains
pupils to discriminate between valuable
ana worthless matter as found in our
text books and courses of study?
Where is the college or university that
gives careful and practical instruction
and training in the technique of
Instruction.
Women Teachers Uncertain.
"Our teachers are mostly women who
teach but few years, then drop out of
the ranks. 1t would seem that it is
highly desirable for those who are to
teach so limited time to be ready to
start much as men do when they are to
run one hundred yard race. The
teachers who dawdle, and try for a
year or more to find themselves, may
be found almost anywhere that one
cares to look. Generally when one
makes inquiries he finds that these peo-
pie have been given no definite instruc-
ton as to what to do, either by the
training schools or by school authorities.
II trust that we may have gather
ing composed of men and women who
are giving real thought to this great
problem Of training teachers. It is not
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