Morris tribune., 1916-02-11
WHEATON BOASTS
\ UNIQUE BUILDING
Following Story from Wheaton
Newspaper Tells about New
Community Building

There is a school building now near
ing completion in Western Minnesota
that has no equal in the United
States, if anywhere in the world. It
is more than just school. It is a
city school-country school head
quarters of the County Farm Beureau
office of the county agent-source of
personal information on agriculture,
domestic science and farm mechanics
home of the city library-rest room
for farm women-theatre- convention
hall-gymnasium 1t is the educa-
tional, agricultural, recreational and
social center of the school district, of
the town, of the surrounding commun-
ity and of the whole country.
Did you ever hear of such school?
g. You didn't, because there is no such
Z school anywhere else to be heard of.
1t stands alone, a model to all the
world, beam from the dawning of a
better day. 1t is a practical, effective
elimination of all the effort to make
education useful, to bring country and
town together, to cement community
ties. And the little town of Wheaton
in Traverse County, has the stipend
Gus honor of building such school.
1t all came about in this way: The
Industrial Department of the Wheaton
High School was rapidly outgrowing
its accommodations. New quarters
were needed to house the agricultural,
mechanical, domestic and business
classes. 1t was taken as a matter
of course that these accommodations
would be provided by adding an ex-
ira story or an annex to the old high
school building, but no definite plans
were made. Then the community
= spirit, which was already very much
alive in Wheaton, began to assert
itself.
1t the first place, Traverse County
has a very efficient and very active
F arm Bureau, organized to promote
better agriculture, better business,
better homes, and better living. This
program includes both town and coun-
try, and very earnest effort has been
made to develope better relations be-
tween the two. AS a result, the
community spirit has come to mean
something in Wheaton, in neighboring
towns and thruout the surrounding
country.
1t the second place, the rural school
districts are associated with the
Wheaton High School, under the
Associated Schools Law 1t has
been the custom every Friday, to
bring in to the high school as many of
the rural pupils as cared to come.
There they were given instruction in
the various industrial departments !;
they obtained a glimpse of modern
useful education; they became &C
quainted with the town pupils; and
they were both benefited and pleased
thereby. Thus was the helpfulness
of the town to the country exempli-
fed.
In the third place, the impulse of
the community spirit had been felt in
the life of the town itself. The high
school teachers conceivable the plan
of holding night school one evening
each week, and everybody was invited
to come. The response was astonish-
ing. A little program followed the
school course, and every class had an
enormous attendance. Undoubtedly
the craving for knowledge, with which
people are becoming more and more
possessed, made the night school desir-
able; but its enormous popularity
can be ascribed only to opportunity
presented for social intercourse, so
often lacking in small town. Ger
tainly, the combination of education
and sociability proved most happy
one; and the townspeople experienced,
without realizing the natural connec-
tion of the community center with
the school.