River Falls journal. [volume] (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1872-2019, 1920-01-22
The Alarm Of
TeacherdoIn Has
Been Sounded
The Fire Has Started-Is the Pub
lie Coming to the Rescue?

were HOt iuily aware VI IJS pOWSl
in their hands, when school trustees
were stroking their chin whiskers and
ouibbling over whether Miss Never
murmur was worth $50 a month or
$3.50, 4,743 young men and women
were enrolling in the nine Wisconsin
normal schools, preparatory to be-
coming teachers. A fair and not par
ticularly alarming number.
But today Listen-that enroll
ment is 3,947 or 1876 less than 1916
IT.
An investigation by the field secre-
tary of the National Education asso-
citation reported in the November,
1919, Bulletin, shows the attendance
at normal schools and teacher train
ing schools in this country has de-
creased 20 per cent since 1916.
Think of it! With the normal in
crease in school attendance there
should have been an increase and not
a decrease of 20 per cent in the num-
Der of teachers preparing for work.
In June, 1917, exactly 1876 teach
ers were graduated from the nine
Wisconsin normal schools. Then the
fall of 1917 came along with industry
crying to young people, offering re-
wards far greater than the most lib
eral school board had dreamed Of.
Business colleges attracted high
school graduates who saw in fields
far removed from the schoolroom
visions of appreciated service to their
country at a time when service was
the watchword. Not only. these, but
long-suffering pedagogues, some
faithful for years to the idea of 10y
atty to the nations youth, looked
around, and shaking off their worn
out patience, discovered with joy that
out in the world where action was,
and progress and enthusiasm, and
compensation, they were needed, yes,
and appreciated and paid.
Some teachers, of course, stood by
their posts. They may have been
loyal to a beautiful ideal, or they
may not have been prepared or ener-
getic enough to step out of their ruts,
or they may have hoped that, as
prices scared and the wages of other
workers advanced, they, too, would
be remembered proportionately.
But what about the young people
those who, while in high school,
planned matter-of- factly to teach?
Look at the figures. The fall of 1917
saw a decrease of almost one-fourth
in the enrolment of the normal
schools of Wisconsin. The following
fall, 1918, the enrolment dropped off
nine hundred more. This, and the
decrease of the previous year, meant
that Approximately 1000 young peo-
pie who might have considered teach
ing as a profession in 1915, aband-
oned the idea two years later fer
dreams of more remuI.srativa "a
reers. The "sorriest Of trades" be
came sorrier-looking than ever.
wouldn't be a teachcri" was heard in
every group ,f girls, and lho;* Boys
did not ever entertain such a pros
pect long enough to discuss it.
At the University of Wisconsin, in
October, 1919, 6,S72 students were
registered in all courses, the largest
enrolment in the history of the in
stitution. Although it is not per-
30 +a hot nv
cept those enrolled in the school of
education or in the special teachers
training courses intend to teach when
they have completed their work, still
one may gain fair estimate of the
number interested in education as a
career from these figures. And look
at theml
Exactly Ais students are registered
in the School of Education, and 121
in the various special courses for the
training of teachers the first semest-
er, some of which students are, of
course, also included in the School OF
Education, majoring in education.
Of these, women are being train
ed to teach classics, so to teach Eng
lish and 2 German; II women and z
men are in the teachers history
course, 8 men and l woman in man.
ual arts, total of in mathematics,
women and men in public speak
ing, women in romance languages,
9 men in animal husbandry, and 20
women preparing to teach home eco
Monies.
Encouraging, isn't it-that of near
ly 1000 intellectual leaders-to-be, not
more than seven per cent are inter
ested in educating the coming gener-
ationi And think of it-30 women
out of this number preparing to teach
English, while we pirate about Amer
icanizing our schools!
In the small colleges of the state