Imagini ale paginilor
PDF
ePub

better fit both the boys and the girls for the farm and its life.

[graphic]

As Literary Centers.

At the present time there are hundreds of young men in our country communities who ought to be in school. They can not attend the high school in the city during the winter because they are needed on the farms to do chores and they will not attend the little country school because there is nothing for them there. But a country high school would give these young men an opportunity to attend school at least four or five months each year and at the same time remain upon the farm. Such a school can be made a literary center for the entire community. The young men and young women attending the school can organize a literary society. and occasionally on Friday evenings meetings can be held at which debating and other lines of public speaking can be carried on. The one department ungraded schools can no longer be considered as adequate centers of literary life for the communities in which they are located. In days gone by these schools met fairly well the requirements in this matter, but we are today living in the age of rural telephone and the daily rural mail, and these schools do not meet the requirements as literary centers and can not be made to meet them. The township high school, however, can be made to meet these conditions in the most satisfactory way possibly.

As before stated, country high schools can not be organized in every community, but wherever they are organized and properly conducted, they will furnish to the boys and girls of those communities the right sort of an education, and will go far toward solving the problem of keeping them on the farm.

[blocks in formation]

SUPT. J. T. HOOPER OF ASHLAND Who is a candidate for State Superintendent of Public Instruction.

STRONG ARGUMENTS FOR A MINIMUM SALARY LAW.

According to the forthcoming biennial report of State Superintendent Cary there were 37 teachers in the state who received less than $20.00 a month, 526 who received less than $25.00, 60 males and 170 females who received less than $30.00 per month. When one sees these figures he has no trouble in finding a reason for a complete change in country teachers every three years. Such ridiculously low wages can not but drive teachers into other and more profitable vocations. At the last legislature a minimum salary bill was introduced but hardly received any recognition at the hands of the law-makers. The state association last month strongly endorsed a law of this nature and another bill will be proposed this coming winter. It should receive the hearty support not only of all educators but of all citizens and legislators who believe that the teachers mentioned above ought to receive more than $30.00 a month.

"It is dangerous to attempt to educate a live boy with no reference to the vocational."

"Education cannot be looked upon as an avenue to a life of ease, nor as a means of giving one man an advantage over another, whereby he may exist upon the fruit of that other's labor and the sweat of that other's brow."

PROBLEMS OF SCHOOL LAW

[Subscribers are invited to make use of this department and we are always pleased to answer questions sent to us.-Editor.]

School Orders Are Not Negotiable and No Endorse

ment is Necessary When Paid:

Should school orders be endorsed by the person in whose favor they are drawn? If not endorsed and paid in cash the treasurer has no receipt except the fact that he possesses the order. I can find nothing in the school code regarding this point.

In the first place, it must be remembered that school orders are not negotiable and therefore no endorsement is necessary or advisable. The fact that the treasurer possesses the order is sufficient evidence that he has paid the cash on the same. All school orders should be drawn by the clerk. The clerk should secure the counter-signature of the director and then hand the orders to the persons in whose favor they are drawn. These persons should present them to the treasurer for payment. It is a wrong practice that a few boards have of handing all the signed and countersigned orders over to the treasurer instead of to the individuals in whose favor they are drawn.

Buying Wood of a Member of the School Board:

Would the district clerk and treasurer violate any law in the school district or state by buying the wood for the school district from the director when the electors at the annual meeting voted that the matter of furnishing the wood for the school house should be left with the school board?

Yes. The decisions of the courts of the different states are unanimous in laying down the principle that two members of a school board can not enter into a contract with the third to furnish any material or to do any work for the school district. Such contracts are held void as being contrary to public policy. If, however, the wood has been furnished to the district and has been used, it is en

tirely proper that the matter may be brought up at

some annual or special meeting. If the electors at such a meeting authorize the board to pay for such wood then, and not until then, may the clerk draw and the treasurer pay an order providing for payment for the wood.

The Teacher should Be Paid Monthly:

Is there any clause in the Wisconsin school laws which says that a teacher can not draw her salary until December 25th unless the school board see fit to give it to her?

There is no such clause in the school law. The law of custom presumes that members of the

school board will pay the teacher at the close of every month.

If the teacher has no written contract is she entitled to her salary every month or must she wait the pleasure of the board?

She is just as much entitled to her salary every month under a verbal as she would be under a written contract. Until a written contract is drawn the verbal contract is the full equivalent thereto.

The School Population of Wisconsin:

What is the school population for the state for the last four years as returned by the county superintendents of the different counties?

For the year ending June 30, 1908, the school population is 775,547; for the year ending June 30, 1907, 772,487; for the year ending June 30, 1906, 773,031; and for the year ending June 30, 1905, 773,750.

Special Meeting Notices Must Include All Matters to Be Considered:

Notices were posted for a special school district meeting. After stating one or two matters of particular business, the following words are found in the notice, "and such other business as may come before the meeting." It happened that the matter of purchasing a new school house site was brought up at this special meeting, although no mention whatever had been made with reference to it in the notice. Was it a matter which could be lawfully considered, and if not, what should be done?

No, it could not be lawfully considered at the special meeting referred to. The business must be particularly specified. The words, "and such other business as may come before the meeting" have no particular force, nor do they give the meeting authority to pass upon matters of business not specified. Another special meeting should be called for the purpose of considering the purchase of the site. This meeting can, of course, be legally called, owing to the fact that it is probably not for a purpose considered at the other special meeting.

How to Remove the Fence:

A new school site has been purchased. A fence built by an adjoining landowner whose land was purchased for the school site runs across the school yard. We have been anxious to have this fence removed. The landowner does not seem to take the matter under serious consideration. What can we do about it?

Give the landowner a written order that the

fence must be removed within a certain number of hours, (or days), and if not removed the board will have it removed. The landowner will be liable to pay the expense of such removal.

A Legal Meeting Where the School House Is Burned:

The school house in our district was burned. Notices for a special meeting were posted in half a dozen or more public places in the district and the electors were duly notified. Some of the electors opposed to the action of the majority of this special meeting claimed such meeting was illegal, owing to the fact that the statute requires that one of the notices shall be affixed to the outer door of the school house. Is such claim entitled to any weight?

No, for the same statute immediately meets the condition by stating, "if there be one in the district."

The Treasurer Must Not Pay Out Money Except On a Legal School Order:

Has there ever been a case in this state in which a treasurer who paid out certain sums of money for teachers' wages and other lawful purposes without a properly assigned school order has been held liable for money so paid, and been called upon to reimburse the district?

Yes. See the case of school district No. 4, town of Camel, versus Bair and another, ninety-eight Wisconsin, page 22. The supreme court decided that Mr. Bair must return to the district $270.93.

[merged small][merged small][graphic]

THE N. E. A. GOES TO DENVER,

The executive committee of the National Educational Association has officially announced Denver as the next meeting place, and the date July 5-9, 1909. The railroads have made no decision on rates but the officers of the N. E. A. expect at least an open $30.00 round trip fare from Chicago. It is also to be hoped that the Western Passenger Association will favor Wisconsin with something better than the straight two-cent-a-mile proposition now in effect.

Supt. H. C. Buell of Janesville, who is the state manager this year, has arranged for Wisconsin headquarters at the Brown Palace Hotel, one of the best in Denver.

Many who attend this meeting will take in Yellowstone Park and other western scenic features. While it is early to announce details of the Journal's parties both to the N. E. A. and to the national park via Salt Lake City, negotiations are pending and definite plans will appear in subsequent issues.

There is little doubt but that Wisconsin will

JOHN CALLAHAN

President Northeastern Wisconsin Teachers'

Association.

Supt. S. L. Heeter of St. Paul. Dr. W. A. Gordon of the Northern Hospital will also prove a strong drawing card. Mr. L. W. Wood, the rural school inspector, is on the program also. There will be six sections,-kindergarten, rural and training school, graded school, high school and college, commercial, manual training and domestic science, with strong leaders for each. Further details will be given in the February issue.

THE N. E. A. AND L. D. HARVEY.

As before stated in these columns, the state of Wisconsin was signally honored when the National Educational Association at its Cleveland meeting last July elected Supt. L. D. Harvey of the Stout Institute, president of that great organization for

Mr. Harvey is the first president to be chosen from Wisconsin. His record as state superintendent, his work in bringing the Stout Institute up to its present high standing among the industrial and technical schools of the country, his intimate knowledge of, and experience with, the problems of elementary and secondary education, have made for him a national reputation as an educator. In point of executive ability Mr. Harvey has no superior as has been demonstrated time. and again where he has handled large problems and carried to successful execution definite plans and policies of his own creation.

But in spite of his record and because some one else was not elected, a few disappointed book men raised the old "book trust" cry and succeeded in getting some sensational newspapers to write up quite a "story." It is therefore with a good deal of satisfaction that we read President Nicholas Murray Butler's comment on the election when he says in the September number of the Educational Review: "Mr. Harvey is an old and valued member of the association, who long since won for himself an enviable reputation as a student of education and an educational administrator. His election was warmly received and continues the association's best traditions."

Continuing his comment on the meeting, President Butler refers in the following language to the election:

"One incident of the meeting was unfortunate and deplorable. The local newspapers gave lively circulation to the utterly false story that the organization of the N. E. A. has been for a long time past controlled by the American Book Company, conveniently dominated 'the school-book trust,' and stated that a particular candidacy for the presidency was urged and supported as a protest against this prostitution of the N. E. A. to commercial ends! This grotesque yarn was straightway telegraphed all over the country and found its way, by reflection, even into the editorial pages of the discreet Outlook.

"We make ourselves responsible for the statement that this story, so vigorously and so artifically circulated, was a particularly mean and unworthy piece of electioneering in favor of one candidate and against two others, and that it had its origin partly in ordinary, everyday malice and partly in commercial rivalry of a not very exalted kind. The absurd falsity of the story is apparent if one stops to recall who the presidents of the N. E. A. have been during the past

ten years. Superintendent Greenwood of Kansas City was president in 1898, Principal E. Oram Lyte of Millersville, Pa., in 1899, State Commissioner Corson of Ohio in 1900, Principal James M. Green of New Jersey in 1901, President W. M. Beardshear of Iowa in 1902, President Eliot of Harvard University in 1903, President John W. Cook of DeKalb, Ill., in 1904, Superintendent Maxwell of New York in 1905, State Superintendent Schaeffer of Pennsylvania in 1906-7, Superintendent Cooley of Chicago in 1908, and now Superintendent L. D. Harvey of Menomonie, Wis., has been chosen for 1909. Could a more representative or distinguished roll of American educational leaders well be prepared? Which one of them was or could have been ‘controlled by a commercial interest?' If the American Book Company selected all these men to be presidents of the N. E. A., and elected them, then surely it ought to be put in permanent charge not only of the N. E. A., but of the government of the United States as well, as soon as the matter can be constitutionally arranged!

"Those who put such a story in circulation can hardly be expected to be ashamed of themselves; those who believed and repeated it, however, including the newspapers, ought to be. Every intelligent

man who is free from prejudice knows that the business of publishing school text-books is one of the most highly and desperately competitive in the United States, and that there is no 'school-book trust' in existence. Moreover, the members of the N. E. A. know that they have uniformly chosen their own officials, and, as the names cited show, they have chosen the very best and most independent of their number to the presidency.

"We take this opportunity to say that some of the oldest and most devoted members of the N. E. A. are scholars and gentlemen who are connected with the preparation, publication, and sale of school text-books. This industry is a most important and highly valued part of our educational system. We trust that its representatives will always be as welcome as they are now at the meetings of the N. E. A., and we wish that they felt freer than they do to accept invitations to prepare papers and to participate actively in the debates."

THE DEPARTMENT OF SUPERINTENDENCE AT CHICAGO, FEBRUARY 23-25.

The Department of Superintendence of the N. E. A. will meet at Chicago, February 23, 24 and 25. The Auditorium hotel will be the general headquarters and the Stratford will take care of most of the Wisconsin and Northern Michigan delegations. Chicago usually draws a large attendance from this territory, and superintendents should make early arrangements with their school boards for the meeting and the payment of expenses.

Reservations for the Hotel Stratford may be made with the editor of the Journal at once.

A DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE.

The following resolution passed by the Central Association of Science and Mathematics Teachers at its meeting in Chicago on November 28 looks

like a declaration of independence wherein due notice has been served upon the college to keep its hands off from the curriculum of the secondary schools. This is a live question in educational circles today and shows no sign of departing life. Here is the resolution:

Resolved, That we believe in the recognition and inclusion within our courses of the practical and applied aspects that make possible an appreciable significance and belief in the worthwhileness in practical life of the various subjects studied; and

Resolved, That we believe that the formulation of secondary school courses should be made entirely from the point of view of the needs of the majority of secondary school pupils, and, further, that any course that is best for the majority of secondary school pupils is best for college entrance.

The above sentiments are in perfect accord with the following resolutions passed by the Science section of the Wisconsin Teachers' Association at its last meeting:

Whereas, The present methods of teaching physics in the secondary schools do not yield as satisfactory results as we desire to get; and

Whereas, We believe that this is due to the fact that far too great emphasis is now placed on accurate quantitative work; and

Whereas, This organization of the importance of quantitative work is due to the fact that some colleges take the position that physics is in the essence a quantitative science, that it is the only such science in the high school curriculum, and that it must for this reason be so taught irrespective of the needs and abilities of the students; and

Whereas, We believe that experience has conclusively shown that physics for high schools should consist of a study of the processes and principles of the phenomena of the daily life of the students; therefore be it

Resolved, That we, members of the physical science section of the Wisconsin Teachers' Association in convention assembled, do hereby agree to change the methods of teaching secondary school physics by abandoning as far as may be found desirable the exact quantitative work, and by substituting therefor a more living treatment of the subject based on the daily experience of the pupils.

PRESIDENT NORTHROP RESIGNS.

President Cyrus W. Northrop of the University of Minnesota, who completes his twenty-fifth year in such capacity next June, has tendered his resignation, to take effect at the close of the present school year. President Northrop has done a great work for the University of Minnesota. He is a great scholar, a progressive educator, and at the same time most popular with citizens and students.

MICHIGAN PROFESSORS MUST RETIRE AT

SIXTY-FIVE.

The board of regents of the University of Michigan have ruled that hereafter contracts with

members of the faculty must expire when the professor reaches sixty-five years of age. This rule will be applied beginning next year and all members of the faculty who are now sixty-five years or older will be required to sever their connections with the university at the end of the present school

year.

A SUCCESSFUL LUNCH COUNTER. The Eau Claire high-school has successfully solved the lunch counter problem and it is working to the entire satisfaction of all concerned. The school day consists of one session from 8:30 A. M. until 1:30 P. M., with a ten-minute intermission at 11:20. Such a condition necessitates a lunch at some time during each day's session and it must be such that the student may procure good, nourishing and clean food at so low a cost that the ordinary pupil can purchase it for less than he could afford to bring a lunch from home. It must also be hot and appetizing.

The food for the Eau Claime high-school lunch counter is all purchased at wholesale prices. A competent woman is engaged to take charge of the lunch room and prepare the soup, cocoa, meat sandwiches, etc. A students assistant helps this person and receives a small compensation. Each day has its own menu which is repeated every week, varying, of course, from season to season. The following is the Monday menu at this season of the year:

Cocoa, 1 or 2c.
Milk, 1 or 2c.

Beef sandwich, 1 or 2c.
Peanut sandwich, 1 or 2c.

Pear marmalade sandwich, 1 or 2c.
Cinnamon roll, 1c.

Baked beans, 2c.
Doughnut, 1c.

Baker's cooky, 1c.

Orange, 2c.
Apple, 1 or 2c.
Banana, 1 or 2c.
Pickle, 1c.

It will be seen from the above menu that for five cents a pretty substantial lunch can be obtained. There is a committee of thirteen boys and girls. which assists in the giving out of the food at each intermission. Each one has a table containing one item. The student coming from the class room knows just what he wants and which table to get it from. He takes his cocoa or milk or sandwich and gives a ticket for each to the person attending the table. This work has become so systema

« ÎnapoiContinuă »