Imagini ale paginilor
PDF
ePub
[graphic]

tized and the pupils so well trained in not wasting their time that ten minutes is found to be ample for the lunch period. The enterprise is selfsustaining and no contributions are received from the school board or others.

The credit for the establishment of this successful lunch counter is due to the late Miss Clara I. McNoun. Miss Harriet E. Chamberlain of the faculty is at present in charge of the work.

State Superintendent of Public Instruction who will be a candidate for re-election.

THE PROPOSED WISCONSIN PENSION LAW FOR TEACHERS.

The movement for a teachers' pension law in this state has as its basis the passage of a general law which shall apply to all cities and country districts alike. The leader in the movement is Miss Elizabeth M. Herfurth of Madison, who is president of the Madison Public School Teachers' Retirement Fund Association. There is now under preparation by a committee of this association a bill which will be introduced into the coming legisture and which it behooves every teacher in the state of Wisconsin to work for might and main. While all the details are not worked out nor defi

nitely settled upon, the following leading features may be mentioned at this time:

1. In order to draw a pension the teacher must have been twenty-five years in the service, eighteen of which was in Wisconsin.

2. The fund out of which the pensions are to be paid is made up of a one per cent. (1%) assessment on the yearly salary of the teacher, and an appropriation from the seven-tenths mill tax of the state, amounting to about 10 cents for each child of school age annually.

3. The annuity to be paid the teacher is $300.00 a year after retirement and during life.

4. A disability clause is also provided permitting the teacher who becomes totally disabled to receive the benefit of the fund in proportion to the time she has contributed to the same.

5. A leave of absence on the part of the teacher for one year is to be permitted and this year shall count as a year of service, providing he keeps up the payment of his assessment.

The above, it must be understood, are merely the principal features of the bill. There are many details yet to be worked out before the bill is ready for submission to the consideration of the state legislature. The fact that it shall apply to all teachers of the state is important and should arouse an interest in every teachers' gathering this winter. It is a curious fact that wherever pensions have been adopted, better salaries have immediately followed, as is instanced in Chicago, Philadelphia, Indianapolis, and other cities. It is utterly useless for any educator to decry pensions, offering as a substitute a campaign for higher salaries. As we said last month, higher salaries are necessary, not, however, for the purpose of providing for the future of the teacher, but to meet the ordinary advance in the cost of living. If teachers can get this increase they ought to be satisfied with the salary matter. The retirement fund proposition reaches far deeper than the salary question. Its benefits can not be told in a few words. The enactment of such a law in Wisconsin will attract

good teachers from other states; it will attract more good teachers into the work; it will keep the men in the profession; it will make better schools and consequently a better state.

Let us all unite in aiding the passage of this bill.

"Either the High Schools will expand and teach the vocational or other schools will be established that will do it."

"The truth is, there is no such thing as a 'general education.' except one that fits for nothing and leaves the possessor stranded without occupation or other field for the exercise of his trained activities."

Wisconsin Educational News

Write it 1909!

A Happy New Year!

The high schools of Superior and Duluth are arranging for several joint debates next spring.

The Janesville high school is installing a complete inter-communicating telephone system and program

clocks.

Ex-Superintendent J. B. Baldwin of Reedsburg is traveling for The Iowa School Publishing Co. of Des Moines.

We learn from press reports that Green Lake county has voted to establish a county training school.

E. T. O'Brien, formerly superintendent at Berlin, is now the editor and proprietor of a weekly newspaper at Kaukauna.

Under the direction of the Ashland board of education a public museum is being established to contain relics relating to history and other subjects.

We notice from the press reports of the state that many schools contributed to the needy poor at Thanksgiving time. A very good practice to follow.

A township high school has been established in Franklin, Manitowoc county. This class of schools receives from the state one-half of what is paid for instruction.

The Thanksgiving number of the Spartan Bulletin, published by the students of the Sparta high school, is before us and is certainly a credit to its editors and publishers.

Two conventions next month,-the Northeastern at Grand Rapids, February 12-13, and the Department of Superintendence at Chicago, February 23-24-25. Make your plans accordingly.

H. H. Faust, last year principal at Waupaca; B. O. Dodge, Algoma; E. L. Green, Alma Center; R. A. Owen, Cobb; H. G. Parkinson, Durand; are this year attending the state university at Madison.

Miss Ione McCaffrey of Eau Claire takes the place of Miss Ida Breitkreutz as clerk of the Oshkosh normal school. Miss Eucking of Fond du Lac succeeds Miss Parmele as librarian of the same school.

Superintendent W. E. Larson of Manitowoc county is issuing a four-page paper called "The School Bulletin," in which he discusses school matters and distributes the same free to teachers and school officers of the county.

Senator Stout is a strong advocate of the Stephenson bill to make the U. S. Commissioner of Education a member of the cabinet. He was recently in Washington and spoke strongly in favor of the bill now before congress.

The second year of the free public night school in Marinette is proving a great success. There are now over one hundred twenty pupils enrolled. Students are in attendance from boys and girls to one man who is over sixty years of age.

The date for the election of state superintendent and the county superintendents is Tuesday, April 6th. Undoubtedly these officers will be chosen largely through the influence of the educators of the state. Select your favorite soon.

The Halsey Memorial Committee of the Oshkosh

normal school reports a fund of $634.03. A permanent board of trustees for this fund is to be established consisting of the president of the normal school, the principal of the high school, the president of the public library board, and two others. This fund will probably be used to provide free popular lectures in the city, which is a fitting tribute to the late President Halsey.

The Stout Institute bulletin for September, 1908, contains a history of the Stout training schools and an interesting article by Mrs. Bradford on the advantages of unifying training courses for kindergarten and primary teachers.

The High School News, published by the students of the Berlin high school, for October has just reached us. It is Volume 9, No. 1, and contains a vast amount of useful information and news concerning the educational work of the city.

Manitowoc had a scare of small-pox early last month and the schools were closed for a week. They have been reopened, the epidemic having subsided. The Green Bay schools were also closed for a short time on account of an epidemic of diphtheria.

The schools of Wisconsin played a large part last month in the sale of Red Cross stamps, the pupils taking a most active part and assisting materially in this worthy enterprise which has for its object the stamping out of tuberculosis in this country.

Reports from teachers in England, who were sent from this state by the Moseley commission, are most favorable. They are observing school methods and requirements very closely and we may expect some good reports from them upon their return to this state.

Principal Brasure of the Second ward school of Sheboygan claims a record on the number of twins under his jurisdiction. The Milwaukee Free Press recently published a picture of five twins from different families, all of whom are attending this ward school.

A dastardly piece of work was perpetrated in Racine last month when some scoundrels pasted a number of immoral posters in different parts of the high school building. Every endeavor is being made to apprehend the miscreants and to punish them according to law.

A sectional teachers' meeting of Dodge, Dane and Jefferson counties was held at Waterloo on December 19. Professor W. H. Cheever of the Milwaukee normal school was the conductor, assisted by several principals and the superintendents of the counties taking part.

Those who remember Doctor J. W. Stearns and his educational work in Wisconsin will sympathize with him in the death of his wife, which occurred at Santiago, California, on November 22, last. Mrs. Stearns was sixty-nine years of age and died very suddenly of heart failure.

All county superintendents in the state are to be re-elected at the spring election and many candidates have already appeared in different counties. The coming election is especially interesting to all educators in that a state superintendent is also to be elected on that date.

Mr. P. M. Anderson, instructor in Manual Train

ing in the Winnebago county agricultural school, has resigned to enter the government service. He is succeeded by Mr. George Holten, who for the last three years has been director of Manual Training in the city schools of Madison.

The supervisors of Richland county have appropri ated $20,000 for an exclusive building to be occupied by the county normal training school which has outgrown its present quarters. They have also voted that Richland Center shall be the permanent home of the training school.

The Antigo school board is visiting other schools for the purpose of getting ideas for the erection of a new building in their own city. Recently members of the board inspected the Appleton and Neenah high school buildings. The council has been asked to appropriate $80,000 for this purpose.

We are in receipt of bulletin No. 251 of the University of Wisconsin treating the subject of Composition in the high school for the first and second years, by Miss Margaret Ashmun, instructor in English. This bulletin should be in the hands of every teacher of English in Wisconsin high schools.

Racine contemplates the starting of a school for the blind. Superintendent Nelson has been authorized to open such a school on January 4. There are quite a number of blind pupils in Racine. Evening classes in Domestic Science have been started in the city and a tuition of $2.00 per term is to be charged.

Superintendent Crain of Fond du Lac county, in his annual report, mentions sixty-six teachers receiving salaries of $30.00 or less per month. The attendance for the year in the county shows more males than females. Mr. Crain is strongly advocating the establishment of a county training school in Fond du Lac county.

The inter-normal debates this year will all be held on January 29th. Each school will have two teams prepared to debate the question of the advisability of establishing a postal savings bank in the United States. The teams for the negative and affirmative for each school will debate with the opposite teams of another school.

The Oconto high school has installed an additional teacher to meet the increased attendance. About $3,000 has been expended in improvements and further work along this line is contemplated. In the commercial course there are fifty-eight students. The self-governing system is used and Superintendent Bergen reports that it is entirely successful.

President Ellen Sabin of Milwaukee-Downer is out against the frills and other useless appendages to the usual female attire and suggests the adoption of some inexpensive uniform for all Downer students. She makes the plea that difference in dress too often draws a line of class distinction which should not exist in an educational institution. She is right.

We are in receipt of the last quarterly bulletin of the Marathon county school of agriculture and domestic economy which contains three valuable articles of a most practical nature by members of the faculty. One of these which will be found very valuable to Physiology teachers is on "Reasons for Cooking." by Miss Emma Conley of the domestic science department.

The Milwaukee Free Press of December 13 had a strong write-up of the kindergarten and a telling argument against the proposed Ainsworth amendment to the state constitution which would practically wipe out this branch of public school education. On December 8th a big mass meeting on the same subject

was held in Beloit and resolutions unanimously adopted against the proposed amendment. Throughout the state the same sentiment prevails almost universally.

Seven of last year's schoolmasters have transferred their affections to the law and are now in attendance at the University Law School. These are Supt. William B. Collins, Rhinelander; Prin. B. Vandewelde, Brandon; Prin. J. R. Murphy, Chippewa Falls; PrinR. M. Orchard, Muscoda; Prin. D. K. Allen, Shawano; Prin. G. W. Blanchard, Colby; Prin. J. H. Cairns, Friendship.

The death of Raymond W. Curtiss at Milwaukee on December 2 will be learned with deep regret by his many associates in the school work. He was formerly principal of the graded schools at Wauzeka and Hustisford and also taught many years in the Waupun public schools. He was a son of Mr. H. C. Curtiss of Waupun, formerly superintendent of schools of Dodge county.

Some very misleading articles were published in the state press the latter part of November relating to the subject of truancy in the South Milwaukee schools and stating that Superintendent Stauff was not in sympathy with members of his school board. These reports were entirely erroneous and did a great injustice to Mr. Stauff personally and to the excellent system of schools over which he presides.

Many schools in the state are installing the Lincoln Gettysburg Speech bronze tablets. These can be obtained at one-half the regular cost, $20.00, and schools desiring the same should communicate with Mr. H. W. Rood, Madison, Wisconsin, who is much interested in seeing these tablets generally installed. This is a most appropriate time for this work as next month is the centennial of the great Lincoln's birth.

The next meeting of the Southern Wisconsin Teachers' Association will be held at Racine on March 19 and 20. President Banting reports the general program already under way. Superintendent Cooley of Chicago is to be one of the speakers and negotiations are pending for several others from outside of the state. Superintendent B. E. Nelson and the school board of Racine are backing the meeting and there is no doubt of a big gathering on these days.

The legislature will be asked this winter to appropriate $50,000 more for the purchase of additional ground for the new Milwaukee normal school. This was decided at the last meeting of the board of regents of normal schools. The board also plans for the erection of dormitories ultimately in connection with all the normal schools of the state and $65,000 is asked for the erection of the first dormitory in connection with the Superior normal school.

President McKenney of the Milwaukee normal school has proposed to then ormal regents the adop tion of a two year course for the preparation of rural school teachers. This course has been a success in the Michigan normal schools. The normal regents also propose to conduct six summer schools instead of four this year. These will be at Whitewater, Oshkosh, Stevens Point, Superior, and River Falls, with Milwaukee and Platteville bidding for the sixth.

Principal L. P. Benezet of the La Crosse high school is showing the school board how much less that city is paying for high school instruction than other cities in the state and country of approximately the same population. He has made an investigation and quotes figures on some seventy cities and finds that La Crosse is very low in the list. The average school expenditure of the seventy cities for the year he found to be $212,000 while La Crosse spent in the

same year, 1906-07, only $118,000. Oshkosh and Racine spent $30,000 more each than did La Crosse. Madison and Superior, on a comparative basis, spent $100,000 more.

Some moral questions are coming up in connection with the public schools of Neenah. Recently the football team was disbanded because the members were indulging too freely in cigarette smoking. Last month an evangelist began a tirade on account of Superintendent Beeman and the school board permitting dances in the high school building. Cigarette smoking is bad business, but no harm can come from the innocent dances under the supervision of school officers.

One of the best examples of efficient janitor service noticed by the high school inspectors is in the south side high school in Manitowoc which is presided over by Principal W. H. Luehr. Besides the regular janitor, who is paid a salary of $50.00 a month for twelve months, two women are engaged at $300.00 per year to attend to the scrubbing. They scrub one room or hall each day after five o'clock and they are able to make the rounds once in two weeks. Here is a suggestion for many of those high schools that are condemned for uncleanliness by the inspectors.

The name of Lawrence University has been changed to Lawrence College by a vote of the board of trustees, and the preparatory department will cease to exist at the close of the present school year. The honor system of examinations has been introduced at Lawrence and is meeting with general approval. A senate composed of representatives chosen by the student body has charge of the system and working out the details and putting them in operation. Four cash prizes of $100.00 each have just been awarded to the four freshmen who attained the highest average standings in a competitive examination in English, Latin and Mathematics.

The Fond du Lac schools have established a department of Penmanship with a special instructor in charge. This plan is being adopted in many of the cities of the state and is due to the general complaint on the part of business men that pupils turned out of the public schools are deficient in the subject. The mayor has vetoed the proposition to raise $10,000 for the construction of a new ward school. It is hoped that the common council will not sustain the veto. Cigarettes are getting in their deadly work in the city, and Mrs. Mary Hogan, the truant officer, has started a strict enforcement of the law. She says that in every case of truancy she has found it is due to the use of cigarettes.

In Milwaukee there has been considerable discussion regarding the effect the proposed greater Milwaukee plan will have on the schools of the outlying districts. Contracts for additions to three of the city schools have just been awarded; a six room addition will be made to the eleventh district, No. 2, building and an eight room to the fourteenth, No. 1, and the third will be a necessary addition to the West Division high school. The proposed teachers' salary increase can not take place until the legislature grants an increase in the mill tax, which it will be asked to do this session. There seems to be strong sentiment in the school board to make athletics less prominent and the rule has been proposed to prohibit athletic contests on the part of the high schools between December first and May first of each year. The high school principals have been instructed by the board to dismiss from school any students who are members of secret societies. The mothers and teachers' club of the eighteenth ward has begun an extensive campaign against cigarette smoking among

the boys. A resolution of doubtful value has been introduced by a member of the school board asking that the city superintendent report each month the names of all teachers who have applied for positions in the schools.

A WISCONSIN FACTORY MAKING A GOOD QUALITY OF LABORATORY FURNITURE. Wisconsin school officers and teachers should know that our own state has a factory for the manufacture of laboratory furniture which is doing a national business. It is located at Kewaunee and is incorporated under the name of the Kewaunee Manufacturing Company. This factory, under management experienced in the line, and with a complete equipment of modern machines, is in position to furnish the trade with a high grade of chemical desks, instructors desks, physics tables, etc., correctly manufactured and complete in every detail. In the construction of their furniture special attention is given to secure great strength, solidity and permanency. We especially refer to their table tops for which maple or birch strips from two inch stock dressed to 14 inch thick are used. These strips average two and one-half inches in width are matched with a V joint and glued with the best quality of glue. These wood tops are guaranteed to stand atmospheric changes without warping or opening up. This firm has a special black acid proof finish for tops on chemical desks and biological tables which has been thoroughly tested over an extended period by well known chemists and is recommended to be the only successful acid proof finish for wood. The gas, water and waste pipes on desks are furnished complete to the floor line, so that all that is necessary for the installation of the desks when set up, is to make one connection to the plumbing system in the building at the floor line. Their furniture is usually shipped knocked down in small packages easily handled and easily taken through the smallest doors.

The Kewaunee Manufacturing Company is prepared to furnish complete drawings for special furniture and to place an experienced draftsman at the service of school boards.

Let them know your wants and they will serve you right.

THE STRATFORD.

Superintendents and principals who will attend the Department of Superintendence in Chicago February 23, 24 and 25, should write the Editor of this Journal at once for reservations in the Hotel Stratford, which will be Wisconsin and northern Michigan headquarters. We have already made reservations for twenty-six superintendents. The Stratford is in the next block to the Auditorium and is one of the best hotels in Chicago, charging rates which are within the pocket-book reach of the average schoolmaster.

"We have no right to reduce, impoverish, or distort the educational opportunity of the great mass of people who depend upon the High School for their only opportunity, in the interest of the few who go to college."

BOS RECEIVED.

On the Open Road. Being Some Thoughts and a Lit-
tle Creed of Wholesome Living. By Ralph Waldo
Trine, author of "In Tune with the Infinite." Deco-
rate type, 12mo, net, 50c. Postage, 5c. New York;
Thomas Y. Crowell & Company.

Work That Is Play. A Dramatic Reader Based on
Aesop's Fables. By Mary Gardner, Duluth (Minne-
sota), Public Schools. Price, 30c. Chicago; A.
Flanagan Co.

Social Education. By Colin A. Scott, Ph. D., Head of
the Department of Psychology, Boston Normal
School. List price, $1.25; mailing price, $1.35.
Boston, New York, Chicago, London; Ginn & Com-
pany.

Educational Woodworking for Home and School. By
Joseph C. Park, State Normal and Training School,
Oswego, New York. Price, $1.00. New York; The
Macmillan Company.

Social Psychology. An Outline and Source Book.
By Edward Alsworth Ross, Professor of Sociology
in the University of Wisconsin, Author of "Social
Control," "The Foundations of Sociology," "Sin
and Sciety," etc. Price, $1.50. New York; The
Macmillan Company.

First Course in Biology. By L. H. Bailey Part I,
Plant Biology, and Walter M. Coleman Part II,
Animal Biology, Part III, Human Biology. Price,
$1.25. New York; The Macmillan Company.
Shakespeare's Tragedy of King Richard II. Edited,
with notes and an introduction, by James Hugh
Moffatt. Price, 25c. New York; The Macmillan
Company.

Education and Industrial Evolution. By Frank Tracy
Carlton, Ph. D., Professor of Economics and His.
tory in Albion College. The Citizen's Library.
Price, $1.25 net. New York; The Macmillan Com-
pany.

The Administration of Public Education in the United States. By Samuel Train Dutton, A. M., Professor of School Administration in Teachers College, Columbia University, and Superintendent of the College Schools, Author of "Social Phases of Education," "School Management," etc., and David Snedden, Ph.D., Adjunct Professor of Educational Administration Teachers College Columbia Univer. sity, Author of "School Reports and School Efficiency," etc. With an introduction by Nicholas Murray Butler, Ph. D., LL. D., President of Columbia University. Price, $1.75. New York; The Macmillan Company.

Tom Brown's School Days. By Thomas Hughes. Edited with introduction and notes by Charles Swain Thomas, A. M., Head of the English Department of the Shortridge High School, Indianapolis. Price, 25c net. New York; The Macmillan Company.

School of Finance and Commerce, University of
Pennsylvania. Price, $1.90 net. New York; The
Macmillan Company.

The Illinois Educational Commission. Bulletin No. 2.
A Tentative Plan for a Country Board of Educa-
tion. With Some Suggestions in Regard to the
County Superintendency. Proposed by the Educa
tional Commission of Illinois. Springfield, Ill.;
Phillips Bros., State Printers.

A Theory of Mind. By John Lewis March, A. M., Ph. D. Price, $2.00 net. New York; Charles Scribner's Sons.

FOR LINCOLN DAY

A new col

LINCOLN DAY ENTERTAINMENTS. lection of unsurpassed material, original and selected, for the celebration of this day, for every grade. This is the only book published from which a complete Lincoln Day program can be prepared. There are 33 RECITATIONS AND READINGS, and over 50 TRIBUTES AND QUOTATIONS; 6 PLAYS, DIALOGUES, AND EXERCISES; 21 DRILLS, PANTOMIMES, AND TABLEAUX; 9 STORIES AND ARRANGED FACTS CONNECTED WITH THE LIFE OF LINCOLN. 160 pages. Price, 25 cents, postpaid.

THE STORY OF LINCOLN A well written and illustrated account of the life of Lincoln, for supplementary reading with third and fourth grade classes. 32 pages. Price, each, 6 cents; per dozen, 60 cents, postpaid.

SPEECHES BY ABRAHAM LINCOLN. Contains: First Inaugural Address, Emancipation Proclamation, Gettysburg Speech, Second Inaugural Address, Last Public Address, Lincoln's Farewell Address to the Citizens of Springfield, Ill. Carefully edited. 32 pages. Price, each, 6 cents; per dozen, 60 cents, postpaid.

BLACKBOARD STENCILS. 94 Lincoln; 360 Lincoln's Birthplace; 364 Lincoln's Monument, Chicago; 478 Lincoln's Home, Springfield. Order by number. Price, each, 5 cents, postpaid.

PORTRAIT OF LINCOLN. Lithographed in black on good, heavy white paper, with a cream border. Soft in color and perfect in feature. Equal to any $1.00 portrait published. Size, 22 x 28 inches. Price, 35 cents, postpaid.

OUR TEACHERS' CATALOGUE lists much else for Lincoln and Washington days. Free upon request. This catalogue is considered the teachers' encyclopedia of necessary and useful materials. We supply everything for teachers and schools.

A. FLANAGAN COMPANY

Economics. By Scott Nearing and Frank D. Watson. 266-268 Wabash Ave.

Instructors in Political Economy in the Wharton

CHICAGO

LA.MURRAY

Our

[blocks in formation]

GET OUR PRICES ON

SCHOOL FURNITURE AND SUPPLIES.
We can save you money on equipment for all grades from kindergarten to high school
novel selling method gives us a decided advantage in supplying goods of trustworthy quality.
We have in stock at our offices, complete assortments of STANDARD GOODS, including
CHARTS. REPORT CARDS, CARD CATALOG CASES DICTIONARIES.
HOLDERS, BLACK-BOARDS. CLOCKS, FLAGS. ETC

From out factory connections we ship direct to customers HEATING AND VENTILATING PLANTS,
BOOK CASES, SCHOOL, OFFICE AND LIBRARY FURNITURE, OPERA CHAIRS WINDOW
FIXTURES. ETC
SPECIAL CATALOG AND NET PRICES ON REQUEST
IF YOU BUY IT FROM MURRAY ITS SURE TO BE RIGHT

All shipments made promptly.

[blocks in formation]
« ÎnapoiContinuă »