Few people realize the number of school positions that are vacant each year. 14,720 persons were employed in the public schools for the year closing June 30, 1910, and of that number approximately 5000 were new to their positions at the beginning of the school year. Any one who will take the pains to investigate the roll of teachers for 1900 will find that at least 75 per cent of the names of teachers appearing on that roll are not to be found in the directory for the current year. The personnel of the teaching force has practically changed in a decade. Only recently an ex-high school inspector, a gentleman long connected with the public schools of this state, wrote that he could find the names of only three persons that were in the high school work when he was first appointed official state inspector of high schools, and less than a dozen that were in the work when he severed his connection with the department in 1902. The migratory tendency of the members of the teaching force is not confined merely to the untrained and inexperienced teacher, but applies also to the graduates of our normal schools. One One would naturally expect that a graduate of a state normal school would be a fairly stable member of the teaching profession. The number of years, however, that a' graduate of a normal school devotes to teaching is limited. The president of the oldest normal school in the state informs me that from the date of the organization of the institution to the present time the men graduates taught an average of 5-2/10 years and the women average of 6 years. Statistics complied from the alumni register of the second normal school, an institution that has graduated classes for forty years, show that the men graduates of the first thirty classes have taught 9-3/4 and the women 8-1/4 years. These figures, it must be understood, take no account of the teaching done by the persons that have been graduated since 1900. If the work done by the graduates of this institution during the last ten years was taken into consideration the average for the school would be materially an lowered. What is true of the first two schools established by the state is also true of the third normal school. Investigation of the register reveals the fact that the men that were graduated in the first twenty-five classes, or between the years 1875 and 1900, taught an average of 7-3/10 and the women 7-2/5 years. A study of the alumni registers of these schools discloses the fact that the graduates of the institutions do not on an average remain as long in the work now as formerly. The members of the first class graduated by one school taught an average of 17-1/2 years; the tenth class, 7-4/9 years; the twentieth class, 6-9/32 years; and the twenty-fifth class, or the men and women that were graduated in 1900, only 5-3/7 years. The graduates of the first ten classes of another school taught an average of 12-17/47 years. The persons that were graduated during the second decade taught an average of 9-5/9 years, while the persons that completed the course during the third decade, or from 1890 to 1900, taught an average of only 7-2/3 years. These figures would seem to indicate that the state is receiving today a less number of years of service from the graduates of normal schools than it did in the past. They demonstrate that instead of building more normal schools, desirable and necessary as they may be, it might be well for the legislature to spend some of the funds of the state in making the profession of teaching more attractive. If a pension system would increase by only two years. the average number of years that normal school graduates devote to teaching, the value of the present plants to the state would be increased from 25 to 33-1/3 per cent. The problem before the public is not so much how to train more teachers, but how to hold in the service those that it has trained. (Concluded in the March Number.) A BUSY FEBRUARY. Some way the fates have seemed to crowd school activities into the shortest month of the year. This month there are three important school conventions held in Wisconsin, and the great meeting at Mobile takes up the last week of those Wisconsin educators who will attend. It is also a great birthday month and teachers are crowded with special programs in honor of Washington, Lincoln, Longfellow, etc. GOVERNOR FRANCIS E. McGOVERN'S THE question of education is always one of fundamental importance. It should be broadly and liberally considered. The various agencies and institutions now engaged in educational work in Wisconsin are all parts of a single system. They have nothing to gain by dissention. Rivalry or jealousy between them is as illogical as it will ultimately prove unprofitable. The common schools cannot be built up by tearing the university down any more than the university can be built up by tearing the common schools down. And so of the relation of the high schools to both the common schools and the university. And so of the normal schools and the county training schools. They are all agencies of the same state having one great object and depending for financial support upon the same people. The common schools are now the weakest part of the entire system. Country schools, especially, have not kept pace with city schools. The country schools need better attendance, better instruction and better supervision. Competent observers maintain that at the present time, in about half the country schools of Wisconsin, all of these essential factors are lacking and that in all of them supervision is far from satisfactory. Consolidation. Reports show that there are 97 country schools in Wisconsin, each with an enrollment of less than half a dozen pupils. There are 380 such schools each with an enrollment of more than five but less than eleven pupils. There are 701 country schools each with an enrollment of more than eleven but less than sixteen pupils. Thus there are 1,078 country schools out of a total of 6,500 with an enrollment each of fifteen pupils or less. In other words, there is an actual attendance of less than ten pupils in one-sixth of the country schools of the state. Neither argument nor illustration is necessary to demonstrate the wastefulness of such a system. These country schools are public in name only and by virtue of the fact that they depend upon public taxation for support. In every other respect they are essentially private schools, with all the evils and few of the advantages of pri vate tutorship. The social element which plays so important a part in public school education is wholly wanting. To meet this condition some system of consolidation should be introduced whereby a number of small schools, conveniently located, may be combined. But the elmination of the very small school should not be the only purpose. Organization of country high schools which will face the problems of the farm and country life, as the city high school now faces the problems of an urban population, should accompany the change. Consolidation of county schools long ago passed the experimental stage. Ohio, Indiana, and other states have tried it successfully for some time. Experience under this system in these states shows that while the expense of maintenance has not diminished, neither has it increased: while there has been a great improvement in efficiency. Good Teachers. The biennial report of the State Superintendent for the years 1906-1908 presents some interesting statistics upon the subject of teachers' wages. Carried out so as to show the average yearly salary, obtained by multiplying the average salary per month by eight and one-half, which is the average number of months school is taught in the rural districts; the average monthly salary, obtained by dividing the yearly salary by twelve; and the average daily salary computed on the basis of twenty-six days per month, these facts may be tabulated as follows: country school. It is true, also, that there are a number of country school teachers scattered throughout the state who received more than $46.00 per month. But the data concerning these teachers is not sufficiently accurate or definite to include them in the forgoing tabulation. In view of the present high cost living, it becomes a matter of interest to know by what process school boards secured the services of thirtyseven women teachers for less than $20.00 a month, or at the average wage during the year of fifty-two cents a day. It is a matter of some curiosity also how nineteen presumably able-bodied men consented to work at teaching for less than $25.00 a month, or at an average salary for the year of sixty-two cents a day. These conditions strongly support the demand for a minimum salary law which will place the teaching profession upon a proper financial basis. and assure to all who engage in it living wages. The country school is no exception to the rule that you cannot get more out of an institution than you put into it. Better Supervision. There should also be reform in the system of country school supervision. It is a physical impossibility for a county superintendent properly to supervise the schools now placed in his charge. When account is taken of his other duties, it is apparent that he cannot visit each school more than once a year, and then only for a short time. The county superintendent, in fact, has become little more than a mere clerk. Effective supervision of instruction in country schools is at present entirely out of question. Investigation shows that besides a multitude of other duties which necessarily occupy most of his time, each county superintendent is now expected to supervise, on an average, the work of 136 teachers, 4,250 pupils and visit. schools scattered over a territory of seven hundred square miles. That the work of supervision of schools is much better done in cities, a single illustration will show. In the city of Milwaukee the average number of teachers for each supervisor is seventeen, the number of children 750 and the supervisory district about half an acre of ground, all under one roof. The city of Milwaukee spends each year about $130,000 for school supervision. The state at large, exclusive of cities having city superintendents, spends $70,000 annually. In Milwaukee the total enrollment of pupils attending the elementary schools is about 40,000. In the state at large exclusive of the schools having city superintendents, it is over 320,000. Thus, with a school attendance eight times that of Milwaukee, the state at large, outside of the cities having city superintendents, spends only a little more than half as much for school supervision as does Milwaukee. What is the remedy? The opinion is growing that there should be a county board of education elected by the people, which should have general charge of the schools of the county and the power to appoint a county superintendent and as many assistants as the country schools really need. The work of consolidation of country schools herein before mentioned might well be left to the direction of this board. This would place the organization of country schools upon somewhat the same basis as that of city schools at the present time. In the last legislature a bill was introduced which embodied this idea. Though endorsed by the State Teachers' Association, and recommended for passage by the unanimous vote of the committee on education, it was defeated in the Assembly. Notwithstanding this result I now commend this plan to your serious consideration as one of the means for improving considerations in the country schools. Industrial Education. Supplementary to the regular course of instruction in the common schools and the high schools there should be some form of vocational training. Only a small percentage of the children who attend common schools ever enter a high school, and the majority of those who enter the high school drop out before completing their education in a normal school or at the university. In the common schools they receive little or no instruction in the art of earning a living. This, possibly, is one reason why attendance at some of these schools is small and enthusiasm is lacking. But, entirely apart from this consideration, the time has now come when education should take a more practical turn. The ability to earn an honest livelihood is the first requirement of every human being. More and more as time goes by this becomes important. The day of boundless natural resources has ended. Each worker must now rely upon himself and study how to increase his own efficiency. Business training and industrial skill have become indispensable. Nor need any one fear that in making education more practical it will lose on the side of culture and discipline. More likely it will gain thereby. The schools of Germany have pointed the way toward a higher level of industrial efficiency in general as our own state university has shown us how to increase the productivity of the farmer. There should be special instruction in both the common schools and the high schools in industrial and agricultural subjects. It seems desirable that some plan be perfected whereby children under eighteen years of age, at work for hire should be kept at school part of each week for the study of the elementary principles which underlie the industrial, commercial and agricultural operations in which they are engaged, and for instruction in the duties of citizenship. Night schools, continuation schools and trade schools, as well as the means already suggested, may be made the agencies for the accomplishment of this work. University Extension. The Extension Division of the University may by co-operation render valuable assistance in promoting industrial education. It has already reached not only the boy on the farm but the man in the workshop and the woman behind the counter with its rich stores of knowledge, giving instruction to each according to the need. Thus the University has become truly democratic in its ideals and purposes, and, as some one has picturesquely said, has enlarged the boundaries of its campus so as to include the entire state. It has entered the homes and the lives of people who never crossed its threshold. Reports show that since its permanent establishment a few years ago, the non-resident students almost equal in number those resident at the University and promise soon to outnumber them many times. Its machinery and influence should now be enlisted in the cause of a more practical education. Besides assisting and directing industrial training in these ways, the University Extension Division has done much, and is capable of doing more along the lines of good citizenship and the investigation of municipal, state and national problems of a social and economic nature. In the prosecution of this work a demand has arisen for the organiza tion of neighborhood clubs and civic societies, composed not only of the youth but also of the adult population of the community, to meet in public buildings, principally school houses. Thus extension work has become the agency for the establishment of a new and conservative basis for further social and economic advancement. This work is no longer in the experimental stage, but has already proved a profitable investment for the state. I respectfully recommend that by sufficient appropriation for its needs, it may be afforded an opportunity for further extending its usefulness. The University. In all of its departments the University has grown rapidly in recent years. There are now about 5,000 students in attendance. The increase during the past two years has been more than double that of the preceeding two years. It is an institution of which the state may well be proud. In many respects it has been a pioneer among the With demands great universities of the land. multiplying on every hand, it still seeks to fulfill the three-fold university function of instructing the students who come within its walls, of increasing the comon fund of knowledge by means of original research and of carrying information to all the people through its extension department. If those for whom it exists still cherish the high educational ideal which it has fostered and championed, that the boy or girl of humblest parentage but with brilliant intellectual endowment should have joyed even by the children of the most wealthy, an opportunity for education equal to that en it will not now fail of proper support. I desire only to remind you that grants of revenue for the maintenance of the University should be regarded as investments, which in the past have been returned to the state many fold. THE TEACHER'S PRAYER. "May every soul that touches mineBe it the slightest contact-get therefrom some good, Some little grace, one kindly thought, One inspiration yet unfelt, one bit of courage For the darkening sky, one gleam of faith To brave the thickening ills of life, One glimpse of brighter skies beyond the gathering mists, To make this life worth while and Heaven a surer heritage." The Journal of Education. IN THE SCHOOLROOM Woods in Winter. When winter winds are piercing chill, And through the hawthorn blows the gale, That overbrows the lonely vale. O'er the bare upland, and away Through the long reach of desert woods, Where, twisted round the barren oak, Where, from their frozen urns, mute springs Shrilly the skater's iron rings, And voices fill the woodland side. Alas! how changed from the fair scene, But still wild music is abroad, Pale, desert woods! within your crowd; Chill airs and wintry winds! my ear I hear it in the opening year,- -Longfellow. |