Vol. XXIX.

COMMENT on attendance at the Wisconsin

Teachers' Association was, it appears, wholly uncalled for. The report of the treasurer shows a total enrollment of 906, which is just sixty-four less than the year preceding, a difference too small to have any significance. The comment that it was due to lack of advertising, made by interested parties, of course falls to the ground with the charge. It is made ridiculous by the further showing that the attendance from outside Milwaukee was actually larger than the year before. The enrollment of men from Milwaukee was also

larger, the falling off being in the attendance of women teachers in the city. That these did not know of the meetings is not credible. The treasurer's report also shows that the cash balance was considerably increased by the judicious management which characterized the last administration.

No. 3

OFFICIAL reports of the last meeting of the Wisconsin Teachers' Association are published in this number of the JOURNAL. They are unusually late because sickness and death in the family of the secretary made impossible the earlier preparation of them. Delay has not diminished their interest, it may even have increased it, since now they can be read in a frame of mind wholly different from that of the meetings, and thus the significance of the discussions may be more clearly seen. The appointment of a committee to formulate a course of study in English inaugurates a movement which we trust may continue until the present amorphous condition of this very important department of work is corrected. The subject is one of much difficulty, and it may require several years of continuous effort to work out a satisfactory change here as well as in the matter of rural schools, in regard to which provision was made for further study and effort.

FROM the Biennial Report of State Superintendent Emery we derive an encouraging view of the growth of our educational work. Elsewhere we publish some paragraphs relating to our high schools, which speak for themselves. The showing regarding preparation of teachers is especially encouraging. The county superintendents report fifty-eight more first grade and four hundred and forty-six more second grade certificates issued in 1898 than in 1894, while of the third class 1,759 less were granted. It thus appears that the standard of qualification is advancing even in our rural schools, and little room for doubt is left that the greater portion of the state is about prepared for an elevation of standards. number of persons holding state certificates, and countersigned diplomas which have the same value, is of course increasing every year, and within a few years this increase has been rapid in consequence of the great development in size of the graduating classes from our colleges and normal schools.

The

EXPERIENCE counts for too much at present in securing positions to teach in the public schools. What has the experience shown? is the important question. If merely power to keep out of trouble, that may be accompanied with incompetence, torpidity, and general useless

ness. Superintendent Andrews, of Chicago, puts the case well in replying to a proposal to award principals' certificates to all head assisttants of fourteen years standing. He says: "The proposal seems to rest upon the assumption that mere time spent in an office qualifies for promotion, whereas the most cursory examination proves that this is not true. The chief fault of our system at present is the pernicious power with which it endows mere time to push teachers, the incompetent, the mediocre, and the indolent, along with the brilliant, the progressive, and the industrious, on and on to higher salaries. It seems clear to me that a head assistant, to secure promotion, should be required to do something more than simply to remain in his or her position. Study, progress, new accomplishments, should be insisted upon, to be ascertained and certified. partly by the superintendent's merit record from year to year, and partly by a successful examination."

INSINUATIONS that religious ties were played upon to secure the election of president at the last meeting of the Wisconsin Teachers' Association, will be resented by every right-minded member of that body. The election was a perfectly fair and straightforward one, determined by considerations of a wholly different nature from the one suggested, and it honored the county superintendents by giving the presidency to one of their number who has been longest in the service of any one in the state. The associa

tion is an educational body which has always been remarkably free from incongruous influ

ences, and there is no reason whatever for supposing that it has changed or done violence to its well established character.

THE BILL CHANGING THE SUPERVISION OF COMMON SCHOOLS.

Readers of the JOURNAL will be interested, we believe, in a brief statement of the chief provisions of the bill, "To abolish the county superintendency, and provide for a more efficient supervision of our common schools," now before the legislature. In place of the superintendents it provides for the division of the state into "not to exceed one hundred and ten inspection districts," observing county lines so far as possible, by a state board of supervision of common schools, made up of the professor of pedagogy in the university, the board of examiners for teachers' state certificates, and the institute conductors from the normal schools. The only salaried officer connected with the board will be a state super

visor of common schools who acts as its secretary. The board is to appoint district inspectors with qualifications not less than now required for superintendents, to hold office for two years, and to be paid by the state out of the mill tax income, a salary of one thousand dollars and five dollars additional for each school or department in his district.

Thus the bill aims (a) to secure more efficient supervision by limiting the number of schools in charge of one inspector, so that it may be possible for him to look after them effectively, as is wholly impossible now in many counties, since they have completely outgrown the present long-standing arrangements; (b) to take the office wholly out of politics by placing the appointments in the hands of a board constituted of educational men, who owe the appointments giving them a place on the board to educational considerations; (c) and to organize school supervision as a state function by making the salaries as well as the appointments to come from the state. much as nearly all the county superintendents have signified in writing their approval of the measure, it is impossible to represent it as in any way antagonizing them; and the charge that it takes power away from the people" will seem rather specious than serious to those who, are familiar with the conditions at present affecting nominations to that office. Democratic government is not merely a machinery of caucuses and ballotings, but a spirit mak

Inas

ing the real will of the people efficient in institutions, and it does not seem likely that that will be less efficient in the proposed arrangements than in those which they are intended to supercede. It will be noted that the state superintendent is not a member of the board of supervision, and does not appoint its members, so that he cannot control its action if he desires. Thus the bill does not create a centralized, autocratic power.

REFORM IN CITY SCHOOL SYSTEMS.

S.

Active legislation for improved methods of control of city school systems seems now to be fairly under way. Ohio was the first state to move in it by giving, in 1887, to the superintendent of schools of Cincinnati the right to nominate all teachers of the city schools, and to him or the board the power to remove. This measure obviously begins the separation of purely educational control from that over business affairs. Five years later Cleveland was provided with a school council of seven members, with a director who has a veto power

over its legislation and is the executive officer of the system, and who must appoint a superintendent with authority to appoint and discharge all teachers and assistants. The superintendent holds office during good behavior, but may be removed by the director for cause, which must be certified in writing to the council. The most significant feature here is the concentration of responsibility in a small board and the chief executive. These general features are repeated with additional safeguards in the law of St. Louis and in that of Toledo. Detroit is now moving to secure a board of eleven members, elected at large, which creates an educational department with a superintendent at its head, empowered to appoint and

remove teachers, determine courses of study, and select text-books and apparatus; a business department with a business manager at its head; and a board of examiners, the educational division of which is under the superintendent, and the other under the business manager. This measure in its general provisions is very like the one proposed for Chicago by its educational commission, and now before the legislature at Springfield.

The evils which these measures are designed to correct are "the pull" in securing positions in the schools and in retaining them, the manipulations of the text-book agents, and the lack of business responsibility and knowledge in the management of school property and finances. How considerable these evils are, has been effectively shown by various reports and publications during the past ten years.

The theory underlying the measures is that better service is secured by definitely locating responsibility so that mismanagement may be properly punished. It is clear that the simple plan of organization which has done service for so many years is no longer adequate to our new conditions. Everything has been controlled by the school board, which has grown with the growth of our cities until it is unwieldly and irresponsible, and in the development of politics is becoming more and more a set of "pieces" to be played by the intriguers. How difficult the positions of superintendents and business managers are to be under the new system can be properly estimated only by those who are familiar with the forces which have brought into discredit the school board. Strong and intelligent men can fill them satisfactorily, but the difficulty is going to be to find a way of having them always filled by men of this stamp. That is a problem which will have to be worked out as the development of the new system brings to light its difficulties.

The Chicago measure, as is well-known, has met with considerable opposition among the teachers of that city, and one organization with a membership of 2,500 has formulated its objections thru a report made by a committee of seventeen, all of whom are women. Many of these objections are such as one outside of the system would hardly venture a judgment upon, but two at least go to the very heart of the proposed reform. The committee objects to the cutting down of the board to eleven members, favoring rather the present plan of twenty-one members, and objects to "the centralization of power in the superintendent in the matter of hiring his assistants, principals, supervisors, teachers, and other officials, and the selecting of text-books. We feel that the idea of democracy should be encouraged. encouraged. It is necessary in a city like Chicago for the people to be in close touch with the work of the school, made up as it is of a mixed population." etc. The tone of that is a little unpleasant, and its substance unhappily suggestive of an effort to "take the starch out" of the measure. Sup't Andrews is quoted as admitting that such power would be dangerous in the hands of a bad or weak superintendent, but claiming that legislation should not always be made for bad men.

It is not, of course, to be expected that a perfect remedy can be found for the evils at present complained of, but the principles underlying these various measures commend themselves as correct; that authority must be so concentrated that some one stands clearly responsible for blunders and evil-doing; that the educational aspects of school control should be separated from the purely business aspects; that each should be placed in the hands of competent experts of proved force of character. S.

A BIPARTITE DIVISION OF POPULAR EDUCATION.

Some months since we referred to the prevalent practice of making a tripartite division. of education below college grade, into primary, grammar, and high school. This gives a four years' unit of measurement, which reappears in the traditional college course of four years. It is not merely a matter of nomenclature but has had the remarkable effect of setting off the high school by itself as a peculiar institution, especially since the practice of making a grade for each year became established in the elementary work of our cities. By this arrangement the primary and grammar grades remain mere technical names, while the high school is a distinct institution, with special

plans of management and instruction, chiefly formulated upon college precedents. Its management as a unit by a single principal, the growth of departmental in place of grade teaching, and the consequent arrangement of recitation rooms or a class room for each teacher are the most obvious peculiarities of management, to which must be added the formal graduation with a diploma at the end of the four years' course. Thus has arisen the practice of speaking of the first eight years of public instruction as "the grades" in contrast with "the high school," comprising the last four years. Such is the scheme which has gradually grown up in the management of popular education in this country.

Is it the wisest and best scheme? The question becomes practical and important because of the remarkable educational development which is now going on. Some years ago, Pres. Eliot, of Harvard University, spoke of the necessity of enriching the grammar school course, and the phrase has gained wide currency. He showed the meagreness of the existing grammar school courses, and the nature of the dreary formal drills which were wasting the time of the pupils. The enrichment has been progressing ever since, and to one who looks behind names to see things as they really are it seems as if the old high school work were actually slipping back two years in the scheme. In a good modern school a boy will now learn in "the grades" nearly as much history and civil government as he would have got fifteen years ago in the high school; in science he will learn perhaps as much altho probably not in exactly the same lines; the more elementary work in algebra and geometry has moved in the same direction; and even Latin and German are being pushed back into the earlier years. No overpressure is necessary to accomplish this, no undue working of the pupils, but only wiser views as to school work and better teaching. The question almost inevitably arises, ought not the plan of management. to move back also? This really comes to the same thing as asking is not a bipartite wiser than a tripartite division of popular education?

It may be assumed that the regular school course usually begins when the child is six years of age, and six years of "the grades" bring him to the period of adolescence. Modern studies are making more and more clear how great the change in him is at this period. He breaks the bonds of childhood and becomes a youth. Different management, new ambitions, new motives, are called for by the change. He must have more variety, a larger

outlook, a greater degree of self-direction. Nature demands this, and will not be refused. Up to this point it has been an advantage for him to have all his work under one teacher, who could thus know the child and minister to his needs. Now the youth is better for coming under several teachers who stimulate him in different ways. His discernment is already sufficient to make valuable to him the greater range and thoroness of the department teachers each in his own field. He is ready for the larger seriousness and deeper meaning of such instruction. His ways of asserting that he is no longer a child sometimes provoke a smile in older people, but it is wiser to heed this voice of nature, separate him from the children and foster the new life in him by appropriate treatment.

Other considerations also support this bipartite plan of organization. At this age the pupil enters upon the rational study of language, mathematics and history, and it is of great value to have each course under the management of a single head, who directs the whole plan of it and secures unity and steady advancement. The lack of outlook on the part of the grade teacher now hampers high school work, in which much time is wasted in curing the defects of grammar grade teaching. In most cities building expenses would be decreased by gathering the work of six years to such centers as now must be created for that of four. Probably more pupils would be carried on by such an arrangement to ten or even twelve years of school life than at present. Certainly the development of industrial training in combination with literary and scientific would be facilitated. Wiser, stronger, and more valuable work could assuredly be done in the seventh and eighth years of school life than seem possible under the existing arrangeS.

ments.

THE MONTH.

WISCONSIN NEWS AND NOTES.

-Marinette now has a school for the deaf, of which Miss Fannie O. Ellis is teacher.

--The Stevens Point schools recently introduced the plan of semi-annual promotions without difficulty or the increase of teaching force.

-Part of the crediting of the excellent article on The Recitation, contained in the last issue of the JOURNAL, was in some way accidentally omitted. It should have been M. L. Townsend, in School Journal.