History of Dakota Territory, volume III, Part 128

Author: Kingsbury, George Washington, 1837-; Smith, George Martin, 1847-1920
Publication date: 1915
Publisher: Chicago, Ill. : S.J. Clarke Publishing Company
Number of Pages: 1146

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In 1912, out of 5,647 teachers in the fifty-six counties of the state, not includ- ing cities of the first class, only 822, or 14 per cent, held state certificates or life diplomas granted on normal or college credentials. Of the total number of teachers only 267, of 4.7 per cent, held first or second grade certificates granted on normal school credentials. Of the 4,125 teachers in the rural districts of the state, only 863, or 3.9 per cent, held state certificates or life diplomas granted on normal school credentials. Everywhere among the schools was shown the great lack of trained teachers from normal schools. Especially was this the case throughout the rural districts. This condition was due mainly, Mr. Lawrence believed, to poor wages, poor houses, poor equipment and poor accommodations for teachers.

Mr. Lawrence favored normal training in the high schools, better wages, and therefore better teachers, and health supervision of the schools. As the state compelled a child to go to school, it was the duty of the state to make the health

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conditions right; and the only provisions practical in South Dakota for health among the pupils was to have better buildings, proper ventilation, adequate heat- ing floor space and sufficient air space. He stated that an examination of the children in the schools of Sioux Falls and Aberdeen had shown many physical defects, and therefore believed that there should be prudent sex education and sex hygiene. He said: "It is no longer the purpose of public education merely. to produce men and women of culture for culture's sake, but rather to produce men and women equipped to go out into the world to do something for some- body. It is because of this new ideal that the demand is becoming ever stronger that the high schools, the people's college, must give more consideration to the needs of the boys and girls who will go out into the world to make their living at the end of their high school days."

In May, 1913, the State Medical Association passed the following resolution : "That the South Dakota Medical Association endorses the movement for sex education already on foot in the state, and we declare our belief that the schools should no longer delay in sharing the responsibility of giving a safe and decent sex education to the young." At the same time the association pledged its best efforts to help the movement. It considered the textbook problem important, and believed that an efficient law on the subject should be passed.

At the meeting of the Educational Association in November, 1913, Dr. Robert L. Slagle, president of the Agricultural College, indicated what that institution could do for the rural schools. He said that the science of agriculture could be taught in the elementary schools just as well or better than arithmetic or gram- mar was then being taught, by beginning at the bottom instead of at the top. Dr. Franklin Jones, of Vermillion, read a paper on the subject, "What University Research Can Do for the Rural Schools." Another interesting article was read by Superintendent McDonald on the subject, "How the High Schools Can Aid the Rural Schools." Doctor Seaman read another on "The Denominational College." C. C. O'Harra, president of the School of Mines, read a paper on "Industrial Training in the Rural Schools." Prof. F. L. Cook, president of Spearfish Normal, read an article on "Normal Schools and Rural Teaching." Similar papers were read. Agriculture in the rural schools was the principal topic at this important session.

"In order to introduce agriculture into the public schools its subject matter must necessarily have a pedagogical standing. It must classify a subject requir- ing down-right study and hard work. School people should see to it that agricul- ture takes the same pedagogical standing as any other subject in the curriculum along with other subjects. Whatever system of education we shall adopt in Soutlı Dakota, let's have a system leading in the direction not merely of more skillful workers on the farm but in the direction of a full fledged cosmopolitan citizenship on the farm. The time is coming when South Dakota schools will be made measurably adequate-when the state will supply the schools with the newest and most necessary information about agricultural problems by means of the state experiment station. The people will have then done their duty in adopting such a system. The state can neither shirk its responsibility nor shift it. It can neither delegate it to corporations nor to the Federal Government. It is the business of the state to educate the citizens of the state."-Dr. A. N. Hume, of the State Agricultural College, Brookings, before the Educational Association, November, 1913.

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In December there was issued throughout the state an agricultural book for agriculture day with a regular program of work prescribed. This program embraced among others the following subjects: Poultry culture, corn, alfalfa, animal husbandry, good roads, soils, weeds and insects, and drouth resistant crops. The issuance of this book was made by the state department of education.

In December, 1913, Dr. Robert L. Slagle, president of the State Agricultural College at Brookings, was appointed president of the State University at Ver- million, his term to begin February 1, 1914. This position was tendered him because he had been so highly successful at the Agricultural College. At this time there were registered at the Agricultural College 571 students, not counting those taking short courses. In 1895 Doctor Slagle was professor of chemistry at the Agricultural College. In 1897 he became professor of chemistry at the School of Mines, Rapid City, and in 1898 was made its president. In 1906 he was elected president of the Agricultural College.

In the spring of 1913, the settlers in the northwestern part of the state formed an organization known as the Northwestern Academy Association with the object of doing effective work in keeping the young people on the farms through additional and attractive inducements. They secured forty acres at the head of Rapid Creek on the line between Perkins and Harding counties, and there erected a stone high school building for the young people in that part of the state. In the fall of 1913 the association put into effect instruction in prac- tical agriculture on the forty acres connected with the school. This school was planned to be supported by the people who designed and built it.

The agricultural course of study was placed at the Aberdeen Normal School by the regents of education early in 1914. The Aberdeen Commercial Club said in one of its circulars in this connection: "This announcement by the board of regents, while the change had not been requested by the business interests of Aberdeen and comes as a surprise to them, is none the less gratefully received here, as it is right along the line in which they have been bending their energies in the work of the better farming conditions and they believe that it will speedily justify the expenditure."

For the fiscal year 1913-14 the revenue derived from the school funds and paid out for the support of the schools amounted to $987,359. By this time the state had sold a total of 455,956 acres and had derived therefrom a permanent school fund of $10,735,505, which drew interest for the benefit of the schools. There were left at this time in round numbers a total of 3,000,000 acres yet to be disposed of, worth approximately $45,000,000. At this time the school authorities had no trouble to find investment for the fund. In fact, applications in advance were made for the funds. Of recent lands chosen about three hundred and forty-five thousand acres were chosen in Harding County, because the Indians had taken up school land sections within the various reservations.

In June, 1914, Elwood C. Perisho was elected president of the Agricultural College, Brookings. The attendance at the Agricultural College at different periods was as follows: 1884, 61 ; 1889, 319; 1894, 276; 1899, 446; 1904, 488; 1909, 734 ; 1912, 851 ; 1914, nearly 1,000. In the latter year there were provided regular four-year courses in agriculture, civil engineering, mechanical engineer- ing, electrical engineering, home economics and pharmacy. All departments of the college were standardized.

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In August, 1914, 1,971 persons applied to the state superintendent to be examined for certificates to teach school; 558 secured third grade certificates; 598 secured second grade certificates, and 13 secured primary grade certificates.

In October, 1914, the state board of regents asked the Legislature for a total of $1,452,700 for the various educational institutions for the school years 1915-16 and 1916-17. The amount asked for 1915-16 was $933,334. At the session of the Legislature in 1915 a bill concerning the question of teaching eugenics in the public schools was introduced, but after due consideration was finally defeated. It was believed best by the members to wait a few years longer in order to see how the same problem was settled in other states. A watchful waiting policy was therefore deemed wise.

It has come to be the opinion of many educators in recent years that the unintentional policy of keeping back the rural schools and leaving 99 out of every 100 rural children uneducated became in the course of time a deadly stroke at all forms of higher education. The country children have not been stimulated in education, because they do not need it on the farm. It is now believed that if the old policy could be reversed there would be such a stimulant for education given to the rural schools that the high schools, colleges and universities would now be overflowing with students.

At the legislative session of 1915 Representative Rinehart, of Pennington County, introduced series of resolutions asking the board of regents : (1) Whether a course in normal instruction is maintained in the State University at Vermillion ; (2) whether a course in normal instruction is maintained in the Agricultural College at Brookings ; (3) whether the highest diploma granted by either of the state normal schools at Springfield, Madison, Aberdeen or Spearfish entitles the holder to employment as a teacher in an accredited or four-year high school in this state; (4) whether a certificate or diploma granted by either of the normal schools of the state entitle the holder to any privileges or preference in employment in schools of the state not granted holders of certificates or diplomas granted pupils of certain private or denominational schools located in the state; (5) whether a graduate from the schools taught by a holder only of a normal certificate or diploma would be accredited on his standing, for instance, to the State University or Agricultural College, credit for credit, equally with a stu- dent from the schools taught by the holder of a certificate or diploma granted by the State University or Agricultural College, and if not why not; (6) whether there exists between any of the state educational institutions and any of the public or private schools of the state any system that might be termed inter- locking accredits, which operates to the prejudice of the normal schools or renders a certificate or diploma granted by a normal school less desirable than a certificate or diploma granted by either the State University or Agricultural College. At this legislative session an attempt to establish an additional normal school at Bonesteel in the Rosebud country was defeated by the vote of 16 to 18. A strong fight was made for this institution.

Early in 1915 Prof. Alfred N. Cook, of the State University, formerly state food and drug commissioner, published a valuable and interesting article in the Alumni Quarterly on the subject of South Dakota college attendance. In order to secure the statistics embraced in the article he wrote letters of inquiry to all students in the arts, engineering and law, who were attending college from

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South Dakota in other nearby states. Letters were also addressed to about one hundred students within the state. It appeared from the facts thus gleaned that South Dakota had only just begun to go to school. Only two out of every thousand of the population were attending schools of collegiate grade at any one time, while in the older adjoining states the number was found to be about twice as many. The average cost of board and room at the University of South Dakota was $4.73 per week, while the students who went out of the state paid an average of $5.90 per week. This included only the nearby states and not the colleges and universities further east. The average expense per year of each student of the University of South Dakota was $391, while those who left to attend college in nearby states spent an average of $529. Of all the students who left the state to attend college in 1914, 31 per cent attended state schools and 69 per cent attended denominational colleges. The percentage of students leaving South Dakota to secure an education was decreasing, being now 7 per cent less than it was seven years before. The percentage of students now leaving Minnesota, Iowa, Nebraska and other nearby states was on the increase. During the past seven years the University of South Dakota had had greater increase in attendance of college students than any other institution of the state. While Yankton College, Dakota Wesleyan and the State College had had an increase of 66, 67 and 69 college students respectively, the University had had an increase of 144 college students. The large enrollment of the other schools of the state was due to the fact that they maintained elementary courses, while the State University at this time maintained only advanced courses. Forty- eight per cent, or not far from it, of all degrees conferred in the state in 1914 were granted by the State University; 34.5 per cent of all college students were found in the State University. At this time the Agricultural College had a much larger income than any other state educational institution.

The National Educational Association at its annual meeting in San Francisco in 1915 took the stand that rural schools should be provided with teachers for special rural courses. Up to this time it had been claimed by educational authori- ties that the only requisite qualification for a rural teacher was a fair academic education. It was held now on the contrary that such qualification is wholly inadequate, and that in all colleges which prepare teachers there should be a separate course for rural teachers to prepare them for the special work that alone can make rural schools successful. When the teacher from the city who has studied only the usual academic course prescribed in the high and normal schools opens school in a farming community he is in a new and strange field of labor and wholly unacquainted with its wants and ideals. The pursuit of life problems of such a community are wholly different from anything with which he has ever come in contact and he is therefore unprepared to meet them. The National Educational Association at this time noticed particularly what had been said for some time and was being said concerning taking children from the farm perma- nently. The association took the position that a teacher, whether man or woman, who came to a country school from the city with only an academic education, unknowingly but certainly carries an influence in directing the ideals of the chil- dren away from the farm and to the city, and that even in spite of themselves such influence is largely irresistible from the student's standpoint. It was held, of course, that teachers of rural schools must have a complete command of the

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fundamental elements of an academic education, but above all it was necessary for them to have a somewhat different and to a certain extent a broader educa- tion than possessed by teachers in the cities. The association pointed out the fact that while this was true the country school teacher had always received less wages than the city teacher. The association therefore reasoned that the first step toward improvement in rural schools must be a material increase in the pay of the teachers if competent teachers were secured.

The prospect for a large attendance at the State University was never brighter than in the summer of 1915. During the vacation many improvements were made. The faculty added five new departments as follows : (1) Fine arts; (2) sociology; (3) journalism; (4) secondary education ; (5) commerce, finance and home eco- nomics. The department of fine arts was placed in charge of Rossiter Howard, who for nine years had been in Paris as a lecturer. He was secured to open the university extension work by lecturing on fine arts. Dr. Craig S. Thoms, of Sioux Falls, who for about fourteen years had served as pastor of the Baptist Church, of Vermillion, was placed in the department of applied sociology. He was well qualified to lecture to high schools, woman's clubs and business organiza- tions. Alfred M. Brace was placed in charge of the department of journalism. He had been a laborer in the newspaper field for many years, and recently for a time represented the Associated Press in China and the far East during the pres- ent European war. James B. Shouse, a graduate of the university in 1901, was given charge of the department of secondary education. He had specially fitted himself for this work. The department of commerce, finance and home eco- nomics was placed in charge of A. M. Peisch, a graduate of the university.

The new school law which went into effect July 1, 1915, advanced the com- pulsory age of students from the fifteenth to the sixteenth year. It provides that every boy and girl in the state must attend school every day until the sixth grade shall be passed. After the completion of the sixth grade, the student is required to attend school at least four months of each year until he reaches sixteen years of age. C. H. Lugg, state superintendent, said in June, 1915, in an address at Aber- deen, that only one-half the children of school age in South Dakota are attend- ing the schools. This remark was made to the teachers in attendance at the nor- mal institute. He stated that one-half the students left school at the completion of the sixth grade-the expiration date fixed under the compulsory law. He urged the teachers to co-operate with the parents in a determined effort to keep more of the students in the schools until they should become old enough to realize more thoroughly the advantage and importance of education.

In 1915 many summer schools in South Dakota did important and radical work for students who desired advanced and specific instruction or entrance to higher institutions and for those who were unable to attend during other months of the year. Such schools were held at Brookings, Huron, Madison, Mitchell, Sioux Falls, Spearfish, Vermillion and Yankton. County institutes were held in almost every county in the state ; and conductors were named in advance to guide and control these institutes.

Over one hundred teachers were trained at the Madison Normal School in 1914-15. The other normals did proportionately as well. The summer schools at the university, Agricultural College and denominational institutions through- out the state had large enrollments and attendance. In June, 1915, the state

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apportionment of school funds was $730,097, or $4.27 per pupil. This was a con- siderable and encouraging increase over the June apportionment of 1914. As the interest on the 1915 sales was not paid in advance and thus was not taken into consideration, this increase was due to the improvement in rentals.

In the summer of 1915, State Supt. C. H. Lugg announced that "state exami- nations in the future are to be planned to favor the elimination of useless material in every subject." He delivered an elaborate address at the summer session of the State University, and announced other important changes and reforms. The object was to secure greater efficiency in the public schools of the state. The superintendent and other prominent educators began this year a systematic prun- ing of all studies that had encumbered the common schools from time immemorial. The time honored square root and cube root, proportion, greatest common divisor, and least common multiple were among the studies slated to be removed. Much of the work in fractions was planned to be replaced by percentage. During the summer of 1915 the educational authorities prepared to discuss these changes at the State Teachers' Association which would convene at Aberdeen in Novem- ber. The progressive committee having this and other important work in charge were Dr. W. F. Jones, State Supt. C. H. Lugg, Supt. H. C. Johnson, of Aberdeen, Prof. A. H. Seymour, of the Aberdeen Normal School, and Supt. J. W. Mc- Clinton, of Mitchell. It was announced in advance that one of the subjects to be considered by the association was "economy of time."

Never before in the history of South Dakota is the need for the services of competent teachers so apparent as in 1915. All normal graduates who wish to teach have no difficulty in securing a permanent position; and still the demand is not one-fourth supplied. Few rural schools have trained teachers. If this be true of the rural schools under the old curriculum, how much more is it true where the courses and studies are undergoing a process of evolution and the teaching of scientific agriculture has become all important and paramount. If vastly more competent teachers are needed, what will secure or supply them, is the most serious question to answer. A correct answer can be given in a few words. It is by paying such teachers adequate wages for the special education they are expected to secure and for the sacrifices and efforts they are compelled to make in order to meet the requirements. If the wages be thus fixed at an adequate and commensurate figure, all that will be necessary thereafter is to enact a law that will require all teachers, instructors, principals and professors to pass an examination in the studies demanded by the needs of the rural schools, at the head of which is scientific agriculture as developed and expounded by state gov- ernments experts.

School teachers make the state and the nation. They mold the plastic minds of the children and assist materially in shaping their characters and destinies; but what respect can a pupil have for his teacher who receives a salary but little more than is paid the hired hand on the farm or the laborer in the street? The child knows that the clerk in his father's store, one with no education, no ambition and no bright or hopeful prospect for the future, receives better wages than the learned teacher or profound scholar who presides over the schoolroom or school- house which he attends. What respect can a professor have for himself when he hears education ridiculed by every loafer in town and knows that such ignora- muses receive better pay than he does? Is it not depressing to realize that not

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only is such honorable and noble service often not appreciated, but is just as often depressed and crushed to the basis of pay for digging in the dirt of the streets? Can a teacher under such ignominious treatment and under urgent bodily want, build lofty towers of imagination for the children who look to him for radiant guidance on the difficult path leading to the heights of culture and fame? There is little inducement for men or women of superior mind and character to enter the profession of teaching children, unless the wages are placed high enough for eminent respectability and dignity and unless the esteem and appreciation for education becomes prevalent, universal and renowned.

It may be presumed that the wishes, needs and desires of the farmer and his family should in a measure be taken into consideration when preparing courses for the rural schools. There is nothing to show that 95 per cent of the farmers and their families who intend to pass their lives on the farm either need or want a so-called higher education. The splendid school system of this state gives readily to all who want and need it a higher education at low cost and along lofty standards. It would be better if all farmers and their children could have a col- lege education; but when it is known that from 95 to 99 per cent of them will never get it under present methods, the remedy must be found either by correcting the methods of the system or by taking the education to the township high schools or to the consolidated country schools where they can get it at little cost in time and money. There is not a husk of evidence to show that the farmer's children are doomed to a life of misery and anguish because they will never be able to secure a higher education. There is nothing to prove that the farmer is wailing with despair because he cannot or does not send his children to a college or uni- versity. Let the farmer have at his home what he wants and needs for his mode of life and not force upon him at his great expense the glamour of an education that will be of no use on the farm. Such a change will in no way interefere with the few farmer boys and girls who may want a higher education.

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History of Dakota Territory, volume III, Part 128

Author: Kingsbury, George Washington, 1837-; Smith, George Martin, 1847-1920 Publication date: 1915 Publisher: Chicago, Ill. : S.J. Clarke Publishing Company Number of Pages: 1146

Author: Kingsbury, George Washington, 1837-; Smith, George Martin, 1847-1920
Publication date: 1915
Publisher: Chicago, Ill. : S.J. Clarke Publishing Company
Number of Pages: 1146