USA > Wisconsin > Eau Claire County > History of Eau Claire county, Wisconsin, past and present; including an account of the cities, towns and villages of the county > Part 40
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The course of study in vogue during this time was rather general in its nature. For instance, in the first grade there were only a few statements made as to what was to be done in read- ing, spelling, writing, arithmetic, drawing, oral lessons and objeet teaching and physical exercises, followed in each case by a few sentences on the matter of methods. Some of the instructions were very good, for instance under physical exercises, recreation and health we find the following statement: The prime object of these exercises is health. Discipline is secondary. Cheerful- ness and merriment may be allowed and encouraged as far as
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compatible with the real purpose of the exercises. Teach the children· plays, and so far as practicable attend the exercises dur- ing recess. Study the best means of ventilating the room. The work in arithmetic was always much more fully outlined than that in other subjects. The work in drawing was exceedingly formal and did not mean much more than copying. This was the day of object teaching. Object lessons were a regular feature of the weekly program. Much of this work was excellent, though much of it was too formal to be really interesting, and for that reason in the course of time it lost its value in effectiveness. There were two courses in the high school. One the English- German course and the other the English-Latin course. Both of these were four-year courses. It might be said that the first year's work in the high school, with the exception of bookkeep- ing and Latin, was grammar grade work. By this it is not meant that this work was unprofitable, but just simply to indicate the aim of the course of study for that time. Algebra was a second year study and there are many good authorities at the present time who think it is better to begin the work in this subject during that year. Physical geography was a third year study and botany a fourth year study. These subjects are now taught much earlier in the course of study. The subject of physics was only a half course where now in most schools it is a one year course and in some schools a two year course.
1896 TO 1904.
During the June meeting of 1896 Otis C. Gross was elected city superintendent of schools. Prof. M. S. Frawley continued to be principal of the high school during his administration. It . is very interesting to note the development which took place during Mr. Gross's administration. The school census did not change very much. It was some over 6,000 during all this time. The enrollment, however, increased from 4,000 to about 4,300. At that time a large number of pupils who are now attending parochial schools were attending the public schools. The num- ber of teachers increased from about eighty to about 100. The total operating expenses increased from about $50,000 to $70,000. The school enrollment increased more rapidly than the school census, and the average daily attendance a little more rapidly than the enrollment, showing that a somewhat larger percentage of children attended school than at an earlier date. During the first year of this administration the school census was 5,903
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pupils of school age. The enrollment was 3,870. The average daily attendance was 2,828. The number of school rooms sixty- eight, number of pupils per room fifty-seven. Number of grade teachers seventy, special teachers two, salaries of teachers $30,454, and the per capita cost for teaching $7.86. Several items are especially noteworthy : the great difference between the aver- age daily attendance and the enrollment, the large number of pupils per room and the low cost of instruction. In the high sehool during the same year there were nine teachers, 277 pupils enrolled ; average daily attendance 229, number taking English forty-six, number studying German thirty-nine, mumber taking Latin eighty-two, number of graduates forty-five and the per eapita eost of instruction $23.62. From 1890 to 1900 the average attendance in the high school has much more than doubled. The increase in the mimber of teachers did not seem to keep pace with the increase in the number of pupils, and consequently there was a deerease in the per capita cost of instruction from over $25 down to less than $20. Superintendent Gross in his report of 1903 has the following interesting statements about summer school, physical culture and hand work :
"During the past five years we have had four summer schools conducted for the benefit of the city teachers. Each has been held in the latter part of August just before the opening of the city schools in September, and has been of two weeks' duration. These schools have been supported mainly by contributions from the teachers and appropriations from the Board of Education. Most of the teachers subscribe an amount equal to one day's salary. The board has appropriated each time $100. This has usually placed at the disposal of the superintendent an amount somewhat more than $300 for the expenses of the school.
"Instructors have been secured who were specialists in their lines of work, and who have represented the best and most modern ideas. In this way our teachers have been in almost yearly contact with, and under the instruction of, specialists who have come from the centers of educational thought and influence. This has been one of the most powerful factors tending to improve our schools and to put them into the quite generally progressive and satisfactory condition which characterizes them at present.
The greatest change which has been effected is a change in the spirit of the schools in the attitude of co-operation between teachers and pupils. There is more working together with the teacher as leader and adviser, and less separation into discip- linarian and disciplined. The great disciple of this changed
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attitude in the schools was the late Col. Francis Parker, who was president of the Cook County Normal for so many years, and who so influenced the teachers who went out from that school that they became workers with, and leaders of, the children. At each of our summer schools we have had a teacher from the Cook County (now the Chicago) Normal school, and the influence of Colonel Parker has grown among us. The result is that school life is becoming much more pleasant. The children are happier, more responsive, more ready to learn, and more open to the helpful and educational influences of school life.
"Neither the teachers nor the Board of Education can afford to be without the instructive, helpful and inspiring effect of these summer schools. They must be conducted, of course, by the very best instructors obtainable. Their influence will be awakening, progressive, vivifying and altogether wholesome.
"Three years ago the Board of Education appropriated $100 for purchasing the raw material to be used in constructing phys- ical culture apparatus for use in the school buildings. The apparatus was made in the manual training rooms and put up in the most accessible places near the pupils, usually in the school halls, sometimes in the school rooms.
"In the primary rooms the teachers were encouraged to allow the pupils to use the apparatus at any time when the regular work seemed to drag or when the children's attention had been kept for a considerable time upon some one thing, or when they became restless and needed some escape for their pent-up activ- ities.
"The amount of such apparatus has been increased from year to year. At present we have climbing ladders in all of the school buildings, and horizontal bars, parallel bars, punching bags, brownie slides, etc., in many of them. About a year ago it was decided to put some apparatus on the school grounds as a standing invitation to all pupils who were not busy in school games during the intermissions. Horizontal bars, parallel bars and large swings have been placed on the play grounds, and we have sets of basketball poles ready to be placed in position this fall. We are planning to put up giant strides also early in the coming year.
"The constant use of this apparatus in and about the school buildings is having a very marked effect on the school life. Teachers say that the discipline is becoming easier every year; that the boys who are overflowing with activity are not so trou- blesome; that the children in general are much happier and
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more contented. We believe that there are also very important effects in the line of stronger and more active bodies, better gen- eral health, and more normal and teachable minds. The phys- ical culture apparatus deserves a recognized place as a part of the standard school equipment and should be kept in repair and added to, and when worn out should be replaced just as the sehool desks are replaced.
"During the past year an attempt has been made to extend the manual training work into the lower grades. Several lines of hand work were taken up with the teachers at the summer school, and the teachers were encouraged to undertake such work with the pupils. The Board of Education furnished the necessary material. Though the work has been entirely volun- tary on the part of the teachers, nearly all have attempted some- thing and the results have been very encouraging. Some of the work has been excellent. The children like it. It teaches them to use their hands. It gives a more practical aspeet to all the other school work. It dignifies labor and aids in impressing the greatest lesson of life, which is that true living consists in true service.
"We would therefore recommend that such work become a regular part of the school course of study, and that for the present the following outline be followed :
"First year-Kindergarten occupations, paper cutting and, folding, making of toy furniture, etc.
"Second year-Weaving, raffia braiding, ete.
"Third and fourth years-Weaving of designs, patterns, gar- ments, etc., making of raffia baskets.
"Fourth and fifth years-Rattan basket weaving, sewing, etc.
"Fifth and sixth years-Rattan work, jack knife work, sew- ing, etc.
"(The manual work for the seventh and eighth grades is already embodied in our course of study for the mannal training and cooking departments.)
"It will be seen that the enrollment and average attendance in the high school has more than doubled in the past nine years. At present the high school is overerowded. The assembly room was intended to accommodate 250 pupils, and we have had in the neighborhood of 400 attending during the past year. The overcrowding has become serious and something will need to be done. We shall not know what to do with the numbers that will be promoted from the grades next year. If the board should think of enlarging the present building or of erecting an over-
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flow building. or annex it would be well to speak of several dif- ferent needs which we have felt in the present building and which could be provided for in a new part or annex.
"Among these needs are the following: A second or over- flow assembly room; additional rooms, such as a forge room, a machine shop and a second mechanical drawing room for the manual training department; a set of two or three rooms such as could be provided in the present gymnasium and cooking room for a commercial department; a chemical laboratory; an oppor- tunity to change the cooking room to a lower floor and thus prevent so much climbing of stairs by the seventh and eighth grade girls; an opportunity to change the gymnasium to the basement in order to avoid the noise incident to having a gym- nasium in one of the upper rooms; closets on the assembly room floor in order to avoid so much stair climbing by the high school girls ; an opportunity to change the botany laboratory to a south room on account of needing sunlight for many of the experi- ments and better light for the microscope work, and an oppor- tunity to change the history and literature class rooms to rooms provided with reading tables and book shelves or adjacent refer- ence reading rooms for the reading and reference work in con- nection with those departments.
"If the provision for room in a new assembly room and in the number of recitation rooms should be sufficiently generous it would provide for future growth and the development of addi- tional departments, such as: A commercial department, a department for sewing and the domestic arts, a department of music and a department of free hand drawing and art work to be connected with the high school.
" After the high school has reached its present size the addi- tion of a few new departments if properly managed need not increase the cost per pupil of mantaining the high school for the reason that the cost of instructing twenty-five pupils in book- keeping or forge work or domestic science need not be more expensive than instructing twenty-five in algebra or history or Latin. During the last semester we have had no less than seven different algebra classes to accommodate the number taking that subject. This probably means some 150 pupils taking algebra. It is safe to say that in this number twenty-five or more would prefer a commercial course to the one they are taking, and it makes no difference to the taxpayer whether the board hire an algebra teacher or a commercial course teacher, providing he be secured for an equal salary.
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"The present courses in the high school are better fitted to prepare pupils to enter the professions than for the commercial and industrial occupations. The attendance on the high school has become so great that only a small percentage of the pupils can expect to enter the professions. If our sehools would be of the greatest value to the greatest number it is necessary to enlarge the scope of the work in the high school and to provide for the needs of the large elass of pupils who do not enter the professions, and we would recommend the gradual introduction and enlargement of departments as indicated in the above report."
During Mr. Gross's administration the domestie science department was added to the high school curriculum. The manual training department was extended and the introduction of special teachers and supervisors was recommended, but this recommendation was not adopted. The high school courses now consisted of a general scienee course, a Latin course and a manual training course. The study of German was both in the general seience and Latin courses.
1904 TO 1906.
During 1904 M. N. MeIver was elected city superintendent of schools. He served in this capacity for two years. Some important improvements were made during his administration. The high school courses were again changed. The changes resulted in the adoption of an English course, a modern classical course, a manual training course, a general science eourse and a commercial course. The commercial course was a new ven- ture and proved to be successful from the start. During 1904 the school eensus showed a school population of 6,944 of school age. The total enrollment was 3,744. The average daily attend- ance 2,949. The number of schools rooms eighty-two, the enroll- ment per room forty-five, the number of grade teachers eighty- two, special teachers six, the amount paid out for teachers' salaries $43,700, and per capita cost for teaching based on enroll- ment a little under $12 per child.
There were fifteen teachers in high school with an enrollment of 583, an average daily attendance of 441, 184 studied English branches, 169 German, 120 Latin and there were fifty-seven graduates.
The annex was completed and occupied at the opening of the year 1904-1905.
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The architeets of this building succeeded in the difficult task of combining the new and the older structure into a beautiful and imposing edifiee. This addition to the high school has more than doubled the number of reeitation rooms, besides affording an assembly room, capable of seating two hundred people. This room is occupied for study by the junior and senior classes. In the annex is also contained a larger, well lighted gymnasium. No gymnasium teacher has yet been employed, but it is hoped that the board will see fit to engage one in the near future.
Almost the entire third floor of the annex is devoted to science. The change from the cramped quarters in the old building to the generous rooms, with fine equipment, in the new is a pleasing one. It has given an added stimulus to effort in laboratory work and has brought joy to both teachers and pupils.
The present strength of our teaching force is dne largely to the increased emphasis which has been placed upon experience, in addition to the college degree, as a condition of an appoint- ment to a position. The novice has no place in a large high school. Scholarship must ever remain an essential element of the high school teacher's qualification, but it ean never take the place of experience added to natural teaching ability. In no educational work can there be greater need of teachers alive to the responsibility of their calling. The training of the adolescent mind requires a generous, sympathetic nature, and it requires tact, judgment and discipline peculiar to the management of youth. The school board is to be eommended for the recent increase in the teachers' salaries, for the question of salaries has always been a serions stumbling block in the way of holding our best Teachers.
In August, 1905, the sehool board authorized the establish- ment of a commercial course. This has met a long felt want. Its purpose is to furnish a schedule of study especially fitted for those who wish to enter business pursuits. The new conrse has been made out with this end in view, retaining those subjects which are essential to general cultivation. It was hoped that the opening of this course would attract students to the high school who would otherwise not receive the advantages of a high school edneation ; and moreover that it would hold a large number who drop ont during the freshmen and sophomore years. It is gratify- ing to report that the course, thus far, seems to be aeeomplishing the purpose for which it was established.
Considering the fact that no special teacher of music is pro- vided there is reason for pride in the excellent results attained.
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WEST EAU CLAIRE, 1870
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A strong Glee Club, High School Choral and Mandolin Club have been maintained. They have furnished music for morning exer- cises, rhetoricals and other special programs. Publie entertain- ments were given by the Glee Club and High School Choral last year and the enthusiasm with which they were received gives sufficient evidence of their excellence.
There has been no abatement in the usnal interest always shown in athletics. The football team continues to maintain its position as one of the strongest teams in the state, and it receives the hearty support of the publie. The Athletic Club has always showu a disposition to conduct its contests in an orderly and gen- tlemanly manner. In spite of this, such contests have not been entirely free from the demoralizing influences which usually attend upon games of an exciting nature.
An event of importance to the school was the inauguration of a serviec of cheap lunches in March, 1904. These lunches are sold at actual cost to the pupils and teachers. The average cost of a hunch is about four cents and the service is entirely self- supporting. Only the most wholesome food is offered for sale, and the bill of fare is sufficiently varied from day to day to be attractive. Practically all of the pupils buy lunches daily, and it is believed they are thereby enabled to carry the work of our long session without loss of energy. The thanks of everyone interested in the school is due to Miss Clara MeNown, who has so faithfully and effectively labored for the success of the lunch counter. The progress in the high school has been marked and continuous ever since its organization. Much of this even prog- ress must be placed to the credit of the long and efficient service of the principal.
1906 TO 1914.
W. H. Schulz was elected city superintendent of schools dur- ing the July meeting of 1906. M. S. Frawley continued as prin- eipal of the high school until the end of the school year for 1912-1913. His record has perhaps not been equaled by any other high school principal in the state of Wisconsin for length of service in the same capacity. He had been high school prin- cipal for over thirty years and has had the good fortune to see the consolidation of the high schools into one Central High school, and then to see the development of the Central High school until it reached an enrollment of nearly 700 students. The standing of the high school has always been good. It was always acered-
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ited to the University of Wisconsin, and has remained a member of the North Central Association continuously from the time that it was first admitted to that membership.
In 1907 a new building was built in the First ward. This building was a decided improvement over the older type of build- ing in many respects. Light regulation was better; furnaces in the heating plant are arranged in a battery. It has a fan system and heat regulation. In sanitary provisions it is entirely modern. Since the erection of this school building the heating and venti- lation in all the school buildings has been improved and modern heat regulation and ventilation have been put into the Third, Seventh No. 2 and Eighth ward buildings. All the buildings are now supplied with either gas or electricity for lighting pur- poses. The buildings within recent years have been thoroughly renovated so that they may be considered modern in nearly every respect. The walls are tinted according to the most approved method. They are kept thoroughly clean and sanitary at all times. A great deal has been added in the way of equipment, so that the facilities for teaching have been vastly improved. The free text book system is continued and the supply is liberal and books are always kept in good condition. To bring about these improvements has entailed a great deal of expense, but there is no doubt that it is a good investment. School exhibits are now an annual feature. At these exhibits school work in drawing, arithmetic, spelling, writing, manual training and domestic science is shown to the public. There is always a pro- gram rendered by the pupils. These exhibits have always been very popular, as is evidenced by the large attendance that they always bring forth. Quite an elaborate course of study for the grades and in manual training and domestic science was worked out by the superintendent and printed by the Board of Educa- tion in 1909. This book contained about 250 closely printed pages. It has been given credit of being the most elaborate course of study for the grades of any school system in the state. The results which have followed have been exceedingly gratify- ing. All the work in all the branches is outlined on the basis of the divisions of the grades for semesters. This makes it very convenient for reference. The new high school courses which were adopted about the same time were a general course with a great many different electives, and a commercial course with a great many different electives. These courses have not been changed for quite a number of years, because the flexibility and the opportunity for election of subjects made them on the whole
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very satisfactory. The choice of subjects made by the students indicates strongly the trend towards those things in courses of study which are more practical and have a value which can be used in the practical affairs of life as soon as the student leaves school. With the adoption of the new course of study for the grades was brought about a more definite system of grading. This gave freedom to the movement of the stream of progress through the grades from the primary to the grammar grades which was rather unexpected so that now the enrollment in the upper grades is nearly as strong as in the lower grades. It has also demonstrated that boys will stay in school as well as girls if. the opportunities of progress are sneh as appeal to the boy.
Special teachers and supervisors are now maintained in the following departments :
In music the supervisor gives his entire time to supervising the work of music in the grades and also in doing some teaching. Some time also is given to the high school.
The supervisor in drawing spends all the time in looking after that work in the grades, does some teaching and also training of teachers.
The supervisor of physical culture gives most of his time to the grades, some to the high school and gives demonstration exereises in the grades for pupils and teachers.
The supervisor in manual training looks after the manual training department and does also work in teaching.
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