USA > Wisconsin > Milwaukee County > Milwaukee > History of Milwaukee, city and county, Volume I > Part 62
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"Like every self-respecting person or organization, this conege has a poliey of its own. The steadfast policy of this college has been to try to meet the needs of its locality and always to understand and meet the essential requirements in the education of women. We are not indifferent to academie traditions or to the experience of other colleges, but we have not simply adopted for ourselves the enrrieula of men's colleges as has been done by many women's colleges or made some college of reputation our pattern and guide. * We have our own ideals and they are in several important respeets different from those exemplified by the honorable institutions east of the Alleghanies. Every institution should be individual, without seeking to be odd or different, because its environment has peenliar claims, its condi- tions d'etate some particular line or lines of interest, its traditions have in- stalled worthy and still reasonable purposes and methods.
Traditions and Ideals .- " We have constantly protected and emphasized sound academie studies and we would allow nothing to impair the cultural disciplines of the languages and literature, the social sciences, pure science, and philosophy. We believe also that education must have motive and end, a point that has often been overlooked in education, thus leading to disap- pointment in the lives of those who have studied much and in the hopes of those who have pinned their faith to edneation.
"We think the connection of the most abstruse subject with life may be demonstrated and should be recognized by the student. We further believe that woman's edneation should prepare a woman for women's chief vocation, and that the science and art of home making, which is a business most com-
THE MILWAUKEE-DOWNER COLLEGE BUILDINGS
THE CONCORDIA COLLEGE
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plex and most signifieant, shoukt form a recognized part of her training for life. We believe that mnsie furnishes an essential and unique element of cul- ture and power. We believe that understanding of the principles of art, appreciation of beauty, and taste are essential to a well rounded education, and therefore we provide sneh fields of study and give them credit toward a degree. We have seen with interest the recent growing tendency to reeog- nize these subjeets even in the strongholds of conservatism.
A Vision of the Future .- "The only purpose of such a review as this," continues Miss Sabin in her memorable address, "is to take account of where we stand, gather np the useful experience of the past, and go forward to the remoter goal, even 'to the bound of the waste.' We have now a firm founda- tion which the little school of 1850 and the little college of 1895 would have looked upon as quite substantial. The work before us should now be stimu- lated to greater effort and encouraged to finer undertakings by the experience of the past. We are, if we are awake to our opportunities, at the beginning of mueh larger and still better things. Our needs are great, but they will be met abundantly if we courageously go forward with a sufficiently splendid plan and purpose. Our danger lies in inadequate vision rather than in ex- travagant expectations.
"We have had many great hearted friends in the past, we have them now, why shall we not have more in the future? The buildings we now sorely need must come soon; the improvement of our grounds will be provided for: the endowment we still require to enable us to meet in an adequate manner the needs of the students who seek ns, will come soon, when people better know the importance of the work we do, and perceive clearly the greater work we seek to do.
"The end of seventy years, the close of a quarter of a century, and the review that these landmarks suggest to us, constitute the urge toward new achievements, and supply the irrefutable argument for our courage in every reasonable ambition. Where we have thus far garnered 'some thirty-fold,' let us now prepare for a harvest of 'some sixty-fold!'"'
For the year ending at commencement, 1921, the number of the trustees was thirty-two. The number of members of the faculty was forty-two in the college, and fourteen in the seminary. These numbers include the entire teach- ing staff, but do not duplicate in the seminary those members of the college faenlty who teach seminary classes, as in music, art and home economies. The number of students enrolled in the college last year was 405, in the semi- nary, 201 ; a total in both college and seminary of 606 students.
Concordia College .- In 1881, Concordia College was established in Mil- wankee. "This college is an institution of the church." quoting from the in- troduction to the catalogne for 1920-1921, "being conducted and supported by the 'Evangelical Lutheran Synod of Missouri, Ohio, and other States,' the largest branch of the Lutheran Church in America." It was opened in the same year in quarters provided by the Trinity German Lutheran Congrega- tion, under the charge of C. Inth, a graduate of Concordia Seminary of St. Louis.
"The special object of the education afforded in Concordia College," it is
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said, "is to prepare Christian young men for a thorough course in theology. The college, therefore. may be considered a preparatory institution for such Lutheran divinity schools as require for admission a thorough acquaintance with Latin and Greek, a good working knowledge of Hebrew, and a mastery of English and German. At the same time it is the general aim of Concordia College to fit young men to pursue snecessfully the advanced courses of study offered by the best universities of the country, as well as to instruct and pre- serve its charges in the true Christian faith as taught in the Evangelical Lutheran Church.
"With this end in view, Concordia College was modeled after the gym- nasia' of Germany, where most time and energy are expended on the classics. But in order to give young men committed to the care of the institution a culture somewhat more suited to their wants as American citizens, certain branches of knowledge were added to the curriculum, not commonly included in the Latin schools of Europe. The course of studies, all of which are obliga- tory, extends over a period of six years."
In the courses of instruction, as they are outlined in the catalogne, the German department is naturally strong, most of the students being of Ger- man parentage, and when they enter are already possessed of a living knowl- edge of the language. "The course seeks to give the student a ready com- mand of the vast resources of the German tongue, to teach him to use it, whether orally or with the pen, with ease and elegance, and to impart to him a knowledge of its history anad literature."
"The work in English," it is further sa'd. "is similar to that in German. All the students of Concordia College are expected to speak and write both languages with equal readines's and facility. * # The course is designed to furnish the student with the power of correct oral and literary expression, to stimulate a love of reading, and to acquaint him with the vast fields of English literature."
The English language has in the last few years become the medium of instruction in most branches, writes Rev. M. J. F. Albrecht, the president of the college. "As yet we need a bi-lingual ministry, " he says, of men who ean preach in German as well as in English, "but the time is rapidly ap- proaching when German will be eliminated entirely."
Concordia College is situated in the western part of Milwaukee, the grounds consisting of 712 acres, affording a roomy campus and sites for the college buildings. These consist of a main building and two dormitorios, and a number of residences for the use of members of the faculty. The Recitation Hall is used for purposes of instruction and worship and contains eight class- rooms, the museum, library and chapel.
The faculty is composed of ten members, and the number of students en- rolled for the years 1920-1921 is 191.
Continuation Schools .- At the annual meeting of the National Education Association, held at St. Paul. Min., in July. 19144, a very interesting account of the "Continuation Schools" of Milwaukee was given by R. L. Cooley, prin- cipal, a summary of which is presented, as follows:
The first one to be opened entered upon its work November 1. 1912, with
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an attendance of 200 girls under sixteen years of age, from the department stores of the city. These girls were working on "permits" issned by the State Industrial Commission through the office of the Factory Inspector of the city. In further explanation it may be said that all boys and girls under sixteen years of age and over fourteen may. under certain conditions, se- eure a "permit" to work at a "gainful ocenpation." Under recent legisla- tion one of the conditions to be fulfilled in order that the child may work is that he shall attend continuation school at least one half-day a week for eight months.
Obligations of the Employer .- This attendance upon the part of the pupil is an obligation upon the employer, as well as upon the child, inasmuch as the employer is required to give such employee permission to attend school at the time requested by the school authorities. This school attendance must be counted as a part of the boy's or girl's regular work.
The school has grown rapidly from its small beginning; the demand of both the compulsory and voluntary attendance has led to the acquisition of additional space and a considerable enlargement of the teaching foree. There are now 1,600 girls and 2,000 boys attending these schools one-half day a week. Thirty-one classrooms are now beenpied, and seventeen women and twenty-one men comprise the day teaching force.
The school aims to teach the "permit" girls to cook, do housework and to select suitable goods for wearing apparel. A definite effort is made to direct their reading that a taste for good books may be formed. Typewriting and stenography are taught. The boys are classified broadly and those who clearly intend to follow commercial pursuits are directed in their studies to that end. Those who manifest special ability in mechanical and free-hand drawing have occupations called to their attention in which such ability would be most useful.
Aid in the Selection of Vocations .- " The work with boys and girls is further intended to guide them in their selection of vocations, to preserve by means of reviews what academic knowledge they may possess upon leaving the elementary school and to advance them in those branches: to assist and advise them in securing work, to give them greater ability to do things with their hands, and to train them in the duties and obligations of good e tizen- ship."
The results accomplished in these continuation schools have been wonder- ful. "It has been demonstrated that in the brief half-day a week at the con- tinnation schools much of the work done in the elementary schools can be clinched and made a permanent possession of the boy or girl. Likewise in this time a valuable practical training can be given, which will be found im- mediately nseful. The function of these schools, however, is much broader in scope than merely to provide for the 'permit' pupils, of which there are approximately five thousand in the city. The task of meeting the needs of this partienlar feature of the work has been a large one and has ocenpied our attention during the first months."
Grouping the Boys by Occupations .- Most of the pupils have rather vague ideas with regard to their future field of work or trades to be learned. Groups
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are outlined to which they are assigned on entering until a better distribu- tion can be made. A large number of occupations, such as may be found in an industrial community like Milwaukee, have thus been classified, but a certain degree of elasticity to allow for changes is necessary in practice. Many pupils have no idea at first of a definite career and have little conception of the various trades and occupations they wish to engage in. Their ideas are derived from chance discussions with their families at home or among their older working friends. Their ideas shift with little reason from one to an- other of the trades and occupations with which they become acquainted, and thus the teacher has to give them a diversified shop experience,-woodwork- ing, metalworking, electrical connections and a great variety of manufactur- ing, so that they may adapt themselves to that particular calling in which they will ultimately become engaged.
A boy who thinks he wants to be a plumber or steam-fitter is taken seri- ously at first and is given instruction in such trades. This will be useful to him no matter what calling he may later engage in. The girls will be taught home economics, and many useful services in the care of the sick and aged, and other helpless members of the family. Thus will be cultivated among all the pupils a feeling of confidence that will promote efficiency and better standards of work.
"To evolve an institution," concludes Principal Cooley, "so varied in work offered and so adaptable in its organization as to meet these needs, and fit it into the intervals of leisure enjoyed by members of the community is a difficult task. Much of how to do it can be learned only in the doing."
The Continuation School .- The continuation school movement for the United States originated in Madison through joint resolution No. 53 of the 1909 session of the Wisconsin State Legislature. This Legislature appointed a committee consisting of: State Superintendent C. P. Cary, chairman ; pres- ident University of Wiseonsin, C. R. Van Ilise; superintendent of public in- struetion City of Milwaukee, C. G. Pearse ; dean extension division University of Wisconsin, L. E. Reber; legislative librarian, Dr. Charles Mccarthy, secre- tary; with instructions that a study be made and a report drafted and sub- mitted to the Legislature of 1911. No one could study or understand the beginnings of the movement in Wiseonsin without acquaintance with the report of this committee, which report may be found at the public library under the title, "Report of the Commission upon the Plans for the Extension of Industrial and Agricultural Training."
Acting in accordance with the recommendations of this report. the Leg- islature of 1911 passed the first compulsory continuation school law enacted in any state in the Union. In March of 1912, the Board of Education of the City of Milwaukee, in compliance with the state law, appointed two employ- ers, namely, A. T. Van Seoy and A. J. Lindemann, and two employees, J. D. Iliekey and Jos. La Fleur, and these gentlemen, together with C. G. Pearse. superintendent of publie instruction, became the first continuation school board for the City of Milwaukee. The superintendent of public instruction is ex-officio a member of the local board of industrial edneation. This board was appointed by the local board of education, but under the law, is
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given full control over the schools which it establishes, without reference to the board of education further than has been mentioned.
The first meeting of this board was held May 20, 1912. A. T. Van Seoy was elected president, and J. D. Hickey secretary. It was not until Sep- tember 11, 1912, that a director was appointed. At that meeting R. L. Cooley, then a grammar school principal in the City of Milwaukee, was elected the first director of vocational education for the city. Mr. Cooley had been a city superintendent of schools and principal of high school at Oconto, Wis., for eight years, and his experience had included servire in all grades, from the ungraded country school on through the high school.
Mr. Van Seoy served as a member of the board but a few months and resigned, and on December 30, 1912, F. J. Matehette was elected to take his place. Mr. Matchette served until 1916 when he resigned to take up perm- anent residence in New York City. Mr. La Fleur served until January, 1916, when he resigned because of a change of status from employee to employer. Mr. Pearse, as ex-officio member of the board, upon his resignation was suc- ceeded by Supt. M. C. Potter. J. D. Ilickey and A. J. Lindemann were mem- bers of the first local board of industrial edneation appointed in this city, and have continued until the present writing, January, 1922.
During the period from November, 1912, to January, 1922, the develop- ment has been very rapid. It seemed at first, a strange and heretieal idea that young employees should be brought in from shops, stores, and factories for the brief period of one half-day each week at a eentral school, where an effort would be made to stimulate, guide, and direct the young people, and put some system and order into their efforts during the formative years of their lives.
When this obligation fell upon the board of industrial education and the director whom they had appointed, there were no schoolhouses where these classes could be held. Every school building in the city was occupied. This was, perhaps, a fortunate incident, and led to the centralized school conducted in rented quarters. The first elasses were held beginning in the fall of 1912 in the Manufacturers' Home Building, 62 Mason Street. As the work de- veloped, the space that could be obtained in that building was soon outgrown, and additional space was taken in the Stroh Building, October 12, 1914. In spite of the newness of the idea of part-time education for young employed people in this country, the plan was evidently sound as shown by the increas- ing popular support, which it obtained as reflected in the laws passed by sue- eeeding legislatures.
The original law required but one half-day each week upon the part of all employed people up to sixteen years of age, and gave the local board of industrial education control over its finances np to one-half mill on the assessed valuation of the city. The 1917 Legislature increased the financial control of the board to three-fourths of a mill on the assessed valuation in their cities, and increased the period of compulsory school attendance to seventeen years of age. Subsequent legislatures have increased the millage for the support of these schools from 34 to 116 mills, and the compulsory school attendanee, at the Legislature of 1921, has been raised to eight hours
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THE MILWAUKEE UNIVERSITY SCHOOL
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a week up to eighteen years of age, and half-time between fourteen and sixteen years of age.
Not only has there been th's compulsory part-time attendance require- ment, but the development of our apprenticeship law, the industrial rehabil- itation, and the obligation which the law imposes upon the community for the development of voluntary classes in vocational subjects has created great necessity for housing and equipment. This, the local board of industrial edu- cation is meeting. On January 19, 1916, the board of industrial education ae- quired a site at Seventh and Prairie streets at a cost of $100,000. There has since that time been erected a six-story building, 80 by 265 feet, known as the First Unit of the Milwaukee Vocational School. This unit has been oe- eupied since September, 1920. There is at the present time being erected a second unit to the east of the first unit, at an approximate cost of $1,200,000. The school, when completed, will occupy the entire block between Sixth and Seventh, Prairie and State, and will be 434 feet in length, by 220 feet in width, six stories high, and will cost $3,000.000.
It is hoped within this building that there will be facilities, which will enable the school organization therein contained to adequately meet the edu- cational needs of the young people between fourteen and eighteen years of age, through the plan of supplementing the efforts of the young men and women as they endeavor to carve out their place in society.
Milwaukee does not believe it can afford to bring up thousands of young men and women in such a manner that their adult varning capacity is un- necessarily stunted, their adult purchasing capacity abridged, and the limits of possible business expansion needlessly limited. The fact that this simple economie evele is pointed out does not mean that true value is not placed upon the spiritual and social values of further education for the great num- ber of young people, who early leave full-time school and go to work, but merely that since we must appeal for taxes to support the institution we are fortunate indeed in return to be able to prove conclusively that it will cost more money and be a bigger incubus upon business to NOT support these schools than to support them. This statement has a place in the history be- cause of the fact that our city has adopted this view and has so unitedly supported the new movement. R. L. Cooley, director.
The Milwaukee University School .- So late as 1845 the conditions of the schools in Milwaukee were still most deplorable. At a mass meeting of citizens which was held Deeember 12, 1845, Rufus King declared that of the 1,781 children between five and sixteen years, only 584 were receiving an education, 228 in public and 356 in private schools. Neither kind of school met the requirements which an intelligent parent may justly expert of the constitution in which his children are to be instructed. Moved by the desire for better educational advantages for their children, the German portion of the settlers, after careful deliberation, founded the Milwaukee Educational Association, May 10, 1851.
Its officers were chosen May 17, 1851, at the first regular meeting of the society. The board consisted of the following members: Doetor Aigner, president ; C. E. Wendt, seeretary; M. Stein, treasurer; Doetor Luening, E. Vol. 1-42
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Prieger, II. Werdehoff and F. Fratney, executive committee. Immediately after the establishing of a private school was decided upon.
Peter Engelmann, who at first had done private tutoring at the home of the parents of the late Gen. F. C. Winkler, and later had himself founded a school, was chosen principal of the new school which was given the name German and English Academy. From small beginnings the school grew rap- idly. Mr. Engelmann proved himself to be a teacher of unusual ability. He gained for his school an enviable reputation, and it will be admitted that m the educational development of our city, the German-English Academy be- came an important factor, and many of its former pupils occupied positions in which they became instrumental in the civic development of the city.
Peter Engelmann and his friends began to make collections of specimens of the flora and fauna of Wisconsin during the carly part of 1852. With the help of men like Messrs. Adolph Meinecke and Christian Preusser, he founded the Natural History Association of Wisconsin and established a museum in the school building. The museum grew to such size that the quarters the school conkl offer soon became inadequate.
In consequence the collection was offered by the school to the City of Mil- waukee. It was accepted in 1882 and given the name: The Milwaukee Public Museum, by which name it is known to the population of our city, though very few will remember its origin.
The German-English Academy, or Engelmann School, as it was often called, was always ready to accept new educational ideas and many reforms were introduced before they found entrance into other schools of the city. Of these there may be mentioned the founding of the first kindergarten in 1873, the emphasizing of a systematic physical training, the introduction of manual arts such as modeling, woodwork, needle and fancy work, the intro- duction of elementary instruction in foreign languages, science and history into the grades. The latter erystalized into a course of study for the seventh and eighth grades as it is now advocated for the junior high school. The division of our grades into six elementary and six high-school grades was made at the time when the high-school department was added to the former eight grades of the school, in 1909.
The year 1918 brought a change of the name of the school to Milwaukee University School, to which is added, in due respect to its founder, "founded by Peter Engelmann, 1851."
In 1878 the school became the training school of the National Teachers Seminary and the Normal School of Gymnasties of the North American Gymnastie Union and obtained through these connections a national reputa- tion.
The school buildings are another proof of the growth of the institution. On July 1, 1851, the school was opened with two classes in a rented building on East Water Street previously occupied by Mr. Engelmann alone. In 1852 a modest little building was purchased on Grand Avenue. On October 31, 1853, a new building was dedicated, which had been erected on Broadway, and to which in 1854 and 1864 respectively, a north wing and a south wing
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