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 OFFICIAL DONATION. 
 
THE TOWNSHIP SYSTEM 
 
 jy; 
 
 OF 
 
 SCHOOL GOVERNMENT 
 
 OPINIONS OK THE; 
 
 STATE SUPERINTENDENTS 
 
 OF WISCONSIN. 
 
 COMPILED BY 
 
 OLIVER E. WELLS. 
 
 MADISON, WISCONSIN: 
 
 DEMOCRAT PRINTING COMPANY, STATE PRINTER. 
 1894. 
 
Office of State Superintendent, 
 
 Madison, Wis., Dec. 22, 1894. 
 
 To the Legislature of Wisconsin: 
 
 Chapter 178, Laws of 1893, which appointed me a com- 
 missioner to prepare and submit, in the form of a bill, a 
 proposd revision of the school law, provided that the bill 
 should be accompanied by a report containing a statement 
 of the reasons for any proposed changes. 
 
 In accordance with these provisions I have the honor 
 to submit the following document, compiled from the re- 
 ports of former state superintendents, setting forth the 
 reasons for substituting the township unit of school gov- 
 erment for the independent district system. That part 
 of the bill which provides for the change is so far a new 
 statute that it must be considered independently upon its 
 merits. While retaining the essential features of the 
 present township law it aims to secure a more complete 
 and consistent system. 
 
 Changes in the laws relating to county superintendents, 
 e xaminations and certificates, and free high schools, are 
 indicated, with a brief statement of the reasons therefor. 
 
 OLIVER E. WELLS. 
 
INTRODUCTION. 
 
 That the common school is the most important factor in our 
 school system is a statement that needs no proof. It has been 
 affirmed by all who have thought deeply on school problems. 
 The proposal to substitute the town for the indefinite and ir- 
 regular territory known as the. school district as the unit of 
 the system has received the approval of every state superin- 
 tendent for thirty years. In the administration of school law 
 these men, with singular unanimity, have come to feel that 
 the obstacles that impede the progress and impair the useful- 
 ness of the wayside schools are insuperable. The school sys- 
 tem, like every other function of administration, should be 
 ecomomically administered, but it must be remembered that 
 the primal purpose in the establishment and maintenance of 
 common schools is not to save money to the taxpayers but to 
 extend the advantages of a common school education to every 
 child in the state. To plant and maintain schools so that no- 
 body shall be deprived of school privileges and the advantages 
 shall be as equally and as widely distributed as possible is the 
 purpose that ought to guide in the execution of the system. 
 That districts | will ever be formed or their boundaries read- 
 justed with reference to the larger interests of the schools as 
 a whole, or the convenience of individual pupils, under our 
 present system, I do not believe. 
 
 Our present districts were organized as the exigencies of 
 settlement seemed to demand. About these districts there 
 has grown up a local feeling that resists their abolition where 
 they have become wholly unnecessary and the readjustment of 
 boundaries where they have ceased to accommodate their res- 
 idents. Every proposition to effect either of these purposes is 
 contested by warring factions each of which is eager to length- 
 en its own cords and to strengthen its own stakes. These 
 
conflicts are seldom determined by the convenience of pupils 
 but almost invariably the important question is, can the dis- 
 trict afford to lose this source of taxation. Supervisors to 
 whom these questions are referred are rarely chosen because 
 of their knowledge of school affairs or on account of their sup- 
 posed fitness to discharge the duties of school officers. Not 
 unfrequently these officers refuse to readjust district bounda- 
 ries while admitting the equity of the cases referred to them, 
 and avow their unwillingness to incur the hostility of one or 
 another of the contending parties. 
 
 Under our present law each district is required to maintain 
 six months' school on penalty of losing its share in the bounty 
 of the state. Under its operation one district in a town must 
 do this on an assessed valuation of $4,000 while another in the 
 same town has an assessed valuation of $140,000. It is not 
 uncommon for the pro rata and the per capita tax to be ten 
 times as great in one district as it is in another of the same 
 town. 
 
 Nowit is submitted that there are very few setttled towns 
 in the sttif- that are not able, without oppressive taxation, to 
 give the advantages of a common school education to every 
 child in the town if the taxes can be borne equally and school- 
 houses can be located so as to do the "greatest good to the 
 greatest number." When the town bears the tax for the sup- 
 port of schools in common, those who occupy the poorer por- 
 tions of the town will claim and in the main will secure equal 
 advantages with those who live in the more prosperous por- 
 tions. There would then be no purpose in denying to families 
 the privilege of sending their children to the most accessible 
 schoolhonse. Petty strifes and neighborhood dissensions would 
 he less likely to control the action of boards representing the 
 entire town. 
 
 Every superintendent for thirty years has taken office with 
 the avowed purpose of improving the condition of the common 
 schools and every superintendent has failed in his purpose. 
 The fact remains that taken as a whole it is the judgment of 
 those best acquainted with the administration of our system 
 that the wayside school is not better today than it was thirty 
 years ago. Every other school agency has been greatly im- 
 
proved in that time. The fact that the common school has 
 not improved is prima facie evidence that the system itself 
 is defective. It is not claimed that the substitution of the 
 town for the district will obviate all difficulties that beset the 
 administration of our school system. No scheme of govern- 
 ment is perfect. The scheme hereby submitted would doubt- 
 less reveal imperfections in its administration, but it has been 
 submitted to the ablest teachers in the state and it is theii 
 unanimous judgment that its adoption and execution would 
 be a long step in advance in the management of the most im- 
 portant factor of our school system, and the most potent ele- 
 ment of our future well-being. 
 
THE TOWNSHIP SYSTEM OF HIGH SCHOOLS. 
 
 TOWNSHIP GOVERNMENT. 
 
 (From the Annual Report of Lyman 0. Draper, 1858.) 
 There is a revolution going on in our country regarding the 
 division of townships into geographical districts. The dis- 
 trict system has been so long in general use that the people 
 are slow to discover its inequalities and inconveniences, and 
 hesitate to make a change, even when convinced of a better ar- 
 rangement. That the township system of school government 
 has many and decided advantages over the old district plan, 
 let facts and experience testify: 
 
 "As a general fact," says Horace Mann, in his Tenth Annual 
 Report as Secretary of the Massachusetts Board of Education, 
 "the schools of undistricted towns are greatly superior to thos( 
 in districted towns; — and for obvious reasons. The first class 
 of towns, — the undistricted, — provide all the schoolhouses, and, 
 through the agency of the school committee, employ all the 
 teachers. If one good schoolhouse is provided for any section 
 of the town, all the other sections, having contributed their re- 
 spective portions of the expense to erect the good house, will 
 demand one equally good for themselves ; and the equity of 
 such a demand is so obvious that it cannot be resisted. If, on 
 the other hand, each section were a separate district, and 
 bound for the whole expense of a new house, if it should erect 
 one, it would be tempted to continue an old! house, long after 
 it had ceased to be comfortable ; and, indeed, as experience has 
 too often and sadly proved, long after it has ceased to be ten- 
 antable. So, too, in undistricted towns, we never see the pain- 
 ful, anti-republican contrast of one school, in one section, kept 
 all the year round, by a teacher who receives a hundred dollars 
 a month, while, in another section of the same town, the school 
 is kept on the minimum principle, both as to time and price, 
 
and, of course, yielding only a minimum amount of benefit,— 
 to say nothing of probable and irremediable evils, that it may 
 inflict In regard to supervision, also, if the school committee 
 are responsible for the condition of all the schools, they are 
 constrained to visit all alike, to care for all alike, and as far as 
 possible, to aim, in all, at the production of equal results; be- 
 cause any partiality or favoritism will be rebuked at the ballot- 
 box. In undistricted towns, therefore, three grand conditions 
 of a prosperous school, — viz., a good house, a good teacher, and 
 vigilant superintendence, — are secured by motives which do not 
 operate, or operate to a very limited extent, in districted towns. 
 Under the non-districting system, it is obvious that each section 
 of a town will demand at least an equal degree of accommoda- 
 tion in the house, of talent in the teacher, and of attention in 
 the committee; and, should any selfish feelings be indulged, It 
 is some consolation to reflect that they, too, will be harnessed 
 to the car of improvement. 
 
 "I consider the law of 1789, authorizing towns to divide them- 
 selves into districts, the most unfortunate law, on the subject 
 
 « 
 of common schools, ever enacted in the state. During the last 
 
 few years, several towns have abolished their districts, and as- 
 sumed the administration of their schools in the corporate ca- 
 pacity; and I learn, from the report of the school committees, 
 and from other sources, that many other towns are contemplat- 
 ing the same reform." 
 
 Speaking of Mr. Mann's opinion of the unfortunate law of 
 1789, authorizing the division of towns into districts, Rev. Dr. 
 Sears, Mr. Mann's successor as secretary of the Massachusetts 
 board of education, observes, in his report of 1850, "The just- 
 ness of the above observation is illustrated every day by the 
 evils which are forcing themselves upon the public attention 
 from every quarter." 
 
 Hon. H. H. Barney, in his report of 1855, as commissioner of 
 common schools of Ohio, gives the following synopsis of the 
 able argument of Dr. Sears, in favor of the township system, 
 and the evils incident to the old district plan: After explain- 
 ing at great length the nature of these evils, he sums up the 
 whole matter by saying that the schools ordinarily maintained 
 
9 
 
 in the districts into which, they are divided are no longer cap- 
 able of giving the education required by the character of the 
 times; that they preclude the introduction of a system of proper 
 gradation in the schools; that the classification of the pupils is 
 necessarily imperfect, and the number of classes altogether too 
 great for thorough instruction by a single teacher; the fact that 
 the district schools without any of the advantages of grada- 
 tion, once answered their purpose very well, does not prove 
 that we need nothing better now; that the old system is much 
 more expensive in proportion to what it accomplishes than the 
 other; that by means of it hundreds of schools are kept in oper- 
 ation, which would otherwise be abandoned, as they ought to 
 be; that in 1849 there were in Massachusetts 25 schools, whose 
 highest average attendance was only five pupils; 205, whose 
 highest average attendance was only ten ; 546, in which it was 
 only fifteen; 1,009, where it was only twenty; and 1,456, where 
 it was only twenty-five; that most of these schools were of so 
 low an order as not to deserve the name, and that the impres- 
 sion which they made upon the agents of the board of education 
 while visiting them was that the money of the districts, and the 
 time of the teachers and pupils were little better than wasted; 
 that while some schools thus gradually dwindled into compara- 
 tive insignificance and worthlessness, others became too large 
 for suitable instruction by one teacher; that another evil al- 
 most invariably resulting from the division of the townships 
 into independent school districts, was the unjust distinction 
 which it occasioned in the character of the schools, and in the 
 distribution of the school money; that when there was no re- 
 sponsible township school committee authorized to act in the 
 name of the township, there could not be that equality in the 
 schools which the law contemplated; that the inhabitants of 
 one district, being more intelligent and public spirited than 
 those of another, would have better schoolhouses, more com- 
 petent, zealous and devoted school directors, and consequently 
 better teachers and better schools ; that the smaller and more 
 retired districts, which stood in greatest need of good common 
 schools, because entirely dependent on them, were more likely 
 to languish for want of public spirit and good management 
 than to be prosperous; that inasmuch as the theory of popular 
 
10 
 
 education is founded upon the principle that the public security 
 requires the education of all the citizens, and that it is both 
 just and expedient to tax the property of the people for the edu- 
 cation of all the children of the people, and inasmuch as the 
 school tax is levied equally upon all parts of the township, and 
 as the object contemplated, which alone justifies such taxation, 
 is the education of the whole mass of the population, without 
 distinction, nothing short of an equal provision for all should 
 satisfy the public conscience. 
 
 With such facts and arguments presented and enforced, 
 through a series of years, by two of the most accomplished and 
 experienced friends of popular education in this country, — 
 Horace Mann and Dr. Sears — gentlemen who have carefully 
 observed, thoroughly studied and minutely noted the practical 
 workings of the various school systems of this country and of 
 Europe, the people became aroused at last to the importance 
 of the change which had been so ably advocated, and the utility 
 of which had been so completely demonstrated. 
 
 In a recent report of the secretary of the board of education 
 of Massachusetts, the following important statement is found, 
 viz.: 
 
 "A very considerable number of the townships have dropped 
 the former mode of dividing the schools according to districts, 
 and have placed the whole matter of their organization and 
 distribution in the hands of the school committee of the town- 
 ship. This change has already been made in about sixty town- 
 ships of the commonwealth, and the subject is now, more than 
 ever before, engaging the attention of other townships, so that 
 the year to come is likely to show greater results than any pre- 
 ceding year. The perceptible improvement of the schools in 
 those places which have made the change is an argument be* 
 fore which nothing can stand, and which is now acting upon the 
 minds of the people at large with silent but resistless power. 
 
 "The clear intelligence, steadiness and sobriety with which 
 the people are beginning to pursue their object, as contrasted 
 with the adventurous and uncertain efforts in the same direc- 
 tion in former years, is one of the many pleasing indications 
 that the days of turmoil and confusion in settling great ques- 
 tions of school policy are passing away, and a wise regard for 
 
11 
 
 the interests of posterity is becoming more and more controll- 
 ing in the management of this branch of our public interests. 
 It is hardly too much to say that, under the guidance of such 
 lofty sentiments, all the townships of the state will, within a 
 short period, be found adopting that policy in the management 
 of their public schools, which experience shows to be the best. 
 "The gradual abandonment of the district system as here 
 stated results in no small degree from its connection with an- 
 other measure, which has been regarded by the people with 
 great favor, namely, the gradation of the schools. The dis- 
 tricts are known to stand directly in the way of this improve- 
 ment, and are receiving judgment accordingly. It was not un- 
 til somewhat recently that a subject so important, so funda- 
 mental as that of establishing schools of different grades, for 
 pupils of different ages and attainments, received much consid- 
 eration from those who alone possessed the power to make the 
 change. Distinguished men had written on tne subject, and 
 those who had studied the philosophy of education were gen- 
 erally agreed in respect to it. But it was known chiefly as a 
 theory passing, in only a few instances, except in the cities, 
 from the closet to the schoolroom. By degrees the results of 
 these few experiments became known. Measures were taken 
 to communicate them to the people, the majority of whom were 
 still without any definite information on the subject. From 
 this time a course of action commenced in the townships which 
 were favorably situated for trying the experiment and has been 
 followed up with increasing vigor ever since. 
 
 "But what particularly distinguishes the present state of edu- 
 cation amongst us from that of former times is the existence of 
 so many free high schools. Until quite recently such schools 
 were found only in a few large towns. The idea of a free edu- 
 cation did not generally extend beyond that given in the ordi- 
 nary district schools. All higher education was supposed to be 
 a privilege which each individual should purchase at his own 
 expense. But at length the great idea of providing by law for 
 the education of the people in a higher grade of public schools 
 prevailed. The results have been most happy. High schools 
 have sprung up rapidly in all parts of the commonwealth; and 
 
12 
 
 within the last six years the number has increased from 
 scarcely more than a dozen to about eighty. 
 
 "The effect of this change in the school system, of this higher 
 order of schools, in developing the intellect of the common- 
 wealth, in opening channels of free communication between all 
 the more flourishing towns of the state, and the colleges or 
 schools of science, is just beginning to be observed. They dis- 
 cover the treasures of native intellect that lie hidden among 
 the people; bringing those who are by nature destined to pub- 
 lic service, to institutions suited to foster their talents; giving 
 a new impulse to the colleges, not only by swelling the number 
 of their students, but by raising the standard of excellence in 
 them, and finally, giving to the public, with all the advantages 
 of education, men who otherwise might have remained in ob- 
 scurity, or have acted their part struggling with embarrass- 
 ments and difficulties." 
 
 Hon. G-eo. S . Boutwell, the present secretary of the board of 
 education of Massachusetts, remarks in the Twentieth Annual 
 Report: "In many districts the number of pupils is too small 
 to constitute a good school. This evil was fully discussed by 
 Dr. Sears, in the Sixteenth Annual Report of the Secretary 
 of the Board of Education. The evil, however, continues, with- 
 out much alteration for the better; nor is there great hope of 
 improvement while the present system remains. A district, 
 however small it may be, is anxious to preserve its existence, 
 and especially unwilling to be united with, or merged in a 
 larger one. As the district provides its own house, the town 
 is comparatively without interest in the matter, and therefore 
 is slow to exercise its power. Hence the district for genera- 
 tions is allowed to continue a small school, comparatively val- 
 ueless under the most favorable circumstances, in charge, prob- 
 ably, of a cheap, and necessarily incompetent teacher, in a 
 house entirely unfit for the custody, to say nothing of the edu- 
 cation of children. ]S T ow transfer the support of the school- 
 houses to the town, and at once a general interest takes the 
 place of local custom or prejudice, and small schools are abol- 
 ished as far as is consistent with the public convenience, and 
 the erection of one suitable house is likely to be followed by a 
 
13 
 
 successful, because just, demand for equal accommodations for 
 all." 
 
 A similar change from the old system to the new, is slowly 
 progressing in Connecticut. Eeferring to an enactment au- 
 thorizing and facilitating this change, the superintendent, in a 
 recent report, remarks: "Among the objects proposed to be 
 accomplished by this act are, to simplify the machinery of the 
 system, by committing to the hands of one board of school of- 
 ficers what is now divided between three; to equalize the ad- 
 vantages of the schools, by abolishing the present district lines, 
 and placing all the schools under one committee, thereby also 
 facilitating the gradation of schools and the proper classifica- 
 tion of scholars, and the establishment of schools of a higher 
 grade in towns containing a sparse population, and substitut- 
 ing a simpler and more efficient organization." 
 
 Hon. Caleb Mills, when superintendent of public instruction 
 of Indiana, declared in his report of 1855 that the township 
 feature of the school law of that state was "one of the crown- 
 ing excellences of the system." Hon. Henry C. Hickok, the su- 
 perintendent of public instruction of Pennsylvania, remarked 
 to me in conversation, "The crowning glory of the Pennsylvania 
 school system, in addition to its county superintendency, is its 
 new township plan of government, and the consequent avoid- 
 ance of the ensmalling of districts." 
 
 - As Indiana has faithfully tried both systems, and is a sister 
 state of the great northwest, I shall freely cite the results of 
 its township experience, as contrasted with the old district 
 plan: 
 
 "Under the old district system," says Hon. W. C. Larrabee, 
 in his report as superintendent of public instruction in that 
 state, in 1852, "heretofore in use in this state, and until lately 
 in all the eastern states, serious inconveniencs, and sometimes 
 insurmountable difficulties could but exist. I myself came 
 near being wholly cheated out of an education by this most 
 injudicious and iniquitous system. The township was mapped 
 off into districts by geographical lines. The district boundar- 
 ies could not be passed. A family must send only to the school 
 to which they might be geographically assigned, though a 
 swamp or a river be in the way, though unluckily they might 
 
14 
 
 live on the very frontiers of Ike district, and there might be in 
 another district a schoolhouse provokingly near them. 
 
 "Under our present system these districts are utterly abol- 
 ished. Each civil township forms a corporation for school 
 purposes. The township trustees are authorized and required 
 to establish, and conveniently locate in the township a suf- 
 ficient number of schools for the education of all the children 
 therein.' Each family may send to any school in the township 
 most convenient or agreeable. Whenever any person can be 
 more conveniently accommodated at the school of some adjoin- 
 ing township, or even in an adjoining county, than in his own 
 township or county, he is at liberty to make his own selection 
 and attend where he pleases. 
 
 "This repudiation of arbitrary district lines, and this liberty 
 to the family of choosing a school according to its own conven- 
 ience and pleasure, is one of the most admirable features of our 
 system. It gives, wherever it has been put in practice, un- 
 bounded satisfaction. It only needs, in order to become uni- 
 versally popular, to be understood in its practical advantages. 
 One of the committee who reported the law last winter, a gen- 
 tleman whose services and experience in the cause of education 
 render his opinions of great weight, thus writes to me of the 
 operation of this principle in his own county: 'The people 
 express much satisfaction at the provision of the new law, 
 which enables them to make their own selection of schools un- 
 restrained by geographical lines. A few days ago I met a 
 farmer, whose name had by accident been omitted in our enu- 
 meration. I requested him to give me the number of his chil- 
 dren, which he said he would do, as it might be of some ad- 
 vantage to us, although it was of no use to him. I asked him, 
 why? He said the school in his own district was so remote, 
 and the road so difficult, that he had altogether given up send- 
 ing his children. I told him that districts no longer existed, 
 that he could send his children, without charge, to any public 
 school he might select. On this his countenance directly 
 brightened up. 'Well,' said he, 'there is sense in that. I shall 
 send my children tomorrow.' Another venerable man, nearly 
 seventy years old, as he was paying his tax yesterday to the 
 treasurer, said, T have been paying a heavy school tax for sev- 
 
15 
 
 eral years and have derived no benefit therefrom.' I asked Mm, 
 why? He answered, 'I reside in a remote part of the school 
 district. It is utterly impracticable for me to send to our 
 schoolhouse. There is a schoolhouse in an adjoining township 
 close at hand, but I have no right to its privileges.' I told him 
 that senseless obstacle had been removed under our new sys- 
 tem. He could now send to school, if more convenient, in an 
 adjoining township, or even in an adjoining county. 'Well/ 
 said he, 'I shall hereafter derive some benefit from the school 
 system.' Wherever this principle is understood by the people 
 it is popular." 
 
 "In such a territory as ours, in many parts nearly roadless, 
 and intersected by bridgeless streams, and in some of the north- 
 ern counties obstructed in communication by impassable 
 swamps, such a system is the only one promising any s access. 
 It is indeed strange that the people have so long submitted to 
 the district system, so replete with inequalities, injustice and 
 inconveniences and so deficient in redeeming qualities. So 
 true it is, that we often remain, for a long time, unaware of the 
 serious inconvenience and injury we suffer from imperfections 
 and abuses to which we are accustomed. But when the remedy 
 is discovered, and the corrective applied, we wonder how we 
 could so long overlook so simple a remedy for so serious evils." 
 
 "Indiana," says Larrabee, in his report of 1853, "was the first 
 state to abolish the old district system. But not the last. 
 Ohio has followed in her footsteps. Massachusetts is prepar- 
 ing to follow, and in a few years the township system will be 
 the rule, and the district system only the exception in more 
 than half the states of the union. It is conceded on all hands 
 that this system will, in the end, when fully developed, work 
 out the most favorable results. It is the only system by which 
 we can make any tolerable approach to equality in educational 
 advantages for all parts of the state." 
 
 "Unequal burdens and unequal privileges," says Hon. Caleb 
 Mills, of Indiana, in his report as superintendent of public in- 
 struction in January, 1857, "in the same township cease to vex 
 and annoy. These sources of complaint and dissatisfaction will 
 be dried up and these inseparable concomitants of the district 
 feature will be numbered among the things that were and are 
 
16 
 
 not. The superiority of the present over the former system, in 
 the equity of its requisitions, is very striking and manifest. 
 Under the former system districts in the same township, hav- 
 ing an equal number of children, and consequently needing 
 schoolhouses of similar size and accommodations, would be very 
 unequally taxed to erect these structures. The property in 
 one district would not be assessed for this purpose more than 
 fifteen cents on the hundred dollars, while the wealth in the 
 other must respond to the demand of not less than three times 
 that amount. Is that right, equitable, and in accordance with 
 the principle that demands equality of assessment for general 
 interests and common benefits, in the same corporation? 
 Should such a gross inequality of burdens be tolerated any 
 longer? Should neighbors living in daily intercourse with each 
 other be subject to such unrighteous levies? The present sys- 
 tem protects us against all such inequitable assessments, and 
 provides that each district shall have, at the common expense 
 of the township, a comfortable, commodious and tasteful house, 
 whose associations shall be pleasant and instructive. Such is 
 the contrast, in reference to equality of burdens, presented by 
 the past and present educational codes of Indiana. 
 
 " An inequality of privilege, equally gross and manifest, 
 existed under the old district system, which disappears by the 
 operation of the township principle. Districts of equal geo- 
 graphiccal area in the same corporation will often be exceed- 
 ingly diverse in comparative population at different periods of 
 their history. One may have twenty-five, another fifty, a third 
 seventy-five, and a fourth one hundred pupils. On the district 
 system the educational funds were necessarily distributed on 
 the per capita basis. These funds, converted into tui- 
 tion, would be represented by one, two, three or four 
 months' instruction. Should friends, perhaps even 
 brothers, living in the adjacent angles of the aforesaid 
 districts, be subject to such an inequitable participation 
 of a common patrimony? Should the children of these 
 families be so equally cared for by her who claims the name 
 and assumes to be their educational foster-mother? Such 
 palpable injustice was the inevitable result, the legitimate 
 sequence of the district system. Weak districts seemed only 
 
17 
 
 the weaker by contrast with the adjacent strong ones. "What 
 could be more annoying to those thus situated in the same 
 township, citizens of the minature republic, where we fiirst 
 begin to govern ourselves politically, where we first 
 awakened those official aspirations which extend, perhaps, 
 through a series of coveted elevations till they culminate in the 
 presidency. It has existed, still exists, is deplored and 
 lamented elsewhere. Our own experience attests the reality 
 of the evil. Various prescriptions have been suggested for 
 the disease, termed weak districts, by distinguished physicians, 
 but the honor of discovering an effectual remedy for this wasting 
 malady belongs to the Indiana faculty, who have nobly made it 
 patent to the world. It is found in the 27th section of our revised 
 school law, and reads thus: The schools in each township 
 shall be taught an equal length of time, without regard to the 
 diversity in the number of pupils in the several schools. 
 It just meets the exigencies of the case, and will prove an 
 effectual and permanent correction of the aforesaid evil. It 
 is preeminently wise, just and honorable, for it secures an 
 equitable participation of the educational provisions furnished 
 by the state, as completely as human wisdom and sagacity 
 could devise. It involves no injustice in the operation, for the 
 commonwealth, pledged by her fundamental law to educate 
 all her youth, as a wise and judicious parent, provides for the 
 training of the twenty-five of one district, and the seventy-five 
 of another, during an equal period of time. If she can give 
 them only six months tuition annually, none, enjoying that 
 amount of instruction, are wronged, because others, numerically 
 less, receive a similar favor. It is not money that the state 
 proposes to give her youths. It is something better, more 
 enduring, and pertaining to both worlds, mental and moral cult 
 ure. This she designs to distribute equally, and, by the afore- 
 said provision, effects as nearly as human ingenuity will 
 admit." 
 
 Hon. H. H. Barney, in his report as commissioner of the 
 common schools of Ohio, in 1855, remarks of the school law 
 of that state of 1853, that it " constitutes each and every 
 organized township in the state but one school district for 
 all purposes connected with the general interests of education 
 
18 
 
 in the township, and confides its management and control 
 to a board of education. The law also contains provisions for 
 introducing a system of graded schools in every city, town, 
 incorporated village and township in the state. In accordance 
 with the same principles, and for the purpose of accomplishing 
 the same benificent object, the legisature of Indiana, in 1852, 
 enacted a school law abolishing all the school districts, and 
 declaring each civil township in the several counties a town- 
 ship, for school purposes, and the trustees for such township, 
 trustees for school purposes, and that the board of trustees 
 shall take charge of the educational affairs of the township, 
 employ teachers, establish and conveniently locate a sufficient 
 number of schools for the education of the children therein, 
 and t^at they may also establish graded schools, or such 
 modifications of them as may be practicable. 
 
 "Whatever diversity of opinion may exist among education- 
 ists, as to the best manner of constituting township boards of 
 education, there can be but one opinion as to the propriety of 
 having a township school organization. Facts, experiments, 
 the observations and opinions of those competent to judge, 
 have fully settled the matter. It is not, however, so clearly 
 determined whether the school committees or boards of educa- 
 tion of townhips should consist of three or six persons; one- 
 third to be elected and the other third to go out of office annu- 
 ally; or whether they should be elected by the townships at 
 large, or by the subdistricts. ~Nor is the principle fully settled, 
 whether a township should be divided, for certain specific pur- 
 poses, into subdistricts or not. But it is fully settled that 
 if a township is thus divided, the lines of the subdistricts 
 should not in the least interfere with the proper classification, 
 gradation and supervision of its schools. 
 
 "It is thought by some that to provide the same amount of 
 means and facilities for educating those who reside in the 
 poorer and less populous portions of a township, as for those in 
 the wealthier and more thickly settled portions, would deprive 
 the latter of their rights; just as if the taxes for the support 
 of schools were levied upon subdistricts, and not upon the 
 state and townships. 
 "If all the property of the state and of the townships is 
 
19 
 
 taxed alike for the purpose of educating the youth of the 
 state, there is no principle plainer than that all should share 
 equally, so far as practicable, in the benefits of the fund thus 
 raised, whether they reside in sparse or populous neighbor- 
 hoods." 
 
 I trust I have adduced an array of facts, experiences, and 
 authorities that are well calculated to carry great weight with 
 them. Suppose, then, the county superintendency, and county 
 examining board, should be adopted, and the district system 
 abolished, what would be the necessary township school offi- 
 cers? A town superintendent, a town school treasurer, and a 
 town school clerk, would be sufficient, and would form the 
 town board of education; at the first election, the clerk to be 
 chosen for one year, the treasurer for two and the superintend- 
 ent for three years, and thereafter each officer for three years, 
 thus giving experience and stability to the board. They should 
 have the entire control of the schoolhouses, their sites, erec- 
 tion, repairs, supply of fuel, etc.; should personally attend the 
 examinations of the county examining board in their town, 
 and acquaint themselves with the scholastic fitness and qualifi- 
 cations of the several teachers who should obtain certificates, 
 so as to judge their respective adaptations to the several 
 schools for which they would be employed, and to which 
 assigned; and the town board should alone employ the teachers 
 for all the schools of the town. They should also serve as 
 overseers or inspectors of the schools, and unite with the 
 county superintendent in his visitations of the schools of the 
 town ; and have the control of the township school library. 
 They should make the annual report of the statistics and con- 
 dition of the schools of the town to the county superintendent, 
 and furnish any educational information desired of them by 
 either the state or county superintendent. Appeals from their 
 action should be the privilege of any person or persons 
 aggrieved, to the county superintendent, if made within a 
 reasonable time; and also from the action or decision of the 
 county superintendent to the state superintendent. 
 
 Such a system of township school government, with the 
 
20 
 
 abrogation of the district system, would produce, among oth- 
 ers, the following beneficial results, viz. : 
 
 1. The provision of the constitution of our state, which 
 requires " the establishment of district schools as nearly uni- 
 form as practicable," would, by constituting the township as 
 the district, be more fairly carried out; and hence the state 
 school fund income would be much more equally distributed 
 than it now is. 
 
 2. Taxation for school purposes would be better equalized, 
 for, under the present district system, the people of some dis- 
 tricts, owing to the smallness of both their numbers and tax- 
 able property, pay two or three times as much as their neigh- 
 boring wealthier districts, and get no more — often much less 
 in quantity and value, for it; and in joint districts, the several 
 parts composing them, are, from the necessity of the case, 
 very unequally taxed. 
 
 3. All the primary schools of the town would be held the 
 same length of time, thus producing an equality of school priv- 
 ileges which does not, and cannot, exist under the old district 
 plan; for instance are not wanting in our state, where the poor 
 and weak district, with great difficulty, and heavy taxation, 
 manages to maintain three months' school, and that kept by 
 a cheap and perhaps almost worthless teacher; while the 
 adjoining wealthy district, with comparatively light taxation, 
 easily sustains a ten months' school, with an able and success- 
 ful teacher. This is exceedingly unequal, and bears heavily 
 and unjustly on the poor, and fails to carry out the heavenly 
 injunction, "Bear ye one another's burdens." 
 
 4. By the township plan there would be a juster distrib- 
 tion and equalization of teachers, suitable to the several local- 
 ities ; and less of the favoritism practised, as under the present 
 district system, in employing relatives to teach the schools — for 
 in a town board of only three members, there would be less 
 opportunity of practising it than by the present half a dozen 
 to a dozen district boards in the town. 
 
 5. There would be more uniformity and adaptation in school- 
 houses; for they would be built economically, by the lowest 
 
21 
 
 and best bidder, and not, as is now too often the case, by one 
 or more members of the district board, on pretty much his or 
 their own terms; and such localities as now neglect to provide 
 good, comfortable schoolhouses, would have them provided for 
 them, and the children of such stingy, miserly souls would no 
 longer suffer for a suitable place in which to acquire an educa- 
 tion, which would be worth vastly more to them than all the 
 wealth, without it, which their ignorant and niggardly parents 
 could ever heap together. 
 
 6. It would not only be a far better, but a far cheaper sys- 
 tem to maintain, lopping off the weak, inefficient and worthless 
 schools, and dividing the larger and unwieldy ones; lessening 
 the number of officers, as the town board of three officers would 
 perform all the necessary school duties of the town, and do 
 it cheaper and better than the half a dozen or more local boards 
 of at least sis times as many officers; and instead of selecting 
 eighteen or more persons in a township, as is now the case, 
 for these local boards, the people would select three of the 
 very best and most efficient for the town board. Here would 
 be a great saving of expense, and the objects sought more 
 equally obtained, better in quality, and far more useful to the 
 people. 
 
 7. By abrogating the district and joint district system, we 
 should be doing away at once with one of the most fruitful 
 sources of troubles, wranglings, contentions, and petty jeal- 
 ousies, incident to the district system ; and would, at the same 
 time, put an end to the greatest bane of the system, the con- 
 stant ensmalling of districts, to gratify whims and caprices, 
 and oftentimes to adjust an angry controversy, thus steadily 
 lessening the ability of such dismembered districts to either 
 employ a good teacher or maintain a school even the legal 
 requirement of three months. 
 
 8. It would give to the people all over the state the perfect 
 freedom, while taxed in their own town, to send their children 
 to any public school, without regard to district, township, or 
 county lines — thus, in the enlightened spirit of progressive 
 legislation, doing away with an oppressive restriction already 
 too long and too patiently borne by the people, which has 
 
22 
 
 only been productive of inconvenience, injustice and inequality, 
 and deprived many a worthy tax-paying family of invaluable 
 school privileges. 
 
 9. And lastly, but not least in importance, while the pri- 
 mary schools generally cannot well be graded, and but little 
 effected in the way of properly classifying the pupils ; yet, under 
 the township system, each town containing a specific number 
 of inhabitants, or a certain amount of taxable property, or both, 
 could have its central graded high school, free to all of a cer- 
 tain age, say between ten or twelve and twenty years of age 
 — this central school to be kept in session at least ten months 
 in each year. With such a graded school in each town, for the 
 more advanced youth, the accruing benefits would be of so 
 decided and general a character, that the plan could not but 
 meet with universal favor. 
 
23 
 
 TOWNSHIP DISTRICT SYSTEM. 
 
 (From the Annual Eeport of J. L. Pickard, for the year 1863.) 
 For several years in succession the State Teachers' Associa- 
 tion has discussed the subject of the Township District System 
 of Schools. The wishes of the association are expressed in the 
 report and resolutions given above. 
 
 The subjoined letter is presented as a petition to the legis- 
 lature made through me by the committee of the association. 
 
 Horicon, December 12, 1863. 
 Hon. J. L. Pickard, Superintendent of Public Instruction, Wis. 
 
 The committee of the State Teachers' Association, on the 
 "Bevision of the School law," desire to call your attention 
 to the following facts in regard to the introduction of the 
 township system of common schools into our state. 
 
 You will allow us to state, (as of course you are aware,) 
 that the state superintendents, yourself included, both in their 
 public addresses, and reports, for the last eight years, unhes- 
 itatingly recommended the system. The State Teachers' Asso- 
 ciation, at most of its sessions for the last seven years, has 
 unanimously adopted resolutions to the same effect. At 
 Teachers' Institutes, and other educational gatherings, the sub- 
 ject has continually been discussed, and we think in every 
 case with a like result. 
 
 Wherever the system has been adopted in the United States 
 and Canadas we think that in no important case has it been 
 rejected; but, on the contrary, is looked upon by educational 
 classes as a most important and necessary step in educational 
 advancement. We think that this accumulated evidence ought 
 to inspire us with confidence to move forward; we think that 
 the times are propitious, and especially that the association 
 demands of us action. There are great improvements being 
 made in the education of teacher, in the government, class- 
 ification, gradation, and instruction of our schools, and in 
 their visitation and examination, that seem necessarily to 
 await and demand this improvement in our general school 
 system. 
 
 As you, sir, by virtue of your office, and general influence, 
 
24 
 
 necessarily occupy the most convenient approach to the legisla- 
 ture, and as we know your interest in the matter, we wish to 
 act through you, and hereby cheerfully offer any aid in our 
 power to further the cause. 
 
 Yours sincerely, 
 (Signed) A. PICKETT, 
 
 J. B. PEATT, 
 CHAS. H. ALLEN, 
 Committee of Association. 
 
 I take pleasure in presenting this matter to the candid con- 
 sideration of your honorable body, and in support of its claims 
 offer the following article prepared by my assistant, Mr A. J. 
 Craig, who has given the matter much careful study, and most 
 heartily indorse the argument he uses in favor of the system. 
 
 That the county superintendency is a step in advance, a 
 great improvement upon the town superintendent system, is 
 generally acknowledged by those best acquainted with the 
 operation of both agencies; but many sincere friends of popular 
 education regret the loss of the local officer, who when capable 
 and faithful, effected so much in a direction in which the 
 county superintendent is able to do but little — the visitation 
 and supervision of schools; and, so much is this loss felt that, 
 in certain localities, isome are advocating a return of the former 
 order of things, even at the sacrifice of the county superin- 
 tendency. Believing that such a step would be a retrograde 
 one, and that it is entirely' unnecessary, I shall proceed to indi- 
 cate what I conceive to be a better method of securing efficient 
 local supervision of schools, without sacrificing the fruit of 
 years of earnest effort, the county superintendency. We need 
 not only efficient supervision, but a complete and harmonious 
 system to supervise. 
 
 As our schools are organized at present, no system of super- 
 vision can be really effective in securing unity of plan, and sys- 
 tematic development of that plan in our educational work. 
 Each school district is a separate, independent republic, 
 accountable to no higher authority, and dependent upon none, 
 except in the matter of the examination of teachers, and the 
 annual receipt and expenditure of a very small amount of 
 
25 
 
 money. We call the aggregation of agencies through which 
 we educate our children a school system, when, in point of 
 fact, there is no vital legal connection between these separate 
 agencies, and there is not a school established by law within 
 the state. Not only is the kind of school, and the time it shall 
 continue, dependent upon the vote of a majority of the res- 
 idents of the district, but one more than half of the legal voters, 
 a bare majority, can prevent the establishment of a school at 
 all. Again, while in one district, in consequence of the intelli- 
 gence and wealth of the people, a good, graded school may be 
 maintained ten months each year, in an adjoining district, on 
 account of the absence of intelligence, and the poverty of the 
 people, a miserable apology for a school, in which only the sim- 
 plest rudiments of an English education are taught, is main- 
 tained for three or four months only. 
 
 Now no system of supervision, be it ever so good, can remedy 
 the above mentioned evils, and others inherent in our system. 
 What we need is, the abolishment of the separate district sys- 
 tem, and the establishment of the township system of school 
 organization and government. 
 
 In this system each town constitutes a district, and all mat- 
 ters pertaining to the schools are under the direction of a 
 board elected by the various subdistricts. The secretary of 
 this board takes the place of the old town superintendent, 
 visits and supervises the schools, grades them, assists the 
 teachers in classifying the pupils, etc.; in a word, is the effi- 
 cient agent of the town board, and the necessary connecting 
 link between the county superintendent and the schools. 
 Taxes for the support of schools would, under this system, be 
 levied upon the town as a whole; and every individual would 
 pay an equal share of such taxes in proportion to the amount 
 of property owned by him. 
 
 Further details of the system will be given in connection 
 with what follows. The advantages of this system are many 
 and evident. 
 
 1. As each town forms a school district, and each parent 
 would be permitted to send his children to the school which 
 best accommodated them, all the expense, trouble and ill feel- 
 
26 
 
 ing, consequent upon the frequent changes in the boundaries 
 of districts, would he entirely avoided. 
 
 2. Schoolhouses would he built when and where they were 
 needed. Many districts are now compelled to suffer, year after 
 year, all the inconvenience and loss occasioned by the use of 
 a small, badly constructed, ill-arranged house, because of diffi- 
 culties concerning the site, or the indisposition of the voters 
 to furnish the means to erect a new building. Under the town- 
 ship system these difficulties would be avoided, as the board, 
 composed of delegates from all parts of the town, would not 
 be likely to be influenced by local disputes in reference to the 
 site for a house, but would locate it at such a point as would 
 best accommodate those for whom it was selected; and as the 
 funds for building the house would be drawn from the whole 
 town, the tax upon each individual would be so small as not to 
 be in the least burdensome, and there would be no necessty 
 for delay. 
 
 3. Schools can be graded more easily under the township 
 than under the separate district system. The districts, as now 
 organized, as a general rule, are too feeble in numbers and 
 wealth to maintain more than one department; and the law of 
 1858, permitting districts to unite for high school purposes 
 has been entirely inoperative, no action having been taken 16y 
 any district in accordance with its provisions. The summer 
 schools, in the country especially, are primary schools in most 
 respects, while the winter schools embrace all grades of pupils 
 from the primary to the grammar or high school. This con- 
 dition of things necessitates the employment of better educated, 
 more experienced teachers during the winter term, at a cost 
 for their services of about double the amount paid for the same 
 length of time in the summer; while there is not, on an average, 
 more than a dozen children in each district whose capacity, 
 advancement, or range of studies demands a better or more 
 costly teacher than the one employed during the summer: and 
 thus the education of these few costs the district the difference 
 between the wages paid in summer and winter, amounting, 
 for a four months' school, to from thirty to sixty dollars. 
 Now if there were, within the reach of the larger class of pupils 
 in three or four districts, a school of a higher grade, to which 
 
27 
 
 they could all have access, the winter school in their respective 
 districts could be continued as a primary or intermediate 
 school, under the charge of the same teacher employed in the 
 summer; and one higher grade teacher would suffice for several 
 districts. By this arrangement all the pupils in a town would 
 be divided into two grades, at a cost for tuition not greater 
 than now incurred; and the total additional expense would be 
 measured by the cost of erecting a sufficient number of build- 
 ings to accommodate the higher grade of pupils. In many 
 instances, by a proper arrangement of the terms of schools, the 
 houses already erected would serve for both grades of pupils. 
 In some district, in which the house is so situated as to be 
 easy of access to the larger scholars in several surrounding 
 districts, let there be a term of school commencing so soon as 
 the ground is settled and the weather pleasant in the spring, 
 and continuing to the first of July; and a fall term commencing 
 about the middle of August and continuing till the middle of 
 November, thus affording the primary pupils six months or 
 more of uninterrupted school during the most pleasant season 
 of the year, which would be far more beneficial to them, 
 intellectually and physically, than the usual summer 
 and winter terms, with the extremes of warm and 
 cold weather, producing sickness, tardiness and 
 irregularity of attendance, and thus wasting a good share of 
 the money expended. The winter term could then be devoted 
 entirely to the grammar or higher grade scholars, who, under 
 a competent, instructor, whose whole time was given to them 
 and their studies, would make as much progress in one term as 
 they now do, in the mixed schools, in two or more. Again, 
 whenever a new schoolhouse is to be built, its location, size, and 
 internal arrangements can all be adapted to the new order of 
 things, so that, in process of time, without any violent changes, 
 or any appreciable increase of expense, the facilities for main- 
 taining graded schools can be established throughout the state. 
 4. Better supervision of the schools. The county superintend- 
 ent, though exercising a general supervision over all the schools 
 in his county is entirely unable to give, to each schoool, that 
 personal attention necessary to obtain a complete knowledge 
 
28 
 
 of its. condition and wants ; and some of the most active and 
 efficient superintendents nave felt the need of a local officer, 
 to cooperate with and aid them in effecting improvements in 
 the arrangement and management of the schools. As before 
 stated, the secretary of the town board will be the proper per- 
 son to have the immediate supervision of the schools, and will 
 have power, under the direction of the board, to grade and 
 arrange them, suggest and enforce rules for their management 
 and governmnt, and advise with and assist teachers in- all 
 cases in which advice and assistance are needed. He should 
 be appointed by the board, and he may be one of their mem- 
 bers, or not, so that the best person to fill the place is selected. 
 
 We should thus secure all the advantages of the town, super- 
 intendent system without losing any of the benefits resulting 
 from the establishment of the county superintendency. 
 
 5. Economy of administration. All the expenses now 
 incurred in organizing new districts, and in changing the 
 boundaries of old ones, would be saved. Each child being per- 
 mitted to attend school which best accommodated him, and 
 the amount of tax which each person would pay being the same, 
 no matter in what sub-district he resided, there would be no 
 reason for altering districts; consequently very few changes 
 would be made, and those few would be easily effected, and 
 attended with little or no expense. Again, the liability to a 
 loss of moneys is in proportion to the number of hands through 
 which' they pass, and it is no wonder that, with nearly five 
 thousand disbursing officers, there is a good deal of waste 
 of district funds every year. 
 
 Under the township system the financial affairs of all the 
 schools in a town being managed by the same board, one treas- 
 urer would be sufficient, and, in order not to multiply officers, 
 the town treasurer, who now collects and receives all the school 
 moneys belonging to his town, might be the treasurer of the 
 board, and upon the order of its secretary, countersigned by 
 the president, could pay out such moneys, when needed. Thus 
 the number of disbursing officers would be reduced from nearly 
 five thousand, to less than eight hundred, and besides the dim- 
 inished liability to loss on account of the decrease in the num- 
 ber of disbursing officers, the expense incurred in executing 
 
29 
 
 nearly two thousand treasurers' bonds each year would be 
 saved. 
 
 6. Better accommodation of the people. Under the present 
 system it is necessary to organize districts in such a form as 
 to secure a certain amount of taxable property in order to sup- 
 port a school, and thus it often happens that a person resides 
 in one district while the greater part of his property is situated 
 in another; and many live in close proximity to houses to which 
 they would be glad to send their children, but, because they 
 live in a different district, they are obliged to send them to 
 schools kept in houses remote from them, and dfficult of 
 access. Again, it often happens that a populous district, 
 possesses a small, badly arranged house, while an adjoining 
 district, with few scholars, has a large and convenient one; 
 yet the children of the populous district cannot attend the 
 school in the other one without the payment of a tuition fee, 
 or a change in the boundaries of their district, involving time, 
 expense, and often an appeal to the state superintendent. 
 Under the township system this would all be changed, as it 
 would be for the interest of every person to have the number 
 of pupils in each school proportioned to the size of the house, 
 and its power to accommodate them. 
 
 There would also be an equality of privileges in the differ- 
 ent districts, as, the schools being supported by a general tax, 
 justice would require that they be maintained an equal length 
 of time throughout the town, and we should not see, as we 
 now do, so great a disparity in school privileges in adjoining 
 districts. I '■!' | N 
 
 Free schools are founded upon the principle that it is the 
 duty of the state to see that the children within its limits are 
 educated. To this end, a generous public fund is provided, and 
 the people are yearly taxed to support the system; yet the 
 kind and amount of instruction given to children Of different 
 districts depend entirely upon influences which the law does 
 not seek to guide or control. Now common sense and justice 
 demand, that wherever children enough to organize a school 
 are found, one should be established, with all the means and 
 appliances necessary to secure the result desired, the proper 
 education of the children attending it. 
 
30 
 
 7. Employment of teachers. It being the special duty of 
 the secretary of the town board to visit the schools, become 
 acquainted with their condition and wants, the capacity, tact 
 and success of the different teachers, he would be better qual- 
 ified to select the person suited to each school than nine-tenths 
 of the district clerks under the present system possibly can 
 be; thus better teachers would be employed— that is, teachers 
 better adapted to their positions — and they would not be 
 changed each term, as they now are, but would remain in one 
 school so long as they were successful in their work. 
 
 Incompetent and unsuccessful teachers would be sifted out, 
 the standard of attainments of all those employed would be 
 gradually and surely raised, and consequent progress of the 
 schools would be certain and uninterrupted. 
 
 The new system of examination by the county superintend- 
 ent has done much to elevate the standard of attainments, 
 and weed out unsuccessful teachers, but, inasmuch as an exam- 
 ination in regard to scholarship is not always a true test of 
 the qualifications of an applicant, and as it is not possible for 
 the county superintendent to give that personal attention to 
 each school necessary to enable him to judge correctly in 
 regard to the skill and faithfulness of the teacher, many per- 
 sons are still employed who have no real fitness for their posi- 
 tion, and who are retained through favoritism or indifference 
 on the part of those by whom they are engaged. Such persons 
 would be quietly dropped from the list of teachers, and would 
 engage in other pursuits, or, by the use of proper means, become 
 fitted for the responsible positions of instructors of youth. 
 
 I have thus presented some of the main points in which it 
 is believed that the township system is superior to the present 
 district system, and it only remains to notice some of the 
 objections urged to it by those who object to change, or who 
 are satisfied with the system as it is. 
 
 The first objection is to the raising of taxes for the support 
 of schools by the town at large. Looking at the matter from 
 a personal standpoint, many think a general tax would be 
 unjust to different localities, for the reason that the children 
 of school age are not proportioned to the valuation of property, 
 and thus a wealthy district, with few children, would pay 
 
31 
 
 for the education of children residing in other districts. This 
 objection is the same one so often urged against free schools 
 by the childless capitalist, the wealthy tax-payer whose chil- 
 dren were already educated, " I ought not to pay for educating 
 my neighbor's children." As before stated, free schools are 
 established on the assumption that " the property of the state 
 shall educate the children of the state," and consistency 
 requires that the details of the system shall be so arranged 
 as to carry out this fundamental principle. "What justice is 
 there in requiring that a specified portion of territory shall fur- 
 nish the means to educate the children residing therein, so 
 long as you withhold from its tax-payers the power to decide 
 who shall inhabit that territory? 
 
 The fact is, that the fairest method of maintaining the 
 schools would be by a tax upon the whole state, and the larger 
 the district embraced in one organization, the more just and 
 equal will be the taxation. 
 
 The moneys apportioned yearly by the state superintendent, 
 and those levied upon the towns by the county board of super- 
 visors, are distributed to each district in proportion to the 
 number of children between the ages of four and twenty resid- 
 ing therein; and as the latter moneys are raised by a tax upon 
 each town as a whole, and not by separate districts, the plan 
 advocated is, in fact, in operation already, and only needs to 
 be extended to the levy and collecttion of all the funds needed 
 to support the schools. 
 
 In the second place, many will object to the raising of funds 
 by the whole town, to build a schoolhouse in a particular dis- 
 trict, who would be willing that the schools should be sup- 
 ported by a general tax, after the houses are built. This 
 objection is removed by considering the town as a single dis- 
 trict, which needs several houses to accommodate its pupils. 
 It is true, that, for convenience sake, the town is divided into 
 sub-districts, yet, for general purposes it is a unit, and should 
 be managed accordingly. Each town is divided into road dis- 
 tricts, yet when a new highway is to be laid out, the whole 
 town is called upon to pay the expense incurred for right of 
 way, etc., though but few of its tax-payers are personally ben- 
 efited; and, when a bridge is to be built, no one thinks of ask- 
 
32 
 
 ing the citizens residing in the road district in which the bridge 
 is needed, to furnish the funds to pay for erecting it; and it 
 cannot be that the education of the children in Wisconsin, is 
 a matter of less interest to the people than the laying out of 
 highways, and the erection of bridges. Returns made to the 
 state superintendent show that, on an average, in the larger 
 counties, not more than four schoolhouses are built in each 
 year; and this would give to each town but one to build every 
 three years, and this burden, being borne by all the taxpayers, 
 would be so light, as scarcely to be felt. All the children 
 would thus be provided with school privileges, and the pro- 
 tracted effort and struggle now necessary in most districts, 
 in order to secure the erection of a sehoolhouse would be 
 avoided. 
 
 In order to avoid all seeming injustice, it might be provided 
 that those districts which had, within a certain limited time, 
 erected good and substantial houses, should be exempted from 
 the payment of the taxes raised for building houses, for a 
 number of years after the adoption of the township system. 
 
 Ah other inequalities and seeming irregularities can be as 
 well provided for, and it is confidently believed, that a law can 
 be framed, preserving for our school system all its prominent 
 vital and valuable features, and engrafting thereon such addi- 
 tional ones as will give it harmony and completeness, make it 
 a better exponent of our educational standing, more worthy 
 of affection and generous support, and insure the successful 
 accomplishment of its great design, the education and eleva- 
 tion of the whole people. 
 
33 
 
 TOWN ORGANIZATION OF SCHOOLS. 
 
 (From the Annual Report of State Superintendent John G-. 
 McMynn — For year ending August 31, 1864.) 
 
 That the present independent local district system 
 is not satisfactory to those most interested in a suc- 
 cessful administration of our educational affairs is so 
 true as to be generally admitted. Were it not true 
 that the success of any system depends more upon 
 the intelligence and energy of its agents than upon the 
 ress under our present school organization. Still, it is not wise 
 to argue that, because a system that is theoretically bad may 
 be so wisely administered as to be productive of good, it there- 
 fore is unwise to change it for a better. 
 
 The defects of our present school district system are radical, 
 and, without a change, irremediable. The experience of the 
 American people in the management of public affairs has dem- 
 onstrated the town to be the true unit. To a certain extent 
 this unit is recognized in our system. Town boards of super- 
 visors have power to divide their respective towns into schools 
 districts, in such manner as they may deem proper. They may 
 alter boundaries of districts; annex a part of one to another, 
 unite several into one, or divide one into , several. Their 
 authority is limited only by the right of appeal to the depart- 
 ment of public instruction. They divide funds and property 
 in case districts are annulled; and thus, in several respects, 
 we have the town district system in operation in our state. 
 
 Instead, however, of carrying out this principle, and provid- 
 ing a town school board to manage the affairs, we have cre- 
 ated from three to ten other boards in each of the towns, to 
 which the management of the schools is entrusted. Each of these 
 district boards has power: 
 
 1. To establish and keep in operation, for at least five 
 
 months during the year, such schools as may be required to 
 
 accommodate children over four and under twenty years of 
 
 age, in their district. 
 3 
 
34 
 
 2. Wlien authorized by a vote of the district, to purchase 
 or lease schoolhouse sites, to purchase or build schoolhouses, 
 and to keep them in repair. 
 
 3. To expend the money belonging to the district and to 
 keep an account of receipts and disbursements. 
 
 4. To adopt and enforce all needful rules and regulations for 
 the government and management of their school. 
 
 5. To employ teachers and fix the amount of their compen- 
 sation. 
 
 6. To adopt text-books, designate the course of study and 
 to visit and examine the school. 
 
 7. To provide fuel, furniture, apparatus and whatever is 
 necessary to the good of the school. 
 
 These and other duties imposed upon district boards by law, 
 show that they are charged with the most important interests 
 of the people. Their duties are difficult, demanding for their 
 proper discharge, high character, general intelligence, broad 
 views, solid judgment, public spirit, integrity and refinement. 
 The first thing that strikes the mind in examining our present 
 system in the light of these facts, is the difficulty of finding 
 men to act as school officers who possess the necessary qual- 
 ifications. Under existing arrangements this is practically 
 impossible. The present system requires too many officers. 
 If we assume five as the average number of districts in each 
 town of the state, we have, counting the town supervisors and 
 the town clerk, nineteen school officers for each town or more 
 than fifteen thousand in all. We have, then, one school officer 
 for every twenty-five children over four and under twenty years 
 of age. It would seem that such a reduplication of offices is 
 entirely needless. It certainly seems to be in direct conflict 
 with the usual methods of doing business. It will not stand 
 the test of common sense. Nineteen officers to manage any 
 other branch of public business for a town would be declared 
 to be at least three times as many as necessary. Every man 
 knows that one third the number would manage the educa- 
 tional affairs of a town three times as well. 
 
 Hon. Newton Bateman, superintendent of public instruction 
 
35 
 
 of Illinois, in his sixth, biennial report, speaking of the high, 
 qualifications needed in school officers, says: 
 
 " Are nineteen such men to be obtained for these positions 
 in every township of Illinois? It is idle to think of it. If 
 there are five the state is rich indeed. I do not know how 
 many there are ; but this we know, that in every township, as 
 in every community, there is among the citizens a graduated 
 scale of competency and excellence, descending from the best 
 down to the worst; and that, beginning at the top, the fewer we 
 take for our committee, or board, the better will be its average 
 quality. A township that cannot furnish nineteen men fit 
 for school officers, might furnish five. Or if the five, even, 
 are not what they should be, it is still self-evident that their 
 average fitness will be greater than when diluted by the acces- 
 sion of fourteen more, each and all of whom are inferior to 
 any one of the five. 
 
 " The pernicious consequences incident to the defect of our 
 local system may all be epitomized by the statement that it 
 necessitates the elevation to the important offices of trustees 
 and directors, of many indifferent and incompetent men; of 
 men who either care little for common schools, or who have 
 not the knowledge or ability to do much for them. It clogs, 
 encumbers, and deadens the system, dragging in its train the 
 evils of misjudgment, mismanagement, inefficiency and demor- 
 alization. And there is no remedy, without a radical change 
 of plan." 
 
 But our present system requires not only a needless num- 
 ber of officers, but it also requires a corresponding number 
 of public meetings and elections. These involve time and 
 expenses of various kinds that may in part be estimated, but, 
 they give rise to difficulties, that, in hundreds of instances, 
 completely cripple the public schools, and the loss arising 
 from which cannot be told. 
 
 The able report from which I have just quoted, presents 
 this point with such force, and it so well describes the expe- 
 rience of this department, that I beg to call attention to the 
 following extract: 
 
 "The effect of this state of things hardly needs to be 
 described. In the first place it makes an unreasonable demand 
 upon the time of the people, to attend so many elections and 
 meetings for voting purposes. A great majority of the voters 
 
36 
 
 are farmers and mechanics, and persons engaged in other 
 industrial pursuits, who can ill afford to leave their work so 
 many days every year, in addition to the time spent at the 
 numerous general elections, state, county and town. They 
 feel it vexatious and harassing to have to quit their private 
 business and pursuits so often for such purposes. It has a 
 tendency to make them sour and unfriendly towards the whole 
 system, to be dragged so frequently to the polls, and to be 
 compelled to mingle in scenes for which most of them have 
 no relish. 
 
 " It must be noted, too, that the time necessarily spent in 
 attending the meetings and voting, is often but a small part 
 of that lost in connection with these frequent elections. In 
 proportion to the increase of such local voting conventions, 
 is the number and acrimony of neighborhood disputes and 
 quarrels. Parties are formed, and rivalries and jealousies are 
 engendered, often as bitter and virulent as those which rage 
 on wider fields of action, and in more important contests. 
 Indeed, it often seems to me that the spirit of feud and faction 
 is hottest and most implacable,in proportion to the fewness of 
 belligerents, and the nothingness of the matter in dispute. 
 Certainly, I never wish to deal with contestants more rancor- 
 ous, in contests more trivial, than have arisen out of differences 
 of opinion among the inhabitants of school districts. But the 
 point is, that the consideration necessary to form a right judg- 
 ment concerning the many questions to be voted on, and espe- 
 cially the numerous conferences, excited disputations and per- 
 tinacious efforts put forth to carry a pet measure or defeat an 
 opponent, consume far more time than that actually spent in 
 voting ; so that the objection to so many elections on the score 
 of the time required and involved, is really one of no small im- 
 portance. 
 
 "It follows, in the second place that many of these elec- 
 tions are attended by a mere handful of persons; that others 
 go by default— and that in a still greater number, the business 
 is done in a very careless and hasty manner. It is rare indeed 
 that one-half of the qualified voters of a school district are pres- 
 ent at the elections; not seldom there are barely enough to or- 
 ganize ; while in many instances, every year, and from year to 
 year, the day of election comes and goes, unnoticed and unre- 
 garded. 
 
 "But the most serious evils resulting 'from so many petty 
 elections, so scantily attended and hurriedly conducted, are the 
 ill-advised measures adopted; the incompetent men elected; and 
 the endless wranglings and controversies growing out of the 
 irregular and illegal manner in which the elections are man- 
 
37 
 
 aged and the returns made. Summoned from their industrial 
 pursuits upon what many of them consider very trivial busi- 
 ness, the inhabitants hurry to the place of meeting, in no amia- 
 ble mood, and hurry through the work in hand, in a mechanical 
 and indifferent sort of way, intent only upon hurrying back 
 home again as fast as possible. Of course, the worst things 
 are liable to be done, and the best things to be left undone. 
 The most unfortunate sites are liable to be selected for school- 
 houses, the most unsuitable building plans to be adopted, and 
 wrong action to be taken in respect to taxation, extension of 
 schools, and other questions of vital moment to the educational 
 prosperity of the district. Or, if the meeting is for the election 
 of officers, the same causes operate to endanger the defeat of 
 the best men in the district. Indifference, or the pressure of 
 business, keeps away those who would favor good teachers, 
 good schools and liberal educational endowments ; while those, 
 if any, who are opposed to each and all of these things, muster 
 at the polls in full force. Once in office, down goes a school 
 policy which it may have taken years to build up, and which 
 it will require years more to re-establish. 
 
 "Then, too, the proceedings are seldom conducted in all re- 
 spects according to law. This occurs not only on account of 
 indifference or haste, but quite as much from our complex 
 statutory provisions in regard to elections, a proper knowledge 
 of which cannot reasonably be expected of the majority of 
 those who are compelled to act as officers of school district 
 elections. The irregularities vary to almost every conceivable 
 degree ; from those of so vital a nature as really to make the 
 election void, to those too trivial for serious notice. 
 
 'Terhaps the notices were not posted up; or there were not 
 enough of them; or they were not put in the right places; or 
 they were not issued long enough beforehand; or they were 
 not signed by the right persons, or by enough persons, or were 
 not signed at all; or the time of opening and closing the polls 
 was not stated ; or if stated, the time was too early or too late, 
 too long or too short, or in the evening when it should have 
 been in the day; or an improper place was designated for the 
 meeting, such as a certain private house, barn, cornfield, grove, 
 or woodpile, instead of the schoolhouse; or the election was or- 
 dered on a wrong day of the week; * * * or the voting 
 was viva voce instead of by ballot; * * * or the candidate 
 was ineligible ; or the voters' names were not registered ; * 
 * * or questions were voted on which were not announced 
 in the call; or the clerk kept his records in pencil, or did not 
 record them at all, or carried them off in his hat and lost them. 
 
38 
 
 * * * Upon the defeat of a favorite candidate or measure, 
 the search for flaws in the election commences, and upon the 
 discovery of one or more of those mentioned, (no difficult task it 
 would seem,) an attempt is immediately made to prove that the 
 election was void, or to break down the business action of the 
 meeting, and such attempts often result in expensive litigar 
 tion, angry feelings, and permanent mutual alienation. 
 
 "If the tone of these remarks should seem like trifling, I beg 
 to say that I speak but the simple truth. My official corre- 
 spondence is burdened with such things, however preposterous, 
 and the letters are all answered, with the seriousness and 
 candor to which the earnestness and good faith of the writers 
 entitle them . I am not to be understood, of course, as charac- 
 terizing in the foregoing manner all local school elections, or 
 even a considerable fraction of them, but I do say that Die 
 tendency of such multitudinous district elections is bad and 
 that continually." 
 
 Without discussing the difficulties growing out of the in- 
 stability of district boundaries, the multiplication of districts, 
 and the want of provision for transferring pupils from one dis- 
 trict to another, let us consider the subject of grading and 
 classification . 
 
 The merits of graded schools need not be argued. Their 
 superiority in economy and efficiency is admitted. Now, there 
 is no difficulty in applying this principle to our country schools. 
 Abolish the present district boundaries, except so far as they 
 may be used to aid in the establishment of primary, grammar 
 and high schools, and, with a township organization, we have 
 the same system that in our cities and larger villages is found 
 to be so much superior to the independent district system. We 
 are not only unable to secure gradation of the schools under ex- 
 isting arrangements, but classification also is practically impos- 
 sible in the majority of them. 
 
 The average number of scholars in the public schools in the 
 agricultural districts is not more than thirty-five. The number 
 of branches required to be taught is at least six. Here are 
 six classes to start with, or an average of about six pupils to 
 a class. But there must be classes to correspond with the at- 
 tainments of the scholars. This will require that there should 
 be at least three in spelling, three in reading, two in writing, 
 three in English grammar, two in geography and three in arith- 
 metic or fifteen in all. If history of the United States is 
 
89 
 
 taught, and if other branches are required, we have from one 
 to five classes more. But with fifteen classes reciting, each 
 once a day, and allowing one hour for recesses, we find that 
 twenty minutes a day is all the time that can be allowed for 
 the instruction and drill of each class. But this estimate is 
 too favorable. The truth is that the time-table of many of 
 the schools will show that not more than ten minutes can be 
 allowed to each class for explanatory illustration and testing 
 the pupil's knowledge of the subject. 
 
 Superintendent Bateman, discussing the subject says: 
 "Bounded by district lines which effectually prevent any com- 
 prehensive plan of co-operation by which the schools of the 
 township can be graded, and each child be allowed to attend 
 that school which is nearest, or which is, all things considered, 
 the best for him, and by which alone the true end and best re- 
 sults of common schools can be realized; hampered by transfer 
 restrictions, which, though necessary under the existing ar- 
 rangement, are nevertheless, subject to such contingencies of 
 indifference or caprice, or captiousness, as to cut off, to a great 
 extent, the very privileges they were intended to secure with a 
 limited territory, limited means, and a scanty number of 
 pupils; each district is left to make its way as best it can, in 
 isolation and weakness. In nine cases out of ten, there is in 
 each rural district but one schoolhouse, one teacher, and one 
 school. The first has generally but one room, is too small, 
 poorly ventilated, imperfectly furnished, and, of necessity, des- 
 titute of the best modern improvements; the second is such as 
 the scanty means and divided counsels of the districts will en- 
 able it to secure ; and the third is what the preceding conditions 
 must inevitably make it. 
 
 "Into that one room, and to the care of that one teacher, 
 press all the school-going children of the district. All ages, 
 and both sexes are there ; from the brave little fellow with his 
 primer, intent upon the mysteries of the alphabet, to the lads 
 and misses who are ready to grapple with analysis and frac- 
 tions and roots, while one and another comes with a request 
 from father or mother to be allowed to study book-keeping:, or 
 natural philosophy or algebra, or the Latin grammar. What 
 I repeat, can the teacher do? The number of scholars, with 
 the diversity of their attainments, ranging from the merest 
 rudiments to the most advanced, added to the number of 
 studies either required or desired to be taught, sets at defiance 
 all attempts at classification. Is it not lamentable to see an 
 otherwise magnificent system of public instruction thus shorn 
 
40 
 
 of its strength at the vital point where the school is organized 
 and the teaching performed ?" 
 
 The adoption of the town system of school organization was 
 recommended by my predecessor, in his annual report for 1863, 
 and its many advantages over the local district system were 
 pointed out. He showed that under it we can secure that su- 
 pervision of the schools we need; that taxation will be more 
 equitable; that the ill feeling consequent upon changes in dis- 
 trict boundaries will cease to arise ; that schoolhouses will be 
 built when and where they are needed, and taxes for their erec- 
 tion will be less burdensome; that schools can be properly 
 graded; that teachers qualified for the different grades can be 
 employed; that the system will be more economical than the 
 present one; that the schools will be more uniform in the 
 length of time they are taught during the year; that incompe- 
 tent teachers will be sifted out, and that those employed will 
 secure more permanent positions. 
 
 The state superintendent of Pennsylvania, after a trial of 
 this system, says: 
 
 "By our system, a township, borough or city is a school dis- 
 trict. In very large cities there may be two or more districts, 
 but the boards must be united for managing the schools in one 
 organization, under the name of a board of control. The secre- 
 tary who is ex-officio district superintendent, visits the schools 
 monthly, and reports to the board, and transacts all the minor 
 business of the board, and is paid such compensation as the 
 board shall think proper. The chief advantages of our town- 
 ship system are the facilities afforded for grading the schools 
 wherever it is practicable, the simplicity of reporting to the 
 state department, which it affords, the ease with which uni- 
 formity of text-books can be secured, the means which it af- 
 fords for securing a superintendent of each district, and the 
 systematic visiting and reporting the condition of the schools to 
 the board, and the ease with which each board may be commu- 
 nicated with and reached, through the official department of 
 the State Journal, which is made a state organ, and sent to 
 the secretary of each board at the public expense. In a popu- 
 lation of three millions we have only about 1,700 boards of di- 
 rectors. We should have not more than 1,500; but we were 
 vexed with a few independent districts which should never 
 have been allowed, by which the number is increased." 
 
 We believe that no objection can be made to this system 
 which cannot be easily answered and removed. All the essen- 
 
41 
 
 tial principles of our present law would remain. It would sim- 
 plify our school machinery, and would easily adapt itself to 
 our educational wants and habits. Some of the immediate 
 benefits of the town organization would be, 
 
 1. To secure in each town as many schools as there are now 
 districts, and more or less as may be found best; all of them, 
 however, so organized as to be parts of a system adapted to the 
 special wants of the community. 
 
 2. To end disputes about district boundaries. 
 
 3. To dispense with a large number of school officers, and 
 to reduce largely the number of school elections. 
 
 4. To provide for each child going to that school which is 
 most convenient and beneficial to him, considering his attain- 
 ments and the studies he is pursuing. 
 
 5. To diminish the aggregate expenses of the schools, and 
 to establish a uniform rate of taxation for the town. 
 
 6. To secure an efficient system of school supervision for 
 each town. 
 
 7. To enable every town to establish a system of graded 
 schools. 
 
 8. To secure for the schools better teachers and for the 
 teachers better compensation. 
 
 9. To improve schoolhouses and to provide them with what 
 is needed for the use of the schools. 
 
 10. To promote uniformity of text-books and to introduce 
 methods of teaching and courses of study. 
 
 11. To obtain more reliable statistics. 
 
 12. To secure and to care for town libraries, containing a 
 greater variety and a larger number of books than can be ob- 
 tained under the present system. 
 
 In regard to the practical effects of the adoption of this sys- 
 tem, the able school officer to whom reference has repeatedly 
 been made in this discussion, Hon. Newton Bateman, says : 
 
 "Not a right, power, or duty of the state superintendent, or 
 of any county superintendent, would be added, subtracted, 
 changed or modified in any manner whatever; the office of 
 township treasurer would be just as necessary as before, and 
 his powers and duties remain substantially as now, though 
 much simplified by the abolition of the districts ; the boards of 
 trustees and directors would continue in the discharge of their 
 
42 
 
 respective duties until the day fixed by law for the election 
 of th^ new {.own skip school hoards. Upon the election and 
 qualification of these boards, all district boards of directors 
 throughout the state would cease to exist * * * all 
 schoolhouses, lands and other district school property, would 
 revert to and come into the control of the township board of 
 education, who would thereupon assume and exercise the 
 rights, powers and duties, all and singular, which now devolve 
 upon boards of trustees and directors respectively. * * * 
 Not a common school in the state would be closed or inter- 
 fered with, not a teacher discharged, .not an existing contract 
 annulled. The great educational work of the state would move 
 right on as if nothing had happened; no visible sign would 
 appear to show that an immense administrative reform had 
 taken place, and a new and glorious era dawned upon our sys- 
 tem of public instruction. The vast accumulations of school 
 property would be preserved intact; but few schoolhouses 
 would have to be moved, and none at all immediately, for, as 
 a general rule, school sites and buildings that are in the right 
 places now, would be equally so then. Thus, quietly, without 
 shock or confusion, almost without public knowledge or no- 
 tice, the system would lay down the heavy, galling harness of 
 her ten-thousand-headed policy, and assume the light, elastic 
 armor of a fresh, compact and simple, but far more expansive 
 and powerful organization. As in the case of our matchless 
 civil government, the people would be reminded of its exist- 
 ence chiefly by the richness of the blessings which it would 
 dispense." 
 
43 
 
 TOWNSHIP SYSTEM. 
 From the Eeport of A J. Craig, 1868. 
 
 In order that the advantages of the township system may be 
 clearly perceived, some of the disadvantages of the present sys- 
 tem will be portrayed. Each town is divided into school dis- 
 tricts, varying in number from one to sixteen, and averaging 
 about six or seven to the town for the whole state. Each of 
 these districts is a separate, independent republic, accountable 
 to no higher authority, and dependent upon none, except in the 
 matter of the examination of teachers, and the annual receipt 
 and expenditure of a small amount of money. The first result 
 of this isolated condition, and consequent separate action is 
 
 UNEQUAL TAXATION. 
 
 Adjoining pieces of real estate, valued at the same rate by 
 the assessor, are often taxed for school purposes in the ratio of 
 three to one, simply because the size or character of the dis- 
 tricts in which they lie is such that to support a school in one 
 it is necessary to levy a tax, with a percentage three times as 
 great as in the other. State, county and town taxes are as- 
 sessed upon all property in the town on the same ratio, or per- 
 centage, and thus the burden of supporting the government 
 falls equally upon all who have taxes to pay; but in the mat- 
 ter of education inequality is the law, no two school districts 
 in any town having, as a rule, the same percentage. 
 
 It is a foundation principle of our system that the public 
 schools shall be free; that the property of the state shall edu- 
 cate the children, but in carrying out this principle it is not 
 necessary to violate another, which prescribes that taxation 
 shall be uniform ; and it is hard to understand how our people 
 have submitted for so many years to the evil of unequal taxa- 
 tion consequent upon district organization. Education is a 
 matter of general interest, and it is not to benefit the parent 
 as an individual, or even for the child's own sake that the 
 state establishes free schools. It is because education is neces- 
 sary to the preservation of our government and institutions — 
 necessary to society and the life of the state, that it claims and 
 
44 
 
 has the right to tax the people to support schools; and the 
 burden imposed should be distributed as equally as possible. 
 
 Each town is divided into road-districts, but we do not re- 
 quire the people residing in a particular district, through which 
 a river runs, to build a bridge for the use of the town, county 
 or state at large, as well as for themselves; nor is there any 
 justice in compelling the inhabitants of a petty circumscribed 
 school district to build the house in which their children are 
 to be educated, so long as education 1 is a matter of public in- 
 terest, and those children will, in after years, be scattered all 
 over the state. 
 
 The second evil inherent in the present system is: 
 
 EQUALITY OP PRIVILEGES. 
 
 In one district school will be maintained nine or ten months 
 each year; in an adjoining one only five or six months, and yet 
 the percentage of taxation may be greater in the latter than 
 in the former. In one school competent teachers may be em- 
 ployed, and the range of studies pursued be such as to afford 
 the pupils an education almost academic in its character; while 
 in another only a few primary branches are taught by an inex- 
 perienced and incapable instructor. Districts are often organ- 
 ized in such form that a person resides in one while the 
 greater part of his property is situated in another; and many 
 live in close proximity to school-houses to which they wo aid 
 be glad to send their children, but cannot because they are not 
 in the same district, while the houses to which they are com- 
 pelled to -lend them are remote and difficult of access. 
 
 It often happens that a populous district, possesses a small, 
 badly arranged house, while an adjoining district, with few 
 scholars, has a large and convenient one; yet the children of 
 the populous district cannot attend the school in the other 
 without consent of the board and the payment of a tuition fee, 
 and the populous district may have but a limited amount of 
 assessable property, and not be able to erect a suitable school- 
 house for a term of years. 
 
 In the third place the present system is a fruitful source or 
 cause of discord and contention. It is natural that a small 
 and weak district should seek to obtain additions to its terri- 
 
45 
 
 tory from neighboring districts larger and stronger than itself. 
 Application is made to the town supervisors for a change in 
 the boundaries of certain districts. When the changes asked 
 for are granted, those individuals removed from old 
 associations appeal to the state superintendent to set 
 aside the action of the supervisors. When the super- 
 visors refuse to make the changes desired, the parties 
 petitioning for such changes take an appeal, and ask that the 
 supervisors be ordered to grant the prayer of the petitioners. 
 Each party uses all the means at command to secure the ends 
 desired, and personalities and vituperation often take the place 
 of fact and argument. Thus neighborhoods and communities 
 are violently agitated and enmities are engendered which 
 last for years, seriously crippling the schools, and impeding 
 the progress of education. 
 
 It is often very difficult to decide cases brought before the 
 state superintendent on appeal, the facts and arguments on 
 one side being about balanced by those on the other, and no 
 matter what the decision may be, it fails to satisfy both sides. 
 Between thirty and forty appeals have been decided since the 
 first of January last, and a large majority of them relate to 
 the organization of districts, or a change in their boundaries. 
 
 Again, the district system is unnecessarily expensive. There 
 are nearly five thousand districts in the state, each of which 
 must have a treasurer who is required to give a bond for the 
 faithful discharge of the duties of his office. Besides the ex- 
 pense of the instrument itself, the trouble of getting sureties, 
 etc., the bond must have a revenue stamp affixed of the value 
 of one dollar. The treasurer is elected every three years, but 
 on account of resignations, removals, etc., the office is really 
 filled about once in two years. This makes an average an- 
 nual expense of between two thousand and two thousand five 
 hundred dollars; an unnecessary expenditure, as every dollar 
 of the money received and paid out by the district treasurers 
 comes through the hands of the town treasurers, who have 
 themselves given bonds for the safe keeping of the funds en- 
 trusted to their care, and who might as well pay them out in 
 detail to teachers and others entitled to them. There are 
 many other evils incident to the district system, as all who are 
 
46 
 
 familiar with, its working are aware, but space will not be 
 taken to enumerate them all. For most of them the township 
 system furnishes a simple and ample remedy, as will be seen 
 when its features are carefully examined. 
 
 The fundamental principle of this system is that each town 
 constitutes a district for purposes of taxation and gen- 
 eral supervision and management. This does away at 
 once with unequal taxation. As all taxes for school 
 purposes are levied upon the town as a whole, every man pays 
 the same percentage on the assessed valuation of his property. 
 
 The present districts would constitute sub-districts, in each 
 of which an officer should be elected annually, called a director, 
 and all the directors in a town would constitute a 
 board of directors, which should have the entire con- 
 trol and management of the schools and school inter- 
 ests. The secretary of this board takes the place of 
 the old town superintendent, visits and supervises the 
 schools, grades them, and assists the teachers in classify- 
 ing the pupils, etc., in a word is the efficient agent of the board 
 and the connecting link between the county superintendent 
 and the schools. 
 
 The advantages of this system are many, and evident. 
 
 1. Each parent would be permitted to send his children to 
 the school which best accommodated them, and all the expense, 
 trouble and ill-feeling consequent upon the frequent changes in 
 the boundaries of districts would be avoided. 
 
 2. School houses would be built when and where they are 
 needed. Many districts are now compelled to suffer, year after 
 year, all the inconveniences and loss occasioned by the use of 
 a small, badly constructed, ill-arranged house, because of dif- 
 ficulties concerning the site, or the indisposition of the voters 
 to furnish the means to erect a new building. Under the town- 
 ship system these difficulties would be avoided, as the board, 
 composed of delegates from all parts of the town, would not 
 be likely to be influenced by local disputes in reference to the 
 site for a house, but would locate it at such point as would best 
 accommodate those for whom it was selected; and as the funds 
 for building the house would be drawn from the whole town, 
 the tax upon each individual would be so small as not to be in 
 
47 
 
 the least burdensome, and there would be no necessity for 
 
 delay. 
 
 3. Schools can be graded more easily under the township 
 than under the separate district system. The districts, as now 
 organized, as a general rule, are too feeble in numbers and 
 wealth to maintain more than one department, and the law 
 of 1858, permitting districts to unite for high school purposes, 
 has been entirely inoperative, no action having been taken by 
 any district in accordance with its provisions. The summer 
 schools, in the country especially, are primary schools in most 
 respects, while the winter schools embrace all grades of 
 pupils from the primary to the grammar or high school. This 
 condition of things necessitates the employment of better edu- 
 cated, more experienced teachers during the winter term, at 
 a cost for their services of about double the amount paid for 
 the same length of time in the summer, while there is not on 
 an average, more than a dozen children in each district whose 
 capacity, advancement, or range of studies, demands a better 
 or more costly teacher than the one employed during the sum- 
 mer ; and thus the education of these few costs the districts the 
 difference between the wages paid in summer and winter, 
 amounting, for a four months' school, to from thirty to sixty 
 dollars. Now if there were, within the reach of a larger class 
 of pupils in three or four districts, a school of a higher grade, 
 to which they could all have access, the winter school in their 
 respective districts could be continued as a primary or inter- 
 mediate school, under the charge of the same teacher employed 
 in the summer, and one higher grade teacher would suffice for 
 several districts. By this arrangement all the pupils in a town 
 would be divided into two grades, at a cost for tuition not 
 greater than that now incurred; and the total additional ex- 
 pense would be measured by the cost of erecting a sufficient 
 number of buildings to accommodate the higher grade of pupils. 
 In many instances, by a proper arrangement of the terms of 
 school, the houses already erected would serve for both grades 
 of pupils. In some district, in which the house is so situated as 
 to be easy of access to the larger scholars in several surround- 
 ing districts, let there be a term of school commencing so soon 
 as the ground is settled and the weather is pleasant in spring, 
 
48 
 
 and continuing to the first of July; and a fall term commenc- 
 ing about the middle of August and continuing till the middle 
 of November; thus affording the primary pupils six months or 
 more of uninterrupted school during the most pleasant season 
 of the year, which would be far more beneficial to them, intel- 
 lectually and physically, than the usual summer and winter 
 terms, with the extremes of warm and cold weather, producing 
 sickness, tardiness, and irregularity of attendance, and thus 
 wasting a good share of the money expended. The winter 
 term could then be devoted entirely to the grammar or highei 
 grade scholars, who, under a competent instructor, whose whole 
 time was given to them and their studies, would make as much 
 progress in one term as they now do, in the mixed schools, in 
 two or more. Again, whenever a new school house is to be 
 built, its location, size, and internal arrangements can all be 
 adapted to the new order of things, so that, in process of time, 
 without any violent changes, or any appreciable increase of ex- 
 pense, the facilities for maintaining graded schools can be es- 
 tablished throughout the state. 
 
 4. Better supervision of the schools. The county superin- 
 tendent, though exercising a general supervision over all the 
 schools in his county, is entirely unable to give, to each school, 
 that personal attention necessary to obtain a complete knowl- 
 edge of its condition and wants; and some of the most active 
 and efficient superintendents have felt the need of a local offi- 
 cer, to co-operate with and aid them in effecting improvements 
 in the management of the schools. As before stated, the sec- 
 retary of the town board will be the proper person to have 
 the immediate supervision of the schools, and will have power, 
 under the direction of the board, to grade and arrange them, 
 suggest and enforce rules for their management and govern- 
 ment, and advise with and assist the teachers in all cases in 
 which advice and assistance are needed. He should be ap- 
 pointed by the board, and he may be one of their number, or 
 not, so that the best person to fill the place is selected. 
 
 We should thus secure all the advantages of the town super- 
 intendent system, without losing any of the benefits resulting 
 from the establishment of the county superintendency. 
 
 5. Economy of administration. All the expenses now in- 
 
49 
 
 curred in organizing new districts, and in changing the bound- 
 aries of old ones, would be saved. Each child being permitted 
 to attend that school which best accommodated him, and the 
 amount of tax which each person would pay being the same, no 
 matter in what sub-district he resided, there would be no rea- 
 son for altering districts; consequently very few changes 
 would be made, and those few would be easily effected, and at- 
 tended with little or no expense. Again, the liability to a loss 
 of moneys is in proportion to the number of hands through 
 which they pass, and it is no wonder that, with nearly five 
 thousand disbursing officers, there is a good deal of waste of 
 district funds every year. 
 
 Under the township system the financial affairs of all the 
 schools in a town being managed by the same board, one treas- 
 urer would be sufficient, and, in order not to multiply officers, 
 the town treasurer, who now collects and receives all the school 
 moneys belonging to his town, might be the treasurer of the 
 board, and upon the order of its secretary, countersigned by 
 the president, could pay out such moneys, when needed. Thus 
 the number of disbursing officers would be reduced from nearly 
 five thousand, to less than eight hundred, and besides the 
 diminished liability to loss on account of the decrease in the 
 number of disbursing officers, the expense incurred in execut- 
 ing nearly two thousand treasurers' bonds each year would 
 be saved. 
 
 6. There would be an equality of privileges in the different 
 districts, as, the schools being supported by a general tax, 
 justice would require that they be maintained an equal length 
 of time throughout the town, and we should not see, as we now 
 do, so great a disparity in school privileges in adjoining dis- 
 tricts. 
 
 Free schools are founded upon the principle that it is the 
 duty of the state to see that the children within its limits are 
 educated. To this end a generous public fund is provided, and 
 the people are yearly taxed to support the system; yet the 
 kind and amount of instruction given to the children of differ- 
 ent districts depend entirely upon influences which the law 
 does not seek to guide or control. ISTow common sense and 
 justice demand, that wherever children enough to organize a 
 
50 
 
 school are found, one should be established, with all the means 
 and appliances necessary to secure the result desired, — the 
 proper education of the children attending it. 
 
 7. Employment of Teachers. It being the special duty of 
 the secretary of the town board to visit the schools, become 
 acquainted with their condition and wants, the capacity, tact, 
 and success of the different teachers, he would be better quali- 
 fied to select the person suited to each school than nine tenths 
 of the district clerks under the present system possibly can be ; 
 thus better teachers would be employed — that is, teachers bet- 
 ter adapted to their positions — and they would not be changed 
 each term, as they now are, but would remain in one school 
 so long as they were successful in their work. Incompetent 
 and unsuccessful teachers would be sifted out, the standard of 
 attainments of all those employed would be gradually and 
 surely raised, and the consequent progress of the schools would 
 be certain ami uninterrupted. 
 
 The new system of examination by the county superintend- 
 ent has done much to elevate the standard of attainments, and 
 weed out unsuccessful teachers; but, inasmuch as an examina- 
 tion in regard to scholarship is not always a true test of the 
 qualifications of an applicant, and it is not possible for the 
 county superintendent to give that personal attention to each 
 school necessary to enable him to judge correctly in regard to 
 the skill and faithfulness of the teacher, many persons are still 
 employed who have no real fitness for their position, and who 
 are retained through favoritism or indifference on the part of 
 those by whom they are engaged. Such persons would be 
 quietly dropped from the list of teachers, and would engage in 
 other pursuits, or, by the use of proper means, become fitted for 
 their responsible positions as instructors of youth. 
 
 I have thus presented some of the main points in which it 
 is believed that the township system is superior to the district 
 system, and it only remains to notice some of the objections 
 urged to it by those who object to change, or who are satisfied 
 with the system as it is. 
 
 The first objection is to the raising of taxes for the sup- 
 port of schools by the town at large. Looking at the matter 
 from a personal standpoint, many think a general tax would 
 
51 
 
 be unjust to different localities, for the reason that children of 
 school age are not proportioned to the valuation of property,- 
 and thus a wealthy district, with few children would pay for 
 the education of children residing in other districts. This ob- 
 jection is the same one so often urged against free schools by 
 the childless capitalist, or the wealthy tax-payer whose children 
 are already educated, "I ought not to pay for educating my 
 neighbor's children." As before stated, free schools are es- 
 tablished on the assumption that "the property of the state 
 shall educate the children of the state," and consistency re- 
 quires that the details of the system shall be so arranged as 
 to carry out this fundamental principle. What justice is there 
 in requiring that a specified portion of territory shall furnish 
 the means to educate the children residing therein, so long as 
 you withhold from the tax-payers the power to decide who shall 
 inhabit that territory? 
 
 The fact is, that the fairest method of maintaining the 
 schools would be by a tax upon the whole state, and the larger 
 the district embraced in one organization, the more just and 
 equal will be the taxation. 
 
 The moneys apportioned yearly by the state superintendent, 
 and those levied upon the towns by the county board of super- 
 visors, are distributed to each district in proportion to the 
 number of children between the ages of four and twenty re- 
 siding therein; and as the latter moneys are raised by a tax 
 upon each town as a whole, and not by separate districts, the 
 plan advocated is, in fact, in operation already, and only needs 
 to be extended to the levy and collection of all the funds needed 
 to support the schools. 
 
 In the second place, many will object to the raising of funds 
 by the whole town, to build a school house in a particular dis- 
 trict, who would be willing that the schools should be sup- 
 ported by a general tax, after the houses are built. This ob- 
 jection is removed by considering the town as a single district, 
 which needs several houses to accommodate its pupils. It is 
 true, that, for convenience sake, the town is divided into sub- 
 districts, yet, for general purposes it is a unit, and should be 
 managed accordingly. Each town is divided into road dis- 
 tricts, and when a new highway is to be laid out, the whole 
 
52 
 
 town is called upon to pay the expense incurred for right of 
 way, etc., though "but few of its tax-payers are personally bene- 
 fited; and when a bridge is to be built no one thinks of asking 
 the citizens residing in the road district in which the bridge is 
 needed, to furnish the funds to pay for erecting it; and it can- 
 not be that the education of the children of Wisconsin, is a 
 matter of less interest to the people than the laying out of 
 highways, and the erection of bridges. Eeturns made to the 
 state superintendent show that, on an average, in the larger 
 counties, not more than four school houses are built in each 
 year; and this would give to each town but one to build every 
 three years, and this burden, being borne by all the tax-payers 
 would be so light, as scarcely to be felt. All the children 
 would thus be provided with school privileges, and the pro- 
 tracted effort and struggle now necessary in most districts, in 
 order to secure the erection of a school house, would be avoided. 
 
 In order to avoid all seeming injustice, it might be provided, 
 that those districts which had, within a certain limited time, 
 erected good and substantial houses, should be exempted from 
 the payment of the taxes raised for building school houses, for 
 a number of years after the adoption of the township system. 
 
 All other inequalities and seeming irregularities can be as 
 well provided for, and it is confidently believed, that a law can 
 be framed, preserving for our school system all its prominent 
 vital and valuable features, and engrafting thereon such addi- 
 tional ones as will give it harmony and completeness, make it 
 a better exponent of our educational standing, more worthy 
 of affection and generous support, and insure the successful 
 accomplishment of its great design, the education and elevation 
 of the whole people. 
 
 THE TOWNSHIP SYSTEM. 
 
 (By Superintendent Fallows.) 
 
 Hon. Samuel Fallows, in his report for 1870, devotes several 
 pages to commendation of the township system. He 
 quotes with approval the enumeration of its benefits made by 
 Supt. McMynn, which is given on page 37. He also commends 
 
53 
 
 the statement of the disadvantages of the single district sys- 
 tem set forth by Supt. Craig and his enumeration of the bene- 
 fits of the township system. He then quotes Supt. Bate- 
 man's statement of the readiness and lack of friction attend- 
 ing the change. See pages 37 and 38. This is followed by 
 a lengthy quotation from the School Monthly written by As- 
 sistant Superintendent Pratt from which the following quotas 
 tion is made : 
 
 At present, one half the schools at least are taught by young 
 persons, almost entirely incompetent for the work. This great 
 evil would not be wholly cured, but could be greatly mitigated 
 under the town system; as could also the miserable plan of a 
 constant change of teachers. At present, each district looks 
 out for itself alone. The schools are opened about the same 
 time. There is a rush to the spring examinations; the schools 
 are hastily filled; the summer term is taught and the teacher 
 goes; the fall examinatiton comes on, and the same thing is 
 repeated. Out of 5,000 schools, over 3,000 change teachers 
 every term. A town board would engage teachers sufficient 
 to fill the schools; they would place them where they would 
 be most useful. Even where the schools are not kept open 
 more than five or six months during the year, it would be pos- 
 sible to give a good corps of teachers something like permanent 
 employment. It is far less important that the schools be all 
 open at the same time in a town than that they be well taught. 
 A teacher having taught two or three months in a certain 
 school, is transferred, let us suppose, for a similar term, to 
 another school. Some of the larger pupils will probably follow 
 her. Under suitable restrictions, all children may be allowed 
 to attend any school that is open and within reach. It is of 
 less moment that children attend school " not less than 
 five months in the year," than that they learn something when 
 they do go. ~No intelligent person needs to be told that a twd 
 months' training under a competent teacher is vastly better 
 than a four months' droning and drawling under an incompe- 
 tent one. 
 
 In 1871 Superintendent Fallows renews at length his rec- 
 ommendation of the township system. From this report the 
 following extracts are taken: 
 
 A. F. North, Esq., an intelligent teacher and town officer, 
 and superintendent elect of Waukesha county, thus presents 
 the subject in reference to "Inequality of Taxation under the 
 'District System.'" 
 
54 
 
 "The foundations of our free institutions were laid by the 
 Puritans, when they made this compact in the May-flower, viz. : 
 'That every settler should have equal rights, and that they 
 would obey the laws they should make for the common good.' 
 This sentence contains the essence of all free government. 
 But they saw clearly that the stability of such a government 
 as well as the well-being of the individual could only be main- 
 tained by universal education, and they took measures at atr 
 early date (1636) to secure this end by action of the state. 
 Enlightened statesmen throughout the world are bearing tes- 
 timony to the soundness of these views, and in spite of bigots 
 and reactionists, are pressing forward to their attainment; 
 and announce as the safety of the state depends upon the 
 intelligence of the people, the state must secure this by popular 
 education — in other words the property in the state must edu- 
 cate the children in the state, and this with at least some good 
 degree of equality. It is upon this basis that the school fund 
 is distributed. It is apportioned, not in the ratio of the 
 property in the district, but upon the number of children to 
 be educated therein. And this is the true principle, and should 
 be of general application. But it is not so, and very few per- 
 sons are aware how widely different from this is the fact 
 with regard to the distribution of the burden in our towns 
 under the present district system. 
 
 "The annexed table will show its operation in Pewaukee, 
 Waukesha county, which is believed to be a type of the con- 
 dition of things, generally, throughout the state: 
 
 
 No. of 
 scholar?. 
 
 Valne of prop- 
 erty in district. 
 
 Amount per 
 scholar. 
 
 District No. 1 
 
 221 
 44 
 92 
 79 
 47 
 29 
 76 
 48 
 97 
 
 732 
 
 $235, 09C 00 
 
 124,563 00 
 
 172,285 00 
 
 61,393 00 
 
 47,080 00 
 
 72,922 00 
 
 116,198 00 
 
 75,209 00 
 
 105,024 00 
 
 $1,008,964 00 
 
 $1,068 00 
 
 District No. 2 
 
 District No. 3 
 
 District No. 4 
 
 2,376 00 
 
 1,861 00 
 
 784 00 
 
 District No 7 
 
 1,001 00 
 
 District No. 8 
 
 2,860 00 
 
 District No. 9 
 
 1,529 00 
 
 District No. 10 
 
 District No. 6 
 
 1,566 00 
 1,083 00 
 
 Whole town 
 
 $1,378 00 
 
 
 " By reference to the above table, it will be seen that while 
 in the whole town there is $1,378 for each scholar; in District 
 
55 
 
 No &, there is only f 784, about one half this amount and in 
 District No. 8, tnere is $2,8G0 ; over double the average amount. 
 I hope to be able soon to show how this matter stands in the 
 other towns in this county. Such a state of things is conclusive 
 argument in favor of the township system." 
 
 I also quote a few paragraphs from a report of Hon. A. E. 
 Bankin, Secretary of the Vermont Board of Education, and 
 may add that Vermont, in common with other New England 
 States, is moving in this direction, following the lead of Mas- 
 sachusetts, where the system is now fully established by law, 
 to the manifest great improvement of the common schools of 
 that state: 
 
 "While we strive assiduously so to economize as not to 
 increase the expense of our educational system, we do not take 
 proper pains that the money which is annually expended shall 
 be so applied as to secure the largest returns. 
 
 " Let me enumerate some of the prominent obstacles which 
 are in the way of the greatest efficiency of our schools : 
 
 " 1. Total lack of or insufficient supervision. 
 
 "2. Constant change of supervision. 
 
 "3. Poorly qualified teachers. 
 
 " 4. Constant change of teachers. 
 
 " 5. Lack of interest in schools, on the part of patrons. 
 
 " 0. Employment of relatives and favorites without regard 
 to qualifications. 
 
 " 7. Too small schools in many districts. 
 
 " 8. Too short schools in many districts. 
 
 " 9. Employment of immature and incompetent teachers in 
 small districts. 
 
 "10. Poor schoolhouses. 
 
 " 11. Irregular attendance. 
 
 "12. G-eneral lack of facilities to aid the teacher. 
 
 "13. No schools at all in many districts. 
 
 "14. Lack of proper classification. 
 
 "15. Pupils study what they choose and not what they 
 ought. 
 
 " These twice seven and one plagues of our common school 
 system will be recognized by every one who has had any exper- 
 ience in connection with the public schools of the state. 
 " If it should be shown that this nest of evils which so impairs 
 the efficiency of our schools could in some measure be removed 
 by a radical change of system, no one surely would oppose 
 such change. 
 
 " I am confident that these evils may in very great measure 
 
56 
 
 be alleviated by a change in our system of public schools. 
 I believe that the adoption of what is called the town system, 
 in contradistinction from the district system, would tend 
 largely to diminish them." 
 
 Again in 1872, he urges the system, giving quotations favor- 
 able to it from the reports of county superintendents. 
 
 TOWNSHIP HIGH SCHOOLS. 
 
 (From the report of Edward Searing — 1875.) 
 
 Having long been persuaded of the superior advantages 
 inherent in the township system of school organization, I rec- 
 ommended in my first report, as steps toward the ultimate 
 adoption of that system generally throughout the state, two 
 distinct measures of legislation: (1.) A law to encourage the 
 voluntary creation of town high-schools: and, (2.) A law to 
 provide for uniformity of text-books in towns, and to authorize 
 the purchase and ownership of books by the same. It appeared 
 to me that if a number of towns could be induced to take vol- 
 untary action in these directions, not only would great gain 
 result to these towns, but the question of the adoption of the 
 complete system of organization by these and others would 
 be only a question of time. The last legislature gave full 
 endorsement to the former recommendation by the passage 
 of the high-school law. To its partial endorsement of the lat- 
 ter I have elsewhere referred. 
 
 As soon as other duties, and a full previous consideration 
 of the task would allow, I prepared a circular setting forth the 
 purpose and character of the high-school law, with such com- 
 ments upon its provisions as would render them easily intelli- 
 gible, and with what appeared to be judicious courses of 
 instruction for the schools contemplated. 
 
 As this circular was not ready for distribution until August, 
 and as the law was not generally known and understood 
 throughout the state previously, no schools could be in operation 
 under its provisions until September, or later. Hence it is 
 impossible to embrace in the present report any statistics of 
 the number, character, work, and cost of these schools. Full 
 
57 
 
 information respecting them will be given in my next report. 
 I am enabled to say, however, that the law has met with 
 very general favor, and that there is reason to believe it will, 
 in due time, accomplish all that its projectors and friends have 
 anticipated. I herewith present the circular, above referred 
 to, and follow it with brief reports from the county superin- 
 tendents respecting its popularity, and its applicability to the 
 needs of their respective localities. 
 
 HIGH SCHOOL, CIRCULAR. 
 
 Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction, 
 
 Madison, August 8, 1875. 
 To school officers and friends of education in Wisconsin: 
 
 Dr. Kyerson, for thirty years past the distinguished 
 and successful chief superintendent of public instruction of 
 the province of Ontario, Canada, recently said, in substance, 
 of the American public school-system, that in the cities and 
 larger villages it gives admirable results, the schools there 
 being among the best in the world; but that in giving nothing 
 better to rural neighborhoods than the present ungraded dis- 
 trict schools it is there deserving of no praise. The results 
 there accomplished, he asserts, are " far below and short of 
 the state appropriations made and the machinery employed 
 for the sound education of the people." Yet he maintains 
 that the 1 rural parts of the state are " the peculiar field of a 
 national school-law and system." 
 
 Hon. Newton Bateman, of Illinois, says in his last biennial 
 report: "Leaving out of view the many exceptional cases, it 
 may be broadly affirmed that the educational facilities afforded 
 in the cities and towns, as a whole, are so superior to those 
 afforded in the country districts, as a whole, as to make it 
 easier to contrast than to compare them." 
 
 An intelligent writer, in a recent number of the "Illinois 
 Schoolmaster," says: "It is a sad comment on the intelligence 
 of the age that the status of the district schools of today is 
 but little better than that of twenty years ago." 
 
 When some eighteen months ago the writer of this had just 
 been elected to the office he holds, a legal friend incidentally, 
 but with some earnestness said to him : " I hope you will turn 
 your chief attention to the schoolhouse at the cross-roads." 
 
58 
 
 The poor character and the scanty amount of the instruction in 
 "the schoolhouse at the cross-roads," have long been known 
 and deplored by intelligent American educators. The short- 
 comings of that school, scarcely less forcibly indicated by the 
 suggestive advice of the lawyer, who was in no sense an educa- 
 tional man, than by the direct testimony of some of the most 
 experienced and wisest of educational men, are a source of 
 constant concern to those entrusted with school supervision. 
 
 Nay, the state itself acknowledges the failure, and seeks 
 by various means a remedy. It provides costly normal schools, 
 and numerous institutes for the better qualification of teach- 
 ers. It establishes a system of examinations and licenses by 
 which it is supposed the incompetent will be debarred from 
 a work they are unqualified to perform. These things it does 
 chiefly in the interest of country schools. Cities and towns 
 will generally afford good educational facilities without the 
 aid of the supervising machinery of the state. 
 
 The chief defects of the country schools are the following: 
 
 1. The teachers are unqualified. They are generally youth 
 ful, of very slender intellectual attainments, inexperienced, 
 and untrained. 
 
 2. The schools are ungraded. There are consequently so 
 many studies and classes that ,even the most accomplished 
 teachers would labor under serious disadvantages from want 
 of time. 
 
 3. The course of instruction is so limited that it is not 
 sufficient for the desires and needs of very many of the brighter 
 and more advanced pupils. 
 
 It is not a reproach to the teachers of country schools 
 that they are young and unqualified. The schools do not offer 
 them inducements to more than temporary, casual, and ineffi- 
 cient work. 
 
 It is not wholly a reproach to the country districts that 
 inducements to higher qualifications are not offered by the 
 schools. Country districts generally have a scanty population 
 and limited means for providing good educational facilities. 
 
 It is chiefly a reproach to the state system that it has taken 
 no means to remove the surprising inequality of educational 
 privileges enjoyed by those in different localities, and especially 
 by the many in the country, and the few in' cities and towns. 
 
59 
 
 Xot merely in strictly rural districts, but in many villages 
 — even those which may number their inhabitants by the 
 thousand — the schools fall below a reasonable standard in 
 both the character and extent of the instruction they afford. 
 Even here the teachers are poorly paid, are often inefficient, 
 and are perpetually changing. The course of instruction is so 
 limited that it does not meet the demands of all the pupils. 
 Many of these must go from home to obtain not only the prep- 
 aration that shall fit them for college, but even that which 
 shall fairly qualify them for certain business avocations. 
 
 The causes of these deficiencies are to be found partly in 
 a public sentiment that fails to appreciate and demand higher 
 educational facilities, and deems the cost of them too burden- 
 some, and partly in the inexperience of school-boards which 
 are perpetually changing their membership and have no just 
 conception of either their duty or their responsibiltiy. The chief 
 cause here, however, is also in the want of any well organized 
 system by which the activities of these schools can be in com- 
 mon directed and sustained. Local independence is carried 
 to an unwise extreme. The state affords but a very small 
 fractional part of their support, and has almost nothing to say 
 in regard to their courses of study, the qualifications of their 
 teachers, their relations to other schools, and their general 
 management. 
 
 Nominally we have a state system of public instruction, but 
 practically this system is a great aggregation of nearly inde- 
 pendent local schools, bound together by the gossamer threads 
 of an annual " report " and an annual distribution of a pittance 
 of a few cents to each school child. In the matter of an effi- 
 cient system, securing the best results from the money 
 expended, several other countries are in advance of us, not 
 only in respect to the schools of rural neighborhoods, but also 
 the uniformly good character of those in towns and villages. 
 
 Again, the defective character of our state system is seen 
 in the absence of a sufficient number of schools preparatory 
 to the state university. The latter has been established at the 
 head of our system for the benefit of the entire state; but the 
 creation and maintenance of local means of preparation for the 
 university have been left to chance. The state has prescribed 
 
60 
 
 no preparatory courses of study, and has offered no material 
 aid for the support of such courses. The consequence is that 
 in but very few of the public schools can full preparation for 
 the freshman classes of the university be had, and the latter 
 is still obliged to do a large amount of preparatory work which 
 is below its legitimate sphere of performance. The graded 
 or high schools of most cities and larger villages have courses 
 which if slightly increased would give the desired preparation ; 
 but to accomplish this increase, it is asserted, would add to the 
 already heavy burden of cost for the benefit of only a very 
 small number of pupils. Hence, these schools are usually 
 graded without reference to anything above them, and the few 
 bright and ambitious youth who desire university culture 
 must seek elsewhere, at an age when they most need home 
 influences, the full preparation which should be more safely 
 and inexpensively afforded them at home. 
 
 To recapitulate, the defects in the educational system are: 
 first, and chiefly, in the country district schools, where we find 
 the teachers young and inefficient, the subjects of instruction 
 and the classes instructed too numerous, and the absence of the 
 incentives that local schools of higher grade afford; second, in 
 the schools of many villages and cities, where we too fre- 
 quently find poor instruction in the higher studies, and gener- 
 ally find the course of these studies too limited; and third, in 
 the consequent isolation of the state university from the sys- 
 tem of schools beneath it. 
 
 The most experienced and thoughtful educational men of 
 the state hold that a remedy for these defects is to be found 
 in a systematic encouragement and guidance of secondary 
 (academic or high school) instruction. 
 
 Let the state make a special appropriation, as is wisely done 
 in some others, for the benefit of high shools, and let these 
 be multiplied and rendered more efficient throughout the whole 
 commonwealth. Let their relations to the existing country 
 district schools be such as to relieve, encourage, and strengthen 
 them; and let their relations to the university, on the other 
 hand, be such as to enable it to properly perform its own legit- 
 imate, large and beneficent work in the fields of higher culture. 
 
 These were the ideas of the framers and supporters of the 
 
61 
 
 free high-school law of last winter, a law which, it is hoped, 
 will materially tend to unify and strengthen all the educational 
 forces of the state. To explain the origin, purpose, and char- 
 acter of this law, and to commend it to the intelligent interest 
 of the people of Wisconsin, for whose "benefit it was enacted 
 by their chosen representatives, is the chief purpose of this 
 circular. 
 
 A perusal of the law herewith given, with such comments 
 as will be likely to render its provisions easily intelligible, 
 will show that its leading purpose is to encourage the establish- 
 ment of township high schools, and thus to afford to 
 rural neighborhoods the benefit of the higher educa- 
 tional facilities usually found only in cities and some 
 large villages. It is the hope of the friends of this 
 law that very many of the rural townships of the 
 state will avail themselves of the advantages it offers. 
 Some have already intelligently taken steps to do 
 so, and many others are considering and discussing the pro- 
 priety of similar action. In order to make clear the wisdom 
 of the township school, its relation to the existing district 
 schools and its influence upon the latter, no more excellent 
 illustration can be found than is embodied in the graphic words 
 of Hon. Newton Bateman, in the last Illinois school-report, 
 to which earnest attention is invited: 
 
 AN ILLUSTRATION. 
 
 To place in a clear light the indirect influence referred to 
 in at least one of its manifestations, we will take a familiar 
 case. Here is a rural township divided into six districts (the 
 average number), and in each district there is and for years 
 has been one ordinary common school. No one of these six 
 schools is particularly different from or better than the others. 
 In each there is the usual diversity of ages, attainments, and 
 conditions ; the usual books and studies, and the multiplication 
 of classes incident to the necessities of the case. For the 
 law admits all the youth in each district between the ages 
 of six and twenty-one years, and during part of the year, at 
 least, nearly all are in attendance. Little fellows who have 
 just touched the line of eligibility, are there, for the first time, 
 with their primers and spelling-books, intent upon mastering 
 
62 
 
 the mysteries of the alphabet. There, too, are young men and 
 misses, for the last time, having traversed again and again the 
 most advanced ground of the scanty curriculum, yet hoping to 
 gather up some additional crumbs of knowledge before saying 
 good-bye to school. Between those extremes are all the grada- 
 tions of age, aptitude, and attainment — the dull and the bright, 
 the fast and the slow, the gentle and the rough, the strong and 
 the weak — all to be instructed and cared for in innumerable 
 ways, by the one teacher. He does the best he can. If he 
 can find four or five near enough together in knowledge and 
 capacity to be formed into a class in any one of the branches 
 taught, he is glad to do it. And so of still smaller numbers, 
 down to even two. But after exhausting all possibilities in 
 this direction, he finds that the remaining number of individ- 
 ual ones, exceeds the whole number of his classes. To each of 
 these individual pupils he must give such occasional and hur- 
 ried assistance as he can. He works hard, but at a fearful 
 disadvantage. Systematic teaching is out of the question — 
 concentration of effort is impossible. He has but single min- 
 utes where he should have five, ten, or fifteen — but seconds 
 often, where he should have minutes. Instead of that smooth, 
 quiet, and sequential movement of school-life and work which, 
 reacting, produces mental tranquility and steadiness in the 
 pupils, there is confusion, hurry, disorder, friction. No fixed 
 time-table or schedule of school exercises is possible — no pupil 
 knows just when he will be called upon to recite, or when he can 
 have needful assistance. The order of work is never the same 
 for two consecutive days unless by chance — cannot be. In- 
 dividual pupils often go, in emergencies, a whole day or more 
 without being able to secure a moment's attention from the 
 teacher, and in the mean time they may be at a standstill for 
 lack of light upon some obscure point in the lesson, or a hint 
 of the way out of some tangle, or over some obstacle. And 
 when the favorable moment for explanation comes, the teacher 
 may be called away just at the critical point where a few words 
 more would make everything clear. Discontent, listlessness, 
 loss of interest, indifference, inevitably ensue. The tone of the 
 school is lowered; a sort of weary spiritlessness settles down 
 upon it; duties are performed in a careless, mechanical way, 
 and the hours drag heavily on. There is nothing beyond, no 
 other school to go to, no outside incentive to effort, no fresh 
 breeze from any quarter to stir the surface of the sluggish 
 waters. In each of the six schools the state of affairs is sub- 
 stantially the same. 
 
 Now let a good township high school, with fresh and ad- 
 vanced studies, superior teachers, improved methods, regular 
 
63 
 
 classes, progressive steps, and thorough systematic instruction, 
 be opened in that township, and what a transformation would 
 be wrought in those sluggish schools. What an awaking and 
 quickening breath would reanimate those tired and torpid boys 
 and girls. There is something to work for now; an objective 
 point to be gained; a prize to be reached. The high school 
 becomes a topic of absorbing interest to all who expect to 
 continue their studies, and their enthusiasm is communicated 
 to all the rest. The new school, its teachers, classes, discipline, 
 and internal arrangements are eagerly discussed, morning, 
 noon, and evening, and especially the conditions of admission 
 and the chances of success. Those who are to go to the high 
 school begin at once, with zest and spirit, the work of prepara- 
 tion for the examinations that will crown or dissappoint their 
 hopes. Early and late. they are at their books, which are sud- 
 denly invested with a new interest and importance. As the 
 decisive day approaches, knots of boys and bevies of girls gath- 
 er in all sorts of out-of-the-way places, to review the subjects 
 on which they are to be examined — each in turn questioning 
 the others thereon. Those six district schools, lately so dull, 
 glow with healthful excitement, and become very bee-hives 
 of industry. Those who pass to the high school add to the 
 interest already awakened, by their stirring accounts of their 
 new duties and experiences. Meeting daily with the pupils 
 of the lower schools, they answer innumerable questions, and 
 seek to satisfy the tireless curiosity of their less fortunate 
 companions. Strong bonds of friendship are thus established 
 between the schools, and good feeling prevails on every hand. 
 Such as failed at the first examination try again, and many 
 who had expected their days of pupilage to end with the com- 
 mon school, are induced by the contagion of example to recon- 
 sider their purpose, and press on towards the high school. Thus 
 is the whole aspect of school affairs in the township changed 
 for the better. The children are wide awake, the parents be- 
 come intersted, everybody catches more of less of the new in- 
 spiration, — and yet this is but the indirect influence of one 
 township high-school. 
 
 Such are the advantages of a high school supplementing the 
 district schools of a township. The establishment of such a 
 school under the present law is neither difficult nor expensive. 
 With one-half the cost of instruction paid by the state, the ex- 
 pense to many towns where the school is most needed will be 
 slight, and in some cases probably nothing. It is not neces- 
 
64 
 
 sary to immediately erect a building. In nearly every town a 
 building, or at least a room, already exists which, can be tem- 
 porarily utilized for the school— a vacant hall, the basement of 
 a church, an unused room in a school building or the like. Nearly 
 every dollar expended can be and should be devoted to com- 
 petent instruction. 
 
 If the cost of maintaining the school throughout the year is 
 too great for a poor township, let it be continued one or two 
 terms in the year. A single yearly term held in the winter 
 will in many localities meet a pressing need and furnish great 
 benefit to the older pupils whose circumstances permit attend- 
 ance at no other time, and for whom the district schools afford 
 neither attraction nor profit. 
 
 The location of the school will in most cases naturally be at 
 the chief place of business resort in the town. If there is a 
 village with anything like a central) location, it will be there. 
 If there are two villages, the terms of the high school might 
 be held alternately in each. If a village is located near the 
 boun dry-line between two towns, both the latter might profit- 
 ably unite in establishing and supporting the school. 
 
 It would be decidedly for the common advantage to have the 
 high schools maintained by townships rather than by districts, 
 and a vigorous effort should always first be made to secure the 
 desired action of the people through the town organization. 
 The object, character, and scope of the law should be clearly 
 and fairly explained to them. The benefit to the common 
 schools in the better qualified teachers, fewer classes, and the 
 incentive to the ambition of pupils ; the general value of higher 
 intelligence; the enhanced price of real estate as the result of 
 good educational facilities — all these things should be and can 
 be made intelligible to the voters of the town by personal ex- 
 planations to individuals, by a public address to a meeting 
 called for the purpose, by appeals through the press, and by 
 other means at the disposal of the intelligent friends of educa- 
 tion and progress. 
 
 Perhaps the most effective argument with some would be 
 the simple arithmetical proof that a town might enjoy the ben- 
 efits of a high school under the law, actually without cost, or 
 
00 
 
 even with, a pecuniary gain. Without injuring the district 
 schools of the town, but, on the contrary, to their decided 
 profit, female teachers might be employed in them the year 
 through, instead of for the summer only. The slight tax for 
 the support of the high school might thus be saved, or possibly 
 more than saved to particular districts, by the diminished cost 
 of winter schools. 
 
 Or, again, in some towns the district schools might profitably 
 confine their sessions to two short spring and fall terms for 
 the benefit of the younger pupils, leaving the educational ener- 
 gies of the town to center entirely in the high school during 
 the winter months. This course is suggested by one of the 
 most experienced and successful normal-school men of the 
 State. 
 
 But when a town is opposed to and refuses to vote the es- 
 tablishment of a high school, then it may be for the interest 
 of a village district therein to organize the same unaided. The 
 law allows the single district to do so, and to the school es- 
 tablished by it properly qualified pupils from other parts of 
 the town may be admitted on payment of tuition. 
 
 In cities and incorporated villages existing "graded" or "high 
 schools" may be reorganized, under the law, into free high 
 schools and share in the bounty of the State, by complying 
 with the proper conditions. 
 
 It should be understood in all cases that the design of the 
 law is not to grant gratuitous aid to any school, whether in 
 a town, village, or city. Something must be returned as an 
 equivalent. There must either be a new creation of a school 
 not before in existence, or a reorganization and improvement 
 after a common plan. There may be a few exceptions to this 
 in the case of schools already performing well the work desig- 
 nated and called for by the new law, but State bounty to these 
 is simply giving them what they have already earned and de- 
 served. The great majority of the schools must be new crea- 
 tions, or reorganizations with improvements. It is expected 
 that the local authorities will in all cases employ the State 
 bounty either to create anew or to improve what already exists, 
 if not already up to the proper standard. The state bounty is 
 not designed to take the place of the district, village, town, or 
 
66 
 
 city appropriation, but simply to supplement the latter for the 
 purposes of improvement. If a district, village, or town ob- 
 tains three or five hundred dollars from the State, it is ex- 
 pected that every dollar thereof will be devoted to more effi- 
 cient or more extended instruction. 
 
 FROM THE REPORT OF WILLIAM C. WHTTFORD— 1878. 
 
 The old-fashioned school district must have been the product 
 of accident rather than of intelligent design. Originating in 
 New England, it naturally spread westward. So long as 
 nothing but elementary instruction was expected from the 
 public schools, and while a system of academies furnished, to 
 a considerable extent, that of a higher grade, the defects of 
 the public school system were not so seriously felt. Then, it 
 is to be noted that Massachusetts, as early as 1647, required 
 every town, with one hundred families, to maintain a "gram- 
 mer school," which meant a school that could fit for the univer- 
 sity. 
 
 For many years past, a better plan than that of single, in- 
 dependent districts has been earnestly advocated, and to some 
 extent introduced. In 1852, Pennsylvania made the town, 
 borough, and city, the unit for school purposes. Iowa adopted 
 the same system in 1858. Massachusetts introduced it grad- 
 ually, and for several years it has been universal in that State 
 The other New England states are moving in the same direc- 
 tion, as is also New York. Ohio and Indiana have tried a mix- 
 ture of the two systems, but without satisfactory results. In 
 the former state, the people are calling earnestly for the town 
 system proper. Wisconsin should not be the last state to 
 secure this great improvement. It is time for her to take a 
 step "forward," and make the system obligatory. 
 
 The advantages of the system may be briefly restated, at 
 this time, under the following heads: 
 
 1. It would promote economy and simplicity. A town with 
 ten districts, not an unusual number, requires the services of 
 thirty school officers, besides those of the town clerk, the town 
 treasurer, and the town board, in the administration of school 
 affairs. A board of five directors, with the town treasurer, 
 
67 
 
 would do all the business more intelligently, more efficiently, 
 and at less expense. 
 
 2. It would aid in securing peace and quiet. As shown by 
 the numerous appeals taken to the state superintendent, and 
 by the correspondence of the office, there are constant disputes 
 about district boundaries, the lawfulness of the action of dis- 
 trict meetings or district boards, to the great detriment of the 
 schools. Under the consolidated system, this trouble would 
 mostly disappear. Each voter would have, as now, a voice in 
 the election of the school officers, and in the determination of 
 the school policy. Each taxpayer would pay his school taxes 
 for the general good, and be allowed to send to the most con- 
 venient and appropriate school. 
 
 3. School taxes would be uniform and equitable. Public 
 schools are for the public good, and should be supported at 
 the public charge. A state school tax, supplementing the in- 
 come of the school fund, would leave the local taxation lighter, 
 and the burden of sustaining the schools would be still further 
 equalized. 
 
 4. The schools would also be much more uniform, and of bet- 
 ter average quality. At present, we find an excellent school, 
 perhaps, in one district, and in the next a poor one; chiefly, 
 sometimes, because the people are poor. But the state can- 
 not afford to tolerate poor schools. 
 
 5. Graded schools are generally out of the question, under the 
 present system. Under a town system, they could be much 
 more readily introduced, as increase of population, and the ad- 
 vancement of pupils might render it desirable. A considerable 
 number of towns could at once establish a central school of 
 higher grade, open to all pupils of sufficient advancement. 
 This would, in effect, grade the other schools. Some advant- 
 ages, beyond those of elementary instruction, would thus be 
 attainable, more especially in towns embracing villages. 
 
 6. A course of study could be much more readily introduced, 
 and made uniform, if desired, for the county. 
 
 7. Text-books and apparatus could be uniformly and ad- 
 equately supplied, and at reasonable rates. 
 
 8. Teachers would be employed for their fitness, and longer 
 retained, and would do far better work. A superior teacher 
 
68 
 
 would naturally "be secured for the central school of highest 
 grade, if established, who would diffuse correct methods of 
 teaching, through all the schools. 
 
 9. Supervision, now almost a nullity, would be exercised 
 by such head teacher, or by the secretary d¥ the town board; 
 and the general care of the schools on the part of the county 
 superintendent, would be properly supplemented. 
 
 10. School-houses would be better, and better located, the 
 law providing, as it does now, for the equalization of cost, for 
 a series of years. 
 
 11. Town libraries would naturally and readily connect them- 
 selves with a town system of schools, greatly to the public 
 benefit. 
 
 12. Statistics would be uniform, reliable, and of some value. 
 
 No human system is perfect. The school system here ad- 
 vocated, opens possibilities nevertheless which can not be real- 
 ized under the present one, except in rare cases. It would 
 certainly render it practicable to make the bulk of the country 
 schools much better than they now are; and the system should, 
 therefore, be enacted into law, without much longer delay. 
 The present permissive law was intended as an experiment. 
 Though well devised, in the main, it retains too much of the 
 present system, and should be carefully recast. 
 
 In the report for 1881, Superintendent Whitford says: 
 The experience of the state has confirmed my conviction from 
 the beginning that this system would never obtain, on the op- 
 tional plan, a general foothold in our towns. Our citizens must 
 accept the methods employed by other states for its adoption, 
 before its superior advantages will be known throughout our 
 own state. A law enforcing its introduction into all the 
 towns, where not now in operation, would doubtless receive at 
 first considerable opposition, but it would shortly be ac- 
 quiesced in by the school-districts. The arguments for the 
 system I have presented in my former annual reports, and also 
 for this procedure of the state in making it obligatory. It 
 seems to me that the people are a well prepared now as they 
 will be at any time in the next dozen years, to adopt the 
 changes, and to use them profitably in their management of 
 the public schools. 
 
69 
 
 FROM REPORT OF SUPT. ROBERT GRAHAM, 1878. 
 
 In 1886 Hon. Robert Graham included in his biennial report 
 an important table of statistics, based upon reports of town 
 clerks for the year 1885, which is here reproduced as the most 
 effective presentation of the inequalities and injustice of the 
 independent district system. It will be observed that it in- 
 cludes reports from nearly every district in counties where 
 this system was in operation. The table shows by counties 
 the highest and lowest valuation of taxable property in school 
 districts; the highest, lowest and average per cent, of school 
 tax in school districts ; the greatest, least and average number 
 of persons of school age in school districts; and the highest, 
 lowest and average tax per capita of school population in 
 school districts. 
 
 A comparison should be made of the columns headed re- 
 spectively "highest per cent, of school tax in any district" and 
 "lowest per cent, of school tax in any district." For purposes 
 of illustration, in Marinette county the former amounts to five 
 per cent, in one district while the latter is one and one-tenth 
 mills in another district. In the former district the charge 
 on every dollar of assessed valuation for maintaining a public 
 school was over forty times as great as in the case of the latter 
 district — an inequality that could not possibly occur were the 
 township system in vogue. In the column headed, "lowest 
 valuation of any school district " it may be seen that districts 
 whose valuation in 1885 was less than $3,000 were called upon 
 to maintain a public school for six months during the school 
 year. There is little doubt that the valuation of districts in 
 the same towns reached as high as $40,000. One of the form 
 er districts was reported from Iowa county and is given a 
 valuation of $2,300. Inequality in the school population is 
 also evident. Iowa county furnishes a district with but six 
 children of school age while Jackson county has one with five 
 Without doubt neighboring districts contained at least fifty 
 children. The table is valuable in that it furnishes reliable 
 data in proof of the disadvantages that attend the independent 
 district system. 
 
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73 
 
 FROM THE REPORT OF SUPT. J. B. THAYER, 1890. 
 
 COMMON SCHOOLS. 
 
 The two years, since the last report of the department, have 
 been marked by unusual activity on the part of school officers 
 in all portions of the state. The State Superintendent, with 
 the aid of additional clerical help, afforded by recent legisla- 
 tion, has been able to reach county superintendents and other 
 school officers, with circulars of information and inquiries, 
 more effectively than in preceding years. It is doubtful wheth- 
 er any two years in the history of the state have exhibited more 
 interest in all grades of school work, or that more has been 
 accomplished, than during the past two years. 
 
 It may be truthfully said that Wisconsin has, theoretically. 
 a complete system of public education, outlined by provision c 
 in the constitution, obtained when the state was organized. 
 It may also be truthfully said that there are inherent defects 
 in the frame work of our rural school system of organization 
 and management, which can be remedied only by an abandon- 
 ment of the present independent district system, and the re 
 organization of such districts on the basis of a larger unit for 
 purposes of local taxation and supervision. Excessive and 
 unequal burdens of local taxation, for the support of goot 
 schools, the intense conservatism of isolated agricultural com- 
 munities, cheap teachers, frequent changes, neighborhood 
 quarrels, religious antagonism, race prejudices, and nepotism 
 of members of school boards in the employment of teachers, 
 are hindrances which lie across the pathway of progress, and 
 negative, in a great measure, the best efforts and agencies 
 directed towards the improvement of country schools. 
 
 It is a clear conviction, in the mind of the State Superin- 
 tendent, that the common schools of country districts can nev- 
 er attain, under the present independent system, the standard 
 of excellency and efficiency already attained in the graded 
 schools of cities and villages. There is no phase of the school 
 work in Wisconsin that merits more the thoughtful and care- 
 
ful attention of educators, legislators, and friends of common 
 schools, than the defective, cumbersome, inequitable and 
 wasteful machinery, instituted for the support and manage- 
 ment of schools in rural communities. 
 
 The economic and educational advantages of the aggregation 
 of the districts of a town, or a similar unit, under a single board 
 of education, have been fully demonstrated by experience in 
 this and in other states, and have been fully set forth in pre- 
 ceding reports of this department. 
 
 The comparisons, exhibited in the summaries of statistics, 
 show, that while the amount of work done, estimated by days 
 taught and attendance of pupils, has been slightly increased 
 over the work of the two years covered by the next preceding 
 report, there was a marked improvement in the quality of in- 
 struction, estimated from the experience and qualifications oi 
 teachers employed; from a better supply of text-books; from 
 a more general introduction of the course of study, resulting ir 
 better organization, more systematic work, and more intelli 
 gent direction and supervision. Measured by the standard of 
 results which are possible, desirable and attainable, the actual 
 condition is not satisfactory. 
 
 THE TOWNSHIP SYSTEM OF SCHOOLS. 
 
 From a paper on "Recent School Legislation in Other States," 
 prepared by Oliver E. Wells, State Superintendent, and 
 read before the Wisconsin State Teachers' Association, at 
 Madison, Wis., December 26, 1893. 
 
 The most interesting feature of recent school legislation is 
 the abolition of the independent district system of school gov- 
 ernment and the substitution for it of the township system. 
 At the last session of the legislature of the state of Maine the 
 district system was abolished, the new township law- to take 
 effect March 1, 1894. The Vermont legislature also at its latest 
 session enacted a statute requiring the township system from 
 and after April 1, 1893. New Hampshire adopted the township 
 
system iii 1885, Massachusetts in 1882. Bhode Island and 
 Connecticut nave the township system, although they have 
 not absolutely abolished the independent district system. 
 Both states are gradually abandoning the district for the 
 township system. Already one half of the population in each 
 state is under that system and each shows annual gains for it 
 Iowa has a township system though not compulsory and not 
 exclusively in use. Indiana has had a rigorous township sys- 
 tem since 1859. In that state all township affairs are managed 
 by a single trustee, and county affairs by three commis- 
 sioners. The township trustee performs the duties of our town 
 boards as well as of school district officers. He lays out roads, 
 builds bridges, organizes school districts, fixes their boundaries, 
 establishes the sites, builds and equips the schoolhouses, 
 employs the teachers and fixes their compensation. The town 
 trustees choose the county superintendent. The county super- 
 intendent, with the town trustees and chairman of the school 
 trustees in incorporated towns and cities, constitute a county 
 board of education, a quasi corporation with limited powers. 
 The Indiana code represents the strongest type of centralized 
 authority which it has been my privilege thus far to study. 
 I am not able to state from personal observation whether it 
 results in a more efficient administration of school affairs or 
 not. The school men assure me that the people are more 
 intensely interested in the choice of their town trustees and 
 county commissioner than in the election of the state and 
 national tickets. 
 
 I know from official reports that other states have the town- 
 ship system, but I have not thought it best to speak of states 
 which I have not personally visited. It should not be forgotten 
 in passing that Wisconsin has had a township system for 
 nearly twenty-five years and that is in operation in about sixty 
 towns. Its general adoption has been urged by all the state 
 superintendents and by many county superintendents since 
 the first passage of the law. The latest official reports of the 
 superintendents of important states like New York, New 
 Jersey, and Minnesota contain urgent and eloquent pleas for 
 the adoption of the town system. 
 
 The Northeastern Kansas Teachers' Association last spring 
 
76 
 
 adopted the following resolution : " Resolved, That because the 
 independent school district system is responsible for the exist- 
 ing unequal and unjust taxation, which condition gives great 
 irregularity in the length of the school term, and which, also, 
 reduces the wages of teachers so as to prevent the natural 
 and proper growth of the profession, we, therefore, favor the 
 township system of districting and government as a remedy 
 for these evils." 
 
 The Michigan State Teachers' Association, now in session 
 at Lansing, has as one of its chief topics of discussion, "The 
 Township Unit System." 
 
 HOW THE CHANGE TO TBE TOWNSHIP SYSTEM IS 
 EFFECTED. 
 
 The usual method of procedure in changing from the district 
 to the township system is to constitute each town in the state 
 a single district for school purposes and to abolish the divisions 
 of the town into school districts before existing. They next 
 provide that immediately upon the enactment of such a law 
 the towns shall take possession of all schoolhouses, lands, 
 apparatus and other property owned by the school districts. 
 There is then, at the earliest practicable date, an appraisement 
 by competent persons of the property so taken, and at the 
 first annual assessment thereafter a tax is levied upon the 
 whole town equal to the aggregate appraisement of the several 
 districts, and there is then remitted to the taxpayers of each 
 such district the said appraised valuation of the property so 
 taken. Thus the town practically purchases all the district 
 property of each school district. In the case of joint districts 
 a joint appraisement is made by like officers of the town 
 interested and the remission of taxes is made to each part of 
 the joint district according to the determination of the board. 
 
 The corporate powers of a district are continued, so far as 
 they may be necesary, for the purpose of settling its affairs, 
 meeting its liabilities and enforcing its rights, and any prop- 
 erty held in trust by any school district by virtue of gift, devise 
 or bequest for the benefit of said district is secured to the dis- 
 trict to be held and used according to the terms thereof, the 
 school board of the district of which it forms a part being 
 
77 
 
 made its agent to expend the income of any suck trust prop- 
 erty that is devoted to the support of the school. 
 
 The town board of school directors is constituted a body 
 corporate and given the usual powers of a corporation for pub- 
 lic purposes, such as the power to sue and be sued, contracting 
 and being contracted with, holding real and personal property 
 and selling the same. 
 
 Permission is given to organize joint districts in cases where 
 natural features prevent the maintenance of efficient sub- 
 districts. Power is given, in some cases to the town at its 
 annual meeting and in other cases to the board of directors, 
 to determine the number and location of its schoolhouses, or 
 to discontinue them or change their location on conditions 
 proper to preserve the just rights and privileges of the inhab- 
 itants for whose benefit such districts were originally estab- 
 lished. 
 
 REASOINS FOR THE CHA.N6E IN OTHER STATES. 
 
 In New England the change to the town system has been 
 urged upon the ground of a more equitable distribution of the 
 burden of support. The Ehode Island reports show a rate 
 of taxation fourteen times as great in one district as in another, 
 the rate upon one hundred dollars of valuation varying all the 
 way from 2 3-4 cents to 38 1-4 cents. Connecticut shows a 
 similar disproportion. 
 
 In the annual report of the state superintendent of New 
 York for 1893, two districts are given for one town in each 
 county, the rate of taxation and the cost per capita for educat- 
 ing children. The rate of taxation varies from 1.2 mills for a 
 single district in Wayne county to 43.1 mills for a district in 
 Colchester county. District No. 6 in the town of De Witt, On- 
 ondaga county, has a rate of .9 of a mill, while No.13 in the 
 same town pays 7 mills. No. 1, town of Pinckney, Lewis county 
 pays 4.8 mills, while No. 10 in the same town pays 37.1 mills. 
 Two districts in the town of Farmersville, Cattaraugus county, 
 pay respectively |5.66 and f 58.11 per capita; two in South 
 Bristol, Ontario county, $5.43 and $60.37 per capita; two in 
 
Northfield, Kichraond county, pay respectively f 11.25 per cap- 
 ita and |181.85. That is to say, the rate of taxation is seven 
 times as great in one district as in another in the same town, 
 and the per capita cost of educating a child is eleven times as 
 great. 
 
 CONDITIONS IN WISCONSIN. 
 
 The assessed value of th a districts in Wisconsin varies from 
 f 4,000 or f5,000 to f 130,000 or f 140,000. There are sixty dis- 
 tricts in Wood county, 85 in Juneau, 54 in Adams and 98 in 
 Vernon whose assessed valuation is less than $25,000. The 
 rate of taxation for school purposes in some districts must 
 therefore be many times as great as in other towns. 
 
 It is urged that under the district system too many schools 
 are supported. State Superintendent Luce of Maine in his 
 annual report for 1892, says the average enrollment of pupils 
 last year was less than twenty-five, and that the number of 
 schools having less than the average enrollment was greatly 
 in excess of the number having a large enrollment. He adds, 
 " There are probably between 1,000 and 1,200 existing schools 
 in the state whose enrollment is twelve or less. A careful 
 investigation running through a series of years has shown 
 that between 600 and 800 schools could be abolished without 
 detriment." 
 
 In our own state we have 183 districts whose average attend- 
 ance last year was not more than 5; 858 others not above 10; 
 2,481 more not exceeding 20. In other words 3,522 country 
 districts, about three fifths of the total number, have an aver- 
 age attendance not exceeding 20, and about two fifths above 
 that average with the great majority near the lower margin. 
 
 If these figures are approximately true the adoption of the 
 township system would greatly promote economy. Superin- 
 tendent Luce says, " Assuming that there are 600 unnecessary 
 schools — and there are neare r 1,000 — that it cost per week 
 for each one half the average for all, and that, each was kept 
 for the average length of all, there was thus wasted the sum 
 of $75,276." Following the same method, a careful estimate 
 of the amount of money wasted upon unnecessary schools in 
 Wisconsin is $190,000. 
 
79 
 
 ADVANTAGES TO BE GAINED. 
 
 More effective administration of school affairs would be 
 secured by reducing the number of officers and increasing 
 their authority and responsibility. The average number, of 
 districts to the town throughout the state is about six, although 
 in certain cases the number in a single town exceeds twelve. 
 It is useless to expect eighteen men in each town to give care- 
 ful attention to district affairs. There is not enough in it. 
 Divided among so many it is petty business. But if all the 
 business of all the districts in the town were placed in the 
 hands of a single board, consisting of five or seven members, 
 there would be enough business of importance to command 
 their time and consideration. With schoolhouses to be built 
 or repaired, supplies to be furnished, six or more teachers to 
 be engaged for the year, the need of provision for advanced 
 instruction in the town to be considered, these and other ques- 
 tions would interest the most capable men in the town. 
 In no other way can many intelligent men be pursuaded to 
 serve long upon school boards. Under the present system 
 men will continue to be elected because it is their " turn/' or 
 to keep down expenses, or to protect home interests in service 
 and expenditure of money. We now require more than eigh- 
 teen thousand officers where three thousand would do better. 
 
 Under the town system each sub-district would soon find 
 it to its interest to select its best man as representative upon 
 the town school board. Only thus could it hope to secure good 
 school accommodations with proportionate supplies, as long 
 terms with as capable a teacher, and just consideration in the 
 distribution of benefits and the allotment of burdens. Enlight- 
 ened self-interest would prompt it to continue indefinitely 
 in service, men who had intelligently managed its affairs. 
 
 MORE CONVENIENT SCHOOLHOUSES. 
 
 The boundaries of many school districts in their impudent 
 disregard for justice and fair dealing would shame the jagged 
 outlines of any congressional district I ever saw under a polit- 
 ical gerrymander. I once knew of a school district in this state 
 which ran irregularly across two townships. Its boundaries 
 
80 
 
 looked as if they had been drawn by chain lightning, upon the 
 surfaces temporarily tilted, and had then been distorted to 
 serve the purposes of private greed. Pupils from /remote 
 parts could attend school in their own district by traveling 
 twelve miles over routes upon opposite sides of the townships 
 and passing two schoolhouses upon each route. 
 
 Under the township system each family could, within reason- 
 able limits, send its children to the most convenient school. 
 As everyone would pay the school tax into the common town 
 fund, each could ordinarily claim the most accessible school 
 privileges, which are not always furnished by the nearest 
 school. 
 
 The town system would mitigate, and, generally, neutralize 
 local feuds and jealousies. Only those who have served in 
 the state department of education can well appreciate the 
 bitterness, vindictiveness, injustice, the incalculable and irre- 
 parable injury resulting from neighborhood strife. The suc- 
 cessful faction locates the schoolhouse where it will be least 
 convenient for the opposite faction, perhaps where it will be 
 inaccessible to many pupils, refuses adequate accommodations 
 for a majority of the patrons, hires the most incompetent per- 
 son obtainable, particularly if such person is related to their 
 party or is especially obnoxious to the defeated party, denies 
 a hearing upon lawful petitions for redress of grievances, and 
 through the children works the trouble into the school and 
 destroys its influence. With a town board, the majority of 
 whose members would be remote from the scene of contention, 
 the single possible representative of a faction could have little 
 influence. He would generally be told that the board could 
 not be a party to local contests and that the schools must be 
 protected from them. 
 
 MAKE THE BETTER SCHOOLS THE STANDARD. 
 
 It is believed that the adoption of the township system 
 would make the schools of the most intelligent and progressive 
 districts the standard. A town having practically paid for all 
 schoolhouses and being responsible for the construction of 
 needed ones, the demand from any sub-district would be for a 
 
8L 
 
 schoolhouse equal to the best in the town. The claim for it 
 would be based upon the justice of their baring equal accom- 
 modations, since tbey pay tbe same rate of taxation upon their 
 property. They would further demand an equal equipine**! 
 and as good a teacher as any district had, with as long a term. 
 The result would be that all sub-districts would have good 
 schoolhouses, well equipped, with longer terms of schooling 
 and under more competent teachers. 
 
 The natural tendency of contracting with the same board 
 would be to contract for an entire year, and thus the term of 
 employment of individual teachers would generally be 
 increased. The schools being better equipped and better 
 taught would attract and hold the pupils, and their attend- 
 ance in suitable buildings, properly ventilated and kept, with 
 suitable surroundings, would result in more manly and orderly 
 pupils. Thus school advantages and expenses would be equal- 
 ized. A more equitable apportionment of public funds would 
 be secured under our laws, the distribution of local taxation 
 being equalized. There would also be greater disinterested 
 ness and impartiality in the employment of teachers, com- 
 petency not kinship or favoritism becoming the basis of selec- 
 tion. 
 
 Opportunity would be given for the selection of uniform 
 text-books for all the schools in the town and for furnishing 
 them to the schools at the lowest possible cost. 
 
 BETTER SUPERVISION. 
 
 Our present, township law practically makes the secretary 
 of the school board a town superintendent. It requires him 
 to organize and grade the schools and to assist the teachers 
 in classifying and arranging them. He must also visit each 
 school in the town at least twice during each term, consult 
 with and advise the teachers in regard to the methods of 
 instruction and government, and report to the board such meas- 
 ures for the improvement of the schools as his experience and 
 observation shall dictate. This arrangement makes easy 
 co-operation between the county superintendent and the town 
 board in the supervision of the schools. It will not be dim- 
 
82 
 
 cult for the county superintendent to meet the board at suit- 
 able times for consultation and advice regarding better admin- 
 istration and to visit the schools in company with the secre- 
 tary. 
 
 The proper grading and classifying of the schools being 
 required by statute, the adoption of proper courses of study 
 and fidelity to them, would be insured. For fifteen years a 
 persistent effort has been made to secure the general adop- 
 tion of a course of study, and many thousand dollars have been 
 expended in the publication of courses. The Manual has 
 gone through seven editions. Ten thousand copies of the sixth 
 edition were published in 1890, and fifteen thousand copies of 
 the seventh edition in 1891. The supply of Manuals is 
 exhausted, and another edition will be prepared and put into 
 circulation during the coming year. The universal adoption 
 of the township system would afford some hope of tracing 
 benefits in some degree commensurate with the large expend- 
 ture for the publication and distribution of the course of study. 
 
 EXPERIENCE PROVES ITS VALUE. 
 
 It is not contended that the mere adoption of the township 
 system would secure good schools. A system of schools is 
 not a self-operating, self-directing institution. It requires 
 constant, vigilant and intelligent management to make it 
 effective. Under our form of government no community can 
 have, nor does it deserve, better government than it secures by 
 its own voluntary action. The contention here is that there 
 are many and great evils inherent in the district system, 
 which are not necessarily or properly a part of the township 
 system. The universal testimony of all communities which 
 have changed from the district to the township system estab- 
 lishes to the fullest extent the claims made for the latter sys- 
 tem by its friends before its adoption. The management of local 
 affairs still remains with the patrons of the school, each com- 
 munity electing its representative upon the board, and the 
 whole town voting upon the expenditure of money and the 
 furnishing of schoolhouses and supplies. The advantage of 
 the change will be decidedly with the rural communities, 
 
83 
 
 since the villages and cities now maintain nine or ten months' 
 school in buildings better constructed and equipped. Circum- 
 stances naturally prevent any considerable extension of this 
 amount of schooling, but a considerable extension is both pos- 
 sible and desirable in the district schools. In New Hamp- 
 shire, where no minimum requirement of schooling is demanded 
 as a prerequisite for the apportionment of public moneys, the 
 average amount of schooling in the rural districts was nine- 
 teen and a fraction weeks. The change to the township sys- 
 tem went into effect in 1886, and the average number of weeks 
 of school in the rural districts last year was twenty-four and 
 a fraction weeks. In other words, the change from the dis- 
 trict to the township system has increased the number of 
 weeks of school in the country districts about 25 per cent, in 
 seven years. As before stated, the intelligent and progressive 
 districts will set the pace. Since all are equally taxed for 
 school purposes, all will demand equal advantages, including 
 length of term. Thus the gains will be almost wholly with 
 tilie country schools. 
 
 EQUALIZATION OF ADVANTAGES. 
 
 An equalization of advantages can hardly be expected with- 
 out inconvenience. The richer districts must naturally make 
 some concessions involving a trifling increase of expenditure 
 for school purposes. They certainly cannot, with any degree 
 of fairness, maintain that they ought to have superior advan- 
 tages at less cost than their more unfortunate neighbors. The 
 crushing burden of taxation will be somewhat alleviated in 
 the poorer districts, while an increase of school advantages 
 will be gained. This application of the principle of fair play 
 cannot consistently be objected to by the well-to-do classes. If 
 the oft repeated assertion of the dependence of the perpetuity 
 of American institutions upon universal educaton has any sig- 
 nificance, respect for the common welfare necessitites a read- 
 justment of burdens and an equalization of benefits. 
 
 Opposition to change of administration is natural, but no 
 more significant in an effort to improve the public school sys- 
 
84 
 
 tem than to secure improvement in agencies affecting the com- 
 mon weal. The agricultural class is perhaps least likely to look 
 with favor upon a change, yet within the memory of many still 
 in the vigor of manhood the farmers have discarded the sickle 
 for the cradle and that for the hand-rake reaper, which in turn 
 was succeeded by the Marsh harvester and the self-binder. 
 Similar improvement has been made in the implements for 
 threshing and cleaning grain. Since the farmers have not 
 been averse to improvement in farm implements, it is to be 
 expected that improvements in school management and a more 
 equitable distribution of their advantages and the cost of their 
 maintenance will be as heartily and rapidly welcomed and 
 adopted. 
 
85 
 
 FEEE HIGH SCHOOLS. 
 
 Section 46. This section is a more definite statement of the 
 law conferring authority upon municipalities to establish free 
 high schools. The two classes of high schools are more dis- 
 tinctly defined. There is added a limitation upon the number 
 of such schools that may be established in one municipality. 
 A few cities in this state are composed of independent school 
 districts. There are two or more districts in each of those 
 cities. To allow the establishment of more than two free high 
 schools within one city would work an injustice to cities of 
 equal size that constitute but one school district and are al- 
 lowed state aid for but one free high school. 
 
 Section 47. There is no material change in the present law 
 made by this section. 
 
 Section 48. The language is simplified and made to conform 
 to the township system of school government. 
 
 Section 49. This section constitutes every high school dis- 
 trict a corporation with the powers necessary to accomplish 
 the purposes of its organization. The name by which such 
 corporation shall be known is also designated. This is new. 
 Its necessity had been suggested by the supreme court of this 
 state. In the administration of the law relating to high schools 
 many difficulties hare been encountered, owing to uncer- 
 tainty as to the present legal character of such districts. See 
 77 Wis., 532. 
 
 Section 50* This section is a revision of the -present law in 
 the language employed. The only material change constitutes 
 the town treasurer ex officio the treasurer of the free high 
 school district established in districts under the township sys- 
 tem. This arrangement avoids the establishment of a new 
 office, and makes the safety of the high school funds as secure 
 as those of the town. 
 
 Section 51. No change in the present law is embodied in 
 this section except that contained in the last sentence. The 
 present law is restated in a more definite form. No new pow- 
 
86 
 
 ers are conferred upon school boards. The last clause makes 
 it the duty of school boards to comply with the laws of the 
 state in maintaining high schools until the district is dissolved 
 by vote of the people. 
 
 Section 52. Provision is made in this section for the mailing 
 of reports of high schools not located in cities. Provision is 
 also made for special reports directly to the state superinten- 
 dent. As these schools come under his supervision and are 
 inspected under his direction, occasional reports on special 
 features of their management are essential to his intelligent 
 action. 
 
 Section 53. This section provides for the formation of joint 
 high school districts and for their dissolution. Our present 
 law does not afford any means whereby such districts may be 
 dissolved. Several cases have demonstrated the need of such 
 provision. 
 
 Section 54. This is an entirely new provision. There are 
 strong reasons in support of it. High schools are organized 
 pursuant to a vote of the people of the district. Their con- 
 tinuance should be subject to the will of the same authority. 
 No community should be forced to give a reluctant support to 
 a high school. 
 
 Section 55. The length of the annual term is increased by 
 this section from three to six months, and the annual appro- 
 priation is increased from twenty-five to fifty thousand dollars. 
 The present appropriation to each school has become so small 
 that it barely suffices as an inducement to cities to continue 
 their schools under state supervision. The increase contem- 
 plated will operate to strengthen the entire system and insure 
 permanence. 
 
 Section 56. The length of term for this class of schools is 
 increased by one month, the appropriation remains the same. 
 
 Section 57. The only change wrought by this section is the 
 provision for joint high school districts which is rendered nec- 
 essary by the existence of such districts. 
 
 Section 58. This section consists of a brief and definite 
 statement of the present law. 
 
 Section 59. This section supplies a defect in existing laws 
 
by defining the legal qualification of assistants and 
 providing the means by which, such qualification may be ob- 
 tained. As the greater part of high school instruction is given 
 by assistants, their equipment is an essential consideration. 
 
 COUNTY SUPEBINTENDENTS. 
 
 Section 60. This section requires an official bond of the 
 county superintendent. The law in its present form makes 
 the county superintendent liable to any town in his district 
 for pecuniary losses resulting from his negligence, but pro- 
 vides no means for its enforcement against irresponsible par- 
 ties. This provision is designed to remedy this defect. 
 
 Section 61. This section is entirely new. It prescribes 
 legal qualifications for holding the office of county superinten- 
 dent. The law is severe in its requirements relating to the 
 qualifications of teachers in all grades of the public schools 
 and visits upon districts the forfeiture of their state money for 
 hiring teachers who do not possess the required evidence of 
 legal qualification. It is consistent with sound sense that 
 similar requirements be exacted of officers who are to pass 
 judgment upon the competency of teachers and issue to them 
 certificates of qualification. County superintendents are 
 charged with the duty of advising with and directing the work 
 of teachers within their respective jurisdictions. It is man- 
 ifest that candidates for the office of superintendent of schools 
 should possess certificates equivalent to the highest grade 
 they are called upon to issue. In the mat- 
 
 ter of the removal of F. A. Strupp, Superintendent of schools 
 for Marathon County, Hon. Chas. V. Bardeen, Judge of the 
 Sixteenth Circuit of Wisconsin held that "want of sufficient 
 educational acquirements" constituted "incompetency" within 
 the meaning of the statute sufficient to justify removal from 
 office. 
 
 Section 62. Under subdivision 2 of this section the county 
 Superintendent is required to make a report of his official vis- 
 its to the secretary of the board of directors. This require- 
 
ment will create a closer relation between the chief school 
 officer in each county and the local authority in each town. 
 Such reports will materially aid boards of directors in the 
 management of the schools under their charge. 
 
 Subdivision 3 is entirely new. The meetings contemplated 
 will be effectual in creating a deeper interest in school work 
 on the part of school officers and will lead to more intelligent 
 management on their part. They will also afford superinten- 
 dents greater opportunity to systematize and strengthen ihe 
 work of all the schools under their care. 
 
 Sub-division 4 supplies a much needed requirement. At 
 present a superintendent in a majority of cases enters upon 
 the duties of his office without a line of record to inform him 
 concerning the items specified in this subdivision. The per- 
 manent records for which the clause provides will furnish an 
 incoming superintendent with information necessary to the 
 intelligent discharge of his duties. 
 
 Subdivision 5. The superintendent's powers are enlarged 
 by this subdivision to the extent of ordering improvements to 
 an amount not to exceed fifty dollars instead of twenty-five 
 dollars as the present law provides. Experience shows that 
 in some cases twenty-five dollars is inadequate to remove 
 nuisances and make necessary improvements. In subdivision 
 6 the law is so modified as to impose the entire responsibility 
 for condemning schoolhouses upon county superintendents. 
 Under the present law the responsibiity is shared by town 
 chairmen. The administration of our present law is unsatis- 
 factory and furnishes strong reasons for placing the entire re 
 sponsibility upon the principal school officer. The opportunity 
 to appeal from the superintendent's order excludes the prob 
 ability of unfairness in his decisions. In subdivision 8, a 
 very slight change is introduced consisting of the requirement 
 relating to reporting the names of boards of directors to the 
 State Superintendent. Subdivision 11 embraces the sub- 
 stance of Ch. 65, laws 1885. 
 
 Section 63. This section embraces Ch. 215, laws 1885, and 
 Oh. 80, laws 1887. The purpose and intent of the law are 
 animation in it unnecessary for the higher grades of certifi- 
 preserved; the language alone is changed. 
 
t9 
 
 Section 64. This section is entirely new and is framed in 
 the interest of competent and effectiTe school supervision. The 
 present law is defective in that a superintendent's responsibil- 
 ity for good work is not specifically provided for. This leads 
 to a frequeDt neglect of the duties charged upon this officer to 
 such an extent as to degrade the importance of the office in 
 public estimation. Public school interests are greatly impaired 
 in consequence of such incompetent and indifferent supervi- 
 sion. The enactment of this section into law can in no way 
 affect superintendents who properly perform the work which 
 the acceptance of the office imposes upon them. 
 
 Section 65. This section is changed by the addition of "im- 
 moral conduct" to the causes for the removal of superinten- 
 dents from office. The obvious need of good moral conduct in 
 the practices of the principal school officer in a county justifies 
 the insertion of this enumeration of immorality among the 
 causes for removal. 
 
 EXAMINATION AND CEETIFICATES. 
 
 There is no material change in sections 66 and 67. Under 
 section 68 English literature is substituted for physiology in 
 the requirements made of applicants for the second grade cer- 
 tificate and general' history is substituted for higher algebra 
 and solid geometry in the branches required for the first grade 
 certificate. These changes are based upon the class work re- 
 quired of teachers. Physiology was placed among the third 
 grade branches several years ago, which rendered a second ex- 
 cates. More emphasis is now placed upon the study of 
 English in our common schools than formerly, hence the de- 
 mand for a more thorough preparation in literature on the 
 part of teachers. Our present laws overload the examination 
 for a first grade certificate with mathematics to the exclusion 
 of studies that give general information. The scope of the 
 examination in mathematics is equivalent to the present re- 
 quirements in this branch for the life state certificate, ex- 
 ceeding by far the necessities for competent instruction in 
 mathematics in our common schools. The substitution of gen- 
 
90 
 
 eral history for higher algebra will therefore prove beneficial. 
 Besides these changes the language of this section is made 
 more concise than in the present law. The same is true with 
 reference to section 69. 
 
 Section 72 contains material changes. At present the duties 
 of the state board of examiners are limited to the examination 
 of applicants for the limited and unlimited state certificates. 
 The change enlarges these duties by investing the board with 
 authority to determine the diplomas granted by colleges and 
 normal schools located without this state, that may be counter- 
 signed by the state superintendent and made state certificates. 
 This board is required also, to determine what state certifi- 
 cates shall be deemed equivalent to the Wisconsin state cer- 
 tificates. 
 
 Section 73. Botany is placed among the studies required 
 for the limited state certificate. This certificate qualifies to 
 teach high schools having three year courses. As these 
 courses include the study of botany, the change is necessary. 
 The addition of English literature and general history to the 
 studies embraced in the examination for the first grade county 
 certificate renders unnecessary their enumeration under the 
 requirements for either state certificate. 
 
 Section 74. The change in this section is rendered necessary 
 by the change discussed above, which places upon the state 
 board of examiners the duty of judging the merits of certifi- 
 cates granted in other states when their owners desire to teach 
 in this state. 
 
 Section 75. There is no change in the law; the language 
 used is more clear and concise. 
 
 Section 76. This section vests in the state board of ex- 
 aminers the authority now exercised by the state superinten- 
 dent to determine what diplomas granted by state and foreign 
 colleges and foreign normal schools shall be made equivalent 
 to Wisconsin state certificates. At present diplomas granted 
 by foreign state normal schools are not countersigned. The 
 reason for this change is stated briefly above 
 
 Sections 77 and 78. These sections embody the present law. 
 
 

Library of Congress 
 Branch Bindery, 1902