University of Wisconsin Oshkosh - Quiver Yearbook (Oshkosh, WI)

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place. In '75 the first “supervisor of practice was sandwiched between other duties in conjunction with the president, the first regular officer of the kind in the system, and we dared not label him. In '7 we sent a second petition for a chemical laboratory, stating that as both the president and science teacher had some mechanical skill, we thought $150 would suffice for hoards, bottles, and a small outfit of re-agents. It was granted rather because of our importunity rather than from profound conviction of need, and the first primitive laboratory of a system which boasts of nearly a score to-day was set up for the other schools to reap the benefits of later, free from galling refusals. In 77 the second enlargement by erection of the great west wing was built, and filled to overflowing at once. Provision was somewhat surreptitiously made for the art room by the arrangements of skylights, but no promise of any special teacher for such fanciful work as drawing was conceded. Fortunately we had gained an able teacher of music in Prof. Graham at the very organization of the school, but every hour taken from hi' other work for music was deemed burning incense to folly by wiseacres throughout the state: but two thousand students will l car witness that he kept the fires burning, both for them and for posterity. So drawing languished for a decade, because there were no adequate ideals and no teachers who saw its educational values. The first distinctive teacher of this stamp was finally secured by Oshkosh in the early '$o . subject, however, that Miss Magee must do something else, and not waste all the time of one teacher on a line not recognized by statute as necessary to the common schools. Gymnastics of the Dio Lewis pattern hud been attempted in the three schools almost from their foundation, and managed by chance leaders either drawn from the faculty rank' as a by-pro luct of s .me enterprising professor, or from among the students, led by a vigorous youth who liked the fnn and eclat of the display. But of any systematic training there was not a vestige. Something was urged about the matter being made more formal and disciplinary as early as 7H when Oshkosh lost a man of good musical ability, in whose hands the slender work had rested for three years. Hut there was neither money nor conviction to support anything out of the common, and we all drifted. But about $2 an appeal was made to the public spirit of the students, which ha' been an unfailing resource in time of special need, beyond most schools. It was decided to employ a well-trained teacher, and a teacher of the German Turners was regularly engaged for thorough work of the entire department, men and women. For five years his entire salary was paid by the students and faculty. Other schools became uneasy and helped the cause by battering the ideals of the Board for help, but the Oshkosh school alone carried on the work to full demonstration of value. In S7 the Board tried the futile experiment of employing one man to itinerate from school to school, then five in number, four months of darkness and one of light. The Oshkosh students knew what regular training meant, declined the program with thank', presented their one-fifth share to the others, and kept on paying their teacher and reaping the benefits. In 88 the next addition was made to the building after three year of iterated demonstration of needs, and in that the first gymnasium of the system wa built, a commodious and convenient room. 14

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which the school has maintained. It is possible that one very practical and important aim in organization of the faculty, founded upon the equities due to students and communities alike, may have had much to do in securing it. First the faculty was selected for proved abilities in teaching power; scholarship was prized, but counted as naught unless combined with large pedagogic power to impress and stimulate. Second, the very ablest teachers were placed in charge of the commonest branches, that the students who could remain but a limited time might have been brought in touch with superior minds and receive some revelation that their value had never been discerned. Has the Oshkosh Normal stood for anything more than devotion to critical scholarship and a pedagogy of principles persistently applied, instead of methodic devices? In working out from pioneer adjustments mingled with much of ideality ill-defined, it is certain that to no one school of the system is all the honor of discovery and progress through these eventful years due. Neither in the growth of any school toward surer aims can any one person claim undivided honor. But we are writing the history of one school today, and must record the phases in which it has wrought out its contributions to the general welfare, gained with difficulty and much opposition at the time, though now the common heritage, which the youth have never considered as anything less than a part of the eternal order of things. Eager with the hope that the rift between the Normal schools and the confidence of the great body of common school teachers might be closed, this administration strove for some link with which to connect the n rmal school with every gathering of teachers organically. In the fall of '72 our opportunity came, in a temjwrary call for one of the faculty. Prof. Graham, an institute worker of the greatest ability, to till the vacancy occasioned by resignation of the incumbent of the only conductorship of the state, which had been kept entirely separate from any alfiliation with the normal schools for some inscrutable reason. W'e-put forth the claim that it was • the missing link. The Board rejoined that any such arrangement would disrupt school organization. The president of the school affirmed that he would become responsible for that end. and the boon was granted. Within two years the other two schools took on the same plan and an era of cordial intercourse and appreciation began, which has continued to this day. save when a school has blundered by placing a misfit man in this most important position, ami such have been few indeed. Oshkosh has been favored with an almost unbroken line of most able men charged with our mission to the uttermost parts of the state. No other school has held from year to year representatives from so many counties of the State, and it is due to work done for the people in the field as well as within the school. In these enumerations of advance ste|»s taken, only such are stated as subsequently were adopted for all the schools. In ‘73 Oshkosh, through its president, petitioned for a few dollars, $500, we think, with which to equip a chemical laboratory, but it was rejected, with ignominy heaped, moreover, in statement that no money ought to be squandered upon whims, and that such a thing was out of place in a normal school: that the university had one and that would probably meet the wants of the State for a long time. In '74 the first enlargement to meet growth took 13

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While the addition was gained with difficulty, the Hoard willingly conceded that the work in physical training at Oshkosh was of high value and the gymnasium feature was readily incorporated, and the Regents assumed the responsibility of supporting our teacher, the first in the system, although seven years after it had become an accomplished fact. In the same year, the authorities conceded that the work of drawing in this school had become of real educational value and fitted up the attic floor, planned in 76 for the Art Room; again the first one of the system. OMAN cots IN COCK SR OR STUDY. Slender purses of candidates and feeble convictions regarding the necessity of any professional training for teaching, rife with the great majority, led to the organization of a course of study only three years in length, in which all academic and professional work was to be done. Apparently this was much better than our prototypes of the Hast with their course of but two years: but. in reality, not so good. With those, some reasonable degree of culture was assumed from the prevalence of strong academics throughout the North Atlantic states. Hut with us the normal work rested close down upon the rudimentary work of the rural schools, lvvidentlv. the original founders were imbued with the value of varied information in the teacher, for it was difficult to find any branch aside from foreign tongues that was not represented for some notice in the fateful three- years. Even Latin was sometimes attempted, we learn. Early in the third year of the history of the Oshkosh Normal, an interview was held between the Senior class and the president regarding their disregarding the privilege granted by the Board and remaining for a full four years' course before applying for graduation. They, to their lasting credit, voted unanimously to add that much culture to the bare requirement previously accorded. With one exception, all those students carried slender purses: but their ideals were high. In 75 that class was graduated with high honor; within the next year the Hoard made such an extension for all the schools, as recommended in the report from the Oshkosh school. The further recommendation that a narrower course of two years, to be known as the “partial course, was transformed into the Elementary Course, which was by change of title unduly exalted into a finality for altogether too many students. The addition of one-third in time without any increase in number of branches, proved a boon to ideals of sound scholarship in the State: a function which the Normal school ought never to fail in fulfilling. In ''M the report from this school raised the question whether the time had not come to introduce a larger election in branches during the last two years of the course, in the interest of more extended culture in a few fields. Within a year, after much consideration, such a course was adopted. Other most needful gains have been proposed from time to time, but are either minor or. if adopted, were so modifier! that no just claim of priority can be made. The duty of seeking relief from deterioration by appeal to legislative aid. was made in report after report of the Oshkosh school dating from about 86. While a strong old guard of great strength was to Ik- found in several schools, the rising tide of educational estimate was cutting us off from 15