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

Page 11 text:

Calendar 1900-1901. FIRST QUARTER. Entrance Examination Monday, August 27. School Organized Wednesday, August 29. SECOND QUARTER. Began Monday, November 5. Christmas Vacation from December 22 to January 2. THIRD QUARTER. Began Monday. January 28. Closed Friday, March 21. FOURTH QUARTER. Entrance Examination Monday, April 8. School Organized Tuesday, April 9. School Year Closes June 20. 1901-1902. School Year Begins Wednesday, August 28. Entrance Examinations Monday, August 26. 0

Page 10 text:

 Future Normalites. 8

Page 12 text:

WHEN an individual or an enterprise has attained a marked degree of success it is often profitable to examine into the reasons for the prosperity, and since the normal school system of the State of Wisconsin is considered to be among the best, if not the best in the United States, it may be advantageous to consider the causes, for in so doing, we shall trace the ancestry of our own school. The common school, which Edward Everett says, like the common air, and the common rain, and the common sunshine is invaluable for its commonness, has always been dear to the hearts of the American people; and in 1840, four years after the organization of Wisconsin as a territory, a memorial to congress was adopted, representing that the people were anxious to establish a common school system with suitable resources for its support;, and one of the most remarkable events in the history of our state is said to be the readiness with which the people adopted the free school system and put it into operation. As early as 1846 the normal school idea was agitating the people and in the constitutional convention held that year an amendment to Section 2 was introduced providing that until a university shall be established the net income of the university lands shall be appropriated to the support of normal schools. Though the amendment was lost it was of much significance in pointing out the trend of thought and two years later the normal school idea gained a foothold in the constitution of 1848 which specifies that a certain residue shall be appropriated to the support and maintenance of academies and normal schools. The idea continued to gain strength and in 1849 the regents of the State University established therein a normal department, and ordained that there should be established a normal professorship, and that it be the duty of the chair to render instruction in the art of teaching; and it was farther ordained that the chancellor of the university and the normal professor should form the faculty of this department, whose duty it should be to hold an annual session of at least five months, for the instruction of such young non as might avail themselves thereof with a view of teaching in the state. Here then is the parent of the system which now numbers seven schools, and a combined faculty of nearly two hundred trained men and women. Not until 1855 was a normal professor elected, and then the professor of the English department of the faculty of arts and sciences was chosen to fill the chair of normal instruction with a salary of $500 per annum. 10