WISCONSIN 



WISCONSIN 



Education. Wisconsin has one of the best 

 organized school systems in the Union. Lib- 

 eral provision for public schools was made in 

 the first constitution of the state, adopted in 

 1S47, and over $13,000,000 is now expended 

 each year on the public schools, which include 

 all grades from the kindergarten through the 

 university. 



There are county schools of agriculture and 

 'ols of domestic economy in rural com- 

 munities, Wisconsin being the first state in the 

 Union to establish them. Vocational instruc- 

 tion is given in both graded schools and high 

 schools. Rural schools and village high schools 

 are encouraged by the state to maintain high 

 standards by the granting of certain sums of 

 money for their maintenance, and are visited 

 by inspectors appointed by the state superin- 

 tendent of public instruction. Junior colleges 

 have been established, from which pupils are 

 admitted to the junior class in the state uni- 

 versity. The educational department cooper- 

 ates in the welfare movement, and schools are 

 used as recreation centers. 



There is a compulsory-education law, requir- 

 ing not only attendance at the graded schools, 

 but that all children between fourteen and six- 

 teen years of age living within two miles of a 

 vocational or high school shall attend it or 

 some equivalent school. When industrial or 

 commercial schools are established, employed 

 minors between the ages of sixteen and seven- 

 teen must attend for at least five hours a 

 week for six months during the daytime, and 

 employers are required to observe this law. 

 These industrial and commercial schools are 

 managed by local boards of industrial educa- 

 tion. An accurate school census is taken each 

 year, and the child-labor and compulsory- 

 education laws are strictly enforced. 



In 1910, out of a total school population of 

 782,240, there were 440,103 pupils enrolled in 

 schools, and the illiteracy, most of which was 

 among the foreign immigrants, was 3.2 per 

 cent an average less than that in thirty-seven 

 of the states. 



In the recent state survey of the University 

 f Wisconsin at Madison, which is at the head 

 of the school system and directly connected 

 with the high schools throughout the state, 

 that institution attracted country-wide admira- 

 tion by its cooperation with the state commis- 

 sion. This aid given so willingly has estab- 

 lished "the Wisconsin idea," and has been ac- 

 cepted as a symbol of the service a university 

 may render to a state. As a result of the in- 



vestigation, a state board of education, con- 

 sisting of the governor, secretary of state and 

 state superintendent of public instruction, has 

 been created. 



Wisconsin was the pioneer state in the estab- 

 lishment of county training schools for the 

 preparation of teachers for the rural schools. 

 These schools and the county agricultural 

 schools are supported jointly by the state and 



10 20 40 60 

 Navigable 

 Bivert 



OUTLINE MAP OF WISCONSIN 

 Showing boundaries, navigable rivers, principal 

 cities, mining centers and the highest point of 

 land in the state. 



the county. The state agricultural college, ex- 

 perimental station and farm are part of the 

 state university, although partially supported 

 and controlled by the United States Depart- 

 ment of Agriculture. 



There are state normal schools at Platteville, 

 Whitewater, Oshkosh, River Falls, Milwaukee, 

 Stevens Point, Superior and La Crosse. 



Another important and commendable work 

 of the educational department is the mainte- 

 nance of school libraries which bring many of 

 the best books within reach of every inhabitant 

 of the state practically without cost. The trav- 

 eling libraries are not promoted by the educa- 

 tional department, but by the state library 

 commission. The library owned by the his- 

 torical society at Madison is said to have more 

 material than any other in the country upon 



