Page:The Wisconsin idea (IA cu31924032449252).pdf/175

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.
EDUCATIONAL LEGISLATION
151

existing system, but will add a new member which will dovetail into the gaps in the whole. It will not only fit into the gaps of the whole system, but it will be the medium by which the results of the highest economic research and the results of the best economic and industrial methods can be added from time to time. It will be a long time in this state before every city of the third or fourth class can have any very efficient higher industrial education. The elementary grades will necessarily be taken care of first and the simple needs administered to. If the spirit in which this report is written be carried out, the greatest number will be served in a little way until something can be done for those who demand more special work. But it is by means of the extension division that these special cases can be taken care of. If a young man outstrips his competitors and by extraordinary brightness devours the educational opportunities of his prescribed district, there will be only one way in most of the cities and villages to take care of him, and that is by allowing him to expand through the extension division."


Thus the efficiency of the unit is looked after in order that what is done may be well done and will be no sporadic, so-called reform movement. That it will be built on the sound rock of good citizenship and will be safe from fads and fancies not even the most conservative business man can deny.

The state has a system of normal schools with a separate board of regents, provides liberally for its grade and high schools and is gradually developing plans for betterment. Considering the now unsettled condition of large areas of this state, good work has been done in the county training schools for teachers, the teachers'