BETTER SCHOOLS, BETTER FARMS, BETTER HOMES
Fitzpatrick, Edward A.
Better Schools, "Better Farms, Better Homes How This May Be Brought About Through the Human Management of Schools is Described Concretely in the Following Story By EDWARD A. FITZPATRICK Of the...
...If not can yon have shelf made...
...Pictures in good taste are being provided rather generally either by the teacher herself, by the children, or by fees collected at school entertainments...
...How It Is Done AS ALREADY INTIMATED, Miss McDonald's success is due to her human management of the school...
...Sure enough, it didn't grow and I am trying to get some seed corn...
...Father proceeds to the room of his sleeping Sammy and yells, "Sammy, get right up and hustle for some seed corn...
...New Years comes and a letter "to my dear friends" has this introductory greeting: "A Happy New Year to you, one and all...
...I hope that he is not paid for his work, and that it will be possible for you to see that it is done right this summer...
...In an adjoining district Miss McDonald was to remain over night...
...It begins to be a place where the child enjoys being...
...I shall indeed be proud to sign your application for state aid this year...
...But such a general attitude makes the exhibition of the potency of the position for good all the more prominent...
...Definite provision is made for drinking cups and dinner pails...
...Very sincerely yours, AFTER October 23, 1911...
...Above one was a crack at least one-half inch wide...
...Persons and business organizations, the library and the newspaper are used for school improvement and consequent social betterment...
...Scrubbed when school la scrubbed...
...And what was more, supplied them with a pledge card as follows...
...School meetings are, too...
...Surely these purposes are inclusive enough...
...The Transformation Within the School IN ITS investigation of the one-room rural school the Board of Public Affairs discovered a failure of communities to provide suitable buildings, well-selected and well-kept grounds and decent outhouses...
...It is an organization of the boys and girls of the county in a "Better Farms and Better Homes Movement...
...The circular proposing the organization of the "Better Homes" and "Better Farms" club contains a reference to a specially-planned button-badge that was given to members...
...It seems certain that Miss McDonald can get anything she wants...
...Upon testing them this spring, papa's corn does not sprout at all while mine is sprouting just exactly as good as the Golden Glow sent out to the school children...
...I hope when you come to the school board convention the 31st of this month, you will tell the other members, how you built and screened the outbuildings...
...You will do the best you can" (and with such a superintendent, of course, they will) "but don't expect to see results at once and don't let anything discourage you...
...Water jar...
...However, in another direction a well organ-ized movement is under way...
...To the boys, Miss McDonald writes: "For the boys' club, our special work this year will be 'Corn Growing' and 'Weed Extermination.' Next year we will add 'Testing the Milk of the Home Cows,' and another year take up some other line...
...Individual cups...
...Large social results are evidently being brought about, but the efforts need more compact organization...
...Have you a woodbox...
...Outhouses are being properly fenced in, and an effort is being made —with excellent results—to further screen them in by means of trees...
...The corn contest you know about, because so many of you have already taken part, but the weed extermination is new this year...
...It didn't sprout and I didn't believe her test was good so we tested some at home...
...This morning I am testing some more of papa's and if that fails he will have to buy his seed, a thing he has never had to do before...
...The ones that you have placed in the school are not suitable for your children...
...By whom ------- -------- Is card catalogue on shelf near bookcase...
...Educational authorities everywhere are urged to do likewise, and to keep their eyes peeled for the genial, modest woman who is the county superintendent...
...They are anxious to sell their own books, and do not think of the children who are to use them...
...Three of the agents of the company offer the first three premiums...
...As a result of Miss McDonald's efforts a transformation is going on in the school itself...
...I enclose sample of what would be a good color...
...The first step in preparation for the Girl's Home Club is the sewing course in the summer course of the county training school...
...1, town of Armstrong...
...These pictures occasionally go along with the report of the visit...
...May it do you great good, and may you feel its effects both in better work and better salary...
...To secure state aid, all that one of the schools needed technically was a higher chimney...
...Several superintendents in Wisconsin have evidently determined, as the Greek of old, that if the office does not reflect credit on them, they will reflect credit on the office...
...Miss McDonald has as keen an appreciation of the utility of these buttona as Napoleon did of his ribbons and badges...
...Woodsheds and approaches were dilapidated...
...The windows are not tight...
...This is especially true of Miss Ellen B. McDonald of Oconto County, Wisconsin...
...My dear Miss McDonald: The rag baby tester is causing a whole lot of excitement...
...Superintendents, as you probably know, are often, in their own estimation, superior persons...
...It is, with its practical interest in "rag baby" testers of seed corn, corn curing, Bab-cock testers of butter fat, and corn, pea and beet contests, BRINGING THE FARMERS INTO THE SCHOOL FROM ECONOMIC NECESSITY...
...Walk into your school some morning as though you were a stranger and see how it would look to others...
...human touch...
...Are you planning for some new piece of furniture, apparatus or a picture this year...
...It is hoped that the publication of the work "of the genial personality" (to quote the words of the article) "gifted with insight, working quietly for social ends, will give renewed hope and vigor to those working for and in the rural school...
...Schools, you sec, can be made, and are being made, a factor in the community life...
...Very sincerely yours, Photography is made a very effective aid to supervision...
...With cordial good wishes for a happy and profitable vacation...
...And your superintendent hereby says "Thank you," and congratulates you on the higher ideals of home you axe building for your pupils...
...Vice-presidents from all schools will constitute the advisory board...
...The further fact that communities are paying as low as four hundred dollars a year for the position is conclusive evidence of (what is regarded as) its insignificance...
...In conclusion: "And for both boys and girls there will be some special prizes at the Fair next year, and also some prizes at a Farmers' institute to be held in Oconto this winter, and you will also receive The Wisconsin State Board of Public Affairs invited the Training School for Public Service, New York City, to conduct...
...It is evident from conversation with many people in the district that they recall when the schools of the districts were favorably mentioned in the newspapers and exactly what was said...
...Says another, "We are expected to show only a grandfatherly interest in the schools...
...We had a package of last year's seed left and tested several kernels of that as well as some sent out this year and we think last year's seed is testing a little the better...
...Your prompt acceptance of the opportunity to attend a Normal Summer School at HOME has been one of the most encouraging incidents of the year's work...
...they are among the best screened buildings in the county, and the idea of putting a platform entrance to the outbuildings, is one that 1 hope other schools will copy...
...Do not buy any charts or atlases unless 1 especially ask you to...
...Another effective use of photography is illustrated by the following instance...
...We tested corn secured from four of our interested farmers last week and one lot germinated, the other three did not...
...And the insistence and persistence of the campaign is bearing rich fruit...
...the district will probably make the other necessary improvements...
...And that is the reason I keep my boy in school while it is open...
...Because of the system-atic way of dealing with the problem, continued absence without the knowledge of the supervisory authorities is impossible...
...The district built this, but refused to make other necessary improvements...
...I was pleased with the supplies you have put in the school: good desks, bookcase, a card catalogue, dictionary and its shelf, the maps, globe and water jar...
...We have tested one lot and this morning started another...
...This first letter begins in this hearty way: "The very best of cordial good wishes to you for these first weeks of school...
...The clean teeth campaign is not unique, merely typical...
...It is, in short, transforming Oconto County...
...When these things are done and your building is satisfactory, you will be able to apply for and receive the special state aid...
...How do the pupils keep their desks...
...She has a most pleasant manner, a most genial smile...
...As you close up your year's work, these reminders of what is to be done, may prove helpful to you" and closes with this paragraph: "Let me thank you for your hearty co-operation in all that we have attempted for the betterment of our schools...
...There is no recondite secret about it...
...The effectiveness of this treatment on the school board members is illustrated best, perhaps, in the two following letters: BEFORE April 29, 1911, TO THE MEMBERS OP DIST...
...Miss McDonald was elected county superintendent for the first time in 1909, three years ago, and was reelected in 1911...
...WILL YOU JOIN...
...For the coming years plans are being made to invite the teacher to come to the library on Saturday mornings to the library's story-hour and to prepare lists on specific topics as requested by the teacher or as the County Superintendent suggests...
...This morning pupils from seven different homes brought seed to be tested...
...You should have a shelf for the card catalogue near the library, should fix the canvas cover for the dictionary, and put a small shelf under the water jar to catch drippings...
...How often swept...
...Have yon any good pictures on the walls...
...It is utilizing the local newspapers with remarkable success...
...The next said, "Mary tested our corn at school...
...It is not best always to trust to the agent in such matters...
...the corn which was dried by stove heat, sprouts perfectly while that dried in granaries, etc., is not sprouting at all, East fall, papa saved his seed corn, selecting it very carefully, and hung it, up in the granary to dry...
...Similar work is done by seventh and eighth grade pupils...
...The rooms were often dirty, fixtures and furniture were dusty, and general disorder prevailed...
...and how many sewing machines will there be in the schools of Oconto County in a year...
...Where are dinner pails kept...
...The building itself I was not pleased with...
...The course given was worked out by the county superintendent, a student from the Stevens Point Normal School who has charge of the work in the training school, and the teacher...
...The results of this investigation have recently been published...
...The cow was sold, and the school gained a devoted friend in that farmer because of its helpfulness...
...Any old maps or charts rolled up and in corners or bottom of cupboards...
...The Citizen's National Bank and the Farmers' National Bank of Oconto, offer one scholarship each in the corn contest...
...In this short period she has given an excellent illustration of a management that is efficient because IT IS HUMAN...
...A better idea of the "whole lot" of excitement that is present in the community may be gained from the following incidents: In one district the superintendent passed several farmers on their way to town...
...The movement for better home finds at present its most helpful adjunct in Miss McDonald's domestic art program...
...If picture on the cover page is the inception, the picture on page five is the conclusion...
...TO the girls she says: "Now for the girls' club, our special work this year will be sewing and mending...
...A particularly fine illustration of this was the use of samples of tooth paste...
...Miss McDonald will tell you where...
...Through newspapers and letters and the teachers' meetings, the gospel of sanitation is spread...
...Probably the most significant force that has been brought into co-operation with the school is the newspaper...
...It is the general impression that "it felt good to see your school in print" "Everything is grist that comes to this mill," says Miss McDonald, and verily it is so...
...The many improvements that you have made, such as the tinted wainscoting...
...The teacher who asked for a higher salary than was offered, was asked curtly in reply: "Did you see what the Enquirer said about our school...
...The school tests showed it to be very good...
...Wastepaper basket...
...A similar plan was initiated at the last summer school to promote cooking...
...Gentlemen: I submit the following report of my visit to your school the 17th day of October, 1911...
...Miss McDonald had evidently discovered somewhat similar conditions and proceeded to remedy them...
...Similarly buttons are utilized in the intellectual contests...
...Cupboards are dusted...
...Any scheme you use to help...
...The picture shows the work in District No...
...I especially must praise the outbuildings...
...In the Sugar Beet contest the Menominee River Sugar Beet Company furnishes the seed and offers a trip to the factory, transportation paid, to the six best growers, determined by appearance of field and tonnage...
...The Board thought the excellent work of Miss McDonald of Oconto County as here reported worthy of popular discussion...
...Are the pails arranged in an orderly manner...
...then you select or help your father select the seed corn for next year, make racks for curing "it, and later test to see how much Will grow...
...The original circular letter gives an excellent idea of the movement and its methods...
...There will be two lines of Work for each...
...Gentlemen: I submit the following report of my visit to your school the 25th day of April...
...Owing to the co-operation of county superintendent, sheriff and district attorney, truancy is a constantly diminishing element in the schools of Oconto county...
...Commercial and other organizations are won over to school co-operation by the same genial manner...
...At the beginning of the school year this superintendent sends out a circular letter to "my dear friends...
...How will you get the money...
...But above all and first of all, we will be working for 'Better Farms and Better Homes.' "If you will join, your teacher will give you enrollment blanks, and you may elect your vice-president from among your members...
...It is bringing about social results of far-reaching consequence, by unifying the social forces in the community about the school...
...TO THE OFFICERS OF SCHOOL DISTRICT NO...
...4, town of Little Suamico, presented the school with a sewing machine...
...You have evidently spent a good deal of money intending to have a good school, and I am sure that you should be disappointed...
...Then come the weary days of the close of school...
...Individual drinking cups are secured and provided for...
...Four of the County newspapers have a regular department for county schools and another publishes school news frequently...
...School houses are swept every night and scrubbed at least once a month and outhouses are swept and scrubbed at the same time...
...You must remember that in country schools the teacher is also the librarian...
...WILL YOU HELP...
...Very sincerely yours, Papa's chagrin was twofold: first that his corn did not sprout and his son's did, and secondly that ho had to buy corn...
...Miss McDonald has secured the co-operation of Miss Neva Mayberry of the Farnsworth Public Library...
...Under 'Weed Extermination' you learn the names of all the noxious weeds you can find and how, to: kill them...
...There runs along with this an inversion of the usual relation of father and son...
...Before a meeting the lavatory of the meeting place is fixed up with some special sanitary arrangement, e. g. liquid soap, individual towel or perhaps even samples of a tooth paste, and each teacher is required to go in and try it...
...Don't you see now what our motto 'Better, Farms' will mean, and we will owe much of it to you boys...
...So in the pea growing contest, the co-operation of a Mr...
...PLEDGE Taking GOOD TEETH—GOOD HEALTH as my motto, 1 promise to care for my teeth daily, The reverse side of the card contained suggestions for the care of the teeth...
...Is top of bookcase empty of odds and ends and free from dust...
...As it was so late last fall when your building was finished, this is probably the reason why vaults were not dug for the outbuildings...
...It is giving the school teachers a wider vision of their work and of its possibilities...
...If not how often...
...Under 'Corn Growing' you study how to judge corn, and to select good seed corn...
...The fact that the county superintend-ency is only a side-line—secondary to running a farm or a newspaper, or a feed store or what-not, is a general indication of the low status of the position...
...Have you asked for one...
...Your badges will be sent later...
...in everything she is essentially human...
...You ought to be glad to be permitted to teach here...
...Better school houses are being provided...
...Each girl in the school made for herself at least one set of underclothing and several kitchen aprons...
...Subjects...
...A farmer brought the milk from his cows to school to have it tested as to quality...
...But under Miss McDonald's direction that self-satisfaction will not last long...
...You will need shades for the windows and hooks for the children's clothes in the entries...
...5.50 a bushel in a community where before this, no one bought seed corn...
...I selected several ears from the same field and at the same time, and dried them on the corn tree at school...
...But here the fathers have come to rely on the boys...
...The bedrock foundation of this management— need we add, as it is, of all good management—is keen insight into human nature...
...And the personal cleanliness of the pupils is looked after as indicated later...
...One of the patrons of the school in District No...
...The concluding letter opens with this sentence...
...Of the .91 rural schools in Oconto County, 19 have Babcock testers, and 25 borrow from farmers or use the one in the superintendent's office...
...Holt and of the Oconto Canning Company is secured...
...Continued on page 10 extra credit in agriculture when you write for a diploma...
...The work surely has more than local significance.—Editor's Note...
...It is with these toys, and even less than toys, that she manages boys and girls, men and women...
...What...
...In the heart of the explanation will be found a genial personality gifted with insight, working quietly for social ends...
...It is creating a local district pride in individual schools that is telling for betterment...
...A few are exhibited in the picture...
...State aid was refused...
...Better Schools, "Better Farms, Better Homes How This May Be Brought About Through the Human Management of Schools is Described Concretely in the Following Story By EDWARD A. FITZPATRICK Of the New York Training School for Public Service Keep your eye on Oconto, Wisconsin," is the key-sentence of the seal on the Oconto Business Men's Association...
...Thus is a gradual social evolution being brought about...
...Under the very good teachers, boys gain much valuable information and fortunately the emphasis is placed up-on the relation of this information to the boy's actual daily life on the farm...
...Lest you are acquainted with schools and consequently know the usual relation of superintendent to teacher, we hasten to add— "my dear friends" are the teachers of Oconto County...
...The first said, "John has been testing my seed corn at school and it won't grow...
...Sammy returned very late that evening with seed corn that he had paid $5.50 per bushel for...
...By methods which will be explained later, the news was spread...
...Watch the development...
...The happenings within the school-world is NEWS...
...I was very sorry that you did not order the books I suggested...
...To those outside of school systems this is not perhaps worthy of note, to those within, it is a surprising statement...
...under its supervision an investigation into the rural schools of Wisconsin...
...painting and the general clean appearance of the building, make a school to be proud of...
...5, SPRUCE, WISCONSIN...
...The Fair Association offers two scholarships for pupils in rural schools for short courses in agriculture at the University of Wisconsin...
...And so, says an occasional farmer, "My Boy knows more about these things (farming) than I do"—and many more believe it in their hearts...
...Outhouses were indecent...
...5, SPRUCE, WISCONSIN...
...They arc ready to tell you about it, The older girls will make practical things that they can wear, the smallest ones will learn on Dolly's clothes, but all will be working for 'Better Homes.' Proud and happy should be the girl who comes to school wearing some garment she has made herself...
...After each visit the county superintendent sends a written statement of her impressions to the members of the school board and to the teacher...
...I heard we could get seed corn today and I am hurrying to buy some...
...Call it, if you choose, scientific management, because it eliminates friction, prevents waste, conserves energy, even though it superficially at least, knows nothing of motion studies, functional management, bonus systems and the like...
...After supper she mentioned what is related above and told of farmer Chris-tianson in an adjoining district, who had some good corn to sell...
...Do you enforce the law as to the cups...
...The grounds were barren, bleak and isolated...
...May you enjoy your work as never before and feel the reward of work well done...
...Very soon liquid soap or individual towels or what not is being tried in one of the schools...
...no old maps or other material are found thrown in the corner...
...The companies that are supplying these free samples are fortunately doing a good work and fortunately, too, it is good business...
...The county superintendent began last year a campaign for placing in each rural school a Babcock tester...
...There are twenty-one other premiums...
...Your contractor surely did not live up to his contract in turning over to you a building in such a condition...
...So many of your teachers took some work at the Summer School to prepare for this club, and many others who could not do that, visited the class and learned how to plan the work...
...The Social Transformation IN THE county newspapers is printed this letter with the announcement that a LESSON is to be learned from IT: "Miss Ellen McDonald, Oconto, Wis...
...The teachers usually hold the form for a while until they can do some school housekeeping and then return it with apologies for not having sent it in sooner...
...Can yon get one...
...Accompanying these, too, are circulars of business houses, containing descriptions and prices of good adjustable seats or whatever the superintendent is recommending...
...Has your school a Babcock Tester...
...I was very glad indeed to find the building in such excellent condition...
...I do not wish to sponge any longer on the county," said a retiring county superintendent recently...
...How about condition of cup-boards...
...Swept every day or two...
...Then this summer after the plaster has been repaired, the walls should be tinted...
...Can you plan to get one...
...If a school has its outhouse well screened, either by a fence or a fence and trees, a particularly excellent building is built, a sewing machine is given to the school by a patron, the individual drinking cups are well-placed in a room, pictures are taken and sent to other districts where these particular needs are noted by the superintendent...
...The tests revealed the fact that to continue to feed the cow was a financial loss from the standpoint of income from her milk...
...How often are the blackboards washed...
...It is making photography an efficient aid to supervision...
...These should be dug at least six feet deep, and should be the size of the building itself...
...How many...
...She sends to her teacher, before she visits the school, the following form: SCHOOL HOUSEKEEPING Please Return Teacher's Name ------- ---------- Town ------ District ------- Is your school scrubbed once a month...
...Fathers in many cases which came to our notice, regarded their sons primarily as economic assets, consequently children are withdrawn from school annually when the legal minimum of attendance has been achieved and permanently at the minimum legal age...
...Miss Mayberry has addressed the teachers at various teachers' meetings, and has extended to them the privilege of taking many books at a time and returning them whenever they come into town or can send them...
...The joy of it all is, that it goes on quietly, steadily, and surely— it is in the day's work...
...But to continue...
...not so, Miss McDonald...
...then you select a small patch of one kind of weed and destroy them...
...It is making school-houses sanitary and beautiful...
...A picture was taken by the county superintendent showing the rickety front part of the building and the more or less dilapidated wood-house—and attached to the district's application for state aid...
...If you are doing all the things suggested above or even most of them you are a good housekeeper and an honor not only to your district but to your profession...
...Incidents like the following encourage the superin-tendent and by means of newspapers and bulletins are used to stimulate the teachers...
...For this work the only preparation the teacher had was obtained in the six weeks course in the County Summer School during the preceding summer...
...I am, Very sincerely yours," The members of the school board are likewise subject, and susceptible to this genial influence...
...Are the outbuildings clean...
...The teachers were then urged to request the company to supply them with enough for the pupils which the company gladly did...
...Don't come back without it, no matter what you pay...
...Thus is the influence of the school extended...
...The only question now is: Which school will be next...
...We notice one thing in particular...
...The movement to make the library a co-operating agency with the school has been well-begun...
...If in the room have you a shelf for them...
...One of the largest toothpaste companies supplied Miss McDonald with enough samples for all the teachers in the county...
Vol. 5 • January 1913 • No. 4
