ilC?<?>V<:^ I 
 
 Vol. V. No. 2. 
 
 October, 1908. 
 
 MILWAUKEE 
 
 NORMAL SCHOOL 
 
 BULLETIN 
 
 THE PROPOSED CONSTITUTIONAL 
 
 AMENDMENT 
 
 AND THE WISCONSIN SCHOOLS 
 
 Publtahed Quarterly by the Statfi Normal School, Milwaukee, Wig. 
 
 Entered June 15, 1905, at Milwaukee, Wiecontia, as second class matter 
 
 under Act of Congress, July 16, 1894, 
 
 ll««ogr»fn 
 
LIBRARY OF CONGRESS, 
 
 COPYRIGHT OFFICE. 
 
 No registration of title of this book 
 as a preliminary to copyright protec- 
 tion has been found. 
 
 Forwarded to Order Division ^^^.i.'^.-L9-^.^ 
 
 • f (Date) 
 
 (Apr. 5, 1901—5,000.) ^/^^ 
 
THE PROPOSED CONSTITUTIONAL 
 AMENDMENT 
 
 AND THE 
 
 WISCONSIN SCHOOLS 
 
 The facts concerning the kindergarten movement given in this 
 
 bulletin are obtained from "The Kindergarten in American 
 
 Education" by Nina C. Vandewalker. They are 
 
 given by the permission of the publishers, 
 
 The Macmillan Company. 
 
 copyright, 1908 
 By Thh Macmillan Company 
 
 MILWAUKEE, WISCONSIN 
 1908 
 
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THE PROPOSED CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENT 
 AND THE WISCONSIN SCHOOLS 
 
 The claims of early childhood are receiving increasing recognition 
 at the hands of American educators, and increasing provision is being 
 made for the education of 3'oung children. Statistics show that SO 
 per cent, of the children who enter school drop out at the end of the 
 fourth grade. Efforts to lengthen this school period at the upper end 
 seem unavailing; its lengthening at the lower is therefore increasingly 
 recognized as desirable. The years between four and six are pre- 
 eminently the habit forming years. If these j^ears are spent in ac- 
 quiring the habits of the street the school has a double task to per- 
 form in the few years that constitute the school period of the great 
 majority: it must correct the v/rong habits that have been formed and 
 inculcate in their stead the right ones. That the school must lay hold 
 of the habit forming years of early childhood if the best results of 
 education are to be obtained is being increasingly emphasized by mod- 
 ern educational theory. This is one of the reasons why the establish- 
 ment of kindergartens in the large cities has come to be regarded as 
 not alone educationally desirable, but sociologically necessary. It is 
 the increasing recognition of the value of the early years for educa- 
 tional purposes, and the recognition of the kindergarten as affording 
 the best form of education for these early years that has enrolled a 
 half million children in the kindergartens of the United States and 
 added ten thousand kindergartners to the teaching force of the 
 country. 
 
 The proposed amendment to the constitution of Wisconsin raising 
 the school age from four years to six is in direct opposition to the 
 general trend of educational thought, practice, and legislation through- 
 out the country. The country at large is increasingly recognizing the 
 necessity of saving young children from the corrupting influences of 
 the street; by the passage of this amendment Wisconsin would turn 
 into the street between 20,000 and 30,000 children now enrolled in its 
 kindergartens and schools. The country at large is seeing with in- 
 creasing clearness the necessity of lengthening the school period of 
 
those for whom it is all too short at best; by the passage of the pro- 
 posed amendment Wisconsin would reduce that period by two years 
 — the years during which the impressions made are the most lasting. 
 Other states to the number of twenty-four have legislated the kinder- 
 garten into the school system, lowering the school age from five or 
 six to four years in order to do so; by the passage of this amendment 
 Wisconsin is in danger of legislating the kindergarten out of exist- 
 ence within her borders. 
 
 But why should Wisconsin take such a backward step? Is it a 
 response to a demand from any class of people? Are there crying 
 educational evils which such an amendment alone can remedy? It 
 has been suggested that it would benefit the rural schools, but of the 
 seventy-two county superintendents in the state not more than four 
 consider the attendance of four year old children a serious problem, 
 and forty-eight state positively that they (the four year olds) are not 
 a problem. But if the benefits are wholly hypothetical and the num- 
 ber of children which may be injured is known to be from 20,000 to 
 30,000, how can the measure be considered as furthering the best in- 
 terests of the children of the state? Wisconsin has a reputation for 
 educational progress to maintain. Can the people of Wisconsin afiford 
 to endanger it by passing a measure for which there is no funda- 
 mental necessity, and which may work harm to an important phase of 
 its educational work? 
 
 That Wisconsin needs a longer rather than a shorter period of 
 school attendance; that she needs to place more rather than less 
 emphasis upon the work of her younger children, the most cursory 
 glance at the educational statistics of the state will show. In eleven 
 of the largest cities of Wisconsin there were enrolled during the past 
 school year 79,694 children. Of these, 46,528 — more than 58 per cent 
 —were enrolled in the kindergartens and in the first four grades; 
 25,923 — a little more than Z2 per cent — were enrolled in the four 
 grammar grades; 7,243 — a little more than 9 per cent — were enrolled 
 in the high schools. Statistics show that more than 50 per cent of 
 the children who enter school never get beyond the fourth grade. 
 Can any one contemplate these figures without realizing that the 
 shortening of the school period ought not to be attempted? Can any 
 one fail to see that the emphasis of educational effort in Wisconsin 
 should be upon the work of the kindergartens and primary grades? 
 Have the people of Wisconsin realized these facts? Is the equipment 
 for work in the kindergartens and primary grades what it should be 
 — the best obtainable? Is the number of pupils per teacher such that 
 
good results can be reasonably expected? Have the teachers in this 
 line of work the personality and training needed for the difficult task 
 of giving these children the right start? Are the salaries paid such 
 as to induce the right kind of teachers to remain in this important 
 work? Let school boards and superintendents answer. 
 
 It is the custom to require higher qualifications of grammar and 
 high school teachers than are required of teachers in the lower 
 grades, and to pay the former better salaries than are paid the latter. 
 While even the high schools need improving, it may be asked whether 
 the most effective method of bringing about such improvement, as 
 well as of inducing more pupils to enter the high schools, is not the 
 improvement of the work in the lower grades. The high school 
 teacher declares that she can not do the work which the high school 
 calls for because she must spend her time teaching the fundamentals 
 which the children should have been taught in the grammar grades. 
 The teacher in these grades likewise declares that she is obliged not 
 only to teach what the children should have been taught in the 
 primary grades, but to correct the bad habits formed there. No edu- 
 cational structure can be strong that has a weak foundation. One of 
 the main reasons why children leave school before reaching the fifth 
 grade is lack of interest. What a commentary this is on the work of 
 the primary grades! Is it not time for school authorities to see that 
 true economy consists in giving children the right start? Will the 
 passage of the proposed amendment strengthen, or will it weaken the 
 beginning work? 
 
 The claims of early childhood are receiving increasing recognition 
 at the hands of American educators, and no movement has exerted a 
 stronger influence in that direction than the kindergarten movement. 
 The growth of that movement in the United States means infinitely 
 more than the organization of kindergartens; it registers the progres- 
 sive recognition of the claims of childhood not only to a place in the 
 educational system, but to a kind of training adapted to its needs. 
 It is because kindergarten progress has meant progress in elementary 
 education that the main facts in the development of the kindergarten 
 movement are here brought to the attention of Wisconsin people. 
 The facts given are obtained in the main from The Kindergarten in 
 American Education, already referred to. 
 
 It is now generally known that the first kindergarten in the United 
 States was opened in Watertown, Wisconsin, in 1855, by the wife of 
 Carl Schurz, who was herself a pupil of Froebel. During the fifteen 
 or more years immediately following, several other kindergartens were 
 
opened by the Germans who had come to the larger cities of the 
 United States after the Revolution of 1848. The only kindergarten 
 of American origin established in this country before 1870 was that 
 opened in Boston in 1860 by Miss Elizabeth Peabody. In 1873 the 
 city of St. Louis made the experiment under the leadership of Supt. 
 Wm. T. Harris and Miss Susan E. Blow, of making kindergartens a 
 part of the public school system. This experiment was very success- 
 ful and did much to call the attention of American educators to the 
 new movement. The kindergarten at the Philadelphia Exposition, 
 and others that had been established, gave the general public an op- 
 portunity to become acquainted with the aims and methods of the 
 new institution. As a result of the insight thus obtained kindergar- 
 tens were established in many sections of the country, and as early as 
 1880 the movement had gained considerable momentum. The growth 
 of the movement during the early years is thus described in the book 
 referred to: 
 
 "At the end of the decade the friends of the kindergarten had 
 abundant reasons to rejoice at the progress of the cause. In 1870 
 there were less than a dozen kindergartens in existence, all save one 
 established by Germans and conducted in the German language; in 
 1880 there were not less than four hundred scattered over thirty 
 states. In 1870 there was one kindergarten training school in the 
 United States; in 1880 such schools had been established in the ten 
 largest cities of the country and in many smaller ones. The year 
 1870 saw the establishment of the first charity kindergarten; in 1880 
 the new institution had become recognized as the most valuable of 
 child-saving agencies, and mission kindergarten work had become so 
 popular among wealthy young women as to be almost a fad. The 
 practicability of the kindergarten as a part of the school system had 
 been successfully demonstrated, and the logical sequence of its future 
 relation to the school had been recognized by the establishment of 
 kindergarten training departments in the normal school systems of 
 two great states. The National Educational Association had set the 
 seal of its approval upon the principles which the kindergarten em- 
 bodied, and had commended the institution to the school men of the 
 country for experiment and consideration. 'The lessons of the Phila- 
 delphia Exposition, at which the meaning of the art and industrial ele- 
 ments in education was first revealed to the American teachers,' had 
 been taken to heart, and the result of the awakening it had occasioned 
 had been the attempted enrichment of the elementary curriculum by 
 the addition of the subjects frequently termed 'fads' — music, drawing. 
 
manual training, nature study, and physical culture. The fact that 
 these subjects constituted an organic part of the kindergarten awak- 
 ened an interest in that institution on the part of many who had thus 
 far given it but little attention. They began to see in the kindergar- 
 ten games the true beginning for the child's physical development; 
 in its gift and occupation exercises the foundation for art and manual 
 training work; and in its garden work and nature excursions the 
 foundation for a true knowledge of nature. The significance of the 
 kindergarten as the logical foundation for a new system of education 
 had therefore begun to dawn, and the comprehensiveness of the Froe- 
 belian philosophy stood out in striking contrast to the meagerness 
 of the educational theory which then prevailed. The period of its 
 apprenticeship was therefore over. Its advocates could silence doubt 
 and criticism by pointing to results already achieved, and could urge 
 its extension with the faith and enthusiasm born of the assurance that 
 it met a recognized need in American life and education." 
 
 Kindergarten progress since 1880 falls into two well marked 
 periods. The first of these extends from 1880 to the time of the 
 Chicago Exposition; the second from that date until the present time. 
 The kindergarten in the early eighties was still in its experimental 
 stage; it had demonstrated its value but as yet to the few only. Be- 
 fore its general acceptance by the school system could be expected 
 an important work still needed to be done in its behalf. The move- 
 ment needed to be illustrated in strategic localities and the value of 
 the kindergarten as a child-saving agency demonstrated. To meet 
 this need a new agency came into existence in all the larger cities 
 and many smaller ones — the kindergarten association. During the 
 decade from 1880 to 1890 kindergartens were established and main- 
 tained by such associations in nearly all the larger cities. This decade 
 may therefore be appropriately called the Association Decade in kin- 
 dergarten history. The work done by these associations is of great 
 interest and value to the student of kindergarten history, but it has 
 been discussed elsewhere and need not be repeated here. The work 
 of these associations was not confined to securing the incorporation 
 of the kindergarten into the school system, but such incorporation 
 has been the result of association effort in many instances. The kin- 
 dergarten did become a part of the school system of several of the 
 larger cities during this decade — Milwaukee, New Orleans, Boston, 
 and Philadelphia in particular, but such adoption did not become gen- 
 eral until the decade following. The decade from 1890 to 1900 may 
 
8 
 
 therefore be called the Public School Decade of the kindergarten 
 movement. 
 
 During this decade several of the larger cities, and many smaller 
 ones as well, added the kindergarten to the school system. This was 
 in part the result of the momentum which the movement had already 
 attained, and in part the effect of the stimulus to kindergarten educa- 
 tion given by the Chicago Exposition. Among the leading cities to 
 adopt the kindergarten during this decade were St. Paul, New York, 
 Denver, Cleveland, Kansas City, Washington, D. C, Louisville, and 
 Pittsburg. Since the new century opened the example of these cities 
 has been followed by Minneapolis, Baltimore, Buffalo, Toledo, Cin- 
 cinnati, Detroit, and many smaller cities. In a "Kindergarten Annual" 
 compiled with great care in 1903 by Miss Clara L. Anderson, the 
 number of cities supporting public school kindergartens is given as 
 four hundred and forty. The progress that the South has made along 
 kindergarten lines during recent years is particularly gratifying. The 
 fact that the kindergarten is becoming a part of the school system in 
 the countries that have recently come under the control of the United 
 States — Cuba, Porto Rico, Hawaii, and the Philippines — is no less so. 
 
 The general incorporation of the kindergarten into the school sys- 
 tem has resulted in its adoption also by state and governmental in- 
 stitutions. In the state homes for dependent and neglected children, 
 and in institutions for the defective classes — the deaf, blind, and feeble 
 minded — the kindergarten has proved a veritable boon. In the Indian 
 schools under governmental control also the kindergarten has proved 
 indispensable. The extension of the kindergarten to institutions of 
 this kind was undertaken during the decade from 1890 to 1900 and the 
 results have been such as to make its further extension along these 
 lines inevitable. 
 
 Of the greatest importance to the spread of the spirit of which 
 the kindergarten is the symbol — the spirit of consideration for child- 
 hood during the early years — is the adoption of the kindergarten by 
 the state and city normal schools of the country, and the organization 
 in these schools of departments for the training of kindergartners at 
 public expense. That two state normal schools — those at Oshkosh, 
 Wisconsin, and Winona, Minnesota — organized such departments as 
 early as 1880 has been already mentioned. During the decade from 
 1880-1890 such departments were added to the normal schools at 
 Oswego and Fredonia, N. Y., Emporia, Kansas, to the normal schools 
 of Connecticut, and to that at Ypsilanti, Michigan. Although not a 
 state institution the Cook County normal school must be included in 
 
this list because of its wide influence under the leadership of Col. 
 Francis W. Parker. During the decade from 1890 to 1900 kinder- 
 garten departments were added to many more. Although the exact 
 number cannot be determined, it is known that not less than fifty in- 
 stitutions in twenty-one different states now have such departments. 
 The training of kindergartners has not been the chief aim of these 
 departments; in fact some of them make no effort in that direction. 
 They aim in large part to acquaint the students in the general courses 
 with the procedure of the kindergarten and the principles upon which 
 such procedure is based as a matter of educational intelligence. 
 
 "It is through the normal schools that the adjustment of Froebel's 
 system to our public schools must be made," said Commissioner 
 Harris in commenting upon the establishment of kindergarten de- 
 partments in such schools. What may not be hoped for from the 
 influence of these institutions in behalf of the kindergarten and of 
 educational progress. 
 
 The kindergarten is now too securely entrenched in the public 
 school system to be dislodged, except in isolated instances, but it has 
 attained its present position in the public schools much more slowly 
 than its friends anticipated a generation ago. The chief reason for 
 this is found in the fact that the school laws of most of the states did 
 not permit of the expenditure of public school funds for the education 
 of children of kindergarten age and that legislation was therefore 
 necessary in the great majority before kindergartens could be main- 
 tained at public expense. There are but three states — Connecticut, 
 Wisconsin and Oregon — in which the school age is four years. In 
 two others — Massachusetts and Rhode Island — there is no age limit 
 for entering school. In eleven more — Maine, New Hampshire, Ver- 
 mont, New York, New Jersey, Mississippi, Michigan, Minnesota, 
 Iowa, Kansas, Nebraska, and the territory of New Mexico — the school 
 age is five years. Children of four years are wholly within the period 
 for which the kindergarten was intended, and those of five are still 
 partly within that period. Whether kindergarten work may be sub- 
 stituted for the customary grade work at the beginning, in states of 
 this class, depends upon the school law of the individual states. In 
 Maine, New Hampshire, Kansas, and Nebraska the law allows the 
 local school authorities to determine this. In the other states of this 
 class legislation was necessary before such substitution of kindergar- 
 ten for school instruction could be made. 
 
 The book already quoted says further: 
 
 "In the states in which the school age is six or more the problem 
 
10 
 
 is somewhat different. In Alabama and Virginia the school age is 
 seven; in Texas it is eight. In all the other states not already men- 
 tioned, it is six. That six-year-old children can still be benefited by 
 attending kindergarten, no one will question. The kindergarten was 
 primarily intended, however, for children below that age, and school 
 authorities may well question the advisability of spending public 
 school money for kindergartens for children of six years. If the 
 children are to gain the real benefit that the kindergarten is intended 
 to confer, a lowering of the school age is needed in states of this 
 class. A general lowering of the school age in a given state, for the 
 sake of making the establishment of kindergartens possible, must of 
 necessity' impose a hardship, however, upon the localities where kin- 
 dergartens cannot be established. The legislation to make the estab- 
 lishment of kindergartens possible in states of this class has usually 
 specified that children below the legal age should be admitted in case 
 of the establishment of kindergartens only. Several of the states in 
 question have enacted such legislation. Others have attempted it 
 without success, and some consider that the time to effect it has not 
 yet come. Missouri, the first state to establish public kindergartens, 
 has a school age of six years. When the initial experiment with the 
 kindergarten was made in St. Louis, children of five years were ad- 
 mitted, but the legal age of entrance has since been insisted upon, and 
 the children in the St. Louis kindergartens, as well as those in the 
 kindergartens of Kansas City, are all, therefore, six or more years 
 of age. The attempt to lower the school age has been made several 
 times without success. The children who attended the first kinder- 
 gartens in New Orleans were six likewise, but the age at which 
 children might be admitted to kindergartens was lowered by the Con- 
 stitutional Convention of 1898. In several of the Southern states that 
 have adopted the kindergarten the children are of legal age — six or 
 more. These facts are mentioned to show the difficulties with which 
 the kindergarten had to contend in becoming a part of the school sys- 
 tem. In general, 'any city, through powers inherent in its charter, 
 may maintain kindergartens provided they are supported wholly by 
 local taxation.' During the decade from 1880 to 1890, as far as known, 
 but three states enacted legislation to make the establishment of kin- 
 dergartens possible. These were Vermont, Indiana, and Connecticut. 
 Cities in other states that adopted the kindergarten during this decade 
 did so through powers inherent in their charters, or because legisla- 
 tion was unnecessary." 
 
 "The first state to legislate upon the subject during the decade be- 
 
11 
 
 tween 1890 and 1900 was Michigan, which in 1891 passed a law author- 
 izing the establishment of kindergartens for children between the 
 ages of four and seven years. The next state to take action was 
 Ohio, which in 1893 secured the passage of a bill authorizing the es- 
 tablishment of kindergartens for children between four and six years 
 of age, but providing that they must be supported wholly by local 
 taxation. Although bills providing for the establishment of kinder- 
 gartens had been presented to two preceding legislatures, Illinois did 
 not secure the passage of a bill to that effect until 1895. Kindergar- 
 tens had been opened in Chicago, although there was no legal sanction 
 for this action. The bill referred to provided for the support of the 
 kindergartens, not from the school tax fund of the state, but from 
 the local fund. This meant that the kindergarten must be submitted 
 to the vote of the people. It was not so submitted, however, until 1899, 
 when unforeseen circumstances made it inevitable. A shortage of the 
 school funds threatened the abolishing of the sixty-three kindergar- 
 tens that had been established, and the kindergarten was therefore 
 submited to the people at the spring election. The 87,000 votes cast 
 in its favor to the 15,000 cast against, it placed the kindergarten upon 
 a secure footing in that city from that time on. 
 
 "The stimulus given to the kindergarten movement by the Chicago 
 Exposition is shown in part by the number of states that passed laws 
 before the decade closed, making the establishment of public school 
 kindergartens possible. These were Washington, New York, Penn- 
 sylvania, Iowa, Wisconsin, California, Oregon, Colorado, Louisiana, 
 Minnesota, Montana, New Jersey, the District of Columbia, and the 
 territory of Arizona. Several others, Virginia, Oklahoma, Florida, 
 Texas, Utah, and Idaho, have enacted laws to the same effect since 
 the new century opened. Laws authorizing the establishment of pub- 
 lic school kindergartens have also been passed in West Virginia, 
 Maryland, and Wyoming, but the date of the legislation in question 
 could not be learned. Since Maine, New Hampshire, Kansas, Ne- 
 braska, South Dakota, and Nevada consider that kindergartens may 
 be established without legislation to that effect, and legislation is 
 unnecessary in Massachusetts and Rhode Island because the schools 
 are supported almost wholly by local taxation, it appears that the 
 kindergarten has a legal foothold in all but eleven states. These are 
 Delaware, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, Missis- 
 sippi, Arkansas, Kentucky, Tennessee, Missouri, and North Dakota." 
 
 In view of these facts concerning the growth of the kindergarten 
 movement in the United States it is plain that the passage of the 
 
12 
 
 amendment would place Wisconsin educationally, not in the front 
 rank, but in a class with undeveloped North Dakota, indifferent Dela- 
 ware, and the retarded states of the South. This alone should make 
 all those who take a patriotic pride in Wisconsin's record pause and 
 consider. Wisconsin has played a conspicuous part in the develop- 
 ment of the kindergarten movement. Shall she disinherit the child 
 of her own fostering? The first kindergarten in the United States 
 was opened by a Wisconsin woman, on Wisconsin soil. The first 
 large city in the country to profit by the experiment in St. Louis, of 
 making the kindergarten a part of the public school system, was Mil- 
 waukee, a Wisconsin city. The first state normal school in the 
 United States to establish a kindergarten and organize a department 
 for the training of kindergartners was a Wisconsin normal school; 
 and the largest kindergarten training department connected with any 
 state normal school in the United States is in Wisconsin. In 1903 
 Wisconsin was the second state in the country in the number of 
 cities that had adopted the kindergarten as a part of the public school 
 system, and was outranked only by New York with more than twice 
 its population. Should not such a record be a guaranty for the main- 
 tenance of the kindergarten and a protection against endangering it? 
 It is but just to the advocates of the amendment to say that they 
 had no intention of injuring the kindergarten in proposing this meas- 
 ure and that they have been surprised to learn that its passage might 
 have, and probably would have, a disastrous effect. Mr. Ains- 
 worth, the framer of the bill, said in a personal letter that if the 
 amendment were to work harm to the kindergartens, "I should not 
 care to have the change made, as I consider these schools of the 
 greatest importance." That the kindergarten is threatened by the 
 passage of the amendment is the opinion of leading attorneys. 
 They contend not only that the kindergartens are in grave danger if 
 the amendment be passed, but that their elimination from the school 
 system is a practical certainty. Mr. John T. Kelley, the city attor- 
 ney of Milwaukee, has thus expressed himself upon the subject: "I 
 am of opinion that such amendment if adopted would have the effect 
 of abolishing absolutely free kindergarten instruction in the public 
 schools for children under the age of six years in all the schools of 
 the state. I am of opinion that Sections 480c and 480d (supposed to 
 protect the kindergartens) would be rendered inoperative by the 
 adoption of the proposed amendment. The constitution is supreme, 
 and statutes in conflict with it, whether passed before or after its 
 adoption, must give way before it. As I view it, under the constitu- 
 
13 
 
 tion so amended no schools could be maintained that would be free 
 and without charge for tuition to children under six years of age." 
 
 In this opinion the attorneys who have been consulted concur. Mr. 
 Frank Harbach, secretary of the Milwaukee School Board, and the 
 legal firm of Cary, Upham & Black, may be named among those who 
 have expressed concurrence in Mr. Kelly's views. In his reply to an 
 inquiry from the Superior School Board concerning the effect of the 
 amendment upon the kindergartens, the Attorney General said, 
 "the legislature would be prohibited from establishing as part of the 
 district schools a department for children below the age of six, and 
 paying for said schools out of the school fund. Under a similar pro- 
 vision in the Missouri constitution the Supreme Court of Missouri 
 came to the same conclusion to which I have arrived in Roach vs. 
 the Board of President and Directors of the St. Louis Public Schools, 
 n Mo., 484. On page 488 the Court said: 
 
 "'The provisions of the first and sixth sections of Article 11 of the 
 constitution of the state, taken together, are conclusive on this point. 
 The first section declares that all persons in the state between the 
 ages of six and twenty shall be gratuitously instructed in the free 
 public schools therein provided for, and the sixth section in like man- 
 ner declares that the public school fund therein mentioned shall be 
 faithfully appropriated for establishing and maintaining the free public 
 schools provided for in said article, and for no other uses or purposes 
 whatsoever. The two sections, taken together, amount to both a re- 
 quirement and a prohibition. By the first, free public schools for the 
 gratuitous instruction of all persons in the state between the ages of 
 six and twenty are required, but by the sixth, the funds thus dedicated 
 to that use are prohibited from being expended for any other uses 
 or purposes whatsoever. The expenditure by the defendant of its 
 revenues for the purpose of admitting and instructing in said schools 
 children under the age of six years, as a use of its funds not author- 
 ized, but forbidden.' " 
 
 The impression has gone abroad throughout the state that the 
 kindergartens are in no danger from the passage of the amendment. 
 It is in this fact that the real danger lies. But if there is no pressing 
 need for such a measure on the one hand, and the very grave danger 
 on the other of eliminating a valuable phase of school work, wisdom 
 can not but counsel the defeat of the amendment. It is claimed by 
 some that school boards could still establish kindergartens for child- 
 ren below the legal age by local taxation even if the amendment were 
 to be adopted, just as such boards may now establish at their dis- 
 
14 
 
 cretioii night schools for persons who are above the legal age. This 
 may be true, but as the persons above the legal age of twenty have 
 no lawful claim upon the school system so will the children below 
 the age of six have no such claim if the amendment becomes a law. 
 They will be excluded from public school privileges of any kind unless 
 the school board should by courtesy see fit to grant them. 
 
 In the judgment of many attorneys, however, school boards would 
 not be authorized to establish kindergartens even by courtesy. Be- 
 cause of these and other possible dififerences of interpretation there 
 are many who consider that in the event of the passage of the amend- 
 ment, a Supreme Court decision would be necessary to determine the 
 status of the kindergarten in the school system. And what if the 
 ruling of that Court were adverse to the kindergarten, as in the case 
 of St. Louis? To retrace the steps once taken — to secure the reversal 
 of the amendment — would be the task of years, if indeed it could be 
 accomplished at all. 
 
 But were there no kindergartens to consider, would the passage 
 of the amendment promote the highest interests of the children of 
 the state? Illiteracy has increased in Wisconsin at an alarming rate 
 during the past few years. The adoption of the amendment can not 
 but increase the existing ignorance. But 50 per cent of the children 
 who enter school remain to finish the fourth grade, even under present 
 conditions. The passage of the amendment will materially increase 
 the percentage of those who barely receive a start in the educational 
 race. The burden of proof must be upon those seeking the change. 
 What arguments can be urged in favor of the amendment that have 
 weight enough to compensate for the dangers involved in, and the 
 disadvantages resulting from, its adoption? 
 
LIBRARY OF CONGREl 
 
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