.'Rll 
 
ADDRESS BY 
 
 JOHN S. ROESELER 
 
 SUPERINTENDENT OF SCHOOLS 
 FOR SAUK COUNTY ^ ^ s 
 
 ^ r 
 
 
Vd^w^ "^i 
 
 '^Xl.oaJ^'AiJU 
 
 IS IT PROFITABLE TO TEACH PSYCHOLOGY AND 
 
 PEDAGOGY TO THIRD GRADE RURAL 
 
 SCHOOL TEACHERS? 
 
 (Address g-iven before the S. E. Teachers' Association 
 at Watcrtown, on April 2d, 1898, by J. S. Roeseler, County 
 Superintendent of Schools of Sauk County, Wisconsin.) 
 
 There was a time when all instruction at teachers' in- 
 stitutes in the state of Wisconsin was of a pureh' academic 
 nature. The time has now come when you can hardly find 
 an institute which has not some exercise devoted to school 
 manag-ement, pedagogy, or psychology. Principles and 
 methods of teaching- are fast g^aining ground as subjects of 
 study and are encroaching more and more on the academic 
 field. 
 
 Some well-meaning- people are of the opinion that this 
 movement toward professional instruction in our institutes 
 is premature because the g-reat majority of teachers in our 
 rural schools have a too limited academic knowledg-e. They 
 believe that the professional instruction is larg-ely a waste 
 of time, that only a few in the upper strata are benefited 
 thereby because the subjects are too abstract for the com- 
 prehension of the great bulk of teachers in the lower strata. 
 The institute will be a success only when its exercises yield 
 the greatest good to the g-reatest number. 
 
 Sauk County, I think, has in years past taken the lead 
 in this movement toward professional work in institutes. 
 When my predecessor, W. H. Schulz, was superintendent 
 I sometimes heard the remark made in other parts of the 
 
,7f7/ 
 
 slate tluit at the teachers' institutes in Sauk County it was 
 customary to plung-e rig-ht into psycholog-y and pedag-otry, 
 head over heels. Mr. Schulz was an enthusiastic worker, 
 however, so that he steered straig-ht on in his course even 
 thoug-h nearly all other institute workers were very skep- 
 tical «'is to the profitableness of such work. The good re- 
 sults that I saw growing out of Mr. Schulz's efforts influ- 
 enced me to follow a similar course. 
 
 I am firmly of the opinion that professional work, ex- 
 ercises in psychology, pedag-ogy, and school manag-ement, 
 is the most profitable work that can be done at institutes 
 even for ordinary third g-rade rural school teachers, provid- 
 ed, however, that the material is judiciously selected and 
 the method of instruction is carefully adapted to the capa- 
 bility of the learner. No learning- of meaningless defini- 
 tions, no memorizing- of abstract principles will fill the bill; 
 if the work is of this character then I say away with it, the 
 sooner the better. 
 
 If we apply the fundamental principles of teaching- in 
 our instruction in psycholog-y and pedag-og-y the same as we 
 do in the teaching- of other branches, the obstacles to be 
 overcome in those lines will be no g-reater than it is in other 
 lines. We must be wise enoug-h not to attempt the teach- 
 ing of all of psycholog-y or all of pedag-og-y to these begin- 
 ners. The most that we can attempt is to g-ive them a clear 
 knowledge of the primary concepts and of a few of the fun- 
 damental principles with ample practical application thrown 
 into the barg-ain. 
 
 We all know that we can not teach all of greog-raphy or 
 history or physiolog-y or lang-uag-c or drawing- or mathe- 
 matics to primary or middle form or upper form pupils, yet 
 we do not hesitate to teach a certain select portion of each 
 of these subjects in each of the forms. We know that the 
 only way to learn to swim is to g-o into the water and make 
 
repeated attempts. We know that the mother's advice to 
 her daughter never to g-o into the water until she could 
 swim was stupid advice, and yet in the teaching- of psychol- 
 ogy and pedagogy many of us who have good judgment in 
 other things have no better judgment than had this mother. 
 We would leave all instruction in these branches until the 
 persons have advanced to the senior class of a normal school, 
 college, or university. We would withhold all instruction 
 on these subjects from that large number in charge of our 
 rural schools who need it most. 
 
 This work will not be successful if we make use of the 
 methods of teaching that prevail in instructing seniors in 
 these subjects in our colleges and universities. That peda- 
 gogic principle: "Teaching, both in matter and in method, 
 must be adapted to the capability of the taught," also ap- 
 plies in elementary psychologic and pedagogic instruction. 
 The same is true of the following maxims: Observation be- 
 fore reasoning; the concrete before the abstract; sense 
 knowledge before thought knowledge; facts before defini- 
 tions or principles; processes before rules; from the particu- 
 lar to the general; from the simple to the complex; from the 
 known to the related unknown. It is nonsense to commit 
 to memory the principles of teaching without practical ap- 
 plications on each one of them. This will never lead to 
 good teaching any more than the learning of the defini- 
 tions and the rules of g-rammar without practice in the use 
 of language will result in habituating the person to the use 
 of correct language. It is of the utmost importance in psy- 
 chologic and pedagogic instruction to give attention to 
 facts before we give attention to definitions or principles, 
 otherwise no usable knowledge can result. 
 
 The better to illustrate the kind of psychologic and 
 pedagogic instruction I believe in, I will give an abbrevi- 
 ated account of some exercises conducted on these lines in 
 
4 
 
 the summer schools and institutes of Sauk Countw Thou<j;-h 
 falling- far short of g-iving- an accurate picture of the real work 
 done, yet imperfect as the picture of the actual work may 
 be, it will serve to suggest the lines we have attempted to 
 follow out. I wished to teach my teachers the principle: 
 "The primary concepts and ideas in every branch of knowl- 
 edge must be taught objectively in all grades of school." 
 I proceeded in the following way: First, I planned and re- 
 flected as to how I could make clear to these people what is 
 meant by primar}' concepts and ideas; Second, How to il- 
 lustrate to them what is meant by objective teaching, and 
 to show the need of such objective teaching to them in the 
 most impressive way, not only in the instruction of pupils 
 in the primary form but its need to each of them individu- 
 ally in their attempts to acquire knowledge in what is to 
 them a new or unexplored field. 
 
 I found that nearly all of them had little or no knowl- 
 edge of Botany, therefore I selected my material from this 
 field with two distinct purposes in view, viz., to give them 
 new knowledge and that in the attainment of this new 
 knowledge they might have a chance to watch the process, 
 how it operated upon their own minds and by reflection 
 thereon evolve some of the fundamental principles of teach- 
 ing as well as to note the steps and mode of the intellectual 
 processes involved. I brought to my class a number of 
 flower clusters: spikes, umbels and racemes. I had enough 
 specimens of each kind to supply every individual in the 
 class with one. Of spikes I had three different kinds, the 
 English Plantain, the Mullein, the Verbena. I gave to 
 each one in the class a Plantain spike and called upon sev- 
 eral to describe the arrangement of the flowers thereon, the 
 manner of blossoming, etc. What they did not definitely 
 bring out in their descriptions I drew out by questions. 
 
After the examination and description I asked whether any 
 member of the class could g'ive me the botanical name of 
 such a flower cluster, but found that no one knew it. I then 
 told them that it was called a spike, and called upon some 
 one to formulate for me the definition of the botanical term 
 spike. I then told them to close their eyes and see whether 
 they could still see in their mind's eye the spike they had 
 handled. I then told them that what they had in their 
 mind was in psycholog"ic lan«-uag"e called a sense concept or 
 an individual concept; some psycholog^ists also call it a per- 
 cept but as we were g"oing- to follow White in this study we 
 would call it a sense concept or an individual concept. Now 
 let us for a moment consider what this sense concept is and 
 how it was produced. Was that from which we derived it 
 without us or within us? Internal or external? Material or 
 immaterial? Physical or mental? We then ag-reed that 
 it was an external, material object. Now what is that 
 sense concept in our mind which we had derived from this 
 external, material object? Is it material or immaterial? 
 Physical or mental? We then agreed that this sense con- 
 cept is a mental product and is immaterial. It is in the 
 mind, the little world within us, while the external, mate- 
 rial object from which it was formed and to which it cor- 
 responds is in theg-reat world without us. When the prod- 
 uct was being formed it was necessary that the external, 
 material object had to be near us, but now after its formation 
 will the product vanish from our minds as soon as we remove 
 the object or will it remain? This concept in our mind 
 then bears a similar relation to the object from which it 
 was formed as does the photograph to the person or perhaps 
 better still the negative from which the photogTaphs are 
 printed. Not a particle of the person has entered into the 
 negative and still it represents his form and appearance. 
 The difference however is that the neg-ative is an imprint 
 
6 
 
 on :i material substance, while the concept is within the 
 mind, which is immaterial. 
 
 Now what will become of this concept after we g-o awaj 
 from this class and turn our attention to other business? 
 Will the concept be stored away in the mind or will it van- 
 ish? Can we recall it after we have not thought of it for 
 some time? May we recall it at any time or place?* Can 
 we recall both the mental product and the material object 
 at any time or place? Then we will aj^-ree that we can not 
 recall material objects but only the mental products, or 
 concepts, that represent these objects. The only wa}' we 
 can g-et back the object is to ^o after it and get it or send 
 some one after it, and then onl}' can we get it if it is not 
 destroyed, or lost in some other way. Not so with the con- 
 cept. We formed it here in this room and weeks or months 
 after we may recall it in Texas or in Halifax if we happen 
 to be there, even thoug-h we may never have had occasion 
 to think of it since its formation. 
 
 Is that which we recall the same mental product, ©r 
 concept, which we had in our mind at the time we first 
 formed it from the object? If so, where has it been mean- 
 while and what has brought it back? Psychologfists are 
 pretty well ag-reed that nothing- is stored up in the mind in 
 the manner in which we store g-oods in a store room, that 
 the concept we had in the mind vanishes and vanishes for- 
 ever the moment we cease thinking of it. All that remains 
 in the mind is the power to produce a like concept. The 
 new concept is like the old concept and like it represents 
 the object. The mind is the neg-ative, capable of forming- 
 any number of photog-raphs after the impression has been 
 clearly made. This reproducing-, and representing b}' the 
 mind coupled with the consciousness that it represents 
 something- that was in the mind before, is what we call mem- 
 
ory. We shall at a future lesson dwell upon other things 
 that the memory recalls besides sense concepts. 
 
 What leads the mind to recall a given concept at a giv- 
 en time? We can not undertake to mention all but let us 
 bring- out a few of the most common ones. Hearing or see- 
 ing the word which we have associated with the concept 
 leads the mind to reproduce the concept for which it stands. 
 A word is the sign of an idea and calls up that idea in the 
 minds of all persons who have associated the same idea with 
 the same word, but it will not call up that idea in the mind 
 of the person who has learned the word but has associated 
 no idea with it. To the latter it is a mere sound or symbol, 
 an empty vessel. We should therefore be careful that ev- 
 ery word we learn be filled with meaning so that it may 
 serve as a vessel for conveying ideas from other minds to 
 our own, and from our minds to other minds. The word, 
 "spike," is associated with several concepts, so that it might 
 not convey the same idea to the mind of the carpenter that 
 it conve3's to the mind of the Botanist. The word g-u-t oc- 
 curs in the German, in the Norwegian and in the English 
 languages, but it conveys a different idea to the Norwegian 
 than it does to the German, and the idea it conveys to the 
 Englishman bears no relation to the idea conveyed to either 
 of the former. 
 
 There are many different means, voluntary and invol- 
 untary, that help in the recalling- of concepts, to which we 
 will allude in our study farther on. We will now consider 
 the manner in which the concept "spike" was formed. The 
 first condition necessary was the presence of the material 
 object. But is the presence alone sufficient? I have here 
 a little box in which I have an object, but you have to take 
 my word for it that there is some object in it. You are not 
 certain whether there is an object or not within it, and if 
 you believe my word that there is an object within you have 
 
no i^a what it is like, you know none of its ({ualities. 
 Now I nia^' take this box very close up to every one of you, 
 even touch every one with it and still you do not succeed in 
 finding- out anything- about it, you g-et no concept of the ob- 
 ject or objects within. Why not? We can not see it, no 
 rays of li,ght reflected from it can strike our eyes; the rays 
 of lig-ht are cut off by the walls of the box. Hence tVyere is 
 no chance for forming- an imag-e on and stimulating- our ret- 
 ina, so as to effect the optic nerve for conveying- an impulse 
 to a brain center and set uj) an at^tion within the mind. 
 This is true enoug-h. You are now in the condition of a 
 person who is in the dark, or of a blind person. But has a 
 person surrounded bv darkness or one who is blind no other 
 means to g-et a concept of an object? Yes, by touching- the 
 object, but the walls of the box prevent us from touching- 
 the object, so the touch cells embodied within the skin can 
 not be stimulated so as to effect the nerves connected there- 
 with and hence no impulse can reach the brain and set up 
 mental action. Shake the box, possibly we mig-ht catch a 
 sound with our ear and thus have an impulse conve3'ed to 
 the l)rain. Let us smell of the box. Let us lift the box. 
 Either the sense of smell or the muscular sense might g-ive 
 us a clue to its contents. The only other channel through 
 which we can g-et knowledg-e of objects in the external 
 world is the sense of taste, but as we are not able to touch 
 the object we can not taste it. 
 
 Who can think of some other way of g^etting- a concept 
 of the object? Give us the name or names of the objects 
 within. The scientific names of the three flower clusters 
 within were g-iven, but they conveyed no meaning, (iive us 
 a description of each. Can a primary concept or idea be 
 taug-ht through its word? You all seem to agree that it can. 
 I g-ave you the names yet you did not g^et the concepts there- 
 from, now you insist that if I g^ive you a verbal description 
 
thereof you can g-et the concepts. Well, let us see. Iwill 
 make my description very definite, specific and exact. The 
 three flower clusters within this box all belong- to that class 
 that are named "heads." The first has a flat naked recep- 
 tacle at the end of a naked hollow scape. The involucre is 
 double, erect in the bud, reflexed in the flower. The co- 
 rollas are yellow, strap-shaped and epig-ynous. The calyx is 
 in the form of a plume of capillary pappus on the summit 
 of the beak of the akene. As the class time is nearly up I 
 will refrain from giving the description of the other two. 
 I will repeat the description of the cluster I have just g-iven 
 once more so that you can remember it and repeat it to me 
 in class tomorrow. The description was repeated and the 
 class was instructed to g-o out into the field in order to find 
 a flower cluster that would correspond to the description 
 and bring it to class the next day, and point out the various 
 parts described. You will also be called upon to repeat the 
 description I g-ave you. 
 
 The next day I called upon different members of the 
 class to relate what we had done in class, and succeeded in 
 getting- an excellent account of everything except that no 
 one succeeded in repeating the verbal description of the 
 flower cluster, and no one had brought a specimen for show- 
 ing me the "head" and the parts described. I acted as 
 though I was very much displeased that they had failed in 
 just that part on which I had laid particular stress. I asked 
 them what they would do with their pupils under like cir- 
 cumstances, whether they would not give them a good 
 scolding-, keep them in at recess or punish them in some 
 other way. What can be expected of pupils who lack the 
 energy to exert themselves in g-oing- out into the field to find 
 specimens when they are specially instructed to do so, nay, 
 that can even not repeat a description that has been clearly 
 stated to them twice? I then questioned them about the 
 
10 
 
 causes wliv thcv could tell all the rest that had been done in 
 class so well and why they could not tell about the other. 
 
 We then agTeed that it was due to the manner of teach- 
 ing-, that that part that had hroug-ht g-ood results was ob- 
 jective teaching- and that which brought poor results was 
 not, that for the attainment ol new knowledge the former 
 was good teaching- and the latter poor teaching-. We fur- 
 ther agreed that no primary concept or idea can be taug-ht 
 throug-h its word; that every concept or idea is the product 
 of the mind's own action; that knowledge can be presented 
 to the mind by means of lang-uag-e only when the words 
 used represent known concepts and ideas. In the verbal 
 description g-iven most of the words used represented con- 
 cepts and ideas not known to the hearers, hence failed to 
 awaken proper mind activity and could therefore not result 
 in knowledge. What use would it have been to you if 3"ou 
 had all succeeded in repeating verbatim the description I 
 gave you as long as it conveyed no knowledg-e to you? You 
 would have been none the wiser for your mental strain and 
 exertion. 
 
 Is it not true that the largest proportion of unsatisfac- 
 tory results in elementary instruction are due to the above 
 named error? Teachers are teaching- words instead of 
 things and are wondering- why their pupils are so dull and 
 stupid, why they don't like to g-o to school and learn. Let 
 us then sum up what we have been considering- by a formal 
 statement. The primary concepts and ideas in every branch 
 of knowledg-e must be taug^ht objectively in all g-rades of 
 school. I then asked them how many could see in their 
 mind's eye the "plantain spike." Is that what you have re- 
 called, the object? No, it is a mental product that repre- 
 sents the object we saw yesterday and this mental product 
 we call a primary concept. What kind of an act recalls the 
 
11 
 
 concept? It was an act of memory. Memory was then de- 
 fined. 
 
 What kind of an act must precede an act of memory or 
 representation? A presentative act which conditions sev- 
 eral thing-s. First, that there must be some object of knowl- 
 edg-e and a mind. Further that these two must be broug-ht 
 in relation in some way. The sensorium consisting- of the 
 brain at one end and sensitive end org-ans at the other end 
 connected by nerves is what serves for bring-ing- the two in 
 relation. The external, material object or some force pro- 
 ceeding- from it must make an impression upon the sensitive 
 end org-an of one or more of the special senses. If the im- 
 pression is too weak no sensation will result. If sufficient- 
 ly strong- the sensitive end org-an will mag-nify it sufficient- 
 ly to send an impulse along- the connecting- nerve to a brain 
 center, there in some way setting- up mental activity. Each 
 of these was illustrated by experiment. 
 
 The concept of the spike that you formed yesterday 
 was a presentative product. Let us see throug-h what sense 
 or senses the material for its construction was obtained. 
 What color was the spike? Green. Throug-h what sense 
 was it obtained? Sig-ht. Can you still see this color in 
 your mind? This is also a presentative product, according- 
 to White it is called a sense percept. Mr. White defines a 
 sense percept as a mental product obtained by one percept- 
 ive act throug-h a sing-le sense, and a sense concept as a men- 
 tal product formed by a combination of two or more percepts 
 obtained throug-h one or more senses. Another percept 
 that we obtained throug-h the eye and which entered into 
 the formation of the concept "spike" was form. 
 
 All of you may now close your eyes and bring- before 
 your mind's eye the plantain spike. Will you now in your 
 mind's eye chang-e the color of the spike to a blood red. 
 Now chang-e it so that it shall look snow white. Now 
 
 L» 0/ «• 
 
12 
 
 cliang'c to its orij^'inal color. Now ohaiii^-o the size of it so 
 that it shall appear as larg-e as a base l)all bat. Chang-e it 
 again, that it shall appear as small as a pin. This activ- 
 ity of the mind which you hav^e been exercising' is the im- 
 agination but it is only one phase of the imag^ination, the 
 one that we call the niodifying-. Describe in what re- 
 spect it resembles memory and in what respect it differs 
 from it. The raw material with which both deal are pre- 
 sentative products; neither of these activities can take place 
 until the presentative powers have prepared the material 
 needed for representation. Both are representative powers 
 and both deal with imagfes. Memory represents thing-s 
 as they are, while imag"ination represents them and modi- 
 lies or recombines them at will. 
 
 The next day a second phase of the imagination was il- 
 lustrated by reading- Franklin's story of "An ax to g-rind." 
 During- the reading- a numl)er were called upon to describe 
 their mental pictures of Franklin, of the strang-er, the ax, 
 the' g-rindstone, etc. They were then told that this was 
 termed the constructive phase of the imag-ination and as it 
 entered so extensively into all school work it was often 
 called the school phase. They were called upon to g-ive il- 
 lustrations from different studies to show definitely how 
 this phase of the imag-ination was involved and what spe- 
 cial use it served. 
 
 With a few chalk marks I drew a tree on the black- 
 Ijoard and asked the class what it represented. It conveyed 
 to each one the idea I wished to have conveyed. The3' all 
 recog-nized what it represented and they recog-nized that 
 the activity of the mind involved that enabled them to in- 
 terpret it was the constructive phase of the imagfination. I 
 then showed them that I did not draw a particular tree that I 
 had seen and thcactivity of the mind tm my part involved was 
 also a phase of the imag-ination, called the creative imag-i- 
 nation. I then described a landscape to them which I lo- 
 cated a half a mile from where we were, with which the}- 
 
13 
 
 were all familiar and told them that the picture I would 
 describe to them I had never seen myself. They all saw in 
 their mind's eye the picture described and recog^nized that 
 the activity involved on their part was the constructive im- 
 ao-ination, but the activity involved on my part was the cre- 
 ative imaw-ination. Illustrations were further g-iven show- 
 ing- the need of the creative imag-ination to the novelist, 
 the musician, the painter, the poet, the orator, etc. 
 
 I called their attention to the various means I had made 
 use of to render active various powers of their minds, first a 
 presentative power, sense perception, second two represen- 
 tative powers, memory and imag-ination, and summed it up 
 by a formal statement of another principle: Knowledg-e can 
 be taug-ht only by occasioning^ the appropriate activity of 
 the learner's mind. 
 
 We may use words in our instruction that represent 
 known concepts to the pupils but the pupil may g-et no 
 knowledg-e therefrom because the teacher does all the recit- 
 ing- himself while the pupil's mind is passive. No thougjjat 
 is our own »until we have produced it by our own thinking-. 
 When we read a thought, thoug-ht out by some one else, or 
 hear it uttered, it may become a thoug-ht to us and make us 
 wiser on the condition that it sets in activity our thinking- 
 machinery. The words only can be transferred from one 
 mind to another, but not the concepts or ideas for which 
 these words stand. But even this I have not stated quite 
 strong- enoug-h, to g-et the mere words our mind can not be 
 entirely passive. It must exert some activity. The great 
 mistake that so many teachers make is that they neg-lect to 
 assure themselves whether the minds of their pupils are ac- 
 tive during- the class exercise, and in this way they waste a 
 g-reat deal of time and energ-y. 
 
 How can a teacher who knows nothing- of the constitu- 
 tion of the human mind be sure that his school work is such 
 that it is calculated to call into activity and cultivate all 
 the mental powers and bring- about harmonious develop- 
 ment? I led you to acquire sense knowledg-e by inducing- 
 
14 
 
 sense activity, cultivated your imaj^ination by excrcisin<r 
 your imag-iiiation and later on I will show you that you g-et 
 thoug-ht knowledge by calling into activity your various 
 thought powers. 
 
 During the progress of the study we found occasion to 
 refer frequently to the experiments I have related for illus- 
 trating and making clear other psychological and pedagog- 
 ical facts, besides bringing in many additional illustrations 
 and experiments. We studied Botany not for its own sake 
 but for the purpose of using- it as a means to obtain 
 thereby a knowledg-e of psychology and pedagogy, of men- 
 tal powers and processes, of principles and methods of 
 teaching. What I have given I think will suffice to make 
 clear the plan we followed in our work. I can say for this 
 plan that it yielded good results even with ordinary third 
 grade rural teachers, whose academic knowledge was very 
 limited. It served to initiate them into following- out seri- 
 ous lines of thought. They began to make use of intro- 
 spection for finding out more about mental processes. It 
 also served for awakening in them a desire for reading books 
 on the subject so as to profit by the thoughts and experi- 
 ences of others. They became curious, many questions 
 arose in their minds to which they sought answers. Prob- 
 lems came up which they wished to solve. It helped them 
 much in the study of their other lessons. It seemed it taught 
 them how to study. A number that had been indifferent 
 became ambitious and wide awake. 
 
 So my opinion is that the most profitable institute work 
 is professional work. There should be academic work done 
 with the object of making clear psychologfical and pedag'og- 
 ical processes and principles. Thus the teachers are being- 
 prepared for reading and studying undcrstandingly special 
 professional treatises as well as enabling them the easier to 
 make up deficiencies in their academic knowledge. 
 John S. Rokski.kk, 
 CountN" Supt. of Schools of Sauk County. 
 
15 
 FOR STATE SUPERINTENDENT. 
 
 Our County Superintendent of Schools Seeks a Place on the Republican 
 
 State Ticket. 
 
 [From The Baraboo Republic. I 
 
 Sauk county is not to be without a candidate for a posi- 
 tion on the Republican State ticket. John S. Roeseler, who 
 has supervised our county schools for the last four years, 
 and who has become known to the educational workers of 
 the state as one of their strong-est men, will seek the nomi- 
 nation of State Superintendent of Public Instruction at the 
 hands of the Republican party. 
 
 Mr. Roeseler was born in Lomira, Dodg^e county, in 
 1859. His early days were spent upon the farm where he 
 
 
 1 
 
 
 ^r' * 
 
 
 g Jb 
 
 
 
 
 L 
 
 ^H 
 
 ^^^^^ 
 
 
 Pl 
 
16 
 
 was l)()rii. Early in life his father wonl to the war, and 
 youni^- Koescler was left the sole support of his family. Ev- 
 ery obstacle seemed to have been thrown in his way to cur- 
 tail his preparation for life, but above them all he rose tri- 
 umphantly and with the energ-y and zeal which has charac- 
 terized his later life, lie pushed himself forward throug"h 
 the district school and when the limited facilities of that 
 failed to better him, he entered the seminary at Naperville, 
 111., and prepared for our State University. In this insti- 
 tution Mr. Roeseler, thoug-h g-reatly impeded by poverty and 
 other obstacles and without the backino^ of rich or influen- 
 tial friends, early showed himself a strong- student. While 
 still in his Junior year, he was elected a joint debater, an 
 honor enjoyed by but few of Wisconsin's sons in that school. 
 Graduating- in 1888 with special and g-eneral honors, he was 
 one of the orators to represent his class, and was voted a 
 scholarship for two years by the faculty. During these 
 two years he was assistant librarian and instructor in dynas- 
 tic history. In 1890 Mr. Roeseler assumed charg-e of the 
 Sauk City schools and soon made that town an educational 
 center which was looked upon with jealous eyes by all the 
 neig-hl)oring- high schools. The effect of his work in Sauk is 
 seen in the county today by the large number of country teach- 
 ers who have g-one forth from his school and made a success 
 of the teaching- work. From Sauk City hat)K:ome more first 
 grade teachers than from any other hig-h school in the coun- 
 ty in proportion to the number of students attending-. 
 
 In the falls of 1895 and 1897, Mr. Roeseler was nomi- 
 nated by the Republicans of this county for Superintendent 
 of schools, receiving a handsome majority in each election. 
 Readers of The Republic know of the efficient work he has 
 done in our county in elevating our rural schools. In fact, 
 Supt. Roeseler is considered one of the staunchest support- 
 ers of the country school in the state; his heart is in this 
 
17 
 
 work and this tells wh^- our county has come to the front as 
 a g-reat educational section. His labors have not been un- 
 rewarded, for he has the hearty support of the school boards, 
 teachers and people of the county in his untiring- efforts to 
 make the common school second to none of its class in the 
 country. 
 
 Mr. Roeseler is a Republican, believing most implicitly 
 in the doctrine of protection and sound money. Two years 
 ag-o he was a delegate from his home town to the state con- 
 vention which selected the Republican electors on the state 
 ticket. He has already received a handsome endorsement 
 from his native county, Dodg-e, in an editorial in the Dodg-e 
 County Citizen. 
 
 The Republican party could put no more practical, thor- 
 oug-hly equipped man upon its ticket for the duties of the 
 State Superintendent's office than John S. Roeseler, of Sauk. 
 He has taug-ht in every kind of a school from the little log- 
 school house to and including- the State University. He is 
 a man of strong- executive ability, in the prime of life, and 
 wins the admiration of all with whom he comes in contact. 
 The Republic sees in Mr. Roeseler a strong- representative 
 for the county and predicts his successful nomination by the 
 Republican convention, which, of course, means his certain 
 election. 
 
LIBRPRY OF CONGRESS 
 
 019 747 876 7