show that every high-school teacher should be the holder of at least a first-grade county certificate, and in cities, not under a county superintendent, they should of course hold a certificate of a grade equivalent to this. The possession of this, or of a State certificate, or a countersigned diploma from one of the State Normal Schools will qualify the high-school teachers, and so far warrant the State Superintendent in granting certificates entitling schools to State aid. As the success of any school is so largely dependent upon the character and attainments of the teacher, too great care cannot be taken by the boards to secure thoroughly competent instruction, and too great care cannot be exercised by the State to see that the aid it bestows is fairly and fully earned. A course of three years for towns with less than six thousand in habitants. History of the United States. History of the United States. German, or Book-keeping. Exercises in spelling and reading and composition throughout the course. NOTE. The student could leave the English course at the end of the third year, and enter the University College of Arts, taking German; The favor with which the high-school law has been generally received throughout the State fully meets the expectations of its friends, and is an augury of its enduring popularity and usefulness. The following letters are given as samples of many which have come to the department, and which fairly prove the wide interest with which the enactment has been received. The letter from Senator Read is especially valuable as showing how easily the township can realize the chief intent of the law, and as illustrating the fact that good facilities for education are sought by none more eagerly than by the intelligent foreign element of our population, and especially by the Germans. The superintendent takes pleasure in saying that not only in the legislature which enacted the law, but throughout the State, in the audiences he had previously addressed, the Germans were among the most appreciative and ardent supporters of the high-school plan. This appears but natural when we consider that Germany is universally acknowledged to be the world's educational center. OSHKOSH, WIS., May 9, 1875. DEAR SIR:-I learn of proposed high schools in several villages in this region, stimulated by the law of last winter. I believe it will dot the State thickly with nuclei of culture, which will give "common-school" study a zest and aim which does not to-day exist. It has seemed to me that this dearth of higher educational facilities in the rural districts of the entire west is leading to a distaste for life upon a farm. We everywhere see men renting or selling their homes to move into cities where they can "educate their children." Something is wrong in our "system" when such an alternative is forced upon a parent-ignorance or a breaking of home ties or influences. For these reasons I look with hope for a widely beneficent influence to come from this encouragement of the State to every locality. Sincerely, yours, EDWARD SEARING, Supt. Public Instruction. G. S. ALBEE. KEWAUNEE, Wis., June 5. MY DEAR SIR:-It gives me pleasure to be able to inform you that at a special town meeting held in the town of Kewaunee on Friday last for the purpose of considering and determining the question of organizing the town into a free high-school district and establishing a free high school therein, under the provisions of the law of last winter, the proposition was carried without a dissenting vote. The attendance was quite large, and the feeling developed was entirely favorable to the measure. At a special district meeting held in this village, for the purpose, the evening previous, the use of one of the rooms in the village school building was unanimously ten |