Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly volume 21.djvu/165



OREGON NORMAL SCHOOLS 155

mals were voted out of existence in 1909. The following seem to be the most significant causes of their failure :

1. The normals were established without a strong public demand for them and an interest in their function.

2. They secured their appropriations from the legislature without the backing of popular approval.

3. The increasing needs of the schools called for increased appropriations, culminating the request for about one-third of a million dollars in 1909. This seemed a stupendous sum to the taxpayers, who were inclined to listen to charges of graft and extravagance. People are conservative when called upon to levy taxes for which they do not see a special need con- nected with their own individual interests.

4. The schools, with the possible exception of Ashland, 48 were not located in strategic positions. On account of poor means of communication, Ashland did not have the constitu- ency in Lake, Klamath, and Coos Counties that a casual exam- ination of the map would lead one to believe.

5. The equipment, buildings, and training school facilities were entirely inadequate to meet the higher normal school standards.

6. There was opposition from interests and individuals who were not in sympathy with higher education at public expense.

7. Those connected with the promotion of denominational schools were unfriendly to the normals.

8. There was jealousy and rivalry among towns and cities which hoped in the event of the destruction of the schools to be chosen as sites of new schools.

9. The appropriations granted were insufficient.

10. The growth of public high schools decreased the de- mand for secondary education in the normals.

11. Furthermore, a majority of the people did not accept the normal school idea. They believed that there was no reason for maintaining professional schools to prepare teachers. The experience of Oregon repeats that of Massachusetts, New York,

48 It would require all the children enrolled in the elementary grades in the Ashland public schools, together with all the children of kindergarten age in the district, to furnish enough pupils for a practice school in ai normal enrolling 300 seniors. . . ,_id,jd. -cLId!