Wisconsin State Normal Schools

Nineteenth century higher education was mainly reserved for men.  Victorian notions of separate gender spheres assigned rigorous academic pursuits to men. Professors were almost always male and passed on their knowledge to their male students.  As women defied these notions and entered classrooms, they were constantly reminded that they were outsiders in a male world.  In the 1870s, men and women studied separately in some subjects, and some classes segregated female students in the back of the classrooms. Any subjects that were vocational, such as surveying, navigation, agriculture, or engineering were not considered suitable courses for women to study.  In the 1880s and 1890s, women mainly studied in the "modern Classical" and "english" liberal arts courses.

Normal schools were teacher-training schools and in the Midwest many normal schools functioned as all-around institutions of higher learning.  Almost always coeducational, state normal schools were especially significant institutions for women, who had limited opportunities at other colleges and saw teaching as a viable vocational option.  Women constituted the majority of normal students.  Wisconsin established nine state normal schools,  Platteville(1866), Oshkosh(1871), River Falls(1875), Milwaukee(1885), Stevens Point(1894), Superior(1896), La Crosse(19909), and Eau Claire(1916).  Many of these later became the University of Wiscinsin system of colleges.  At Wisconsin's normal schools, female and male students shared in the intellectual life.  Side-by side in class, they followed the same course of study, under the tutelage of male and female professors.  Men and women were enthusiastic about, and involved in, literary societies and debating contests. Normal schools provided a rich social life with social groups of mixed genders.  Women and men both took part in student government, athletics, school publications, and many other activities.  In many aspects of college life, the experiences of normal students did not hinge on gender differences.

Wood County Reporter December 29th, 1910

The Wisconsin normal school law of 1866 stated: "The exclusive purpose of each normal school shall be instruction and training of persons, both male and female, in the theory an art of teaching, and in all the various branches that pertain to a good common school education; also to give instruction to agriculture, chemistry, in the arts of husbandry, the mechanic arts, the fundamental laws of the United States and of this state, and in what regards the rights and duties of citizens."

In the early years, the Oshkosh State Normal School was Wisconsin’s foremost institution for educating teachers and the first such school in the nation to have a kindergarten. Rose C. Swart, a powerhouse in the model school department for half a century, introduced practice teaching in 1872. Tuition was free to all who declared their intention to teach in Wisconsin public schools.