10 - The German-English Academy, the National German-American Teachers' Seminary, and the Public School System in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, 1851-1919

Summary

On May 21, 1901, a number of prominent Milwaukee citizens and school officials met in the hall of the Milwaukee Turner Society to celebrate the fiftieth anniversary of the German-English Academy, a German-American private associational school for boys and girls. The representative of the Milwaukee public school system, German-born Superintendent Siefert, used the occasion to pay tribute to “the many benefits” the city's public schools had received and were still receiving, “directly and indirectly,” from the German-English Academy, as well as from the National German- American Teachers' Seminary, which had been affiliated with the Academy since its founding in 1878. “The German English Academy had a mission to perform,” Siefert continued, “and it has performed it well.” The dissemination of “rational methods of teaching,” the establishment of “our magnificent Museum,” and “the early introduction . . . of the Kindergarten system . . . [are] largely due to the influence of the German English Academy.” Referring to the Academy's bilingual character, already emphasized in its name, and to the prominent professional positions held by many of its former students, Siefert added: “[T]hrough it [the Academy] was demonstrated the possibility of teaching in two languages simultaneously.” In concluding his address, the superintendent did not forget to honor the “excellent teachers” in the Milwaukee public schools who had received their training in the seminary and who, in his words, were “exercising a salutary influence on . . . their fellow teachers . . . from other institutions.”