1. Length of Course
All high schools provide four years of instruction in English, and most of the schools devote five periods a week to the subject in each year. The course of study outlined in this bulletin, therefore, is arranged on the basis of five periods a week for four years. The successful completion of at least two years’ work in English, one-half of which shall be devoted to composition and rhetoric, and one-half to the study of English classics, is required of all students for graduation from Wisconsin high schools, and for entrance to the University of Wisconsin. The first two years of English are always required of all high school pupils whether they pursue an elective or a prescribed course of study. In some high schools four years’ study of English is required of all pupils, and in most of the Wisconsin high schools the curriculum provides for three years of English in all courses. When the course of study is partly elective, pupils are usually advised to continue with a third and often a fourth year of English after completing the two years of required work. Thus practically all high school pupils pursue the course in English for at least three years.
Whether pupils who study English for three years take up the work in the third or the fourth year of their course, is generally determined by the arrangement of the other subjects in the curriculum. When a choice may be made by either third or fourth year pupils between third and fourth year English, the principal and teacher of English can often decide for the pupil, basing their decision in each case upon what they know of the pupil and his plans. For some pupils the survey of English and American literature in the third year will be most valuable since it furnishes them the means of extending their acquaintance with literature by independent reading. Other pupils will doubtless derive more benefit from the intensive study of a few classics outlined for the fourth year.