ABSTRACT
In the midwestern sections of the country parents spearheaded the drive for public tax-supported high schools to take over the private academies’ role as college-preparatory institutions. Public school administrators welcomed the parental “democratic imperative” and used it to push for the inclusion of secondary education in their states’ public school systems. Their purpose, however, was better served if they could promote the high school program as a suitable preparation of every youngster for all the various opportunities of adult life, not just as a preparation for college or university. By emphasizing English, science, and the modern languages the schoolmen believed they could appeal to male students and thus serve two purposes: to counteract both the high school’s reputation as “aristocratic”— a reputation gained through its offerings in the classics-and its preponderance of female students. Thus, while arguing strongly that the high school prepared its students for life and college, their self-interest inclined the schoolmen to favor preparation for life over preparation for college. As developments in Wisconsin show, for various reasons the schoolmen’s relationship to the university remained strained until in the late 1880s they reached a compromise with the faculty over the university’s entrance requirements.
