Oriole and Tower-Light, 1922-1927, Part 131

Author: Maryland State Normal School (Towson, Md.)
Publication date: 1922-1927
Publisher: Maryland State Normal School (Towson, Md.)
Number of Pages: 1024

USA > Maryland > Baltimore County > Towson > Oriole and Tower-Light, 1922-1927 > Part 131

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Then Christmas morning dawns with the early crow of a wide-awake rooster, ' The fires roar merrily all sents a sombre aspect. Bare are the ! long lines of horse-chestnut trees. Deserted are the benches and chairs. Colorless are the flower plots. No | over the house. The cook rushes in more do the little children sail their to catch his "Christmas gif" and the boats in the pool. Only the statues neighbors send over samples of their of France's heroes, heroines, kings; finest cookery.

The bright lighted tree gives token of the good wishes of all and the merrymaking and feasting last all day. The evening closes with an egg-nog all around, while each and all wish each other health, wealth

Charlotte Vaughan.

Sixth Grade Critic Teacher.

BOOK LIST FOR CHRISTMAS GIFTS.

Intermediate Grades.

Charlie and His Kitten Topsy, by Hill and Maxwell (Macm) $1.00.

Charlie and His Puppy Bingo, by Hill and Maxwell, (Maem) $1,25.

Picture Tales From the Russian, by Carrick (Stokes) $1.25.

Adventures of Pinocchio, by Loren- zini (Crowell) $1.50.

Just So Stories, by Kipling (Double- day) $1.50.

Little Wooden Doll,

by Bianco

(Macm) $1.00.

Poor Cecco, by Bianco, illus. by Rack- ham (Doran ) $3.00.

Little Lame Prince, by Craik (Rand) $1.50.

Reynard The Fox, by Evans (Dodd) $2.00.

Magic Fishbone, by Dickens (Warne) $1.50.

in the fields. The happy smiling peasant families with the quaint caps and smocks have gone indoors. We miss the honest faces of these people of the soil. We miss seeing the wooden rakes and the wooden pitch- forks. No more do we see the red geraniums standing stately and prim on the window-sills. The thatched roofs are encrusted with snow. And the poppies? No more do they blow in these fields of Flanders. Nor- mandy is at rest after a season of labor.

And Paris in winter? Ah, this is the Paris that is

Paris. It has settled back into its normal mood after a summer of entertaining tour- ists. Paris in winter is like unto a charming hostess who puts her house in order after her guests have de- parted.

It is still beautiful, of course. It

is still gay. The holiday air is ever prevalent in this city on the Seine. The opera crowds emerging from the old green-grey temple of music into the Place de L'Opera after a light snow-fall is like dropping an armful of imperial dahlias on a white marble floor.

and queens remain unchanged. This is not new to them. They have seen the passing of many summers.

· I wonder if the little old men and the little old women still attend their book-stalls along the Seine. to sit and doze with their chins on their bosoms and their gnarled, worn hands folded in their laps. Where have they taken their treasures of rare prints, autographs, bits of jew- elry and precious volumes? How they must miss their browsing pa-

There is no warm sun now in which and life-long happiness.

trons, the occasional buyer and the Story of the Ship, by Gordon Grant. easy-going life of the river-banks. (Milton Bradley ) $2.00.

Outdoor cafes in winter? Ah. yes! There they are. All of them just as in summer-Cafe Du Dame, La Rotonde and De La Paix. The same little marble-topped tables, the same little wieker chairs, the same bright- colored awnings. But now there

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TOWER LIGHT

December, 1926.

Wonder Clock, by Pyle (Harper)

$2.00.

Japanese Fairy Tales, by Williston (Rand) $1.00.

Child's Garden of Verses, by Steven_ son (Scribner) $1.00.

Silver Pennies, by Thompson (Macm) $1.00.

Magic Forest, by Stewart E. White (Macm) $1.00.

Chi-Wee, by Grace Moon (Double- day ) $2.00.

Understood Betsy, by Canfield, (Holt) $.1.75.

Memoirs of a London Doll, by Fair- star (Macm) $1.00.

Donkey John of Toy Valley, by Mor- ley (McClurg) $1.50.

Rabbit Lantern, by Rowe (Macm) $1.75.

Bird's Christmas Carol, by Wiggin (Houghton) $ .75.

Toby Tyler, by Otis (Harper) $ .75. Adventures of Buffalo Bill, by Cody (Harper) $ .75.

Last of the Chiefs, by Altsheler (Grosset) $1.00.

Flamingo Feather, by Munroe (Har- per) $ .75.

This list is but a small part of the many excellent stories listed in "The Book Shelf for Boys and Girls," sold in The Book Shop at a small cost. It appears yearly, published by the R. R. Bowker Co., 62 West 45th street, New York. This firm will mail them at ten cents per copy, or less, for quantity orders.

There are many beautiful books noted therein costing larger sums of money, but the great need is for fair- ly inexpensive books which are really worth while. There are several edi- tions brought out by good firms, and all the titles in these editions are suitable for children's libraries. The following may be noted: Macmillan's Little Library, all the titles of which are only $1.00; Harper's Young Peo- ple's Series, at $ .75; Grosset's Every Boy's Library, at $1.00, and the Boy Scout books approved by the official librarian of the Boy Scouts of Ameri- ca. These approved stories are listed in the "Bookshelf." -M. L. Osborn.

Except the Christ be born again to- night

In dreams of all men, saints and sons of shame,

The world will never see his kingdom bright.

Stars of all hearts, lead onward thro' the night

Past death-black deserts, doubts without a name,

Past hills of pain and mountains of new sin

To that far sky where mystic birth begin,

Where dreaming ears the angel song shall win.

-Vachel Lindsay.

EDUCATION-A BIG BUSINESS.

The period of the world's history through which we are just passing is called by historians the Age of Big Business. It is different from the Colonial Period, or the Revolution- ary War Period, or the time when the Nation set up business for itself, or the time when the industrial changes were brought about in England due to invention, which influences later affected America, and produced a

period known

as the Industrial Revolution. The Civil War is an in- cident in that period and was caused by rapidly changing industrial con- ditions. Then "Cotton was king." The close of the Civil War brought its aftermath of reconstruction and year by year since then the amassing of wealth caused by the development of raw materials and resources and in- ventions has placed the money of the Country in the hands of a few men, though all men, particularly in this country-laborers, employers, bank- ers, and clerks have more money than was ever dreamed of as possible in 1865. The "Rich Bourgeoise," the "rich middle class" is a familiar term. There are only five big busi- ness enterprises that control the com- modities of life; those that center around (1) the food industries, (2) textiles and clothing, (3) shelter or the allied earth products; (4) com- munication, which includes news- papers, automobile manufacturing, telephone, telegraph, paper and books, ship building, aeroplane man- ufacturing, and (5) the tool indus- tries. There is an art side to every industry, and thousands are em-

ployed in art in industry. The basis of all industry is the utilization of raw materials-their appraisal, thelr production, their protection. Scien- tific knowledge of the manufacture of articles from raw materials and utilization of the byproducts is abso- lutely necessary and has become a profession in itself. Coarse clay will not make fine china; wool will not make cotton cloth; crude petroleum has its uses, and coal tar products are the residuum of refining pro- cesses.

cotton fields of the South could not produce the cotton fibre that the cli- mate and skill of India could induce.

But, I want to add to all these so- called Big Businesses another busi-

ness-that of education. Its raw materials are children and the bnd- ding youth of the world. There are 23,239,227 of them in the United States alone, and the United States spends $1,580,671,296 per year-a big business indeed.

Do we know as much about the raw materials of education as the cotton manufacturer knows about cotton, or the oil king knows about his oil fields, or the ship builder knows about steel and wood and can- vas ? Children are far more com- plex; they have their original nature with which they begin life, and from the moment they are born their per- sonalities are changed and developed by the influence of each experience through which they pass. Take all the seven-year-olds in the country and compare them. They differ; their chronological ages are the same, but their physiological ages may vary from four to nine or ten years of development; their mental ages may show a similar distribution; and their educational ages may vary from gross illiteracy to quite definite skill and mastery of fairly difficult reading materials. The problem for the teacher is not as simple as the prob- lem for the potter who molds the clay vessel. The education of a child is the process of taking him, an individual, from where he is to where he ought to be. Albert Wig- gam says, "Every teacher should be a student of heredity, and every teacher a geneaologist, a psychia- trist, and a scientist" to know how to use scientific data and find out where each child should be on his own scale of progress. In one of the counties of a nearby State, when the third grades were tested with the Stanford Paragraph Meaning Test, the medlan score for the entire coun- ty was 17, but for one school in the county the score was 33, and in that particular school in the third grade there were some children in the sixth grade ability reading :

I recall that not very long ago a cotton manufacturer unfolded to me A little first-grade child looked out at the snow last winter and said dreamily: the romance of his trade. He took a three-inch square of cotton cloth and said as he raveled it slowly, "The "The snow is like a sheet across the grass, cotton from which this cloth is made was grown in India. It is a very rare plant. It was milled in special mills in China. It holds my footprint as I pass." But the child sitting next to him had not a beautiful thought to match his classmate's. Such work is not A girl making a dress for her doll may use her mother's sewing ma- chine and never wonder at all how the parts of the machine work, but George, a sixth-grade boy, who had never used a sewing machine before, asked for it when he wanted to stitch found to be carried on in any other country in the world. It has a mar- ket in North and South America and is the highest priced cotton cloth the industry commands." The three- inch square had told its story. One wondered how the machinery in those Chinese mills differed from the mills in our own Maryland, or why the the sails for a boat he had made, and

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December, 1926

he became So fascinated that he thought through with eager intelli- gence the whole interlocking process of the thread and the parts of the machine, and with joy said to his teacher, "Miss Florence, come see how it works; isn't it a beanty?" Boys are not like girls, vet

some boys are interested in the things that most girls are interested in, and a few girls are most interested in the things that most boys are interested in. Ordinarily, most girls are more interested in traits that pertain to people. and most boys in the factors that pertain to things. The teaching job is indeed complex, for in each child there are involved his racial mal Schools of the country should inheritance. his family inheritance, his sex inheritance, and his individual aptitudes. Angelo Patri says, "A teacher has divine power like God's. She watches a child and thinks about him; she watches the results; she tries again. She is a creator, a great and divine power."

Who then should teach children? lf Angelo Patri is right, and if I am right when I say that children are the most difficult of all raw materials to handle, surely there should go into the Normal Schools of the Country and into the Teachers' Colleges only the ablest graduates of the High Schools. Public sentiment, which is strong for spending

money for schools, often operates against rais- ing the standard and quality of the teachers, for mothers and fathers will say, "I do not want my daughter or son to take up teaching. It is too difficult." Are business men in love with their business opportunities ? What say you about John Patterson of Dayton, of International Cash Register fame? Did he work hard? Did he have a good time doing it Or, what say you of Henry Ford, Or John D. Rockefeller, or of any of our own local big business men? What of our great physicians, of Dr. William Welsh, or of Dr. John M. T. Finney? Do they not work hard? Then why pity the teacher, particu- larly if her road to personal success and fulfillment is along the path of directing the minds and the power of the most valuable of all raw ma- terials in the world-the children who are to become the thinking citi- zens and the wise parents and lead- ers of thought in the next generation.

We need better school buildings; we need better and more adequate equipment. A modern southern sci- entific cotton mill is built on lines quite different from the older and more archaic New England mill. A and foremost interest must be his work."

modern school understands scienti- fically what equipment gives with our better understanding of children. We need more books in

all our schools, particularly in our rural schools, but above all else, we need abler teachers. And we need more men teachers. Certainly the biologl-| little courage and be carried on as a !We seldom

parasite by the martyrs of education ?

cal male mind has a point of view that should be reckoned with in the The world today is looking for leaders. Normal Schools are train- ing young men and women to assume responsibilities, to think, to push training of children. Many a young; man who would have made real suc- cess as a teacher has been made a misfit in society because he has failed their ideas forward for other people as a business man or as a successful banker, or as a lawyer or engineer, when he might have made a success as a physician or a lawyer or a teacher. Practically every experi- mental progressive school in the

and to teach. Have you yourself a vision ? Have you anything to teach the world, are you willing to fight for the profession as you fight for your team on the campus? If so, you have the right to teach, and, we, on country is now trying out the gifted the firing line want you. Let's make young man teacher in grades from teaching the "Tower Light" for all professions .- Alvey Hammond, 24, Principal, Chase, Md. the fourth to the seventh. All who are interested in a campaign for the best type of student to fill the Nor-

direct to us only those high school graduates who are able, who are stu- dents, who like children, who have scientific minds, who have a sense of humor, who have dramatic power, and who care what happens to the little child day by day, hour by hour, and year by year as the forces of his environment play upon him. The warning poet cries:

"Heaven lies about us in our infancy ; Shades of the prison house begin to close

Upon the growing boy."

This is what will always happen unless a teacher is wise and sym- pathetic and able to handle his big business-the biggest and most im- portant of all the businesses of this great and humming industrial world.

Lida Lee Tall.

WHY TEACH.

How many college students real- ize that some day the profession which they have chosen must earn their bread, fur coats and flivvers? How many of us fully appreciate the term "teaching"? Am I misjudging the major portion of us when I say that but few of us while at Normal look upon teaching as a pastime, a means to an end, that end being money, more school or a better job; money to buy our education, pleas- ure, happiness and success or did we dream that we would teach awhile and some gold nugget would fall at our feet.

Those of us who have taught awhile have lost the idea of "teach awhile for fun idea," but we have gained something real. Now our purpose in life, yes, in teaching, is less shallow and flighty. Well do I remember the words dropped easily from one of our instructors at M. S. N. S., who said, "A man's first

Are you to be a teacher or just a wage earner? Will you boost the profession by your own efforts, skills. and visions, or will you by your tongue, pessimism and deceit cast your lot with men and women of

THE INDUCEMENT TEACHING OFFERS.

Teaching has many inducements acting as magnets drawing us to it. Some of the rewards of teaching are service, happiness, wealth, fame and advancement. It is because of the great range of inducements which teaching offers that so many are drawn to this profession. But now let us see what attraction each of them holds.

One of the greatest inducements is service. What is better than to be able to be of some service in this world? What gives more satisfac- tion than to know that you have a mission to fill, that you are here for a purpose? Yes, you may render service to yourself and to others.

Everyone, at some time in life, will wish to render some service. That is the reason we wish to keep good health-to serve best. We can be of service by helping to educate the coming generation, hut not them alone, for by giving them an educa- tion, we prepare them to educate others.

Growing out of this, is happiness, What we are trying to do day after day is get joy and happiness out of life. So, in striving towards that goal we turn to teaching. Teaching does offer happiness. To be able to work with children and to know that you are an agency in producing good citizens for the coming generation is enough to realize that happiness is offered in teaching. Children are

happiness itself, and So through teaching we must get happiness. Mr. Guest said in his poem "No Children" "And now we could not get along

Without their laughter and their

song;

Joy is not bottled on a shelf,

It cannot feed upon itself, And even love, if it shall wear

Must find its happiness in care."

Not only does teaching give us happiness, but also brings us wealth. There are two kinds of wealth oh- tained through teaching. It offers no wealth in money. But on the other hand there is a more precious, highly prized wealth-that of experience.

realize how little we

December, 1926.

TOWER LIGHT

Page 5

know until we become

acquainted ; as I entered the room, 1 say, was a

with children. To quote from Mr.

Guest again :

"Dull we'd become of mind and

speech

Had we no little ones to teach."

Teaching has another inducement- fame. A teacher often becomes dis- couraged and thinks there is no use trying. She will be nothing but just a plain school teacher forever. But there is a great possibility of her working her way up in the world and becoming a leader of some large edu- cational institution. Although this may never happen, there is a hidden fame which may never be noticed by the public. But, when a teacher dis- covers that the little hoy she taught has made a name for himself, then comes her fame. The things she taught that hoy influenced the rest of his life. She became famous, when he did.

And so advancement becomes an inducement. There are two ways of advancing. First, a teacher may ad- vance from teaching in the grammar school to a position in a college. Then, through teaching, there is a possibility of doing something which will give her an opportunity to take up some other profession.

Then I would say, you have chosen a worth-while profession. - Ethel Emmert, Sr. XI.

STUDENT TEACHING IMPRESSIONS.

By Arthur Lichtenstein.

After three days of teaching in a the sign practice center, while it may be diffi- had never thought of cult to give accurate impressions, language. some impressions certainly have been registered on Sarah Bellum or Sarah Broom, (I always get those two girls confused) whichever it is, that regis-I to give them the pitch for the songs ters impressions up there in the brain.

You may contend, dear reader, that as I have no brain, my brain cannot register impressions, hut there you are mistaken. Due to lack of time, space, and inclination, I will not argue the point with you; but if you insist that I have no brain, and you have fairly good grounds, I will admit, we must proceed on the as- sumption that 1 borrowed one from one of my student-teaching col- leagues for the occasion. Ha! Ha! That is even funnier than the other way, as you would agree if you knew who my colleagues are. It intimates, you see, that they have brains to spare. Fortunately, 1 know them better than to ask for the loan of any. They'd blow my brains out at the mere suggestion.

Some time after my first lesson was over, I was rather surprised when one of my pupils came over to me, and in eager, confiding tones, re- quested me to inform him as to when The first thing that impressed me as 1 entered the room where I am scheduled to spend the next six weeks in far from solitary confinement, with a pack of wild animals to train, the I was going to teach a lesson. This rather took the heart out of me. .. I ask you, now. However, the in- cident soon explained itself. No, he wasn't another of the deaf-and- first thing that struck me forcibly dumb pupils; he's just been absent

small boy carrying a large pan of water. He wanted the water to water the ferns. If you have ever been in this center, you will immedi- ately recognize it from the state- ment; he was going to water the ferns. The children spend about 47% of their time watering ferns in this classroom. They are familiar with all phases of fern life and treat- ment. In their hiology course, presume they will next take up mosses, and then flowering plants.

1 stopped the little boy with the big pan, stopped him forcibly with the pit of my stomach against his elbow. When I regained my breath, I asked, "Are you the water boy around here ?"

He looked at me uncomprehend- ingly, and I realized that probably he did not speak English. Why should he? It was only the sixth grade, and the school is located in a section where there is a large foreign popu- lation. Fortunately, I have a large vocabulary at my command.

I tried him in Yiddish, but this failed likewise.

He continued to busily attend to the needs of the ferns, while I tried him in German, French, Spanish, Latin, Persian, Swahili, and seven different dialects of American Indian. He didn't so much as look up!

By this time, the class had come in and were ready for the morning exercises. Then I learned my mis- take. This boy was not in the class at all. He was in the deaf-and-dumb class maintained by the school. I

During the morning exercises I noted one exceptional thing about this class. They don't need anyone they sing. All they need is a tuning fork and they get the pitch for them- selves. They certainly do, Miss Wey- forth, and you can come and see for yourself. if you don't believe me.

To make a long story much longer, we will omit details and come right down to my first lesson. Having come down to it, we see that, after all, there is nothing much to it that would interest the man in the street. (Why do they always pick on the man in the street? All the writers, all the automobilists, and all the traffic cops do it, so why not I? Thank you for your kind permis sion ).

when 1 was teaching. Fortunate hoy!

A most interesting and enjoyable feature of student teaching is keep- ing the roll. I'd better say hastily, right here, however, that I'm joking when I say that, or else I'm likely to be deluged with requests from other student-teachers to keep their rolls for them. As if one weren't enough to occupy the waking and sleeping hours of any teacher! What with net rolls and average rolls, and AM's and PM's, and wondering whether it was George who was ab- sent in the morning or his sister who stayed home all day, or his cousin John who is a P. W., or his friend Joe, who is a T. B. and has been transferred to the fresh-air class; what with all these things coursing through one's mind, it is no easy mat- ter to get down to the actual business of teaching a lesson. If someone would invent some sort of a roll- taking machine which would work automatically, it would lighten the white man's burden an awful lot. Also the white woman's.

There is a passage in the Bible or some other much-quoted book, which says something to the effect that there is a purpose for everything on this earth. I have sometimes doubt- ed this in relation to such things as mice and rats, flies and mosqui- toes, and those big boys that Mr. Mearns touched on briefly in his re- cent speech here. Student teaching has taught me this much: those big boys who sit and look vaguely and disturbingly at you while you are attempting. to teach something, and who contribute absolutely nothing of any value to the discussion, still have their use. They come in most handily to erase the blackboards!

Student teaching, as you may have gathered from this brief report after three days of it, is great fun. Per- haps there will be more about it from the facile pen of the writer later. Meanwhile, I desire to ex- press my thanks to those who obliged me by looking over portions of this manuscript, and the publishing houses who assisted in verifying the bibliography; and especially to my faithful guide, counsellor, and friend to whom this is dedicated: my dog. His name is Leslie.

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Oriole and Tower-Light, 1922-1927, Part 131

Author: Maryland State Normal School (Towson, Md.) Publication date: 1922-1927 Publisher: Maryland State Normal School (Towson, Md.) Number of Pages: 1024

Author: Maryland State Normal School (Towson, Md.)
Publication date: 1922-1927
Publisher: Maryland State Normal School (Towson, Md.)
Number of Pages: 1024