Oriole and Tower-Light, 1922-1927, Part 32

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

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Many other groups of girls, who do not feel inclined to leave their warm beds in the early hours of the

three o'clock or some time after classes, returning in time for din- ner. Several of those, who are am- bitious, energetic, and anxious to finish their hiking, will walk in the early morning and after classes, too.

Perhaps you want to know where there girls go on their hikes. It is a very easy matter to select a place or a direction in which to hike as there are so many interesting places around Towson. The surrounding country is very rugged and hilly, consequently the view is very pretty and pleasing to the eye. This is especially true if your home is not in a hilly region.

You can see from this bit of de- scription, I believe, that hiking has become an important factor in our daily work. If you happen to see a group of girls, hurrying along some road around Towson, just remember that they are anxious to pass one of the Efficiency Tests and are hiking. RUTH JEFFERSON.

THE BOYS' ATHLETICS.

The close of a very successful basketball season and the opening of the base ball period has been the special interest of the boys' athletics for the last few weeks. We see many of our boys out on the baseball diamond practicing for the opening game at Union Bridge. We are all hoping for a successful season which we are sure of seeing because of the gain in skill and co-operation in our winter games. Boys, remember the girls are backing you in everything that you undertake. Make this a record-breaking season.

CLAUDINE MCCULLOUGH, Jr. I.

'OUR ORIOLE."

As I walked through the halls today I heard a stranger say, "Is it really just a bird That makes your students gay?"

It is a bird, a lovely bird, Whose song you must have heard, That makes us feel so very gay And keeps our thoughts well stirred.

This bird is black and white, but you

Must know he's read (red) all over too;

His cry is "Won't you help me grow And read my pages through."

I guess you'd like to know the name Of this good bird of fame

Who lives at M. S. N. S. And knows not any shame.

"Oriole" is his name, you see, 'Tis pretty, you must agree; Since you know about this bird Will you read him regularly ? C. M. GREEN, Sr. III.

STATE

ORIOLE

There is no secret of inceess but work.

Vol. 2-Nos. 9-10

THE ORIOLE

FACULTY NUMBER

MAY-JUNE, 1923

Curiosity is the begin- ning of useful know]- edge.

Published Monthly by Students of the Maryland State Normal School, Towson, Md.

To the Students:

This issue of The Oriole is the first Faculty venture into the jour- nalism field. We've given the time to it (1) because you've done such a good piece of work with your eight or nine numbers; (2) because we thought we'd like you to know us better; some of us have a sense of humor, some are not so gay, but each has his side that may be more charming than you realize; (3) be- cause we thought if we could pro- duce a number in form that would set better ideals for paper and ar- rangement, probably you might be induced to see that quality of paper could be used to good account in se- curing more business. Our adver- tisers may be thinking that their ads do not now stand out to good advan- tage. So- here is the Faculty Oriole!

LIDA LEE TALL.

LA NUIT.

By Mary L. Osborn.

In the sky hovers The Mother Moon. Around her dance

The tiny glittering stars.

There cling to her the filmy threads Of little lost prayers Trying to find their way Home.

EDUCATION FOR EFFICIENT LIVING.

A great American citizen caught a

wonderful vision of a world of peace, a world of prosperity and pro- gress, and a world of ever increas- ing happiness, and it depends upon the kind of education given to the youth today whether or not this vision becomes a reality.

In this world of ever increasing complexity, with its great problems, rapidly growing in number and dif- ficulty, the future citizen has had placed upon him the Herculean task of bringing order from chaos, pros- perity from disaster, friendship from hate, peace from war and happiness from sorrows and bitterness.

Let us, as teachers, consider what this future citizen needs to best pre- pare him to meet courageously, and solve efficiently the great problems facing the world today.

1 .- He should be physically fit.

The body is the power machine, making possible every activity of hu- man beings, both mental and physi- cal. It is the most delicate, the most intricate, the most complex and the most perfect machine in existence. The work it has to do is a great one, and of an importance not compara- ble to any other thing. Every owner of this marvelous machine should make it his first duty to attain the highest skill in caring for it. To allow any part of it to become out of order is to proclaim his ignorance and his inefficiency. He should study it cell by cell, and organ by organ, until he understands perfectly its construction, its needs, the dangers besetting it, so that he may give it the scientific care its importance de- mands.

2 .- He should be mentally alert.

In this rapidly changing world, if civilization is to advance or if it is even to survive, there must be men who have the power to think and to think quickly, to look fairly at both sides of a controversy, to size up a situation and to make correct judg- (Continued on Page 18-Col. 1)

THE ORIOLE

Page 2 --- Faculty Number

THE VALUE OF FREE WORK.

By Ruth E. Buckley.

A saw, a hammer, a handful of nails, a few lengths of wood, and a stove! One would scarcely look upon these as aids in the develop- ment of independence and individu- ality in children. Yet were you to ask a member of the first grade you would find him most enthusiastic about the slide planned and con- structed by a group of fourth grade builders; or were you to happen into onr school just before noon on any Thursday, you would have a most edible dainty set before you by some member of a third grade cooking group. And straightway you would decide that stoves and tools had been very effective aids in the case of our third and fourth grades.

In September, an enormous pro- blem, similar to that of every teach- er, had to be met; that of dealing with twenty-four boys and eleven girls between the ages of eight and ten, each one of them unusually keen and alert, each one eager to be working at something, each one filled with ideas, but scarcely one of them able to decide what thing he wanted to do, or express clearly any of his many ideas.

It was in order to help this situa- tion that the free work period was introduced, the period in which the children work on anything in which they are particularly interested. Each child was allowed to choose for work, the thing he wanted most to do. In order to guide him in his selection, and in order to stimulate the desire for choosing worthwhile things to do, as much material as possible was provided for him to work with. A work bench, tools, lumber and nails were purchased by the school. A couple of miniature printing presses were borrowed and provision was made for the use of the household arts laboratory should any choose to work on a cooking project.

After each child had decided upon his line of work, either individually or in a group, he was called upon to draw up a plan of procedure, which had to be submitted to the teacher for her O. K. before he was allowed to undertake. the work. No part of the project is more important than (Continued on Page 14-Col. 1)

HOW OLD IS ANN?

A Fable by Nellie W. Birdsong.

Once upon a time there was a lit- tle Bug. This Little Bug lodged in the brain of Man and grew and grew until it became a Great Idea.

"Behold," said the Great Idea, "here on all sides there is work to do. Are not the streets alive with people who rush madly here and there trying to fulfill their destinies ? Are not the schools filled with chil- dren who strive in vain to add, sub- tract, multiply, divide, read and write? Are not the factories teem- ing with human beings who cry aloud in their misery for higher things to do; and are not the high places occupied by the great Nuts?"

So the Great Idea buzzed and buzzed and buzzed. "I have it!" an- nounced the Great Idea. "Today, everybody, no matter who he is flourishes a wrist watch of gold. silver, platinum or diamonds. TIME was when we measured it by notches on sticks, by piles of rocks, or by the noon day shadow. Now, so ac- curate have these little time meas- mrers become that they can tell ns whether or not we will reach our destination at the desired hour. Why cannot we conceive of a way to meas- ure man's ability to pick up (not literally ) all he can from his sur- roundings ?"

So the Great Idea simmered and seethed and worked in the brain of Man until it produced such measures as these:

Underline the right word in the following:

A mouse gnaws cheese, shoes, rafters, holes.

What is the thing for you to do if yon slip on the ice and people laugh ?

Repeat exactly the following sen- tence: Do re me fa sol la ti do.

What is the difference between an ant and an elephant?

In what way are a capitalist and a school teacher alike?

Name all the words that rhyme with schtzf.

Why does a chicken cross the road ?

"Now," said the Great Idea as it contemplated its work, "That is very good. For if any mortal can answer all these questions, he shall be put (Continued on Page 14-Col. 2)

THE ORIOLE

Faculty Number --- Page 3

THE ORIOLE

PUBLISHED MONTHLY

BY THE STUDENTS OF THE MARY- LAND STATE NORMAL SCHOOL, TOWSON, MD.

Business Manager, MAXWELL SACRA Circulation Mgr., GERTRUDE SMITH

\ E. WORTHINGTON Advertising Mgrs. / MENARIS FRANCE

PRICE: One Dollar For Ten Copies.

MAY-JUNE, 1923.

The year is at the close! Let us thank you for your co-operation. One either lives by it in this institution or falls by the way side. There is no place for the discordant note. Some of the elections for association officers have been most ragged and might have caused dissatisfaction, but the most critical students have rallied to put through sane voting even though the machinery of voting is far from perfect. I haven't heard one faculty adviser of any organiza- tion complain, yet I must put the question once more-Are we 100% loyal? The Junior Class Motto is "To be not to seem." That's it! Who is lifting? Who is leaning? Again thanks to all for a good year! May the "1923" graduates go forth feeling fit for the fray because of the mantle woven by themselves that will descend upon the shoulders of the Class of "1925."

LIDA LEE TALL.

THE MODERN WOMAN AND THE CHILD.

The love of chilhood has always characterized womankind. The mod- ern woman loves children as the woman of twenty-five years ago did, except that her modern point of view changes the responsibility she feels toward the child.

Modern life has changed woman- kind by bringing her into as inti- mate a knowledge of the world and the ways of the world as she had in the past in regard to her more gnard- ed and intensive life in the home. With her entrance into public life has come a realization of what the future brings to childhood; of what the child of today needs to become to

be the adult of tomorrow. She under- stands, because of a wider scientific knowledge, the characteristics and needs of childhood; she realizes that the child needs to grow physically, mentally, morally, socially and spir- itually. He must gain information; but he must also gain habits which lead to ideals.

Modern woman sees the child more sanely because she has felt the urge to keep her own youth. The world of today does not grow old. ' It plays tennis and dances at the age when people used to be sitting hy the fire in the inertia of the even- ing of life. As she lives with chil- dren in a natural and happy com- panionship, her love of the child carries with it the responsibility of adding to the growth of childhood. Love is often selfish, seeking the joy of a child's self-expression with- out carrying with it responsibility for development and growth; pain, or crossing the desire of a loved child are avoided because it is hard. With an ideal of the possibilities of child- hood, the thinking modern woman bends her efforts to see to what ex- tent the individual child may realize the greatest possible growth. Some- times a modern woman loses her sense of perspective because of the excitement of life and lure of con- tinned yonth. This is the negative side of modern life. The thinking modern woman is the best friend the child has ever had. Joyfully she meets her responsibilities for child- hood, rejoicing in the opportunity to develop in child nature the greatest possible growth.

VIRGINIA E. STONE.

Do you know that more than one- third of the graduates this year have done their student teaching in the County training centers,-Ridge, Ti- moninm, Lutherville and Fullerton ? Do you know that the bus makes fifty-six miles daily, transporting stu- dent-teachers to and from these cen- ters? Do you know that eight class- rooms are now being used in which thirty-two students are teaching? Do you know that during the year eighty - five students have heen trained in the regular classrooms of Baltimore County ?

THE ORIOLE

Page 4 --- Faculty Number

THE RURAL SCHOOL.

PAST AND PRESENT. By The Dunkles.

Nearly two decades ago a teacher going into a rural school (especially when it was a new experience), was startled to have the children, after the books had been distributed, come, as a matter of habit, to show her just where there assignments had been in the several text books. More startling was the situation when she learned that there was a good reason for her being given this information; because in some sub- jects not any two pupils were work- ing on the same problemi.

As the weeks and the months went an and as the farm duties decreased and then in the spring increased, pupils "came and went," some stay- ing only for two or thre months- too short a perio dduring the severe winter weather to get a proper atti- tude toward the schoolroom. The older boys, sixteen and seventeen years of age, were in school for so short a period each year that they never fitted into any promotional scheme, and so their interest counted for little. The addition of each new pupil meant practically the addition of a new class; and the classes start- ed in September, received thorugh- out the year varied degrees of at- tention.

On damp or rainy days in the to- bacco-raising section of Maryland. all children except those in the first grade were kept at home to strip to- bacco; and on the fine sunshiny days in spring the children old enough. helped with the planting. During these periods of depletion, the teach- er worked for a few hours daily with the very small children who ewre too young to help with the farm work. This irregularity of attend- ance was discouraging to both teach- er and pupils.

Thus the rural school life twenty years ago never became a community interest, and the school never gained that hold upon the child that is con- sidered so essential in modern edu- cation.

The rural school picture in Mary- land, even todav, is not bright; yet within the last two decades big changes have been wrought. The improvements have come in better trained taechers, better school build-

POSTURE EXPRESSES PER- SONALITY.

By Ethel E. Sammis.

We are all blind until we see, That in the human plan Nothing is worth the making if It does not make the man. Why build these cities glorious If man unbuilded goes; In vain we build the world, unless The builder also grows.

-- MARKHAN.

Are you playing your part in building this world's structure? Are you an effiicent or an inefficient prop ?

The efficient individual is the one who expresses an abundance of bealth ,is well-poised physically and mentally; hence a strong builder. You can be a strong prop only if by effort intelligent and unfailing you have builded a strong body. We are endowed with a physical structure that makes such a building possible.

(Continued on Page 19-Col. 1)

ings, more and better teaching equip- ment, more regular attendance, and with a doubling and a tripling of the teachers' salaries.

There are nearly twelve hundred one-room rural schools in Maryland. Consolidation will doubtless reduce this number by half in the next two decades. The outstanding question then is: Can these rural schools, be- fore consolidation, and those whose location make consodildation impos- sible, be made to do work compara- ble to that of the graded school? Certainly no conclusive answer can be given.

Some recent studies of the results achieved by rural and graded schools have been too favorable to the lat- ter. The schools compared were not comparable. Short term, poorlv staffed and inadequatelv equipped rural schools were compared with the typical graded school. No one expects comparisons under such cou- ditions to be other than thev were found to be-highly favorable to the graded school.

The Bureau of Educational Meas- urements in Maryland has made some comparisons of the achieve-

(Continued on Page 19-Col. 1)

Faculty Number --- Page 5

THE ORIOLE

THE SPIRIT OF THE HIVE.

By Mary L. Osborn.

A swarm of bees had just entered a new hive. In the thick darkness they had clung together in a teem- ing mass surrounding their queen, until in the beat the tiny scales of wax began to appear upon their bodies. Quickly the architects and builders of the new swarm had laid out the vaulted dome of wax, and the manifold galleries; and like magic the plan of the whole took shape, even to the tiniest octagonal shaped cells of the comb.

"Give me room! Out of my way!" they buzzed to the other groups of workers. "It is on us the hive de- pends."

But when the structure of the comb was completed from the many cells where the eggs should be laid by the queen to the little entrance hallway, still the excitement did not cease and constant murmurings were heard from the workers.

"Make way for me! I go to feed the queen. Mine is the most impor- tant work!" shrilled a little grizzly worker, one of those who nursed and fed and brushed the queen dailv in between the arduous periods of her laying.

"But with what would you feed our queen were it not for us?" pet- tishly inquired a bedraggled little bee who was returning home with a bag full of pollen.

"We who search the fields for pol- len and nectar have been out since early dawn and we are weary. Our wings are torn and frayed in these few days since we swarmed. We shall die before we have lived a fort- night, because of our incessant ac- tivity to bring you material for food, and you give us not a word of com- fort or of thanks."

"But you at least smell the sweet flowers and speed through the warm air in the light of the sun," quoth a tired little worker who was fan- ing the air in the galleries to cool it. We who work within, pass our brief span in darkness in unceasing drudgery. It is not even the privi- lege of those of us who fan. to tend and feed the tiny larvae, or like the nurses, to have the joy of attending the birth of the baby bees."

"You do well to talk!" snapped a nurse, who was hurrying by with some royal jelly. "Be thankful for your easy lot. We not only have to feed all these larvae who will be the workers, and the useless drones, but we have to tend all those young prin- cess larvae while we know all the time the first one to emerge will kill all the rest and our time and food will be wasted."

But as they talked, they became aware of a subtle Presence in the hive. And though they worked as fast as ever, a peace and quiet be- gan to fall upon them. And when their humming and buzzing had been subdued to a low monotone of activ- ity, they heard the Voice of the Presence as it began to speak.

And it said to the wax makers, "O, children, build well, for you speak truly when you say that on you the welfare of the hive depends. but do not scorn your sisters' work."

And to those who tended the queen, the Presence spoke and said, "Blessed be the handmaidens of the queen! For her whole life, except for one brief flight is spent within the hive, and her being has been the source of the life of all in the hive."

Then the Presence was heard speaking softly to the worker bees. "O, little ones, with torn and flutter- ing wings! Mourn not for your brief span of existence. When you fly forth at dawn, look at the sun and be glad. Breathe in the dewkissed air, rejoice in your flight, and know that for centuries your labors have been watched and admired by the race called men."

"Little fanning bees who cool the hive, listen to me," the voice was heard to say. "As you wave your wings to and fro, think of grasses bending in the wind and of waves pulsing to the beat of the ocean's breast and of the treetops swaying. Know that you, like each of these, are moving at the command of Life itself."

Then the Presence brooded awhile in silence till a nurse said timidly, "Have you no word for us, O strange Voice ?"

(Continued on Page 9-Col. 2)

THE ORIOLE

Page 6 --- Faculty Number

OUR PLAY HOUSE.

By Vera Greenlaw.

The Elementary School play house started in the fall of 1921, is stead- ily, if not rapidly, nearing comple- tion, with many rich experiences growing out of it. When we decided to build a house, last year, as one phase of Industrial Art, the Seniors in the Industrial Arts course, and children in the elementary school worked together. House plans were made by the seniors, as well as all the children in the elementary school, then, a committee composed of children from each grade, looked over all the plans and selected the one the elementary children wished to have. The plan called for a house 10 feet by 20 feet, with a kitchen and a living room, including a fire place. Estimates for material were made by the seventh grade and the lumber ordered by their secretary.

The building of the foundation was carried on by children from all the grades working with seniors. Ramsey Thomas, of the second grade, was chairman of the committee to haul away the dirt that was excavat- ed, our foundation being eighteen inches under ground. Then first, second and third grade children picked up stones to be used in the concrete foundation, while the fourth grade made a perfectly good mortar box from waste lumber. The form for the foundation was made

by the sixth grade, who also mixed and poured the concrete.

How we labored with that founda- tion! When it was finished we thought our house was halt built, but little did we know of fire places and roofs, or we would have realized we had just begun.

The seventh grade children, with Miss Minnie Davis as their leader, were our fire place experts. They had made an extensive study of fire places, from the stand points of his- tory, literature, and design, as well as construction. The foundation was made of concrete while the fire place itself was of brick. The selec- tion of bricks necessitated a study of that industry in order to make a wise choice. Several brick companies co-operated with the children in helping them choose the proper kind. Indeed. every one whom we have asked to help has been very willing. During the construction of the fire- place we came to a difficult problem, which we couldn't seem to figure out for ourselves, so, upon consult- ing Mr. Sands, of Black and Decker, in Towson, he sent us a man who gave us the advice we needed.

The ordering of the door and win- dow frames by the sixth grade neces- sitated drill in penmanship, compo- sition and spelling in order to send (Continued on Page 14-Col. 2)

The Master Builder

Faculty Number --- Page 7

THE ORIOLE

FELIS DOMESTICA, OR CATS.

By Helen C. Stapleton.

How sad is the fate of the cat that, like Darius of the Persians, has "tallen, fallen, fallen from a high Estate." Felis domestica, once fed upon the rarest birds of the tropics, is now relegated to the precarious output of a mouse hole; once the re- cipient of votives of praise and sup- plication, now a target for old boots and milk bottles, Puss ends her perilous life not to grace the tombs of ancient Pharaos, but to add her hit to the refuse of the dump. Like the Egyptian processes of embalm- ing and the Phoenician craft of glass making, the appreciation of the cat has become a lost art. In the an- cient East the cat was sacred to the moon goddesses, Osius, and was treated with great respect. In the middle ages, the cat still held her position of trust. Now the people of Hamlin must have sighed for a cat! And who knows but that the Pied Piper himself may have been one of the tortoiseshell heanties that we see adorning the back fence? Cats were very scarce in mediaeval Europe, and must, at that time, have acquired the glamour of mystery that associated them with witches and hobgobblins. That they were still held in high esteem witness the adventures of Dick Whittington. who would have cut but a sorry fig- ure in the world had it not been for the intelligence and loyalty of the famous Puss-in-Boots. Yet the cat of today is a mere drug upon the market, unwept, unhonored and, with the exception of Walt Whitman, unsung.

Surely she does not lack aesthetic qualities. Is anything more daintv or graceful? How she adores the birds that sing in the treetops! How she loves the moon and the stars and the velvet hlackness of the night! Surely she should be the friend of poets.

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Oriole and Tower-Light, 1922-1927, Part 32

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