Minnesota State University - Katonian Yearbook (Mankato, MN)

Page 9 text:

RETROSPECT RS. PARRY looked up from her desk and smiled as I passed her office door. The rumor of her resignation had just reached me. Is it really true, Mrs. Parry, that you are leaving the college? I asked. Yes, Margaret. Sit down and let's visit together for a few minutes. You have been here a good many years, haven't you? My mother has often told me how you helped her adjust to Normal School life. Yes, I am completing my thirty-ninth year of service here. That seems a long time to you, no doubt: but to me the years have passed swiftly, perhaps because they have been such happy ones. Mrs. Parry, do you remember the Hrst time you saw the Normal School? Very well, indeed. It was then a square-looking building three stories high, with two towers in front. The assembly hall in those days was a large room in the center of the building on the third floor. filled with double seats and desks, since it also served as a study room. A low platform across one end of the room was occupied by the twelve faculty members during the daily assembly periods. For some time, I recall, the exercises consisted of essays or declamations by the students-'speaking in public' being considered a necessary part of their education. I wish I could picture to you President Searing as he first impressed me. I-le was very fastidious in appearance. The little black skull cap, which he always Wore, was as much a part of him as his pale face and clear-cut patrician features. He was calm and dignified. rather formal in fact, but how the students loved him! And how they mourned his sudden passing in October, l898. You must have felt the loss of President Searing keenly, I said. 53 7' F?-If 511: CS!- SQL Str' '55 -. P554 f .. x' Q5 1.414 .1 '. 5+ . E 'E'- ,K -fx 3 '11 'H . S T7 .. ir' .,-.. 1 1 I Vu 5 , 4,4- IQ ll 4 u. I :- '3-.I Isl I Q M ls: A Q , 2.5,- , . 7 L-'f 2 ,fa. -. ,f 1. :fr-' 1, flif. li 'iii' .1 Z, : f 3? 1 '3l?E? Ii.i-'i!?1'lEiWf5H!l15!S Sii'i?3l62Yr551S. SXTJYEIHEQHSG' EMM N p -. :fs

Page 8 text:

FGREWORD Steadily, silently Time marches on. Steadily, silently, hand in hand, marches Progress, the progress of our own Teachers College. Progress-what meaning is there in this word? Does it mean achievement of prestige? Yes. Does it mean material gain? Yes. But this is not all. Looking forward-yet with a kindly backward glance-the 1933 KATONIAN views the advance of our school in another light. Here have been so many of our aims realized: here have been so many of our wishes fulfilled: here have been the best of our ideals attained. The KATONIAN YEARBOOK here pays tribute to the noble for- ward steps which have been made possible, not by a single person, but by everyone in the College: every interested student, every instructor, every administrator. To these people let the KATONIAN of 1933 be a worthy dedication. And so-steadily, silently Time marches on. Ever as steadily, ever as silently, hand in hand, marches Progress. ' 'ff' I g .va lf 257 I Il' f 5 1 -,f-'. 9,4 I: 3315 -lr: Q 412, E+ f'?i,E P :Ziff 'I '-ie, ' 61' ll .355 l l QR. ll ei-3? , -2.9! is ZW ll 4 ll fl. ffif 1' ' 1:15 ii . ,, 4' fm l 4 5 if rv. 'N 4- 'f-L. li l A.

Page 10 text:

.Y sli 3 , Z l .1 i , L 1: .13 'i . ' u S I . P' .Az 3 Fx: rg: L x ' -Z . . Q ' an 5 if 'gg-s A N- ' . I .r E N 3 2- .Q ' ' Rx I 1 Nr i . . .. QQ.. QE Ns gf N- .: '+- zj. M '- fi I X L ,Q 1 in-2 - .1254 ll 1 xx. I 11-Q ll fl: l 5.-:Y I X F11 xx l 2 l 4 . 1 1 .F vc .- 1 f. ., X .- c Indeed we did. He had meant so much to the students and teachers that it was hard to imagine anyone filling his place adequately. After some weeks of anxiety on our part, a professor of history in Carleton College was appointed as our new president. Of course we were eager to see him. He was a tall man with a fine physique, luxuriant brown hair and beard, and serene blue eyes. His gracious and rather courtly manner won him many friends at once. Our appre- ciation of him has increased with the years, and we are glad he is still with us as our President Emeritus. We soon met Mrs. Cooper and three charming children: Helen, who is now teaching French in the College, Margaret, who entered the fifth grade in the Training School and much later became the head of our Training School, and imaginative young Robert. You must have seen many changes in the College during these forty years, I suggested. Everything is different. There is nothing on the campus that was here when I came, except a stone bearing the date when the old building was erected. If you go to the rear of the College, you will find above the stage door a yellow stone that is marked 'State Normal School l869.' I suppose the course of study has been greatly changed, I offered. Under President Cooper's able leadership, the school took great strides. Many changes came in the curriculum, especially in the addition of both aca- demic and professional subjects. Standards for admission were raised, and the faculty was gradually increased until it reached the present number of forty- nine. Do we students today seem t.o you like those students of the old Normal School days? No, many of them were older than you are. High schools were fewer then, and education was not so easy to obtain as it now is. Perhaps that is why they seem in retrospect to have been more earnest, more eager to improve all oppor- tunities than young people of today. However, it may be because I am growing older. You know, 'the good old days' that we like to look back upon were really not so superior to the present after all-and young people are much alike from one generation to another. Of course, Mrs. Parry remarked, as her black eyes twinkled, the changes in the training school seem especially important to me. In th.ose early days all the practice teaching was done in the Campus School: so that a girl taught a little group of a dozen children under a critic's supervision, Today most of the teaching is done by skilled teachers: the students have the splendid oppor- tunity of observing and participating in this teaching: and after a time they go out to our cooperating schools where they get experience in situations similar to those they will find after graduation. This has been so interesting, Mrs. Parry. Don't you sometimes wonder what the future will bring to the College? She l.ooked thoughtful as she answered, I do often think about the future of the College. Its whole history has been one of development and growth. The years to come under the leadership of President McElroy, whose watchword is Progress, will be, I am sure, even more fruitful: so that in 1973, some other teacher will be telling another curious student about the strange things that were done in the College back in l933.