Augustana College - Rockety I Yearbook (Rock Island, IL)

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I ',..- '34, : . . -'-1: -' EDUCATICDN AND TI-IE FUTURE By DEAN ARTHUR VVALD Some half dozen years ago a rather elaborate testing project was sponsored by the Carnegie Foundation for the Ad- vancement of Teaching in co-operation with various other agen- cies in the educational institutions of Pennsylvania. As a part of this program a comprehensive test was prepared, based on a reasonable assumption of college Sophomore achievement. Six colleges undertook the interesting and courageous experiment of administering these Sophomore tests at the same time to all four college classes involving nearly three thousand stu- dents. The tests included three thousand new-type questions, about half of which were devoted to General Culture under the heads of general science, foreign literature, fine arts, gen- eral history and social studies, the remainder to English and other more special fields. The knowledge required for success in the tests would not appear as organized material in college courses but was such as a student might normally be expected to acquire thru reading and experience within and outside college. The results, which were made popularly available in an article by Dean Max McConn in the North American Re- view, can hardly be described as less than astounding. In the portion of the test devoted to General Culture thirty per- cent of the Seniors scored less than the average achievement of the Freshmen, while more than one- fourth of the Freshmen ranged above the Senior average. Objective test scores in English showed Seniors to be poorer spellers than Freshmen and to know somewhat less also about grammar, vo- cabulary and literature. In the twelve hundred questions of the general culture test only insigni- Hcant gains were shown. . Dean Arthur VVa1d There is a famous wise-crack perpetrated by a clever Englishman to the effect that college ought to be the most learned place in the world because Freshmen come bearing loads of knowl- edge and the Seniors never carry any away. If the results of the aforementioned study be valid, the evidence for the latter part of the jest seems pretty conclusive. But there can be little com- fort for Freshmen in the thought that their average ignorance, stands so small chance of being dispelled before completion of their college course. The evidence in the case, says Dean McConn, appears to be valid and pretty damning . VVe may well maintain that these tests do not tell the wholefstory. Undeniably there are gains achieved in the four years of college which are not measured or not measurable by such tests. And yet, allowing for all due and reasonable reservations, the challenge to our institutional compla- cency is inescapable. We had not, to be sure, been altogether free from misgivings as to the trustwor- thiness of our educational product even without such disconcerting evidence. Such objective test- ing programs, continued in constantly improving forms, have only served to stimulate and acce- lerate a process already begun. Realistic thinkers in higher education had not only long ques- tioned the effectiveness of conventional procedure but had urged and proceeded to put into effect some radical new departures from it. Perhaps the most thorogoing and consistent reorganization ever undertaken at one time and place is that represented by the new plan of the University of Chicago, an evaluation of which after three years of operation the interested reader may find in a book fresh from the press by DeandBoucher. Course examinations, course credits and required class attendance are abandoned and the student passes from the college , which is responsible for general education and specinc requirements for advanced work, to specialized education repre- sented by Hve upper divisions--the old Senior Collegen-quite independently of residence require- ments except for the minimum of one quarter, and entirely on the basis of comprehensive exam- inations from which the instructor, be it noted, is entirely dissociated. The recent case of the student who successfully passed the comprehensive examinations at both the Junior and Senior College level within two years may be duplicated at any time by any one capable of it. The surveys, studies, experiments and Hplansl' announced in such great number and variety by the best colleges during the past half dozen years and with which conference programs and the literature of higher education have made us only too familiar, are convincing evidence of the C4 :J

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VVith practically the same outit in 1921, the Swedes tore through about everything, losing only three out of 17 games played. A period of mediocre years followed, until 192-L, when a second modern wonder team came thundering out of the Augustana halls. The Vikings split even in the series with Macomb and Bradley, and won every other conference game, including battles with Knox, Northwestern, DeKalb, Lombard and Millikin. The 1925 was practically a repetition of the preceding year, as Coach Swedbergis men again eopped the conference title. After the great teams of 192-1' and 1925, Augie went into a slight decline, although the teams produced by Swedberg always finished well toward the top of the Little Nineteen conference per- centage columns. Swedberg took a year off from his duties in 1931, leaving his boys to Shorty Almquist, whom we will discuss later in accents sweet. The best season in many moons was chalked up during the 1934+-35 season, when the Vikings mauled eleven opponents and took it on the chin only four times. The final game of the season saw the undefeated St. Ambrose quintet bow to the Vikings, 41 to 32. Coach Almquist handled the cagers during the year. Football was first introduced at Augustana in 1893-and since that time-what a history has been made! John Swensson, Moline, brought the game to Augie after learning it at Northwestern University, and he was followed by Joe Cook of the University of Illinois. During the early years, football was a matter of personal business. The players paid for their own suits, equipment and eats and fares on the trips. St. Ambrose furnished the Hrst inter- collegiate competition, when the Saints walked off the field at the half-trailing by an 18 to 0 score. In the second game of that first year, Augustana was defeated by Monmouth, 145 to 12, but came- back to defeat the University of Iowa, 6 to 0. Men on the first squad were Dr. Louis Os- trom, Joe Wfesterlund, Cederquist, Setterdahl, Peterson, Hoagland, Johnson, Kohler, Benson, Jacobson, Eastberg, Swenssen, Cook, Moody, Sandell, Lofgren and Lindell. Because too many men were injured, Augie dropped football at the end of the 1894 season, and not until 1901 was there another team. The grid sport was becoming very popular by 1903, and the Swedes were champs in 19011. The wonder team if that year will long be remembered, and the players that season were J. V. Johnson, Newstrom, A. Johnson A. B. Swanson, John Hall, Buck Oberg, Gus Lofgren, James VVeir, Emil Bergren, Essley and Morris Johnson. Then came the ban, which were lean years, indeed. After many fruitless efforts, however, football finally was reinstated in 1917, with Ted Davenport as the coach. The season wasn't very successful, as many men were called to the colors for the war. The next few years were better than average-in fact, the Swedes lost only one game, tied once and won six. Swedberg coached that outHt. The grid warfare at Augie hit the skids in 1922, and failed to revive until 1925, when Mart Knanishu and others began winning back lost prestige for the Norse. Football got down to a real pride and joy at Augie, beginning in 1928, when Coach Shorty Almquist was pulled away from Minnesota. So Well has he succeeded that he has now been given a 3-year contract as head coach of all sports and director of athletics, succeeding Major Swedberg, who becomes director of the health and physical education departments. Since Almquist has been at Augustana, his teams have won 80 per cent of the time. That's quite a record, but it can be proved. The climax came in the 193-L season, when Co-captains Bob Marack and I-Ierb McCall were the leaders. Augie won all the nine games on the schedule, suffering not a defeat nor a tie. Mai-ack led the Little Nineteen scoring with 72 points, and the Vikings gained the Hrst Little Nineteen grid championship in the history of the school. Track hasnit been as successful at Augie as have basketball and football. The running and jumping business, however, has the distinction of being the oldest sport on record, having first been introduced in 1882. Baseball, after many successful seasons, was dropped in 1930. Augustana may be proud of its record in sports. The records are clean and legal, and since 1917 nothing has been done to discourage intercollegiate competition. lVith such men as Alm- quist and Swedberg at the helm, there has been but one credo-- play the game hard and fairly. The creed seems to work, as is indicated by the records. 44 ,, . ' A . l . . . Q -ig 0 . . .Q Q , ' , , . W 1-d rnj ' 7,41 if fn-.5 Tp f - ,R 'fr , 4 if , rn , . ' fl 1 , avi. , V 1, -pw,-sfrlwuyk y gl-JL ll gr,-e.. ,. :hw ,H , . WL I I .xg g li- . Q7 . 1 v x Ui. -.IL In -1 -I .', ' V 1- '-fi, , I, - I D ,Q . r 1 , ' - . as -. A --'Q-. ,, ! ' - , E 1, Q I '..,'tl'-,av , -4:Mj,,, '- -bi 1 4... .Il V pigs: H' JA' -...sn A , ,.. ,, , 4 '- , - 'I p - '

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general discontent with traditional methods and organization and the eager desire to discover more rational solutions. A volume appearing in 1932 described no less than 128 outstanding changes and experiments reported by seventy-Hve colleges. Many of these may perhaps have proved im- practicable and may have been destined to early modification or rejection. But the principle of well-considered, carefully controlled experimentation in education is now no longer called into question but is given all possible official encouragement. No more striking example of the new attitude and outlook can be cited! than the new policy of the North Central Association which shifts the emphasis from quantative to qualitative criteria, acknowledges the desirability of educational- ly sound variations from pattern in the colleges, and approves of well-considered experiments to improve educational processesn. Out of the current unrest and confusion what are the trends that appear most definite and the values that seem most likely to survive? The general and growing distrust of the point and credit-earning system with its substitution of numerical symbols for intellectual values, its measurement of individual achievement on the basis of time spent or teachers' term grades will no doubt result in the ultimate abandonment of this distinctively American contribution to education. The practice of handing out course cou- pons at half-year intervals, a suHicient number of which entitles the holder to the coveted degree, represents a mischievous distortion of the process and results of true education. Evidence abounds that mastery of the subject, the only rational goal, is not adequately measured by semester hours and course grades. When course examinations, given and graded by the instructor. are replaced by comprehensive final examinations constructed and administered as an independent major function of the college apart from instruction, the relation between teacher and student will be improved beyond belief, learning will receive an immense stimulus and the process of interrelating and in- tegrating knowledge in various fields will create unsuspected insights for the learner. The student's right to proceed at his own best rate and to secure recognition of his progress independently of others seems undeniable. In realizing such individualization of instruction the great wealth of new testing material being made increasingly available provides indispensable aid. The prinpiple of general education in the first two years of college which is being given in- creasing stress must be recognized as altogether sound and valid. Progress in this direction will involve modification of existing courses and the creation of new ones to provide for all students in the lower division more comprehensive overviews of the important Helds of instruction. Depart- mental introductory courses now elective will be merged into required broader survey courses in re- lated fields. The upper division will thus be left free in a far larger and more significant way to provide for more intensive study of a more freely chosen major interest. This differentiation in purpose as between the two levels should of course not be so rigid as to exclude adequate pre-pro- fessional preparation or the earlier development of a special interest in the lower division. The danger of overspecialization at the upper level may be prevented by a well-conceived plan of in- terdepartmental majors. In the Senior College at least we may safely endeavor to break the lock- step of classes and revise our methods and procedure to encourage a greater measure of indepen- dent study. - A survey of the contemporary scene in higher education is disquieting enough in its implica- tions and is not calculated to encourage administrative or faculty peace of mind. Gone are com- placeny and self-satisfaction. Never has the educational task called for more earnest thought and more constant alertness or been beset with mo1'e serious problems. Let us not fail to recognize in the present confusion and discontent a sincere effort to discover more basic definitions of educa- tional values and more sure and effective means of attaining them. lVe may well grant the inevi- tability and need of change in academic patterns and revisions of cumbersome tho venerable methods. But we shall not be carried away by any lust for educational adventuring nor shall we attempt to escape any possible stigma of stagnation by launching into a feverish program of experimentation. 'We shall not stake our academic salvation on any Augustana Plan or on any new device or procedure. And we shall not lose sight of the fundamental and enduring truth that under any plan or with whatever organization, nothing can ever be or become a substitute for scholarly, mature, goal-conscious, life-inspiring, vision-creating, character-motivating teaching by men and women who are aware of vital issues, who are free from provincialism and rich in human sympathy and who give themselves to their great task with unreserved consecration. cc if