Broward Community College - Silver Sands Yearbook (Fort Lauderdale, FL)

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Perhaps this goes back to some ex- tent to the old saying, Those who can, do and those that cannr-t, teach. Kempton never accepted that edict but it remained as a sort of burr which alternately puzzled and bothered him. He is now convinced that One can teach and do. A person may not do as well or as efficiently the first time but, still, by doing he can get better. There is another axiom that Kempton abides by and that is that one cannot do everything. lt is a wise man that realizes if he has a compli- cated electrical problem not to try sol- ving it himself but to get a specialist in the field, just as a plumber would not be expected to solve the orthograph- ical peculiarities of the first conjug- ation ofa French verb. To be a man of his time and yet retain old world courtesy and charm comes easily to Will Kempton. In the classroom the iron hand in the velvet glove maintains order and improves French accents in a friendly and re- laxed atmosphere. his summer Kempton decided to return to France, his first trip since 1958, to renew old acquantainces there and to return to school to keep that flawless French accent perfected. He visited the town of Corcieux where he stayed for a few days visiting friends. He had not been there since the town was completely levelled by the Germans in the fall of 194-4, per- haps because it was the regional head- quarters of the French Resistance Movement. The church is now restored and rebuilt and the bells were playing while he was there. Corcieux was adopted by American Aid to France which helped to rebuild the town, as well as other bombed-out commun- ities. Next camc a railroad trip around France. The French railroads have a circular ticket for about S60 which al- lows one to travel all around the pe- rimeter of France, about 3000 Km. He visited Nice, Marseilles, Biarritz and Bordeaux. A walking tour of Paris for about three days was next and he thoroughly enjoyed becoming re- acquainted with the city. Kempton had decided to take a summer course in the French language and accordingly made his way down to the lnstitut de Touraine at Tours. This lnstitut, part of the Universite de Poitiers, has no entrance requirements whatsoever for entering and is entirely for the study of the French language and literature. They seem to be partic- ularly pleased to have foreigners at- tend as there were students there from japan, Sweden and Germany. Anyone planning on spending a summer in France would do well to make the trip to Tours and check on the French courses available at the ln- stitut. One can enter at anytime for as short a period as two weeks, four weeks, a semester, a year, with the ex- ception of the very beginning level. These students must start at the begin- ning of a sequence but may continue through as long as they want to. For the beginning students they use the Mauger book that we use here at Broward Community College. To en- roll in the lnstitut de Touraine for four weeks would cost l45 francs, for two weeks about 90 francs. That would be just under S30 in American currency. lt is possible for vacationers with plenty of time and a desire to improve their French, just to drop in and enroll at the lnstitut without prior notice. However, to ensure reasonable living accommodations, possible in the gov- ernment subsidized housing, it is wise to make reservations. Student meals cost about one franc-60 centimes per meal, which is about 301 American. Meal tickets are purchased ahead of time and are punched on admittance to a dining hall, which are part of the city's devel- opment plan. After getting your ticket punched, you take a seat at tables laid for eight and you are served as part of a group. A large plate of thick chunks of crusty French bread is placed on the table, then a tureen of soup, a plateau of vegetables or beef stew for the main dish and an apple, orange or banana for dessert. When Kempton visisted a dining hall he noticed that his compan- ions, all medical students, were drink- ing water with ice cubes instead of the usual wine. Instead of mineral water it was water from the robinet ifaucetl, so there goes the myth about drinking French water. There are five or six levels of courses at the Institut de Touraine, one for beginning beginners, then a second course for them, the Cours- Mauger and the Cours Mauger de Francais. Kempton decided to take the Cour Superieur which is very advanced and the most challenging. From Monday to Saturday Kempton's mornings were filled with dictees, taking dictation in French and lectures called Hexplicetion du- texte, which included a careful ana-, lysis of the material of the text underl consideration. Another activity was French grammatical structures, cover-l ing the political scene and winding up the week with folk singing on Satur-i days, with perhaps a trip to Paris on Sunday. Kempton found the whole exper- ience at Tours very rewarding. One ofj the rich parts of the program was the: city itself, the old and the new. Great' skyscrapers coming out over the pe- rimeter of the city and inside a nest oft medieval structures. Tours is very cos- mopolitan with about 30,000 students in attendance. There was also the Academie d'Orlean and the Academie de Pointiers, both with facilities in Tours. The whole city and surrounding countryside is a laboratory, one moves from the classroom, not amy from the language, but right back into it. ny American who might want to attend school but uncertain of his French, would first go to the Alliance Francais on the Boulevard Raspail in Paris or similar school, to study French for a semester or so before at- tending the lectures at the lnstitut. Older students attend in increas- ing numbers and there is some indi- cation that the community college concept is becoming more popular in France. Traditionally it has been pos- sible for any citizen to go on to a

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.gifti- -fk 5335: rf?-1 .- -5- .g '35 Q ?tS?235?33r. 4'2L,.j.', ' 31f.g.:gSjS7 0 nt- -,.:. ' 1513. . - 9 ' 9 o' . ' Q '..,g . .-. .,g '.,g'. .-,-, :,.-.- zu, :,.f3f.:.j5::I 1. 5:51-3 4:55 5:11,-1-'. rf-1: .. -. .9 ..-5:-.-3225: T. . .nl .:,:1.-.g,:g - ,.' ,. T -f QS. - l -' - -'- 0 Q 'Q ' Q., s E-:ii s With the start of 1970, Broward Community College entered its tenth year. Dr. Adams presented awards in recognition of unbroken service of 10 years to the following instructors: Mr. Stewart Brown Mr. Rex Brumley Miss Elaine Gavigan Mrs. Lucille Glaze Mrs. Marina Burdick Mr. Ronald Haire Dr. Robert Cassell Mr. john Hays MF. Ralph Clark Mr. Willard Kempton Mr. Neil Crispo Mrs. Lee Dickerson Mr. Grady Drake Mr. Arthur Foss Dr. Rex Kidd Miss Betty McMillion Miss Mildred Mullikin Mrs. Mary Paul Also presented with awards were the following non-instructional personnel for ten years of unbroken services: Mrs. Louise Buck Mrs. Opal Hamilton Mrs. janet Taylor Lack of space does not allow us to give full coverage to all of them, so we've chosen one teacher to represent them all eMr. Willard Kempton. by Mary Edling llL FAUT ETRE DE SON TEMPS -One must be of his time A describes Williard R. Kempton, French teacher and head of Modern Languages Department. Kempton feels it is not easy to be of one's time: This would mean one would have to be well-versed in the changes that are occurring, in terms of geography, economic or international relations. Movement from life itself as a self-sufficient individual to that of an interdependent relationship, is not easy in a highly complex and industri- alized civilization, where man per- forms more as part of a team, or as a cog in the total operation. Kempton has been teaching since 1936 with interludes in which he en- gaged in social work abroad and in this country. He is a charter member of the teaching staff at Broward Community College, which started in the barracks of the naval training station at the in- ternational airport. He was deep in a plumbing project at Green Tops, his summer home in New Hampshire, when he received a call from Dr. Rush- ing asking him to teach at the new junior College in Fort Lauderdale. From that time to the present, he feels, has been a very satisfactory and satisfying experience. Growing up in a farming area, it is his belief that life would not have been rounded out in a way that would have been satisfactory to him had he not had a place to work with his hands, in a climate that was native to him A New Hampshire. , 1 :J l ' l

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igher education with or without 'edit. The University of Paris is al- ays open for lectures. Kempton and his wife, Mary, have iree children, Chris 17, Martha 15, id Laurie ll. Chris travelled with his mily to France when he was three onths old. He was there for five :ars and attended Ecole Maternelle 're-kindergartenl dressed in a little blier lapronl over a blue uniform. wris was there all day with a lun- ieon served at school. He became rite French, in fact he spoke very Jent French. y Suggesting that Chris is not so flu- pt today, Kempton explained the rea- ln for this, especially among children hose parents are attached to the con- lar service, diplomatic corps or who e with major companies overseas. A Jung child is very resilent about larning a language and he will adopt e new language with great facility, lore so than adults. However, the Iiild is very susceptible to his own lvironment and when he returns to lrnerica, he does not want anything to iparate him from his peers. He is ,ling to conform and he will drop the ireign language because it makes him lfferentf' This is true, with some rare lceptions, of all the cases Kempton is noticed. i Nlartha Kempton was actually wrn in Nice, which makes her a icoise. She could elect at 21 to be- lme a French citizen or remain an lnerican. She was nationalized at the fnerican consulate in Nice. While the .pmptons were in France, the French ivernment was very much interested l her health program, periodic in- iections, check-ups and shots. There la rule in France that if a child does lit appear for the health check, they All come for him. This rule applied giether you were French, German, bttentot-Bushman or American. l Kempton feels that perhaps too any false claims have been made for l study of foreign languages. All too ,en students will say their only aim to become a rapid translator at the wited Nations or similar employ- ent. The skills for these jobs must be '! P+i ':ZL wi.ni '77 'QT' -' 73? .J 'if-FL' ei- 'Z' ' ' may ':'e3i': ',-3.57 is-Fi' lt is a wise man that real- izes if he has a complicated electrical problem not to try solving it himself but to get a specialist in the field, just as a plumber would not be expected to solve the orthograpliical peculiarities of the first conjugation ofa French verb. highly developed, however they usu- ally come about as an accident of birth. An interpretor, a linguist with very rapid delivery, talented in two or three languages, is usually born into that language environment. However, there are many more reasons for studying a foreign language including enrichment to one's life. One would be not necessarily how much money you are going to make out of it but what kind of framework for life it gives you. In social contacts a know- ledge of a foreign language is most helpful. Then too, communications have become tremendously advanced for a couple of generations, particu- larly in the last decade. We can have dinner in New York and in a few hours find ourselves in France, Germany or Italy. More and more the national gov- ernment, the State Department in par- ticular, recognizes the need for lan- guage fluency on the part of our repre- sentatives abroad. All too often an American is mute in the presence of the foreigner, or if he is not under- stood, simply raises his voice louder or angrily in English, with no better re- sults. lf there ever was a time for study- ing and acquiring skills in a foreign lan- guage, Kempton feels it is now. He mentioned that it is strange just as our communications gap shortens up, the requirements are being lowered at the university level for the study of for- eign languages. He foresees the return of stricter language facility require- ments for university entrance. The Humanities, among which one must in- clude a foreign langauge, are coming back into their own, where they have always played an important part dat- ing from the Renaissance. As part of his final examination at the Institut de Touraine, Kempton had to write an essay defending the state- ment, ll faut etre de son temps, - one must be of his time. There was also a corollary essay, How have you been able to be of your time? lt is possible Will Kempton picked up an A on this one, for he has made the transition easily. Whether it is moving quickly around the classroom with his hand cupped behind his ear, waiting for even the faintest resemblance of a French vowel sound to reach itg or dis- cipling a student, whose fractured French lands him in the Kempton of- fice, he will truly remain a man of his time.