Eastern Washington University - Kinnikinick Yearbook (Cheney, WA)

Page 15 text:

1 933 Kl NN I K I NICK DEPARTMENT OF HISTORY AND SOCIAL SCIENCE Ceylon S. Kingston With the rapid increase in the tempo of modern life and the greater tendency toward complexity in social relations there has come a shift of emphasis in the subjects taught under the general head of the social sciences. Where once a fac- tual knowledge of the past served to mark the educated man, now some acquaint- ance with the forces that move and motivate society is an essential to efficient citizenship. From this need arises the courses devoted to a study of economics and sociology. Yet the original purpose of all study — knowledge of what has been said and done in the world — can not be wholly ignored, and this exami- nation and interpretation of the past is the theme of the courses in history, the most distinctive group given being those in the history of the Northwest, with particular reference to the exploration and development of Washington and the Inland Empire regions.

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K I N N I K I N ' I C K 193 3 Obed J. Williamson DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION The Department of Education is primarily concerned with the professional aspect of the teacher ' s education. Experience has shown that knowledge of subject matter per se is in- sufficient guarantee of success in teaching: it is necessary, also, to provide instruction in the art of teaching. Professional training involves a study of psychology, the better to understand the human materials with which the teacher deals, a study of methods of teaching, to learn the techniques of the process, and a study of the theory of teaching, the better to understand the purposes of education and the place of the school in developing a better social order and what may be called the good life. While the purposes of the Department of Education are more specifically the development of the necessary professional background and point of view, it would be an error to assume that it makes no contribution to the cultural de- velopment of the student. In the degree that courses in education contribute toward a better understanding of the human individual and his place in society, and the student is challenged to reflect upon the purposes of life, education courses are cultural. They assist in rendering the individual more at home in the world. In this sense the Department of Education is engaged with the other departments of the school in the cooperative enterprise of producing intelligent, efficient and cultured teachers.

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Kl NNI K INICK 1933 DEPARTMENT OF LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE Ralph Earle Tieje Owing to the comparatively slight demand for courses in foreign languages in the teacher training curriculum, the work in this division of the Depart- ment has been less emphasized than has that of the other two, but an expansion of the offerings in lan- guage seems of likely necessity with the change of the institution to a collegiate basis. In English literature the revised program will distribute the emphasis more evenly over the literary history of England and America than formerly, insuring to the major student a satisfactory survey of the entire field with some concentration on a particular period, while at the same time not altogether neglecting his training in the art of writing. Aside from the elementary work the Division of Speech pursues two lines of training. The one acquaints the student with the arts and sciences involved in the staging of plays — production, acting, directing, scene design: and the other, giving scientific training in voice correction, at the same time stresses the artistic through the medium of creative dramatics and the children ' s theater, this school sup- porting the only theater of this type in the Northwest, and one of the few west of the Mis- sissippi river.