Fairmont State University - Mound Yearbook (Fairmont, WV)

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V iZtessage from 4 r i6ent hosier The coming fall the Fairmont Normal School will, by order of the State Board of Regents, discontinue the first year of the secondary or High School course. This action has been taken in response to the feeling that the Normal School ought not to duplicate in its courses the work which is being done by the high schools. Earlier in the educational development of the state, the Normal Schools were obliged to offer preparatory courses, as the system of public high schools had not at that time been established. Now that so many high schools have been provided in the territory from which our Normal School draws its students, there is no necessity for the maintenance of a distinct secondary course in the Normal School. Shovdd there still bo a few districts in which high schools are not yet provided, the students from such districts can get their pre- paratory training at the nearest high school. The enrollment in the secondary department of the Fairmont Normal has dropped off more than one-half during the past year, so that the transition in our institution has already been made. Three-fourths of the students enrolled during the year have been high school graduates. With the abolition of the freshman class, next year, the gradual elimination of the secondary course will take place in two or three years. The entrance requirement for admission to .the regular Normal course is the completion of a four-year high school course. Graduates of three year high schools may enter the Normal School for the Normal Training Short Course. As a matter of fact, however, the majority of those who have taken the Short Course in the past two years, have been graduates of four-year high schools. The Fairmont Normal School, as a result of the changes which have already taken place, and with the elimination of the preparatory work, will become a standard Normal School. It will necessarily be true with the Fairmont Normal, just as with all other similar institutions, that the patronage will be largely from that section of the State in which it is located. It is felt that each one of the state institutions should, in a direct way, serve its particular territory. The Fairmont Normal is striving in every way to make itself of most use to the public schools of the north central section of the state. It is centrally located in a populous region which employ thousands of teachers in the public schools. It is the hope of those in charge of the Normal School that in the very near future the school authorities of the territory in

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Mtorris fiuvby Sljawke? EBsaaeffl Morris Purdy Shawkey, to whom this issue of the Mound is respectfully de- dicated, was born February the seventeenth, 1868, in Jefferson County, Penn- sylvania. His education was finished at Oberlin College and Ohio Wesleyan Uni- versity. After his graduation from the university he accepted a position in the Methodist Conference Seminary, now known as West Virginia Wesleyan College, at Buchannon, West Virginia. In 1896 he became Deputy State Superintendent of Schools of AVest Vir- ginia, afterwards becoming Superintendents of Schools of Kanawha County, and later a member of the legislature from the same county. In November, 1908, he was elected State Superintendent of Schools, assum- ing these duties March 4, 1909. He has held this position since that time, hav- ing been re-elected in 1912 and 1916. He is a member of the National Educational Association and was President of the Department of Superintendence for 1915-1916. Mr. Shawkey is also one of the editors of the West Vi a member of the State Board of Public Works, and Presid of Regents. He is recognizee! as one of the educational leaders of the country and ha done much for the development of the Public Schools of West Virginia. Recognizing in him one whom any teacher might well emulate as a man o: high ideals and willing service, we take great pleasure in dedicating this annua to Mr. Shawkey. a School Journal, f the State Board

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fc H5? § - 2 - J A MESSAGE FROM PRESIDENT ROSIER © S fliUtli which it is located, will require some professional training of all the teachers that are employed. With longer terms and higher salaries it would not seem an unreasonable requirement that all teachers should have some professional pre- paration for their work. The management of this institution feels that it can be dedicated to no higher form of public service than that of preparing teachers for the public schools. The changed conditions in all departments of our in- dustrial and social life brought about by our entrance into the world war, will bring new responsibilities to all, and this will be especially true of those who direct the work of public education in the future. The methods of instruction and the subject matter which seemed to meet the needs of the past, will not be adequate for the needs of the future. It will no longer be possible for even bright young men and women to go into the public schools as teachers without any professional equipment. Teaching is rapidly becoming a technical art that cannot be practiced by those who have not had some degree of training for it. It is the function of the State Normal School to receive young people who de- sire to teach and to give them that training which will enable them to meet the new requirements. The Fairmont Normal School with its new building and modern equipment and with its prospect for still greater enlargement of its physical plant will be able to meet in a most efficient manner, the greater requirements that will be tnade in teaching during the period following the war. Of the hundreds of young men and women graduating from the high schools in this part of the state, increasingly large numbers should enter the Normal School each year to prepare for teaching. The advantages offered to young people who prepare to teach are improving from year to year. Salai ' ies will be increased, and the standing and influence of teachers in the community will be greater in the future than in the past. The opportunities for real ser- vice are not excelled in any other calling. The authorities of the Normal School urge that young people aspiring to teach, master in a thorough manner the elementary and high school courses in their home communities. This will form a most necessary foundation on which to build a professional Normal Course. The Normal School will aim to broaden the academic knowledge of the student, and at the same time to make him fa- miliar with the technical art of teaching, through the study of psychology, principles of education, general and special methods, school management, and history of education. The time is not distant when no one will be permitted to teach in the public schools who has nol had such professional training.