Fairmont State University - Mound Yearbook (Fairmont, WV)

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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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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