Fordham University School of Education - Grail Yearbook (New York, NY)

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Not row U! Boy you should have During our Senior year, those who came to Fordham motivated mainly by an interest in intercollegiate football were finally rewarded for their long patience. The Rams put together an impressive record of eight wins and one loss, their best since the halcyon days of the thirties. Always putting on a good show, they rewarded their spectators with a series of one point victory margins that were generally re- garded as the ultimate in athletic catharsis. We were there, banners in hand and spirits soar- ing, to cheer the team on in victory and in our lone failure. We gloried in the spectacular aerial passes of Dick Doheny, the nimble and accurate re- ceiving of Al Pfeifer and the superb ball-toting of Larry Higgins. They were our heroes of the gridiron and we were their frozen but solid mass of supporters. Long will we remember the spectacular l95O season and the Lafayette, Yale, Boston College, West Virginia, San Fran- cisco, Georgetown, Temple and Syracuse games. But most of all, how can we ever for- get the day of the Big Blow , November 25, when a few loyal but dishevelled Fordham fans clung to their seats, amidst flying debris, rain, sleet and fliclcers of snow to witness the mud- diest of games, the traditional clash with I N.Y. U..

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We were smiling . . . then! Our fourth year was the time for publica- tion of the GRAIL. Persuaded by Miss Scan- lon's repeated exhortations the class had for three years assembled a treasury to help defray the expenses. When the class ads for other years were deducted, the class treasury of the class of 'Sl amounted to a startling S67.00. Unawed by this turn of events, Joan Dowling, the editor quickly assembled her forces and with the help of the rest of the senior class, got the Welcome Back dance going. Flying in the face of established tradition, we decided that money was the prime object of the Grail dance. This mercenary attitude allowed the hard-pressed stalwarts of previous decorating committees to remain in peace. There were no decorations but nobody seemed to mind. And if they did, there wasn't much they could do about it. During the night of the affair, the loudspeaker system exhibited an alarming tendency to shock anyone who touched it. The female vocalist attached to Frank Alfieri's Blue Flames was the type of singer who liked to manhandle microphones, so, during her songs she hit an amazing series of unintended high notes. For the second time . . .still smiling. in our history, we made money, a good time was had by all. We then proceeded on with the other work of the Grail. Writeups were written pic- tures taken, frantic appeals for money made, deadlines established, broken, re-established, re-broken and finally met when New City threatened to foreclose the mortgage. Throughout this whole process of writing, editing, laying-out and publishing a yearbook, Mr. Jay, a veteran of many previous encounters always maintained his serenity and succeeded in transmitting it to the rest of his staff. AS a result, nearly everyone possessed a confi- dence in the eventual publication of the book: that is, everyone except Joan Dowling lthe Editor-in-Chiefl, Hank D'Angelo lthe Manag- ing Editorl, Joan Smith lthe Business Mana- gerl, Anne Brun and Ray Connolly lLiterary Editorsl, Marge Cummerford lthe Photogra- phy Editorl, Joe Pessarelli lCirculation Mana- gerl, and Terri Banziger, Dan Moriarty, Jake Weisberg, Gloria Petrilli, Pat Conradt . . . and anyone else who actually worked on the Grail, particularly that gem of a history: The Thing . Shall we throw If there's any work to be done Please Joan, won't you everything out? we're not coming in. give me an extra day? lt's all for a good cause

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een that l955Or-,1 So l hit the little monster! Turnabout is fair play. Dominating our entire Senior year was our first experience in Practice Teaching. Life became greatly confused, and old books took on an entirely new meaning in our experience. Now for the first time in our hitherto placid existences, we were compelled to put into prac- tice all the theories we had learned in the pre- vious three yearsg before a massive collection of assorted juvenile delinquents whose greatest delight seemed to be the mental crucifixion of young, and unsure and very nervous student teachers. They just didn't seem to conform to what our textbooks said they should be. Many a starry-eyed idealist in our number was rudely shocked by the sage, if very direct, advice of a cooperating teacher who realized that teach- ing was an art that could only be acquired by actual practice. For the most part, we enjoyed ourselves immensely and were convinced that the teach- ing profession was indeed for us. There were, of course, the few who experienced anguish comparable to that suffered by the victims of the inquisition in this process of getting acquainted with the teaching profession. But, happily these were in the minority and soon discovered that they weren't suited for it. The greater number of us, however, ex- perienced some part of the great personal satis- faction that this profession has to offer. Deal- ing with human beings, molding, preparing and instructing them for life, in a small way, convinced us that the textbooks were correct in maintaining that the teaching profession was the most rewarding of human occupations, despite the low pay. This was the subject of many of the con- versations we had with the regular teachers in our schools. This was the main complaint of the group as a whole. Completely agreeing with their views, we yet noticed that even the most vehement of the denouncements of exist- ing conditions were made by people who really loved their work. For a term we became part of the family of the schools where we were sent. We even learned their Halma matersf' i i He makes it sound easy! 59 Trying if OUT for size. This is how I got anA