Illinois State Normal University - Index Yearbook (Normal, IL)

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Page Seventeen L-llltl' EIIIDPX associate for years. .l'erhaps his most striking personal traits were his love of truth and nature and a hearty hatred of shams and pretention. His love of honesty, simplicity, and brevity led him at times to appear almost uimecessarily harsh in the class- room .... '. .Xlr. Colton cared little for artificial nature ...... llis greatest pleasure was to leave behind all the environs of civiliza- tion and in company with a few companions go forth into the wildest woods and there live in close touch with untamed nature. Under such surroundings Mr. Colton's very nature seemed changed. Students who had known him only in the classroom were surprised beyond measure at the new revelations of the man. He often seemed like one intoxicated with the spirit of vivacity, generosity, forbearance, human kindness, and love of the whole world ...... The cowardly and the cringing could not appeal to him, the two-faced and insincere received his scathing rebuke, the conceited and ostentatious were humbled by his fear- less words, and the pedant received his silent commiserationf' Xo doubt Mr. Colton's intense love of nature touched all his pupils in some degree, but there were always a few who were more susceptible than others to their teacher's enthusiasm. These were drawn to him like disciples to a master, and many of them have become efficient teachers of science in Illinois and other states. One of the most significant questions that can be asked of a man is, 'tXYhat was his guiding purpose ? Mr. Colton did not consider it his calling to make new contributions to scientific knowledge, but his lifework was rather to extend scientific knowledge to the masses of the people. So we find him in the true line of apostolic succession from Darwin, Huxley, Agassiz, Youmans, and others-those great heroic missionaries of truth who have opened the way for the masses of the people, including the little children, to comprehend and enjoy the beauty of God's thought and love in nature. He persistently brushed aside any- thing that interfered with the fulfilment of this noble life. Friends, students, and strangers will never forget the kind- hearted hospitality of the Colton home. Mr. Colton was fortu- nate in having a wife whose charm of manner, thoughtful atten- tion, and ready wit never failed to make the guest feel at ease, nor leave a pleasant memory of the visit. Mr. Colton was a man of striking individuality and distinctive character. That part of the world's work for which he assumed responsibility he did faithfullyancl well. Lifeis wearing strug- gle ended his career too soon. He was buried in the cemetery at Princeton, and in due time in accordance with his wish, the grave will be marked by a rugged boulder that has lain for some years in his front yard at Xormal. This incident is characteristic, for such marking is eminently Htting. It becomes the character of the man, his love of simplicity, his assuming modesty, and his passion for nature as it came from the hand of the Creator.

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Ehp jjnhpx Page Sixteen ship high school in 1874. In 1875-76 he taught a rural school near Princeton, during 1876-77 we find him at Keokuk Clad, at Decatur lIll.l the next year, and from 1878-81 he again taught in the Princeton high school. Mr. Colton was a characteristic product of his times. The modern scientific movement with its inductive method of study and its courageous freedom of thought was making wonderful discoveries in the world of natural truth, and in the control of natural forces, all of which was contributing richly to the well- being and progress of mankind. The importance of the biologi- cal sciences was so clearly foreseen that as early as 1872 the legislature of Illinois was induced to enact a law requiring every candidate for a teacher's certificate to pass an examination in the natural sciences. Neither teachers nor schools could meet the requirement in any adequate way. Thus a special demand was made for better preparation of teachers in these sciences. Mr. Colton caught the inspiration and discerned the great meaning of the scientihc movement, and with characteristic judgment sought the most thoro preparation possible for teach- ing his chosen specialties-Zoology, physiology, and botany. Be- fore going to Johns Hopkins he spent one or two summers with Professor Forbes at Normal. On his return from johns Hop- kins he became teacher of science in the Ottawa township high school, where he spent five years, the last three of which he was also principal. In 1888 he was called to the chair of natural science in the Illinois State Normal University. In the words of one most competent to judge, The place was his as much by manifest fit- ness as by the vote of the board of education. For eighteen years a steady stream of students pa.ssed thru his classroom to the teacher's desk. They have been illumined by his thought and touched by his spirit. 'iIn his teaching Mr. Colton carried out better than anyone else I have known, President Eliotis doctrine that to observe carefully and record faithfuly are vital preliminaries to accurate comparison and generalization. He possessed rare skill in di- recting and questioning .... Mr. Colton was very apt in illustra- tion, his laboratory abounded in original devices .... He was orderly and systematic in an unusual degreef, Professor Colton wrote two series of textbooks, one on zool- ogy, the other on physiology. These textbooks grew out of the author's teaching experience and form an organic part of his educational work. Both series of books have exercised an im- portant influence upon the teaching of these subjects, and will continue for many years to be standard textbooks. The Prac- tical Zoologyw was a pioneer i nits field. and revolutionized the teaching of that subject in the high schools of Illinois. The personal traits of Professor Colton are well described by .one.who was once his pupil and later a colleague and intimate - 1 i 1

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E112 fdnhrx Page Eighteen- Qvrnllrrtinna nf lumni. ELMER ELLSWORTH BRowN I was a student in the Illinois State Normal University for a longer time than in any other school or university, and many of my strongest school associations are accordingly connected with it. My student days there began with the beginning of the spring term of 1876, and closed with the end of the school year of 1880-SI. Doctor Hewett was elected President during my first term in the school. A large proportion of the student body, as I remember it now, was of fairly mature age, and was recruited from the farms and smaller towns of the State. The Normal University was not only a place of preparation for the practice of teaching, but was in a very marked degree an educational cen- ter, if not the educational center, for the middle portion of the State, with a constituency extending even to the remoest borders of the State and to neighboring states and foreign countries. I take it that these conditions have by no means altogether past away with the passage of the years since I was at Normal, but have been very considerably modified. It is necessary that every insti- tution should change with the change of the times. I trust, how- ever, and believe, that two or three of the strongly marked char- acteristics of the Illinois State Normal University of the seventies and early eighties are still maintained, if they are not even more strongly emphasized now than they were then. Among these are the ideals of scholarship reaching out beyond the home institution,-ideals which worked in a steady procession of young people who past year by year from the normal school to various colleges and universities, the warm and wholesome social inHu- ence brought about by the free, co-operative, literary and musical activities of the Philadelphian and XVrightonian Societies: a spontaneous and widely influential religious interest, joined with large freedom of individual opinion, a sense of seriousness and responsibility in the relation of the institution and the prospective relation of the members of the student body to the educational development of the State of Illinois. Wfe felt and knew in my days at Normal, that the strictly professional spirit was not so strong in the institution as it should be, but it was even then ris- ing, and I doubt not that it has continued to make the wholesome advance which it was making in those days, though in new fields and under new forms. I hope that with such advance in profes- sionalism the institution may, through all its days, continue to contribute to the making of that high scholastic and personal character in those preparing to he teachers, which is even more valuable and inllucntial than the purely professional spirit.