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

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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.

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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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Page Nineteen Qihp Hjuhpx Cirxs. A. Meal vnnv To the old members of the Normal School this fifty years' his- tory suggests interesting reminiscences and equally interesting problems for the future. It is now more than forty years since l was first a pupil in the Model School and in the light of present conditions and facilities those days sometimes seem even more than forty years removed. In later years as I have studied and taught in other institu- tions the old Normal with its prevailing spirit and modes of work has heen a standard with which to measure up the substantial worth of later schools and educational movements. There was undoubtedly in the old Normal of thirty or forty years ago a powerful and formative spirit, which shaped up the lives of many young people and produced wide-reaching and benefi- cent results. The later enlargement of studies and interests has somewhat modified this spirit but we may trust that it has not weakened its energy and educative efifect. In comparison with other institutions which I have known, it has long seemed to me that the Normal as I knew it, was among the very strongest of them all. Aside from the changes which have taken place in the Normal curriculum itself, I think, the closer adjustment of the Normal in recent times to the high schools on the one side and to the colleges and universities on the other is of fundamental value. At present the Normal is becoming an indispensable link in our great educational system, recruiting itself from the best mate- rials of the public school system, and sending its well-trained, progressive youth of both sexes forward to still greater achiev- ments in the higher schools, and then returning them as well qualified scholars and trained teachers to the elementary schools again. The future of Normal School effort thus broadens out with still greater opportunities and responsibilities and, like a growing plant, a historical school, as it grows older, roots itself deeply in our whole society. The future therefore of the Normal will be greater than its past, proud as we may be of that record. OT. DICKEY T13MPLEToN As I Index my name in the souvenir of the fiftieth anniversary of the I.S.N.U., I am reminded that it has been on the books of my alma 7llClfCl' as a debtor for thirty-nine of these fifty years. - My first impressions were of stern professors and strange faces, but the stereopticon of time has changed the reception room into a Hall of Fame, and the strange faces of forty years ago re- appear from year to year in the dissolving views of the Alumni meetings, wearing the smile of recognition which won't come Off 77 o