Kent State University - Chestnut Burr Yearbook (Kent, OH)

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i Chestnut Burr of ' 29 ] DEAX OF MEN Raymond E. Manchester, A. B., M. A. The greatest task confronting any edu- cational institution is that of attempting to devise some method of handling the so- called intangibles. How may we find out the point of view a student may take toward any given proposition, how are attitudes to be class- ified, what are moods and how may we change them, how may we measure growth in responsibility, what is the effect of inspiration — These are the types of questions we are interested in and are attempting to answer in this office, and since our success cannot be measured in terms of standardized tests, our only way of checking results will be through a study of new points of view, attitudes, new moods, new growths in re- sponsibility and new ideals. So you see we are back where we started and perhaps that is where we should remain. DEAN OF WOMEN Blanche A. Verder College Memories Kent Staters of 1929, as you leave us this summer you will carry away certain assets accumulated during your years at college. What an array of these there will be; knowledge, (some wisdom, too, we hope), skills, college togs, etc., together with the diplomas — and then the photo- graphs and friendships and memories. Thus e(]uipped you go back to your home towns to show the friends and neighbors Kent State ' s finished product. Of all these assets, memories will endure the longest, for even friendships will fade into memories; and of all these assets memories will give the highest returns in satisfaction. May nothing ever rob you of the colorful memories, the joyous mem- in-ies, the winsome memories, even the sobering memories, and the sacred mem- ories of the years you are concluding as undergraduates. As year follows year, and you find the outline of this or that mental picture becoming a bit hazy, come home to revive your most precious assets — memories. Page twetiiy-four

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FROM PRESIDENT ENGLEMAN S INAUGURAL ADDRESS Recent years have exhibited a wholesome tendency upon the part of many biographers and historians to debunk both history and biography. When teachers and texts content themselves with the elimination of bunk, they do a real service to the cause of Truth. But when youth is duped and deceived into thinking that men long acclaimed as great were wholly cheap and vulgar, void of purpose opportunists, only then historic criticism over-leaps itself, and the latter state may be worse than the former. It may at least be questioned whether social progress is furthered more by our Menckens than by our Weems. Literature has assumed new forms and new aims, characteristic of the times in which we live. It paints marvelous pictures today, many of them beautiful, many of them sordid, most of them realistic. Nothing is too vulgar and mean, little too sensual, for the printed page of a magazine or book because they collectively portray life as it can be found. But this is not literature. At best it is only one type of literature. There are other types. Who can say that Lowell and Longfellow and Burns, Milton, Tennyson and Browning and Shakespeare will not live in spite of their obvious attempts to preach to us — nay, more, because they succeeded in doing it, when poems and books full of sex but without a soul will have been forgotten. Paul Whiteman is the exponent of one type of music. It has its place. I do not condemn it. But it is not the whole of music, nor even the best of it. Sokoloff in Cleveland and Damrosch in New York are helping to popularize another type that will live and minister to the best emotions of the human heart when jazz has been stilled forever. Now what I have said about history, biography, literature and music has been said to emphasize one point. To my mind it is a most important one. There is an aspect of each of these subjects, a method of approach to it or an interpretation of it, that can be used to magnify and vivify the students respect for fundamentals in life — spirituality, patriotism, idealism, culture, refinement. Our plea is for teach- ing that integrates, there is too much that disintegrates. When science teaching destroys the essential in a student ' s religion, it becomes a disintegrating force. When our history is debunked to the point that youth is made cynical in its attitude; towards our most dearly bought institutions, and their founders, his- torical criticism has become their enemy. When literature is taught so that the student no longer aspires to hitch his wagon to a star because his eyes are fixed upon the mud and filth about his feet, teaching needs a new objective, and school- room courses in literature need a renaissance. A teacher ' s college must be ad- ministered and courses taught so that its graduates go out into the profession of their choice with a great desire to communicate their vision of life as a unity to children and youth who do not have it. Facts of life, if we recognize them as such, are easy to teach. Their meanings, their hidden implications, their bearing upon eternal verities, are matters of greater concern. Knowledge has to become wisdom to be dynamic and it is at this point that our greatest responsibility is to be found in a school that is authorized to prepare young men and women to teach Ohio ' s children. Jmmlf Page twenty-three

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I Chestnut Burr of ' 29 DEPARTIMENT OF ART Nina S. Humphrey Tlie Beauty Lover ' a Creed I believe in Beauty as the manifestation of Triumphant life. I believe in looking for Beauty every- where; watching for it, searching for it in the great and in the small, in the commonplace and in the unusual things of this wonderful world. I bel ieve in working for beauty always ; planning for it, trying for it in the making of all that has to be made, and in the doing of all that has to be done. I believe in living the Beautiful life; a life in the right relation to the lives of others and in harmony with the eternally unfolding life of God. This Dresentaticn of creed bv Dr. Henry Turner Bailey must happily expresses the use of Beauty in the practical activities of every day. It has been the inspiration in the work of the department, and the enthusiasm of the students in accepting the creed is evidence that they too are searchers for Beauty. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE J. T. Johnson, A. B. In the long period of time covering social development. Agriculture was among the earliest vocations which was clearly defined. The intimate relation between continued existence and the food s upply of people establishes a permanent and basic interest. While the food-getting activities are es- sential to satisfy human needs, the voca- tion provides abundant opportunities to grow and mature in the higher levels of social and spiritual attainment. Agriculture is more than a vocation dealing with materials; it is a way of living. Agriculture as a vocation, because the daily activities are closely associated with nature, provides a body of experience of sound educational value. In viewing the subject of agriculture as a study of a mode of life economic values would obscure edu- cational values. Since human aspirations transcend human needs, the subject of agriculture is emphasized as a means of education. J H t J M U V WTy ¥ i ryV r i w w w T Page tiventy-flve