McMurry University - Totem Yearbook (Abilene, TX)

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this was 1958 administration and faculty 13

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Quadrangle Rock Carden 12 ''

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Dr. Harold C. Cooko President A frMurry College president’s message A RUDE AWAKENING We a» a nation arr now in the pence of a rode awakening Lonni am! long wr have Imastrd of the superiority of our nimutiimil system, - it mot hod of instruction. it objMtivr am! it achieve- ments, - only to find that our boasting is tiot justified. For a kmg time there has been a realization on tin part nf many edm-.itom and a grrut many in other walks of life that something » wrong with our school am! that the concept of wlut education i and what it con- tub of ha gone awrv. Mach nnphasu ha been placed upon the outer habiliment am! trapping of education, tuch a «octal adjustment am! participation m thr pleasure ami entertainment of school life. The difficult ami exacting tkniuml of sound education that require concentration, long reading and study hours, am! extrnstvr research liave Urn largely eliminated »o that ample time might lie left for r tracurricular activ- ities tuch at athletics, hand , chorus participation, play , trips, social engagements and many other time consuming things tint a !d little to intrUectual ile rlnpmrnt am! that are sooner or later destined to lie Liu! aside a inadequate. impractical, and unsatisfying to mature life. The children ami young people attending our school - and. in fact, our whole educational program - lack the trriomnesi that it necessary for genuine education. We have forgotten that there it no royal road to learning. “ There it little pinion for mental growth. for knowledge, for intellectual achievement. Tile study of Ltnguagr I brushed aside, ttpectalh’ a acquiring a meant of communicatum, the great literary cutties are scorned. mathematici i avoided, tlie science are shunned; sltffic-silt suhjei Is and usuvi are postponed, ami thr ehctiviV with little intellectual content are readily and eagerly accepted. )f owrv this I not universally true: if it were, our civilization would already he bankrupt, however, it is nearly enough true to give u slmck - ami thl is exactly what has happened (hit concept of what education I , of what its objective are. and of bow it is to hr achieved «hnukl lie modified ami improved. Tbr nimmlmn. from tlie first Crude in tlie public school to thr last sear In college needs to he overhauled. Our methods «if instruction need to lie rr-cvuluutpd The wholr program of teacher education needs to be revised, with murh greater emphasis being placet! upon the mattery of what is to In- taught, and much levs time rrnuired of tlie prospective teaclier in tlie study of methodokigy. or the Ikirrrn study of how to leach. '’Without learning there cun lie no teaching. Abovr all else we must ik-vekm in thr rnlmls ami hearts of our youth a deep desire anil (Mssion to learn, to know, ami to understand the factual world, and to master the xx-ret of nature and of our exist- ence. Heretofore we have thought of these things as matters of in- dividual preference or desirability, now they are at the foundation of tlie nreservatkMi of tbr free world ami of our national survival. To these things let u dedicate ounelvc at McMuny College. I I