Principia College - Sheaf Yearbook (Elsah, IL)

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'5 .vmvif 114, . .. ic. .iw 41 'NL .W '9 N-A, 4 Q ,pm-an lf We Were to adhere to this standard of striv- ing for excellence here, We would find that our graduates would be COMPETENT and CONFI- DENT in their respective fields: competent be- cause they would have had that demanding type of education which builds skills as Well as in- stills lmowledgeg confident because they would have successfully challenged themselves by ap- plying these skills in practical situations, shat tering self- imposed limitations. It is this type of graduate that Will find himself in the main- stream of civilization, not sitting passively on the periphery. He Will be making specific con- tributions to the development of humanity, learning what he needs to learn as a practicing Christian Scientist to be effective in Working out the world's problems. I would hope that in that way he would rub off hard on these problems and tackle those as a means for developing a spi- ritual toughness that is in fact demonstrated. This will be the course only so long as we strive for pre-eminent excellence.

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Education - A Study in Excellence By what criteria does one say something is ex- cellent? lt's amazing to me how many people seem to think that merely the time or effort doing or studying something should be the stan- dard. Others think that progress alone should be the basis for evaluation, regardless of the qual- ity of the performance or product achieved. But isn't it really both the achievement of a goal GENERALLY ACKNOWLEDGED as worthy, and striving to grow as much as possible in the process? That seems to me to be the quest for EXCELLENCE. Standards ought to be highly demanding of extra effort beyond that of which the individual thinks he is capable. That ought to be a part of our standard--pressing beyond ourselves. And this effort will certainly result in readily discernable progress. Yet, it can be only by the highest standard that we measure our performance-- collectively as well as individually. lt becomes the responsibility of the adminis- tration, the faculty, AND the students to insure that the community is striving toward this high goal daily. Within the realm of academics, it is the administration's duty to try to establish the framework which most effectively meets the needs of the faculty and students. This is the objective of developing sound processes for con- tinual evaluation of the academic departments with a view toward strengthening them in every way possible. Within this framework, it is the instructors' responsibility to enter the class room with that expectancy which draws forth the maximum amount of growth from each student in his sub- ject. Hopefully, the instructor is comfortable about doing whatever is necessary to bring that about. He must demand at least a sense of ex- cellence on the student's part, and hopefully mo tivate a genuine striving to attain. Conversely, it is the student's duty not to ac- cept less than an enthusiastic job of drawing forth of excellence from himself by the profes- sor. The student should be eager for the in- structor to challenge him, and make this clear to the instructor. Sometimes reading the foot- notes or chapter-end references can produce enough knowledge to share with a whole class by asking questions of the instructor based in that reading. Asking the instructor for a supplemen- tal reading assignment also serves to challenge the level of expectation of excellence. The stu- dent that does not demand of himself as pene- trating an analysis of the subject at hand as is possible is missing the mark of excellence in his work. If he is going to make any kind of contribution to his own growth for certainly to others'5 he must develop that ability to strive for excellenceg otherwise, that contribution will not be there. That's the sort of thing we crucially need to be doing in educationg helping people Cstudents AND facultyj take that long step forward--that action step beyond resolve. Nobody likes to lie back in the shallows of non- performance or non- growth. A little encouragement consistently given to press on would go a long way.

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THE PERSONNEL DEANS Involvement in extra-curricular activities varies with the changing student body from year to year. To me, it has seemed fairly consistent as far as degree of interest though types of ac- tivity have varied. The emphasis right now seems to be moving away from thc dating game and the strictly social event, toward further- ing friendly relationships between men and wom- en resulting from interaction in academics, sports, and service areas as well as the usual social activites. just as other colleges around the nation, Prin- cipia has had its period of searching, evalua- tion, and change. However, having the guide- lines so carefully set up by its Purpose and Pol- icies, Principia has worked from the basis of always maintaining Mrs. Morgan's original con cept of education and its underlying reason for being--to serve the Cause of Christian Science. Mrs. Morgan states in EDUCATION AT PRIN- CIPIA: 'To be progressive, education must con- stantly adjust itself to meet. . . changing condi- tions. Yet it must be possible to establish some basis of operation that will offer an unchanging foundation. ' This year most colleges are feeling a settling in time, a peace of retrospection, quiet evalua- tion and more conservative action. We, too, find a new maturity in the students, an eager- ness to get on with their education, recognizing problems, but trying to analyze and find an- swers WITH the administrators and faculty--a friendly and positive attitude of working togeth- er. A realization that change is the result of progressive thought and action, not instantane- ous, is the prevailing attitude. Marian Wells Dean of Women 20