Rocky Mountain College - Yellowstone / Poly Yearbook (Billings, MT)

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U Reading and Public Speaking One of the most important departments of the Polytechnic, and one upon which much emphasis is placed, is the Department of Reading and Speaking. Few people have learned how to read. Almost any one can speak words, but the aim of the Polytechnic Reading department is to train the student to give thought and not merely words. In order to be able to give thought, it is necessary for a speaker first to gain the thought for hirnself from the printed page. True reading is to speak in a natural way so that the hearers forget that a person is reading and imagine he is speaking his own words. Une of the purposes of the Reading department is to train the future teachers of this region to be able to teach the pupil, from the time he begins school until he has iinished this branch, to read properlyg that is to say, T see a cat, really seeing the cat in his mind and then telling about it, rather than for him to say, T-see-a-c-a-t-cat. If every teacher could but have the conception of what reading really is, and its importance, this country would be nlled with good readers. The student is taught to study the words of a sentence and to get a thorough con- ception of the meaning of words as used in different ways. He studies selections in a. way that makes the thought his thought: and the words used, his words: thereby increasing his vocabulary and ameliorating his use of English. By studying the works of various authors. the student is able to receive the best and highest thoughts of the greatest men of all literary ages. Since reading is the basis of all other subjects, all stu- T 'f dents are required to take at least one year's work in this if ii department. The second and third year's work is elec- g :E , 6 tive. A suflicient number of classes is maintained to Rfk '59 meet the needs of the students in any stage of advance- gi ,Z :Q 4.2: lila W ment. Those who wish may specialize in this work. 5 1 ,KL 5, inlet ? Many take the entire three-year course in connection with f other courses in the Institute T iiii if It is a rare art to be able to speak well and with perfect composure and control of one's self in public. Yet it is an accomplishment nearly every one wishes and needs a great many times. For this reason the students of the Reading department are required to give readings, first before their own class and when they have thoroughly mastered the selection. they appear on a public program, sometimes before large audiences Along with the other high grade work done in the Reading department, classic dramas are studied and presented. This year members of the reading classes have given two classic plays: Milton's Samson Agonistesu and Shakespeare's Comedy of Errors. These plays were deeply studied and then presented in such a way that the audience could grasp the full meaning of the author and not merely the plot and incidents of the dramas. Another feature of the Reading department is the training in story-telling. Noth- ing is more entertaining than a good story, and one is often in a position where he is looked to as a leader in entertainment. For this reason, students are trained to tell stories and myths in an interesting way. This training can add much to the culture and refine- ment of the student. Through its Reading department the Polytechnic has been able to reach out to the surrounding towns and assit them in special meetings and services by sending readers and speakers to them. This is one way of interesting people who have before perused only the books and reading of the hour, in the highest and best literature.

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THE POLY of all, coming finally to live as they lived, uplifted into a high realm of feeling and emotion combined with an ability to give that feeling beautiful expression. Though we cannot all be Brownings or Shakespeares. yet life's scope is enlarged when we follow the trail of thought left by eminent writers in their most approved works. As soon as one knows a member of a family who pleases him, he is only too glad to make the acquaintance of the other members of that family. And having made that acquaintance. the second and later friendship is sealed and made a permanent source of joy for its own merits and for its relation to the source of that first freindship. So it is with work in the languages. Let us, as all must necessarily do. become familiar with the English language. Then if our love for our own tongue be sufficiently well developed, we shall wish to take another step-to learn its parent-Latin. At first that parent seems to be cold and reserved. and to repulse advances toward familiarity, but that is merely, we learn later, to test the worthiness of the stranger. XVhen anyone has learned to under- stand and appreciate Latin, its charm and value is patent: no longer do we'say, VVhat is the use of studying anything so hard, especially as it is a dead language ? Then it is, that we realize that it is not a dead language, but it is living today, and always will live, a perennial fountain of pleasure. XYe must not forget, however, the close relation existing between Latin and Ancient History. .PX close study of Latin gives us an idea of the private and public life of the Romans such as we could End nowhere else. Then there is, too. in that way, la bond of sympathy and understanding established which makes the Latin authors seem a living personality rather than a mere historical figurehead. To this benefit is added the thought that thus our vocabulary is increased. and as the history and derivation of various words is understood. so is there a nicer appreciation of the comparative value of different words realized. Latin always has demanded a keen mind and always will demand one as entrance fee. Hut in return, it gives to the student the power of penetration, perception. and judg- ment-these three-and the greatest of these is-hard to select. But powerful as the Romans have been in the past, there is a people today who interest us, whose thoughts and ideals are contemporaneous with ours-and they are our friends across the big pond-the Germans. There was once a man who shot an apple off from a boy's head and until you know that fact and his reason for so doing. your education has been neglected. Hut to be serious, let us remember how this language is to be catalogued. ft, too, is a descendant of Latin, and so must be a cousin of English. And when we have mastered this language, we know that it is a worthy cousin. German has another advantage. In all but nationality. you can become German. You can learn to speak it fluently, to write it in the good German way, and even to think in it. To this add the acquirement of a liking for 'kraut and you are really German, tho the census taken puts you in the category of Americans. In short, you will feel at home in the German settlement, or at the Passion Play 'at Oberammergau. Speaking of German recalls to mind the fact that there is another germ here which will, before we are cognizant of its existence,urst forth, a full grown demand for other modern languages, Spanish and French will soon become a crying need in our school. Already we have had calls for these subjects and evidently the day of their teaching is not far off. Japanese is taught in the kitchen to all who beg an extra lunch, and in- formal classes in Norwegian and Scandinavian were organized some time ago among the foreign element. Some of the more advanced students in these courses were able to ask or answer at least three questions in the languages just named. The language department is happy over the number of students it has enrolled in its classes, and the day is near at hand when a greater corps of department teachers will be needed to meet the demands of our language students. -20-

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ll .il-Hstory and Economicsl-.. During the past school year the students enrolled in the Department of History and Economics have shown a most remarkable interest in their work, and the progress made by the different classes has been unusually gratifying to students and instructors alike. This is due entirely to the manner in which the subjects have been handled. It has been realized that history, when it consists merely of a few tables of dates. names, etc., with the customary amount of blood and thunder stories thrown in, is at the best so dull an.l meaningless that the average student soon learns to hate it almost as much as he should. llut when history is taken to be the life story of humanity. and is studied with an eye to determining what have been the real underlying causes of human conduct: when we cease to be satisfied with what and begin to turn our attention to how and why : then history becomes the most fascinating, the most vitally interest- ing- of all studies. Treated in this light, it becomes necessary to place special emphasis upon the importance of the social, religious, political, and economic phases of historical cvcnts. Thus the understanding of history necessitates the consideration of sociology, with its complementary subjects-religion and ethicsg political and industrial economy, and fwlfsws of civil government. ' ' at have we done? XYe have taken the most unattractive subject on the list . 'cl it into the most entertaining. XYe have made of a heretofore meaning- Qi 'lure ation of facts. a course of study so intensely absorbing that once one starts L 'fs ocrusal he can never turn back. ' 2 rt--ults? XYell, instead of turning out upon society a crammed graduate, 'ii ing' the world an intelligent citizen capable of acting wisely in any matter of 1 ,M-. wilt. Ii athematics and Science XYe seldom stop to think that it has required centuries to develop the one branch of science which is so essential to every-day life, this being the branch of mathematics. If we look into the ages passed. we find that a crude form of arithmetic was in use over four thousand years ago among the Egyptians. The next marked progress was among the Babylonians where they applied arithmetic and the fundamentals of geometry to astronomy. Rapid and steady progress was not made until the founding of the, famous Greek schools in the sixth century B. C.. From this time on the great mathematicians made new discoveries until at the present day we have many different branches of this art. Among the most noted mathematicians are: Arabians, Hindoos, Greeks, and Egyptians. From this time on, the noted mathematicians from Egypt, Babylon, Hindustan, Ara- bia and Greece, made new discoveries, solved new problems, and developed numerous for- mulas till we now have several branches of this science. NVhile the people of ancient times had to have some knowledge of mathematics for their every-day life, it is far more important that the people of today should be a master of the fundamentals of this study. Continued on Page One Hundred Thirty-six