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

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H Engineering eparimenf EI Fl if if i QQFSLN Elf Je r j 'iii it 'Q 7' -N Z-, Eff:- I i f' . i 9. K fe ff ' term? 247, Y , ' - - ffff,-'EZ' J N I c. wilf- lillllttlllllllzilfllllIIMEMYHHIKYFMIHHIT The lingineering depaitment has been at a great disadvantage in having no equip- ment for shop or laboratory but we have now reached the time when we can have a part of the many things necessary to hold the interest and satisfy the ambition of the average engineering student. In the first place we have begun our shop building which, when fin- ished, will be among the very best in the XVest. We have enough of the building finished to accommodate every one at present. During the summer we expect to continue the work and will be rea-ly for a much larger attendance. ln the second place, our engineer- ing course is being changed. During the first term of each year an experimental course fffifida WILLING ENGINEERS in electrical engineering will be required of all engineering students to acquaint them with the more simple phases of the work and inspire thein to do their best in order to reach a point where they may go deeper into the science of engineering. Qthers may feed pigs, may ponder over jaw-breaking names, may argue from morning until night before the courts of justice, or may write long lists of balance sheets with an Continued on Page One Hundred Thirty-seven -24-

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H ormal pDepar1fmeni r A GROUP OF NORMALS' The Normal department of the Polytechnictlnstitute has been organized with the be- lief that the child should be educated in a way that will enable him to live a helpful life: that more stress should be placed on his qualities of character, and his power to dog that the school life should be a continuation and enlargement upon the true home life, and not a training separate and apart. The slavish use of the text-book is a thing of the past. Half of the time spent in try- ing to learn a hard lesson out of a book is time thrown away, which should be utilized in doing some kind of work in which the pupil is genuinely interested. As the end of scholastic discipline is to get all of the knowledge and truth, thought and fancy, wit and wisdom from the printed page, the text-book must not be discarded but given its proper place in the scheme of education. Education is more than a training for life, it is life itself. All of the capabilities of the pupil should be brought into action. For this reason our Normal rooms are being con- verted into veritable workshops where mental, formal, and physical instruction supple- ment each other. Here the student has an opportunity to react upon society and to de- velop his own personality. The time which was wasted under the old system is given to the working out of some practical problem, the nature of which depends upon the needs of the people interested. Our Normal students are learning to weave rugs, caps, pillow tops: to do paper cut- ting illustrating some object in nature, or some story we have readg to make basketsg to do card-board construction work, which paves the way for the later work with tools: to do stencil and applique workg to do plain sewing and cookingg to do practical gardening while studying soil and plant life: to make booklets for cooking recipes, paper cuttings, drawings, poems, and stories: to bind magazines and books: to figure out real problems in plastering, papering, finding the capacity of tanks, finding the number of plants required Continued on Page One Hundred Thirty-seven

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as Agricultural Department -fs f I , -'bv .azz 1 ' i ' - i L I , A an 2 .' , ' A CLASS OFAGGIESU The entire end and aim of education is two-fold: hrst. it is to make a self-supporting and useful citizen: and second. to develop the personalities of the individual to the fullest possible extent. By a self-supporting and useful citizenis not meant one who simply furnishes the means of sustenance for himself and family. lYhile that is essential, more is necessary. He must do not only that, but he must contribute something, even tho it be but small. to the public good. In every individual, there exists certain faculties or capabilities upon the development of which much depends. So much, in fact, that it often means the difference between suc- cess and failure. It is true that these are often hidden from sight and may never even be dreamed of until brought to light by some apparent accident. But it is the discovery and development of these faculties which is the second aim of education. In agricultural education, these principles still hold true, for no one can deny that it is a large and important feature of the entire educational system. But it was not long ago that the farmer was looked down upon as occupying the lowest round of the social ladder, and even now one sometimes hears a person sneer at the educated farmer. Therefore agricultural education must do at least two things: first, it must make him effi- cient in a business way: and second, it must teach him to become an intelligent and broad- minded member of society. To attain the first object, it is necessary that a certain amount of technical or voca- tional training be given. 'lmhe time has passed when it was thought that anyone could be a farmer, regardless of his qualification, for the realization has come, that there is no occupation in which more careful and thorough study and investigation are necessary. As in all vocational training. theory and practice must go together. This principle is not al- ways recognized, for it is easier to teach a mass of general, present-day agricultural prac- tice, than it is to apply the underlying principles to cases arising in every-day life. But this must be done, for in this age of rapid advancement along all lines, the present-day ..2 51