Tennessee Military Institute - Radiogram Yearbook (Sweetwater, TN)

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CALENDAR 1938 1939 September 6, Tuesday 18:00 P.M.J .... ...... O pening Eaercises September 11, Sunday ............................ Convocation Sermon November 24, Thursday ............................ Thanksgiving Day fFurloughs for visiting home or elsewhere not granted on Thanksgiving Day, since We have regular schoolwork on Friday and Saturday folloWing.J December 17, Saturday fnoonl ............... Cliristmas Holidays Begin fPermits for absence will not be issued until the full academic and mili- tary schedule to closing date have been completed.J January 3, Tuesday C7 :OO P.M.l ............... Christmas Holidays End CRegular school schedule and duties resumed at 7:00 P.M.D January 26, 27, 28 ............................ Mid-Year Examinations 0 May 27, Saturday ......................... Competitive Military Drills May 28, Sunday ....................... ....... B accalaareate Sermon May 29, Monday 19:30 A.M.J ............. ........ C ommencement Day fNo vacation or furloughs at Easter.J ORDER OF THE DAY 6 . 15 . ............ Reveille 6: 30 . ....... Setting-Up Exercises 7 : 00 . . . ...... Breakfast 7: 40 .... . . Inspection of Quarters 8: 00 ..... ...... C hapel 8: 20 to 12: 45 . . ..... Classes 1: 00 .... .... D inner 2: 00 to 3: 00 . . . Military Drill 3: 30 to 5: 30 . . Athletic Practice 4: 30 to 5: 30 . . Special Help Period 5: 50 .... .... R etreat 6: 00 .... .... S upper 7: 00 to 9: 30 . . Study Period 9: 45 .... . Lights Out SUNDAY SCHEDULE 7: 15 . ......... ..... R eveille 8: 00 . .... Breakfast 91 00 . Sunday School Call 10: 20 . . . . Church Call 12: 30 . . Room Inspection 1: 00 . . . ..... Dinner 4: 45 .... ..... P arade 6: 00 .... ...... S upper 7: 00 to 8: 30 . . Letter-Writing Hour 9: 15 .... . . . Lights Out WEEKLY SCHEDULE Instead of the usual Saturday holidays, half holidays on Monday and Thursday are substituted for all boys whose scholastic Work is satisfactory. Special supervised study periods are provided on these half-days for those ranking low in their class standing. Page Thirty-Two

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LOCATICJN AND ACCESSIBILITY WEETWATER, Tennessee, the home of Tennessee Military Institute, is situated midway between Washington, D. C., and New Orleans, on the main line of the Southern Railway, 41 miles south of Knoxville. It is also on the famous Lee Highway, running from Washington through the beautiful scenic section of Virginia and East Tennessee. This link of high- way across East Tennessee is also the main line of motor travel from Ohio and the Great Lakes region to Florida. Twelve commodious motor busses and eight passenger trains daily afford convenient travel for those not traveling in their own automobiles. Sweetwater is a progressive little town of 3,000 population. Its citizens are enterprising and maintain a clean municipal government. It now has six and a half miles of streets paved with concrete. The water supply is pure and the health record of the town remarkably good. The elevation above sea level is more than 1,000 feet. Consequently malaria is practically un- known, except for the occasional case brought here by someone coming from the lowland country. CLIMATE In the selection of a military school, climate is a very important consideration. Much of the physical improvement obtained is due to regular outdoor exercises, athletics, and military drills. Tennessee Mili- tary Institute is very fortunately situated in this respect. Our climate is suf- ficiently mild to permit outdoor drill practically every day through the win- ter season. Boys from the far South find our climate invigorating, while boys from the latitude north of the Ohio River are delighted with the mild winter seasons here. Parents visiting their sons during the school session fre- quently report several inches of snow at their homes and find their boys drill- ing in the open without coats. HEALTH As might be expected from the conditions described above, the health record of cadets in Tennessee Military Institute is not sur- passed by that of any other school in the land. Our drill grounds and ath- letic fields are in good condition for use practically without interruption throughout the year. Pure air and regularity of outdoor exercise ward off sickness. The increase in weight for the entire school averages about 15 pounds per boy during the session, while there are many individual cases of more than 30 pounds increase in Weight every year. For further discussion of health and physical improvement, see pages 20, 66, and 67. Page Thirty-One

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999999 ACADEMIC Many parents realize that not everything is going well with the educa- tion of their sons. In many cases, they do not analyze the problem sufficiently to arrive at any clear understanding as to what is wrong. Doubtless in many cases they charge it up to social and other distractions discussed on pages 10 and 12 of this catalog and seek no further explanations as to why there should be any such distractions in a school community. Parents are frequent- ly heard to remark, I don't know how son gets by, I never see him doing any Work on his lessons , or he never brings a book home with him for home studyng or his grades are good enough, I suppose he is doing fairly well. fln such cases, it is obvious that the parent is uncertain whether grades of eighty-five or ninety per cent represent that degree of mastery of the content of the subject matter or whether that is the average grade in the school, and that it is unpopular for teachers to fail too high a percentage of their pupils.J Another problem that puzzles thoughtful parents is the hap- hazgrd manner in which pupils are classified in most schools of large at- ten ance. Since these are questions about which thoughtful parents are thinking, we think it fair that you should know our position with reference to these questions and the solutions we seek for these problems. In the first place, our class sections average slightly under fifteen boys to the class, thus making possible close attention to the work of each pupil and real knowledge on the Dart of the teacher as to how well each pupil is doing his work. Contrast this with class sections ranging from thirty to fifty pupils in the public high schools. Next we would mention the planning of the course of study. We realize that in the crowded public schools teachers cannot possibly handle this, one by one, as we do. When each new boy is enrolled with us, we secure from the school previously attended an accurate transcript of work completed. With this as a base, we seek in personal conference with the boy and his parents just as much information as we can get concerning interests and plans for the future and then work out a course of study consistent with those plans. Another weakness which we curb is that of sampling -skipping about from one branch of study to another. The many fractional credits certified to us bv other schools make clear this is now almost a nation-wide evil in our educational system, brought about by the deceptive slogan of Uliberalizing the curriculum. Except in the cases of our Commercial and Business Adminis- tration students, we insist on sticking to our courses in English. Mathematics, Foreign Languages, Science, and History until a reasonable degree of mas- tery has been attained. That this requires more work than most of our pupils have been accustomed to doing in previous schools, we freely admit. Our studv period from 7:00 to 9:30 P.M. is not interrupted. The compensa- tion for this work comes through the removal of the risk and disappointment of later failure in college for those who measure up satisfactorily to our standards. Page Thirty-Three