Towson University - Tower Echoes Yearbook (Towson, MD)

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THE TOWER LIGHT What does it matter if you do take your car away from the south parking lot and put it somewhere nearer to the soccer field? You play until nearly dark. You have little enough time in which to reach home for dinner. You are too tired to walk the distance back to the parking lot. Your car does no harm to the grass on which you park it. Other people park there. Why should you leave it where it is inconvenient for you? What does it matter what companions you choose, what groups you join? You like them, you say. They know how to have a good time and they have been kind to you. They can't harm you because you already know good from bad, right from wrong. You needn't do just as they do, particularly when you are not with them. Why shouldn't you choose the friends you like? None of these things really matter much of themselves. The per- sons, individuals and groups whose orders are disobeyed are not hurt, they do not care very much, the persons who pick up and clean up after you do not really mind, they may as well do that as something else, the per- sons Whom you inconvenience may not blame you and they gain op- portunities for exercising such virtues as patience, self-denial, self-restraint, the regulations which you ignore or violate may not be very important in the whole range of human values. But these explanations are not the answer. The true answer lies in the fact that daily, hourly, you are making the patterns by which your own personality is being molded. Each act, each decision, each choice, drops into a permanent place in your nervous system and is woven at once into that great seamless web of human experiences which constitutes your culture. Then you are bound, held tight in the grip of the con- ditioning which takes place as a part of this acculturation. You will be conditioned, that is inevitable. The nature of that conditioning lies in your own hands. The experiences which make YOU and make you dif- ferent from every other individual are spread out before you to choose or to reject. What does it matter? you ask. No stone mason would ask that if he were selecting stones for a wall, no weaver would question the need for a flawless warp, no builder would risk a doubtful timber, no breeder would harbor stock that bore a taint, and so we might run on and on. Each individual is his own builder and the kind of structure he erects depends upon the decisions which he makes when he asks, What does it matter? f 6

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THE TowER LIGHT vor. XII ocToBER, 1938 No. 1 What Does it Matter P M. THERESA WIEDEFELD O many of the rules and regulations which college students are expected to maintain cover matters which to the individual student seem to make little or no difference. What does it matter? you ask, or Hnd yourself deciding :'It doesn't matter at all. What does it matter if you are absent or tardy and do not turn in an excuse blank? Everyone knows you did not play hookey . Your reason for staying out is your own business. When measured on the whole scale of values, the day out of college meant more to you in one way or another than that same day would have meant if spent at college. You can make up what you lost and mean to do so. Why should you offer an excuse? What does it matter if you do smoke in the Rest Rooms? You are careful. You watch to see that ashes do not get on the floor or furniture and that nothing is scarred or burned. Nobody is there to see you. A few burned stumps may tell the tale but only the janitor sees them and they have no identifying marks. Why not smoke if you want to? What does it ma-tter if you do leave milk bottles, trays, knives, and forks on the tables instead of returning them to the proper place in the cafeteria? You are in a hurry. The corridor is crowded and you would have to push your way through, carrying dirty dishes. It is a menial task. The janitor always removes them anyhow. Why should you return them? What does it matter if you do not give way to students having fifth period classes in order to relieve the congestion in the cafeteria? You are as hungry as they. You are free ito eat and have been used to eating at the noon hour. The best foods will be gone if you wait. It is not your fault that other students have fifth period classes. Why should you give way to them? What does it matter if you do get off -the car at the south entrance? The cars stop there and you should be free to get off where you please. You always look both ways and really prefer to cross where there is no traflic control. You have never been hit yet. Fewer people get off there and you dislike crowds. You enjoy the walk by yourself and you think it is the nearer way. Why should you get off at the station? 5

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THE TOWER LIGHT Two Leaders Is it true that our president is retiring this year? So the rumor passed from one to another of the student body last year before Dr. Tall's retirement was officially announced. Everyone seemed to feel the same regret at lo-sing one who had ever been a source of inspiration and help, but another sentiment quickly replaced the deep sense of loss. May she enjoy that leisure which she has so certainly earned through years of self- sacrificing labor in the field of education. Dr. Tall, a native of Dorchester county, was graduated from West- ern High School in 1891 and took her degree of bachelor of science in education at Teachers College, Columbia University, after having taken the normal extension courses at Johns Hopkins. In 1926 Dr. Tall received her degree of doctor of literature, an honorary title conferred upon her by the University of Maryland. Doctor Tall's position as president of the college was not her first connection with the college, for, from 1904 to 1908, she was an instructor at the Teachers Training School in Baltimore from which she was pro- moted to assistant superintendent of Baltimore County schools. Then she returned as the president of State Normal School. With the exception of the years 1919 and 1920, when she was principal of the Elementary School of the Lincoln School of Teachers College, Columbia University, New York, Dr. Tall has worked untiringly in the services of her own state. The students here at State Teachers College consider it a privilege to have studied under the direction of one who had such sympathetic under- standing and such national recognition as had Dr. Tall. We are grateful for that privilege, and we wish only the best for her future. She is at present living at Cambridge Arms Apartments in Baltimore. In Dr. Tall's place has come Dr. M. Theresa Wiedefeld. For three years she was assistant primary supervisor in Baltimore County. From 1914 to 1919 she served as principal of our Campus Elementary School and then became elementary supervisor of Anne Arundel County. In 1924 Dr. Wiedefeld entered the State Department of Maryland as State supervisor of elementary schools. In 1937 Miss Wiedefeld received her degree of doctor of education from Johns Hopkins University. The sub- ject for her thesis was An experimental study in developing history read- ing readiness with fourth grade children. Our new president comes highly recommended by prominent educational authorities of the state, and she is backed by the confidence of those who have worked with her. She comes to us with awareness of the elementary school problems of Maryland. She has seen us as others see us.', She can help us grow, but only with our 7