University of Evansville - LinC Yearbook (Evansville, IN)

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HE teaching of social sciences in modern schools is greatly enlivened by means of visual aids. As taught in many schools, social studies offer com- prehensive experience far beyond the confines of older curricula in this field, increasing the stu- dents ' understanding of peoples and regions. As a technological aspect. Harvard concerns itself with audio-visual facilitating to specifically supply the needs of social studies instruction. Audio-visual aids have become so common that there is little thought of the extreme advantages one enjoys with their use. The medieval classroom was a bare room, often some old dining hall rented by the master, and certainly had no facilities for any kind of audio-visual aids. If the master was artistically inclined, he might have a crude map or illustration. Books were not illustrated because they were copied by hand by poor students or clergymen. The result was, then, that the master ' s ability to present his lecture was the only means by which the student could grasp the idea. The master was rated according to how well he lectured, and only the better ones found their rooms filled. The students sat on the floor at their master ' s feet. Such a position placed the master in a position to be respected and almost held in awe as a kind of demigod. ACH pupil was, during the Middle Ages, a poten- tial teacher; and naturally, after a ' hile, teach- ers became more than plentiful. Teachers began to advertise and solicit business. The older ones banded together to safeguard their rights. The Chancellor, as chief administrator of the univer- sity, proved to be a common enemy. Only he could confer the coveted license to teach; it was an arbitrary right, to be granted or revoked as he saw fit. The masters rebelled. They refused to recognize unqualified masters to whom the Chancellor had given a license, and the slander ruined the new members. A revolt arose which actually developed into a kind of bloody war until finally the Papal Legate in 1246 granted the Chancellor ' s seal to the University as a whole. FTEN the students and masters banded together to protect their rights from the citizens of the uni- versity town. Violence often resulted if their wishes were not met. When compared whh the present Student Government Associations which co-operate with the faculty and vice-versa, the medieval customs seem quite barbaric. Student- faculty relationships are encouraged to be friendly and reciprocal. Al- though the student holds the faculty member in respect, it is recognized by all that when the student marches across the platform on com- mencement evening to receive the traditional diploma, dressed in the traditional academic costume, he is marching in to join the faculty in a long tradition of Western education — a tradition which began in the Middle Ages when the student confined himself to the cloisters of the monastery and studied with the clergy. Education has had many changes since then, but it was they who sparked the modern spirit.

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DR. lELVIN W. IIV E Preside jnt