University of Miami - Ibis Yearbook (Coral Gables, FL)

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At tho Morrick Demonstration School tho Education iaculty is Bergh. Dr. McMaster, Cornolison, Fox. Dr. Ross. Dean Foster. McCarty. Shaw. Hostor. Donahue. Shufdin. Davis, and Windman. little geniuses l y loving parents. The student teacher has another name for them. Some of the choicer anecdotes about interning in education you've probably had straight from the bleary-eyed student teachers themselves. Example: The ninth grade civics pupils were assigned to interview an outstanding member of the profession or vocation they planned to enter. Seems that one hoy interviewed an undertaker and had so much fun getting locked in a room with corpses and lying in an empty eoflin (The p.L wildly supposed he must have been testing for size) that after he made his report local undertakers were besieged by visits from junior high school students requesting tours through the morgue. To continue with the saga of the student teacher: At approximately 3 p.m. the p.t. (not to lie confused with the p.t. of obstacle course fame) reroutes herself to the I niversity. Conversation from the bus-driver has included such topics as (a) the best way to raise rabbits: (b) an introduction to some Russian midgets who work at a defense plant and ride the same bus. After the sixth transfer, the p.t. is revived in time to get off at the University. Then comes a period of wandering around in search of the f o'clock education class which, like 18 the slop shop, has wandered from thence to thither in the course of the year. One p.t. was sent to the third-floor ladies' room by someone in the registrar's office who insisted that the ed class was scheduled there. When the p.t. finally finds the ed. class (it roosted in the journalism lab during the second semester) she spends a few minutes with her cohorts discussing the new bus schedules. The class itself consists of a lecture on teaching by I)r. Cecil Ross, who was added to the faculty during the first semester. Rut that isn't all. In her spare time each p.t. keeps a diary of her doings (“Henry made a lovely report on the life of Shakespeare today. “Isabel was shooting spit halls at the hack of my neck every time I wrote on the blackboard.”) an attendance record, a professional log (containing those interesting little tid-hits of information that make a teacher seem to wise, like the population of Azusa or the principal export of Peru), lesson plans, etc. The interne has it easier than the species of ed. student known as the practice teacher. She hibernates at Merrick or some other elementary school of one semester, while the practice teacher flits from the University to her grade-school sessions for one whole year. The result is the same in both cases, except that the interne gets it faster. For that certificate both the interne and the practice teachers spend hours, in class and out. learning the principals and history of American education and the American constitution, and enroll in little irrelevant courses like play production for teachers, the elements of school library service, ami conservation of natural resources. They take a course in educational psychology from Dr. Charles Foster, dean of the school of education, which is known as a half-breed course. Psychology majors list it for psych credit and education majors put in on their hours of required courses in education.

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SdoCCJtfiOK PIIACTII'E DOES IT Those people you never saw this year—the ones who dashed about from hither to yon-thc ones who knew every bus schedule ami driver—they were the education department. Although a record has never been kept, it can he stated that practice teachers and internes are the best-travelled students at the University of Miami. Their daily routine goes something like this: 7 a.m. Up and about. 7:30 a.m. First phase of the journey. This takes the p.t. or interne from home (which is usually at least seven miles from the University) to a bus-stop where she (very few lie's ventured the teacher training course this year) could flag a Gahles bus. 8 a.m. Gahles bus passes, loaded to the teeth. 8:10 a.m. Ditto 8:20 a.m. Ditto 8:30 a.m. Ditto 8:40 a.m. Ditto 8:50 a.m. Student teacher has lost so much weight from worrying that she is finally able to squeeze into a late bus. 9:10 a.m. A mail dash for Rural Soc. class, which has somehow disappeared and now seems to he replaced by navy pre-flight training. (But it always turns up again.) 10:00 a.m. Similar dash for slop shop to find the “ride to the practice teacher's senior or junior high school station. Seems that the “ride has mysteriously taken flight six minutes ago. (Next time, the p.t. promises herself, she’ll remember to comb her hair later.) This procedure continues and by 11 a.m. the practice teacher hac arrived — weary, broken of spirit, head bowed, and eyes glassy. Four busses can do that. From 11 a.m. to approximately 3 p.m. the student teacher has her hands full of children, all of whom are considered perfect angels and 17

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Then there's the education of the older generation. In the afternoon when everyone has evacuated except cadets, dogs, and people who have meetings, a group of students wander into school with “shining, morning faces These are no saddle-shoe-and-socks students. All they want is an education. And they get it. They're the ones who study. They're the ones who glare at you in the Ihirary when you unwrap a package of cheese-crackers. Ami they are also the ones who always have the hooks that you want. Their guiding star this year was I)r. Charles Doren Tharp, director of adult education. Adults learn all sorts of things; like Russian (taught by Madame Nina Kuhova), Chinese (taught by Miss Margaret Sells, who was educated in the Orient and taught at the University of California School of Oriental languages), Portuguese (from Miss Alberta Losh of Miami High )typing and shorthand (from Miss Inez. Manning). At the Koubeck center, which was donated to the University last spring, continuation courses in personnel administration, psychology, philosophy, listening to music, current political ami economic problems, useful plants of South Florida, etc., arc taught by professors from the University. Separate from the adult education division, although conducted at the same hours, were the courses in engineering, science, and management war training, also directed by Dr. Tharp—who for that purpose bore the title of area supervisor. 'Phis training was offered by the U.S. Office of Education of the Federal Security Agency and the War Manpower Commission through the University of Florida at the University of Miami. (Towards the end of the second semester Dr. Tharp wore a weary look. He had to explain the sponsorship of the defense courses quite frequently.) The courses in ESMWT, designed to prepare civilians for positions in war industries, were college standard courses in the airplane, aircraft engineering, airport design, radio communications, surveying, marine design, foundations of engineering, engineering drawing, elements of radio engineering, elements of physics, electrical engineering, chemistry of uon-metallic elements, etc. What the school of education, the department of education, and the engineering group of classes have in common is that they are all interested in transmuting it from the hooks to the brains. They go about it in strangely similar ways: the p.l s and internes by daily luis routes and rehashes of their lecture notes for quizzes and class-room emergencies, the adult students and defense absorbers by careful attention to class-room happenings—and daily bus routes. —RITA CROSSMAN Dr. Tharp was our director of adult education as woll as diroctor of courses in war training and management. 19