University of Wisconsin Oshkosh - Quiver Yearbook (Oshkosh, WI)

Page 24 text:

The President’s Message Tick legacy of war has been the bitter fruit of defeat; no nation nor business, nor social agency, nor individual has escaped, but each of them must l ear its share of the ill effects. Mismanagement has played its part but here there is lack of unanimity of opinion concerning the degree of blame attaching to the component l arts of our social structure. We do not hold with those who teach that our tribulations have l ecn brought on to chasten Western Civilization and that the inevitable outcome is a return to the simplicity of life which our forefathers knew. The techniques and machinery of production are here: the will to use them shows signs of stiffening according to its need; and young people who in increasing numlKM's are students in a real sense arc doing more than read the s| orts page in newspapers. Knowledge, facts, information, are the bases of thinking and these the schools are fitted to provide. Change in itself has no virtue; nor has conservatism. The school cannot now and probably never can be a substitute for ratiocination, although some j eoples have and are attempting to substitute the one for the other. Students, we are confident, will become articulate as community leaders; and the reasoned opinions of young | cople are not rejected as they once were. This is a new age in the sense that great and momentous changes have taken place but only strict appraisal of every step will insure that the net result is progress. This school has held its own in material equipment, the faculty has been keenly alive to the challenge of the times, and the faculty and administration agree that students have exhibited a desire to work hard and think with that discrimination which is the most hopeful of all signs while history is in the making. If the method of the natural sciences can lie adapted to the social sciences, then conclusions based on factual material will replace biased opinion and our country will suffer less from the blight of hysteria and emotion. A philosophy precedes or should precede action ; therefore not all our guiding principles can be subjected to laboratory analysis nor do they admit the use of statistical method. W e shall heed the injunction “prove all things; hold fast to that which is good in our evaluation of courses, content, and social phenomena but imagination and a forward look have long been needed. There arc signs that a balance has l ecn struck lietween adherence to outworn formulae and unworkable theory. It is not alone to students now enrolled nor to those who are about to become alumni, but also toward that great body of citizens, whether still teachers or not, that the College looks for aid and leadership. This book is dedicated to the Alumni of this College; it is both an expression of the pride the present students feel in our alumni and a confidence in their achievements vet to come.

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QUIVER Mr. E. A. C'lkmaxs Vice President I N spite of the gloomy present, the future holds out to the young men and women 1 who are entering the field of teaching a golden promise of op| ortunity. Our schools are being critically examined as never before. They are pronounced costly, wasteful, extravagant, inefficient, and incompetent. The traditional foes of free education have seized the moment of financial distress to launch an attack on our school system that is certain to do distinct harm. That reevaluations of our school and our school subjects are necessary is not to be denied, but critical judgment rather than prejudice and hysteria should determine the needed changes. Out of the present welter of attack and criticism will emerge a new kind of school, freed of much accumulated dead timber and meeting more nearly than before the needs of each individual pupil. In this work of reconstruction, the present younger members of the teaching profession will take a leading part.