University of Virginia - Corks and Curls Yearbook (Charlottesville, VA)

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1905 . CORKS AND CURLS 5 his arduous task, we feel inclined to ask whether he has already justified the ample expectation of those who rated him highest. Assuming that the student-body would with hearty accord answer with a reverberant yes, I beg leave to trace for the information and encouragement of determined youth the steps by which Dr. Alderman has mounted to this proud eminence. Born in Wilmington, North Carolina, in the spring of 1861, when the South- land was hopefully engaged in a dauntless struggle, he is too much the product of the. 01d regime to recall it without profoundest sympathy, but too, much iden- tihed with life since that strenuous day to live in the past with sighs 0f disap- pointment. His origin was in the Old South with its memories and its pathos, but his life ripened into manhood in the New South of hopeful effort and trium- phant energy. His education was begun in the best schools of his native city and continued with uniform progress until he was sent to Virginia for his academic preparation. He entered Bethel Academy, near Warrenton, Virginia, and became for a time the adopted son of the State to which he has now returned with expectations of permanent abode. At Bethel too he became in a double sense a grandson of the University Of Virginia, for Bethel Academy was tributary to this institution and her principal, W. W. Smith, now Chancellor of the Randolph-Macon System, was then fresh from her halls. But the young student, prepared to enter upon his university career, did not accompany his schoolmates t0 the University of Virginia, but returned to his Own home and in the fall of 1878 entered the University of North Carolina. His career there was eminently successful. He was a careful student, but not disinclined to the legitimate recreations and diversions of this isolated life. Athletics then played very small part in the college world, but social life was perhaps for that very reason of far more signihcance than now. No doubt the gracious courtesy of his present bearing is in part due to his cultivation of his social nature. In 1882, he graduated from the University of North Carolina with the degree of Bachelor of Philosophy. His intention then was to enter upon the study Of the law, but he gladly accepted for the following year a position in the-new graded school in Greensboro, the first of its kind in his State. His success was pro- nounced, and for the next session his salary was increased and his services re- tained. His enthusiasm in his new-found art was contagious, and his successful zeal was unconsciously determining for him his vocation. In this school is rooted Dr. Alderinanis interest in public school work. He is no recent and reluctant con- vert to an inevitable system, but an ardent advocate of the public schools because he saw for himself, in the time Of his opening manhood, the potency and possibility of this plan for training all the people. His executive talents were soon recognized, i- ;. NA .r.-4sr-ur'

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4s CORKS AND CURLS 'VOLXVIII Dr. Edwin Anderson Alderman , l A Summary Study Of Educational Evolution. N a fast train from Atlanta, I was homeward bound a year ago last January, with several traveling companions who had been attende ing an educational conference in that city, On the car Hon. Wm. T. Harris, United States Commissioner of Education, beckoned me to a seat opposite him, and soon we were deep in converSation. In time the talk fell upon the proposed Presidency of the University of Virginia. Finally Dr. Harris asked with intelligent interest, ii Well. what do you want a president for? ii At some length I dwelt upon the main advantages as I saw them; wise and enthusiastic leadership of the students, coordinationiand conservation of the faculty forces, consistent primacy in plans and policies for the University's good, the democratization of the Uni- versity without loss of its birthright of aristocratic origin and history, the identifi- , , L cation of the University with other educational movements, the representation of f the University away from home, and possibly the attraction of comely beneficences. L He heard me with flattering patience, and with surprising promptness ejaculated; Ll All that you have said points with both hands t1 recall his phrasel to one man. Astonished at the readiness with which he reached a conclusion that then seemed so far away from our Board of Visitors, I asked with expectancy. LL Who? ii ti Dr. Alderman of Tulane? It was then his time to speak and in me he found a willing and appreciative listener as he discoursed with freedom and personal satisfaction of his avowed candidate. He told how some years before in the very city from which we were returning he had heard Dr. Alderman for the first time and how while listening to the speech he had drawn from his pocket a postal card and hurriedly scratched a note to Dr. Butler, the editor of the leading educational review in America, words to thiseffect: ll Write at once to Dr. Alderman for the speech he is now delivering. It should by all means appear in your next number? Then he spoke of the grow- ing appreciation with which he had followed Dr. Alderman's career, noting his charm of speech and under it his sound educational philosophy, his catholic zeal v for the education of all the peopleiand his dominant tact that assured success. 4 Now that the hands that then metaphorically pointed to Dr. Alderman have been in fact extended, as those of all the Universityis friends. to welcome him to L v L l 3, l W. -...-,..-.l':;.:.' sTQ-rv-z-4Tr wwe 9.5m . .a.

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M 6 CORKS AND CURLS VOL.XVIII M; and from the. schoolroom he was promoted in 1885 to the superintendentis office and put in charge of the cityis schools. In this position he became fully co.n- Versant with the problems of the city school. It was this information derived nrst 3 from his own experience but enlarged by the knowledge he is always drawing from i the experience of others that makes him so pointed and practical a speaker to i municipal audiences. His next promotion, in 1889, was again a significant step in his own education, With his warm personal friend, Charles D. McIver, he was made State Institute Instructor. T hose two instructors, elected by the State Board, Of Education and directed by the State Superintendent, began an educational crusade. Their mis- sion took them to every part of the Old North State and their devotion to- the work set aHanie the Commonwealth. It was in this daily contact with the people, in this - persistent study of the peoples problems that he was fixed in his catholic sym- pathies and in his desire to have some larger part in their struggles and successes. The value of this experience to a man soon to. become a college president was inestimable for no institution can be guilty of the folly of aloofness when its president has trod with true sympathy the pressed paths of the common people. In was but another step, and that logical, when he was summoned in 1892, from these irregular and sporadic class-meetings 0f the teachers to the daily round of the professoris career. But his pupils were still teachers or teachers to be. This position, however, of Professor of History and English in the North Carolina State Normal and Industrial College, Of which his friend Dr. McIver is now president, he was permitted to hold but one session. His Alma Mater following with pride his career of large service and scholastic enthusiasm bade him to her circle in 1893 as a member of the Faculty. He was now Professor of Pedagogy, but he took no narrow view of this art of teaching. His theme was rather the history of human civilization as it revealed itself in the solution of educational problems. The course became very popular and his hearers caught some of his enthusiasm for the honored art of teaching. In 1896, there was a vacancy in the presidency of his own University. Per- haps the curators reached with hesitancy the conclusion that the young professor, but thirty-five years old and with but three years of professional experience was best suited for the position they had to iill. Over against their inherent timidity and reluctance was his successful career as teacher, superintendent, instructor, and professor in the order of climax. This gave promise and well nigh afforded the guarantee that the new duties would be performed with conscientious devotion and regnant common sense. It seems to have been characteristic of Dr. Alderman that he has filled every position with such abundant fullness as to break over its bounds into some larger and better place. It was in keeping with this history of -. Wwwwf;sktwuws V ,.---.1 ' '