The Oriole, April 1925

Praise youth and it - • * _ _ To be fond of learn- л\Ш advance to suc¬ cess. THE ORIOLE ing is to be at the gate of knowledge. Vol. 4-No. 7 APRIL, 1925 STOP! LOOK! LISTEN! Ferhaps not many members of the student body have understood what we have heen doing in the last few weeks in a new educational venture. The to-do and bustle in the Elemen¬ tary School on four recent occasions has concerned the judging of some of the students who have done their practice teaching in the rural schools ir. Baltimore County. Last year the Towson National Bank offered an honor award of $20.00 to the student doiug the best teaching in a one or two-room school during his twelve weeks of practice. So far, the com¬ petition has brought forth four stu¬ dents, Mr. John Gildea, Mr, Josiab Blacklock, Baltimore County; Miss Lillian Kenlon, Prince George Coun¬ tv. aud Miss Emma Bowman, Car- roll County. The plan has been to choose topics for demonstration teachiug which are comparable in. difficulty of preparation, presenta¬ tion. and educative results. Miss Lillian Kenlon taught history in the Third Grade. "Transportation in Early Maryland"; Miss Emma Bow¬ man taught history in the Fifth Grade, "Improvement in Industrial Situations Through Communication — Telephone and Telegraph”; Mr. John Gildea taught history in the Fifth Grade, "Improvement in Agri¬ culture Through Inventions”; Mr. Josiah Blacklock taught history in the Fiftn Grade, "Life on a Southern Plantation, Mt. Vernon as the Type.” The instructors who observed and rated the students were Mr. Hulsizer, Miss Brcwn, Miss Halberg. (all di¬ rectors of practice); Miss Van Bib¬ ber. Chairman of the History In¬ structors; Mr. Waltber, Chairman of the Georaphy Instructors, and head of the Subject-Matter Bepartment; the grade teachers, M-iss Buckley, -Mr. Phipps, Miss Fitzgerald, and Miss Lida Lee Tall. There are four candidates to be chosen from this term's practice teaching group, namely, Bessie Ar- lerburn. Howard County; Evelyn Gibbons, Baltimore County; Grace Jones, Wicomico County, and Anna Morlock, Harford County. The awards will finally be made the first "eek in June. The Towson National Bank has extended to this school a real challenge, and has put the Rural Department upon its metal to such an extent that it is growing to be the liveliest Deparment in the school. LIDA LEE TALL, Principal. OUR WISH COMES TRUE. Dr. Kilpatrick Of Teachers’ College, Speaks At Assembly. Perhaps the greatest of all the treats given the student body of this year was the address by Dr. Kilpat¬ rick, of Columbia University Teach¬ ers’ College, Thursday, April 2, 1925. As Miss Tall said in introducing him, he is one of our first ten in education. Often after reading an educational book or other literary work of some author we have wished to see the author and hear him speak. The assembly on Thursday was indeed a dream which came true. Dr. Kilpatrick’s topic was “Public Opinion." which he divided into sub- topics: (1) What it is and how it acts; (2) How it is built; (3) How it may aci badly; (4) What we can do to build it up to work right. In the development of the topic he said: "Each nation at the begin¬ ning of the World War tried to get Public Opinion on its side. The in¬ fluence of public opinion is felt in country, State, county and city. Most of all our own course of actions is guided by public opinion. We follow the course taken by the big men in our field. This is true everywhere, even in school, where the Seniors are the big fellows. The rest of us follow rather blindly and do little thinking of our own. In the past this was more notice¬ able than at present, especially with the women. But look at the women now! When Public Opinion acts at its best we have life at its best. Each one of the group shares the opinion. This gives volume and strength to it. When this works in this way, everyone counts. Democracy is at its best. Remember that the stand that Public Opinion takes governs the way things go. If we stand for the right, our opinion will go for the right; if for the wrong it will go for the wrong. Any opinion on a side so that we take active sides, is a response to a situation i. e. — stimulus, response, bond. If the response takes definite lines, then we say that habits have been built. Practices which give satisfaction build up the opinion. Practices which produce dissatisfac¬ tion tear down Public Opinion. The sides we take in Public Opin¬ ion should be thought out carefully | in advance. Good argument should Published Monthly by Students of Maryland State Normal School, Towson, Md. govern our acceptance of an opinion, and we should know what causes sat¬ isfaction. A man you like will be more likely to influence you than one you don’t admire. Look behind the source to the argument itself. One lnieof the demagogue is to tell funny stories and put over the rest of his argument to us, because we like his stories. Another method is to.appeai to our emotions in a way that will cause us to follow blindly and to disregard the substance. Repetition, over and over, since childhood, serves to strengthen an opinion, and we are likely to accept it, not because it is right, but because we have had it drilled into us. You hear often of this opinion when someone says “He is a bred in the bone Republican.” It is all prob¬ ably due to the fact that his parents were Republicans and they have forced their opinions on him through repetition of views. (2) How is public opinion built? Any opinion built on stimulus, re¬ sponse. bonds, is built like any other such bonds, i. e. — by exercise and effect. We must not follow these bonds immediately and without knowledge of their source and con¬ tent, but should weigh them care¬ fully and not accept blindly every¬ thing put to us. If there is any Saw in one bond, look each over carefully for other flaws. If the opinion is valid after examination, hold on to it. Be sure, however, that you have good reasons for so doing if you are called upon to defend your opinion. (3) How may people act badly under the influence of Public Opin¬ ion ? Always we must look into the source of our opinions. It may have been built by a narrow, selfish people who got satisfaction from its usage. We don't know enough of how the rest of the world thinks or acts. Not knowing all the facts, we must scrutinize newspapers, consider their source of information and learn to judge from them. Facts should be dug out and weighed. Emergencies should find us with all our faculties alert, and ready to meet them. All of us get satisfaction from be¬ lieving things about the other side. This is especially true in war. Our emotions are stirred up. We do not stop to reason out the matter, but follow blindly the way our emotions point. In school a situation confronts us. Things that happen in the shcoolrocm are likely to ex¬ cite us and cause us to take sides (Continued on Page 2)