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Permit No. 217
Rocky Mount, N. C.
No:i-Profit Organization
(Even in the days of Caesar Agustus, A Decree went out.)
VOLUME Xm, NUMBER 11
ROCKY MOUNT, N. C,
TUESDAY. DECEMBER 7, 1971
Earnestine Dancy Is 1971 Queen
Helen Steiner ’71 Maid Of Honor
Miss Earnestine Dancy, Wesleyan’s 1971 Homecoming Queen,
and her escort, Mr, Marvin Pittman, stand before students
and alumni at the Homecoming Dance.
Ides OfMarchDue
On Campus Jan. 14
Helen Steiner and Tom Hard
ison, co-chairmen of theNCWC
Social Commission, announced
recently that the Ides of March
concert slated for January 14
at eight o’clock has now been
confirmed by Beacon Artists
of Chicago. The concert will
be held in Everett Gymnasium
which has a seating capacity of
1500.
“An informal atmosphere is
v/hat we’re after,” commented
Hardison, “The audience may
bring blankets, or sit in the
bleachers or folding chairs.”
By RALPH ROSE
Another exciting Homecoming
Weekend is now in the history
book of North Carolina Wes
leyan College. From decorating
to dancing, the weekend never
had a dull moment.
The Senior class started the
festivities on Monday, Novem
ber 29, with a Christmas tree
decorating party in the cafe
teria, On Thursday, December
2, the Cheerleaders sponsored
a pep rally in Everett Gym and
' a bonfire out by the Power Plant.
Also on Thursday, the Wesley
an College Theater had Its open-
A scene from Wesleyan Theatre’s “A Medieval Christmas
Pageant.” The Wesleyan Chamber Singers sing praises this
adoration of the Magi.
/. Question
The Plymouth Experiment
By DR. SIM WILDE
For some time now. Educa
tion experts have questioned
whether the traditional student
teaching program is an adequate
means for preparing college
students to teach in our pub
lic schools.
Most colleges require their
prospective teachers to takei a
blend of courses including gen
eral education, a specific teach
ing field, and professional ed
ucation, The coursework is cli
maxed with a so-called block
program in the senior year
which involves a theoretical
study of teaching methods and a
start at full-time teaching un
der the supervision of an ex
perienced teacher in a local
school.
Several problems have devel
oped with this approach. In the
first place, students have no
exposure to the classroom as a
teacher until their final year of
college, most often the final
semester. If they do not like
it or are not good teacher po
tential, it is too late to change.
Secondly, too much of the pre
paration for teaching is theore
tical, Students spend a lot of
time talking about teaching, but
rarely doing much teaching. In
the third place, the student
teaching experience is unreal
istic primarily because the
supervisory teacher is always
hovering near and the student
teacher is never fully on his
own or held responsible for his
performance.
In order to overcome some
of the drawbacks, the Division
of Education and Experimental
Programs has experimented o-
ver the past two years with
several new approaches to the
student teaching experience. I
have taught for three summers
now in a program sponsored
by the Roanoke Rapids, N. C.
Schools and funded by the Ed
ucation Professions Develop
ment Act. Essentially, the pro
gram attempted to train col
lege graduates who had not ta
ken student teaching to be teach
ers by having them teach chil
dren in a short, intensive sum
mer school under my supervi
sion and that of experienced
teachers. Those who took the
training were evaluated each
year by the N. C. State De
partment of Public Instruction
and the Learning Institute of
North Carolina. Their conclu
sions were that those teachers
produced by this training pro
gram were as good or better
than teachers who had been
through standard college teach
er education programs. The
program has now been termin
ated, but it did prove that teach
ers could be trained in ways
other than the trad-itional blocki
program.
Another approach has been to
design May Term projects that
put students into classrooms
and schools as early as the
freshman year. Still another has
been to maximize exposure to
classrooms during the standard
block program and minimize thli
time spent in college classes
discussing how to teach. In the
Winter Term of 1972, for ex
ample, student teachers will
spend Tuesdays and Thursdays
at their teaching assignments
while they are still taking meth
ods courses.
By far the most promising
experiment we have tried is
being conducted in cooperation
with the Washington County
Schools in Plymouth, N. C.,
East Carolina University, and
Elizabeth City State University.
The Washington County Schools
received a grant under Title
(Oontinufid On Page 3)
ing night of the Medieval Christ
mas Pageant in the Ex
perimental Theater. The show
ran three nights and was re
garded by many as a living
Christmas card.
On Friday, the Wesleyan
campus was blessed with the ar
rival of snow and alumni. A
Christmas spirit was even fur
ther generated by Pi Epsilon
who decorated the windows of
the Snack Bar. Friday night,
Alpha Delta Chi held a party
at the home of Mr. Lewis
Graves, and Circle K held one
at the Boat Club.
Nu Gamma Phi won the race
around Tyler Drive with a time
of 4:02 minutes. One of their
relay runners, Scott Logan,
reached a top speed of 22 m.p.h.
during his relay section. At 2
Wesleyan Singers
Present Annual
Christmas Concert
News Bureau—Jara Jinno of
Chapel Hill, first harpist with
the N.C. Symphony Orchestra
will appear in N.C. Wesleyan
College’s Twelfth Annual
Christmas Concert on Tuesday,
Dec. 7, at 8:15 p.m. in Ever
ett Gymnasium.
An outstanding selection of
the evening will be Benjamin
Britten’s “A Ceremony of Ca
rols,” the most popular Christ
mas work written in this cen
tury, featuring only women’s
voices accompanied by Miss
Jinno on the harp. Dr, William
G, Sasser, Chairman of Wes
leyan’s Music Department, will
direct the women Wesleyan
Singers in this presentation.
Another highlight of the con
cert will be “Carols in Tra
ditional Style” composed e-
specially for this concert by Dr,
John Davis of the Wesleyan
music faculty. This work, four
selections, will be sung by the
Wesleyan Chamber Singers, di
rected by Dr, Davis.
Four student music majors
who are studying choral con
ducting, Steve Williams, Debbie
Pifer, Terry Stalls, and Chris
Scott, will each direct one se
lection in Part II of the pro
gram, a presentation of four
English Christmas Carols,
Soloists for the concert are:
sopranos, Marjorie Stevens of
Council, Christine Scott ofSea-
brook, Md., Deborah Pifer of
Durham, and Earnestine Dancy
of Battleboro; alto, Phyllis Sut
ton of Clinton; mezzo-soprano,
Doragene Gurganus ofWilming-
ton; tenors, Scott Wilkinson of
Kitty Hawk, and Danny Shep
hard of Vinton, Va.; baritones,
William Neale of West Point,
• Va,, and John Morton of New
Bern: and bass, Jim Keeter
of Morehead City,
o’clock, the Wesleyan cagers
tipped off the ole basketball
and handed UNC-Greensboro
a 74-71 defeat. BillMansonwas
nign scorer of the game with
18 points. During the half-time,
Tom Hardison presented the
Homecoming Court to Wesley
an students, alumni and guests.
Also during half-time, Carol
Roane was announced as the
winner of the Cheerleader’s
Spirit Chain Contest,
At 9 P,M., the sixth annual
NCWC Homecoming Dance be
gan, The utterly fantastic group
“Liberation” provided a musi
cal evening which shall long be
remembered. After a lot of
dancing and a great deal of an
ticipation, Tom Hardison an
nounced Miss Helen Steiner,
Senior Class candidate, as the
1971 Homecoming Maid of Hon
or. Dean Cordts presented Hel
en with her ribbon and flowers.
Neal Roper then announced Miss
Ernestine Dancy, Nu Gamma
Phi sweetheart, as the 1971
Homecoming Queen, and she
was crowned by Allen Winter,
S,G,A, President, Miss Dancy
was escorted by Mr, Marvin
Pittman, and Miss Steiner was
escorted by Mr, Hugh Cross,
The 1971 Homecoming would
not be complete without extend
ing a very big vote of thanks
to Helen Steiner, Tom Hardi
son, Dean Alexander and
Cordts and the entire Social
Commission for performing an
outstanding job in making the
festivities a success.
10 New Members
Chosen By Activists
The North Carolina Wesley
an Activists, a men’s honorary
fraternity established in 1967,
tapped ten new members during
last Thursday’s convocation. As
announced by President Mar
shall Old, These men are Dave
Forrest, Wayne Souza, Ned Hill,
Joe Vinson, Jim Keeter, Dave
Cole, Allen Winter, Steve Wil
liams, Doug Kozlowski, and
Marvin Pittmen, These people
were chosen from the junior and
senior classes for their parti
cipation in two of five major
areas: campus publications,
fine arts, scholarship, athle
tics, and student government
activities.
Currently the Activists are
working for their charter from
Omicron Delta Kappa, a nation
al honor fraternity, and they
expect to receive this charter
during February 1972, When the
Wesleyan group receives this
charter, they will become the
third such group in North Car
olina, following Duke Univer
sity and Davidson College, For
their campus service project
this year, Wesleyan Activists
will sponsor the American Red
(Continued On Page 3)