Newspapers / The pilot. / Oct. 1, 1953, edition 1 / Page 4
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WHO . . . YOU? THE FIFTH FREEDOM NEW FACULTY MEMBERS (L. to R.) Mrs. Dana Harris, Dr. Robert Elliott, Mr. John W. Long, Mr. Julian Ham rick, Mrs. Louise Flybon. THOSE NEW "FACULTEERS" Five new members have joined the faculty at Gardner- Webb this year. The new man in, the business office that we all met at the first of school is Mr. Julian Hamrick from Shel by, North Cai’olina. He attended Mars Hill College and the Uni versity oi' North Carolina. Prior to accepting the position as business manager at Gardner-Webb, Mr. Hamrick was a Public Accountant auditor in Atlanta, Georgia. Our new librarian is Mrs. Louise Plybon who previously held positions as head of the department of library science at Appalachian State Teachers College and librarian in the Charlotte City schools. Mrs. Plybcn holds a B.S. degree from Appalachian State Teacher’s College and an M.S. degree in library science from George Peabody College. In the Public Relations office we find Mr. John Worth Long. He attended college here at Gardner-Webb, Wake For est College, and Crozer Theological Seminary, Chester, Pennsyl vania. In addition to liis duties as Director of Public Relations for Gardner-Webb, Mr. Long also teaches speech. Mr. Lawson Allen is the new teacher of Religious Educa tion which includes Church Administration and Church Or ganization. He directs the night school at Gardner-Webb and inaugurated the Evening Commercial School on our campus. Mr. Allen taught on our campus from 1944 to 1946. He attended the University of Tennessee, Wake Forest, Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, Louisville, Kentucky, and Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, Fort Worth, Texas. Before com ing to Gardner-Webb, Mr. Allen did Religious Education work in Winston-Salem, N. C. and Spartanburg, S. C. Mrs. Dana Harris from Shelby, North Carolina is our new teacher of freshman English. She attended Winthrop College, University of New York, and the University of North Carolina. Before coming to Gardner-Webb, Mrs. Harris taught at West ern Carolina Teacher’s College, Brenau College, and worked with the State Department in Raleigh. The new professor in the Social Studies’ Department is Dr. Robert Elliott, who for the past few years has been a gradu ate instructor in the Department of History at the University of North Carolina. Dr. Elliott received his B.S. degree from Appalachian State Teachers’ College, and his Ph.D. from the University of North Carolina. During World War II, from 1942 - 1946, Dr. Elliott was a photographer for the United States Army Air Force. (Editor’s Note: This week’s guest editorial is by Seymour St. John, headmaster of the Choate School, Wallingford, Conn.) I.icra than three centuries ago a handful of pioneers cross ed the ; cean t3 Jamestown and Plymouth in search of freedoms tl.ey were unable to find in their own countries, the freedoms 0 stiil cherish today: freedom frcm want, freedom from fear, freedom of speech, freedom of religion. Today the descendants cf the early settlers, and those who have joined them since, are fighting to protect these freedoms at home and through out the world. And yet there is a fifth freedom—basic to those four—that we are in danger of losing: the freedom to be one’s best. St. Exupery describes a ragged, sensitive-faced Arab child, haunt ing the streets of a North African town, as a lost Mozart: he would never be trained or developed. Was he free? “No one grasped you by the shoulder while there was still time; and nought will awaken in you the sleeping poet or musician or astronomer that possibly inhabited you from the beginning.” The freedom to be one’s best is the chance for the development of each person to his highest power. How is it that we in America have begun to lose this free dom, and hew can we regain it for our nation’s youth? I be lieve It has started slipping away from us because of three great misunderstandings. First, the misunderstanding of the meaning of democracy. The principal of a great Philadelphia high school is driven to cry for help in combating the notion that it is undemocratic to run a special program of studies for outstanding boys and girls. Again, when a good independent school in Memphis recently closed some thoughtful citizens urged that it be taken over by the public-school system and used for boys and girls of high ability; that it have entrance requirements and given an advanced program of studies to superior students who were interested and able to take it. The proposal was rejected be cause it was undemocratic! Out of this misunderstanding comes the middle-muddle. Courses are geared to the middle of the class. The good student is unchallenged, bored. The loafer re ceives his passing grade. And the lack of an outstanding course for the outstanding student, the lack of a standard which a boy or girl must meet, passes for democracy. The second misunderstanding concerns what makes for happiness. The aims of our present-day culture are avowedly ease and material well-being: shorter hours; a shorter week; more return for less accomplishment; more soft-soap excuses and fewer honest, realistic demands. In our schools this is re flected by the vanishing hickory stick and the emerging psy chiatrist. The hickory stick had its faults, and the psychiatrist has his strength. But the trend is clear: Tout comprendre c’est tout pardonner. Do we really believe that our softening standards bring happiness? Is it our sound and considered judgment that the tougher subjects of the classics and mathe matics should be thrown aside, as suggested by some educa tors, for doll-playing? Small wonder that Charles Malik, Leba nese delegate at the U. N., writes: “There is in the West”— in the United States—“a general weakening of moral fiber. (Our) leadership does not seem to be adequate to the un precedented challenges of the age.” The last misunderstanding is in the area of values. Here are some of the most influential tenets of teacher education over the past fifty years: there is no eternal truth; there is no absolute moral law; there is no God. Yet all of history has taught us that the denial of these ultimates, the placement of man or state at the core of the universe, results in a para lyzing mass selfishness; and the first signs of it are already frighteningly evident. Arnold Toynbee has said that all progress, all development come from challenge and a consequent response. Without challenge there is no response, no development, no freedom. So first we owe to our children the most demanding, challeng ing curriculum that is within their capabilities. Michelangelo did not learn to paint by spending his time doodling. Mozart was net an accomplished pianist at the age of eight as the result of spending his days in front of a television set. Like Eve Curie, like Helen Keller, they responded to the challenge of their lives by a disciplined training: and they gained a new freedom. The second opportunity we can give our boys and girls is (Continued on Page 12) Page 3
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