Calculations of the benefits of the six weeks’ summer course at North Idaho Teachers college, which will end Friday, to approach accuracy must include the radiation of educational, recreational and cultural activities extending from the institution to the students and from the students to the community, state and nation.
Maintaining a highly trained faculty and offering courses appealing to students of divergent interests and ages, as well as continuing its war effort in the WTS training for naval cadets and participating in a youth activities program, the college has performed a useful function in an efficient way.
Of the 104 students registered for the summer course, President Glenn W. Todd said that 40 have completed the two-year course and are working toward a bachelor degree in education. Thirty-four will be granted certificates, of whom 15 will be new teachers. Six will receive life certificates for teaching in the elementary schools of Idaho. Three will complete work for a bachelor of arts degree and will be granted certificates for advanced grades.
Besides the refresher courses for teachers, all of the regular college background fields preparatory for teaching have been offered during the summer course including classes in English and literature, history, sociology and government, educational theory and practice, psychology, mental measurements, music, art, physical and health education, science, mathematics, manual arts and geography.
Representing the student body, Mrs. Trula Enoch, president, who is continuing her studies during the summer session, after attending classes last term, has declared the intense efforts put into the course by both students and faculty has brought excellent results. Mrs. Enoch is enthusiastic about the educational opportunities offered by the college.
Among students expressing appreciation of the college is Mrs. Olive Vivian, principal of the Garfield school and dean of teachers in the Lewiston public schools in point of years of service, who says the training she has received will be of inestimable value to her in the administration of her duties during the coming term.
Many Advantages
Commercially the community has been enriched by no mean sum by the expenditures of the students for housing, sustenance and clothing, as well as by the purchase of supplies for the operation of the college. This phase of the program, however, has been of negligible importance in comparison to the enlivening effect of having this million dollar plant in operation. Grade school pupils on vacation have enjoyed the recreational advantages at the college through the institution’s cooperation with the youth activities committee, representing 62 civic, fraternal and social organizations of Lewiston that have city and county financial support for a supervised play program for the summer season. The college has also assisted in recruiting supervisors for the play program. Residents of Lewiston and the surrounding area have been given the opportunity of attending the entertainments of the college lyceum course during the summer, which has been a cultural advantage not to be discounted.
The state of Idaho, several other states of the west and the territory of Alaska will be benefited from the training of teachers during the summer session. There will be some new instructors to assist in relieving the teacher shortage and experienced teachers will have new information to put into effect in their classrooms. Mrs. Viah Dodge, former graduate of the college, among those completing work at the session for her bachelor degree in education, has accepted a government teaching position in Alaska for the coming term. Other teachers have contracts in schools in Idaho and adjacent states.
For teachers brushing up on technique, a teaching clinic has been held under the direction of Miss Grace Widman, who has a master’s degree in education from the teachers college of Columbia university. She has had the cooperation of other faculty members. The group enrolled for this work has made case studies of children attending the laboratory school and have had the assistance of nurses, physicians, social workers and psychologists in determining problems of pupil adjustment that have been solved either in practice or theory.
This story was published in the July 16, 1944, edition of the Lewiston Tribune.
