Gradus Ad Parnassum
VISITORS TO alumni club meetings, and some of the members themselves, have expressed surprise at the interest of alumni of the College in the serious and most significant aspects of curricular matters in Hanover. The liberal arts college, its purposes and opportunities, and the particular objectives held by Dartmouth have long been subjects upon which President Hopkins has based his talks to the alumni. At the completion of an alumni speaking tour that took him to several southern centers last spring Dean Bill said that he had been held two or three hours after the dinners, answering, questions about the new curriculum and allied matters that are ordinarily held to be of major interest only to members of the faculty.
Dartmouth has stuck to its last in the matter of holding consistently to a liberal arts curriculum. There have been temptations to introduce one innovation or another that would have meant departures from the almost exclusive emphasis given to undergraduate courses. In this day of specialization and of using the colleges for training grounds for the advanced work of the universities there are not many colleges that have continued strictly in the liberal arts tradition.
Quite in line with the constant study and discussion that is given to courses of study, and in line with the occasional changes that have been made in the curriculum, is the new required course for freshmen, Social Science 1-2. The article by Professor Reigel this month is a description that has been requested by some number of alumni who have wanted to know about the background of the rather sweeping changes in the orientation process for freshmen, and the steps that led to this new approach to a study and appreciation of the social sciences.
A great amount of time and thought has been given by the social science depart- ments concerned to the problem of co- ordinating their courses more effectively. There has been as much committee re- search and discussion put on the problem of educating for better citizenship as would be required in averting a European war. Infinite patience, time and energy without limit, careful consideration before any detail of the plan was accepted or rejected—these are the prerequisites for a major change in the curriculum. This type and quality of service some number of men on the faculty have given, and continue to give, as progress is made in the search for the most effective social science program.
To prepare its undergraduates for intelligent citizenship is one of the primary objectives of the liberal arts college. And this the revised curriculum in the social sciences aims to do.
THE ELECTION, by the Athletic Council, of William H. McCarter '19 to the position of Director of Athletics is an excellent choice for one of the most difficult administrative tasks that can be found in a college. Mr. McCarter had served as the acting Supervisor of Athletics (the title is now changed to "Director") for 15 months. He took the work on, in addition to carrying some of his regular duties as assistant librarian of Baker Library, when Harry R. Heneage '07 was forced to relinquish the position owing to sudden illness more than a year ago. Mr. McCarter has gone through and survived two football seasons. In fact he has done such a thoroughly creditable job that the Athletic Council prevailed upon him to reconsider an earlier decision and to accept its offer of the position.
When it became apparent during the past summer that Mr. Heneage would not be able to direct the athletic program of the College again, his resignation was accepted and the search for a successor began. Mr. McCarter's decision at that time was that he would be willing to pinch hit for a few months. A full explanation of the thorough procedure of the Athletic Council in directing its search for a new man for the job has been given by Mr. McDavitt '00, chairman of the Council, in a statement sent to class and alumni club secretaries, class agents, and some others, through Mr. Dickerson's Bulletin, issued from the President's office. The statement also included a summary of the developments which finally resulted in the permanent appointment of Mr. McCarter to the position which he had held in a temporary capacity.
The list of qualifications for the ideal Director of Athletics calls for the perfect man. Working for weeks on end, largely within the walls of the Alumni Gymnasium, the Director is concerned with routine matters of organization and correspondence and one hundred and one details that require fair and quick decisions; then suddenly he may need to appear in the limelight as the College's principal athletic representative; he may be called upon to speak before public and alumni groups; he is constantly subjected to pressure of one sort or another, either from indignant purchasers of poor football seats, or a disturbed coach, a disgruntled player, or someone else with a story of grief. Throughout more than a year of testing under difficult conditions, Bill McCarter has achieved what might be regarded as the impossible. He has won the confidence of coaches, managers, and players on Dartmouth teams and he has earned the respect and admiration of those in Hanover and the alumni and others outside of Hanover for the very superior manner in which he has handled his job.
IN THIS ISSUE of the MAGAZINE there is presented a description of facilities that are available in New Hampshire for the skiing vacationist. Certain sections of the State have taken the lead in developing their natural resources for the accommodation and pleasure of skiers. And among these localities, Hanover must be given a prominent position. One may enumerate the attractions on Hanover Plain with pardonable superlatives. The Outing Club's new and proven ski tow (or "ski tramway" as it is preferably called), the new Moose Mt. trail, the golf course slopes for beginners, two expert skiing instructors and their ski schools, the reasonable and comfortable accommodations of the Hanover Inn (with the cordial hospitality of Ford and Peggy Sayre), Occom Pond cleared for skating (and flood lighted by night) and other natural or developed attractions make the village a mecca for winter visitors.
For the Dartmouth man and his family there is the added inducement of getting back to the College for a few days. A constant procession of lectures, concerts, movies, basketball and hockey games, and other events moves across the Hanover stage. For some visitors there is nothing that has greater appeal than to spend a portion of their time in daily visits to Baker Library where browsing in the Tower Room is, for many, a vacation in itself.
BUT THERE ARE other sections of northern New Hampshire that are equally attractive in their appeal for a vacation spot. The entire White Mountain region is now liberally dotted with inexpensive boarding houses and winter hotels; it is generously provided with ski trails, ski tows, and schools and expert instruction. The prediction has been made by members of the New Hampshire State Development Commission (in which Jim Langley '18 and Don Tuttle '00 are prominent) that there will be a 50% to 100% increase in visitors to the State's winter sports centers this year. If this prediction is borne out by fact the recreational "industry" in New Hampshire will enjoy a boom period. Those who have studied the State's economic predicament, recently made more acute by the dissolution of the Amoskeag Company in Manchester and the serious difficulties of the Brown Company in Berlin, feel that recreation will become, and must become, an increasingly important source of income in the State.
THE TRAFFIC problem on ski trails rears its head. Although there are some hundreds of miles of ski trails in New Hampshire and neighboring states, there is enough of a problem to prompt the State Development Commission in Concord to send out "Do's and Don't's" with the free "skiing map" that is now being distributed. Some of the rules for "UphillToilers" are:
1. Keep to the side of the trail. Downhillrunners always have the right of way.2. Keep your eyes up the trail where thedanger lies.3. Heed instantly the cry of "Track" bymoving to the side of the trail.4. If caught on the trail, Stand Still, Don'tDodge. And for "Downhill Runners":1. After a spill, get out of the way of downcoming runners, if possible.2. At the cry of "Track" allow the fasterrunner room to pass.The good skier is always under control.
The inexperienced skier, the dub, who reads these ominous rules of the road and still persists in going onto precipitous trails where experts are descending hellbent for election is nothing short of a damn fool. Perhaps you would relish being "caught on the trail," standing still (no dodging allowed) and having a split second to recall the folks back home. There is something to be said for open slopes where one can dodge at will.
THE SUCCESS of amazing winter sports shows in Boston and New York is a plain enough indication of the fever that has gripped the public. There was a tremendous growth of interest in skiing last winter. The thing has started in this past month where it left off last spring. Department stores in the cities are featuring skis, skiing clothing, and all the gadgets, as never before. There is one rumor going around that Macy's has sold 30,000 skis to date this winter. It is a fact that John Piane '14, founder and proprietor of the Dartmouth Co-operative Society, has disposed of more than five car loads of skis through his wholesale and retail business. He has also sold more than 2,000 dozen pairs of ski socks, and other items in proportion.
Charlie Dudley '29, one of Mr. Piane's principal buyers, went to Chicago last month where he was the center of attraction at Marshall Field's. He reports: "Thecrowd attending my lectures and exhibitions of equipment was so thick that Icouldn't put a pair of skis on the floor." Charlie Proctor '28 is another Dartmouth man who has for some time been prominently identified with the sport. He is now ski coach at Harvard. Jack McCrillis '19 and Otto Schniebs, until this year coach of the winter sports team, have enjoyed six editions of their popular ski manual Modern Ski Technique. Jim Campion '28 is another Hanover retailer whose ski shop is popular with students and visitors. And there are other stores in town whose ski clothing and equipment business is a major item. Many of the big department stores have buyers and "ski experts" who are Dartmouth graduates or have been associated with the development of skiing in the College.
Just where the horde of enthusiasts in Chicago are going to enjoy their winter sports is a mystery; and how often the folks in New York who are exhausting the available supply of skis and equipment down there are going to ski is an open question. But the fever is high. The bug has bitten. The epidemic has spread from its localized sources to the entire east and west and it now threatens the middle west.
Based on a tradition that goes back more than 25 years the Outing Club's leadership in skiing and winter sports has won national recognition to an increasing degree in recent years. There have been many forces at work in the tremendous growth of the popularity of recreation out-of-doors in the winter. The D. O. C. is reckoned prominently among those forces for it has, over a period of years, led the way in promoting outdoor winter activity at Dartmouth., both recreational and competitive.
THOSE WHO know the history of skiing in this country will tell you that there is one man, more than any other, who stands out among builders of the sport. This is Prof. Charles Proctor '00, of Hanover. For us and for other observers and publications in this country and abroad he is the "Father of American skiing." For a good many years Charlie Proctor was the dominant figure in a small group of men who worked constantly for the advancement of collegiate and amateur winter sports. Don't let his name or his fame in this connection be overlooked in the present rush of notables to the bandwagon.
THE FIRST official reaction at Dartmouth to the student papers' proposal that the Ivy League become something more than a myth was that we "will very probably be in favor." For most alumni the answer would probably be favorable. We have seen what good works have been accomplished by the leagues in basketball and baseball really an extraordinary revival of baseball when that league was set up some years back. Dartmouth is a member of the new international hockey league of eight colleges and we look forward to more exciting competition in this sport in
years to come. During the football season just passed the Big Green played six of the seven proposed colleges of the Ivy League, and the same thing will be true next season. It wouldn't be much of a change to include Penn, with whom Dartmouth has had football relations from time to time in the past. By setting their minds to the task of organization the athletic directors of the colleges concerned would surely evolve a plan with a minimum of rules and regulations and a maximum of promise for increased interest in eastern football. At least we are confident that football can be just as well handled in this way as are the other sports.
WHAT THE next step' may be (an important question at the present time) no one seems to know. Romeyn Berry, the sage of Ithaca, put it pretty well when he said that the Ivy League is like an attractive and friendly young lady in the midst of a company of interested but bashful young men. No one wants to make the first move! Undergraduate editors have made their move but the first step of significance will need to be taken by the athletic officials concerned. And apparently they regard the matter to be more complex than the League of Nations.
FROM ONE OF Dartmouth's best-known teachers and alumni comes a "Recipe for Education." It is a comprehensive formula, to understate the matter. Its author is Edwin Osgood Grover '94, of Rollins College, whose lifetime of teaching qualifies him to tell us what are the ingredients and the fine arts of technique that go to make up the great teacher, and that will, in turn, have their effect in educating the student. Here is Mr. Grover's recipe:
To infinite patience add a little wisdom,carefully strained through profitable experience. Pour in a brimming measure ofthe milk of human kindness, and seasonwell with the salt of common sense. Boilgently over a friendly fire made of fine enthusiasms, stirring constantly with just discipline. When it has boiled long enough tobe thoroughly blended, transfuse it by wiseteaching to the eager mind of a restless boyand set away to cool. Tomorrow he willgreet you an educated man.
DOUBTLESS MR. GROVER would hold that without any one of the ingredients the whole would be by that much unpalatable. The basis for the dish is "infinite patience" and a very human flavoring runs through his recipe. Might he not include "a dash of high scholarship," or "add advanced degrees to taste," or would "a pinch of published works" spoil the brew?
To attempt to analyze the qualities of the great teacher is to attempt what is largely impossible and what is sure to start a heated debate. For one man, admired and loved by his generations of students, it is enough to have infinite patience, a little wisdom, and the other elements in Mr. Grover's formula. For another teacher, the basis of his appeal may be great learning and a minimum of evidence of the human qualities upon which another man bases his career. Because of the intangibles in the thing the discussion must become a personal one and it soon turns to "Do youremember Old So-and-So? He was one ofthe finest men I've ever known." But from another graduate: "True enough, but hedidn't know his stuff the way Prof. Whoozisdid. He was the best writer and lecturerthey ever had at the Old College."
All very true. When alumni look back on their faculty associations many of them think of the very friendly, human qualities in their favorite teachers. Others recall the great learning or the tireless intellectual industry of the men under whom they studied.
But surely for most of us the great teacher is a blend. He has patience and wisdom and he is friendly. But he is also keen and alert, well-informed about many things and a master in his own field. He may be an indulgent father and spoil his own children with the milk of human kindness but with students he is a Dutch Uncle as often as he is a Father Confessor.
"THE FINEST COLLEGE LIBRARY IN THE COUNTRY." So the beautiful and spacious rooms of the Baker Library have been called by visitors tothe building. George F. Baker gave the funds for constructing the library in memory ofhis uticle, Fisher Ames Baker, of the Dartmouth class of 1859. Built at a cost of more thanone million dollars the library was dedicated in 1928. It was subsequently endoived byMr. Baker through a second gift of one million dollars. In it are stored on open stacks(freely accessible to all students) the 420,000 volumes in the library's possession. Visitingscholars from other sections of the country compliment Dartmouth upon the complete-ness of its library facilities and often state that they find research material in BakeiLibrary that is unexcelled or not available in many of the great libraries of the country.
