Teachers Go To College
Fifty Two Faculty Members in Cooperative Movement Study Mathematics, Physics, and Graphics to Help War Effort
THE FACULTY HAS GONE BACK TO COLLEGE. On mornings with the thermometers registering 18 to 24 degrees below zero they get up in the dark for early classes. They go six days a week to Wilder, McNutt, or Dartmouth Hall carrying notebooks and take courses entirely different from their own, subjects that many of them haven't touched for 30 years. The hours range from one and a half in math, 4 hours in physics, to eight hours a day in graphics.
These subjects may never be taught by them as the College does not know at this time that these men will be needed as instructors. structors. War Manpower Commission plans call for training of Army and Navy cadets at colleges, with curriculum emphasis on instruction in the sciences. As a result of hard work by these men during the four-week winter vacation Dartmouth will be amply staffed to handle elementary science teaching for large numbers of re- cruits, should such a development occur. But even if they never teach physics or mathematics to men in the Army or Navy, the view is universal among them that it has been great fun and that it has done them a lot of good.
The exactness of the sciences will certainly help to make them better teachers. They will better understand student difficulties for they are having them themselves. They are mixing with men some of whom they see only once or twice a year across the aisles of the Faculty meeting room. They are showing a cooperative effort at a real personal sacrifice. Many of them were tired out after five semesters of consecutive work with no appreciable vacation and yet they have gone on day after day in a speeded-up course which would be difficult even in normal times.
I strolled over to Wilder Physics building the other morning to see the physics class in action. There is an hour lecture beginning at B.go, and from 9.30 to noon the students work in the laboratory. The whole physics department is generously giving its vacation period to the course: Professors Meservey, Murch, Proctor, Tanch, Gilbert, King, Nordstrom, Hadley, and Mason. In four weeks they cover all of Physics 1. Twenty-eight of the Dartmouth faculty are taking the course. John Stearns, a classicist and archaeologist, described his main troubles as a great lack of math, a lack of common sense, and a bad case of general debility. But if you look at the picture you will see that his actions belie his words. Fletcher Low, professor of chemistry, hadn't had physics for thirty years and said that his greatest difficulty was in keeping his units straight. Allen Foley, of the history department, was finding the terminology difficult—the terms work, pressure, force have specific meanings in physics which are different from those in history or in ordinary thought.
All agree that there is a great deal of pressure in covering so great a subject in so short a time. The number of facts that must be learned makes it difficult. Latin Professor Messer was listening to Dr. Meservey demonstrating the function of a slide rule. There was a terrific long formula on the board which Meservey explained would take a very long time to compute on paper but with a slide rule and in a few seconds he had. the answer it was easy and quick. Messer looked astonished and said, "Do you mean to say you just did that?" So the classicist learns to appreciate the scientist, and vice versa.
Mike Choukas (sociology), who comes over every morning from across the river, was measuring a fine wire which later turned out, after some amazing calculations, to have been the window cord. Ted Karwoski (psychology) emphasized the practicality of what they were learning and doing, found it very interesting, and though it went pretty fast for him, by plugging away, he was keeping up. Jerry Lathrop (art) admitted that half the time he didn't know what he was doing or why. But the measuring of angles, the study of the density of liquids, friction, etc., goes on. The men who teach the social sciences, and those who. teach in the "impractical" humanities are developing an understanding and appreciation of the exact sciences, and for the fine teaching of them. The physicists are, on the other hand, finding their students reacting just as they have always hoped students would react. Yes, hour examinations are given.
Bancroft Brown is teaching what Frank Garran calls "Conversion Mathematics" a term which Bancroft likes very much. It seems to include, he thinks, all the seven sacraments from baptism to extreme unction. All he requires of his students, he said, is that they should have gotten through the sixth grade, that they know the multiplication table up to 9 (especially 9xB) and it is a great advantage to be able to count one's fingers. The actual basis of the course is Math 3a-4a which is a one year course in math, designed for students who aren't good at mathematics. Mr. Brown starts with the assumption, generally valid, that his students know nothing. He has picked out from standard courses the things that men will need, and out of these elements he has made an astounding unity. It is the kind of mathematics needed for the Army and Navy and it is not too technical. Men who take it understand all kinds of computations. Professor Brown connects his mathematics with maps, globes, and even history, so that the course is really fascinating.
Professor Walter C. Behrendt, authority on city planning, told me that Bancroft Brown was the most interesting teacfier he had ever had. He connects cal problems with history and civilization. He dissipates most men's inherent fear of mathematics, injects humor in his classes, but never digresses from the subject. After imbibing some of the enthusiasm from Bancroft's faculty class I decided then and there that I must take his course as soon as possible.
Fred Parker gives a course similar to graphics but with mathematics added, so that the course actually covers more ground than the old Graphics 1. The course takes eight hours a day, six days a week, for the four-week vacation period. He covers all the fundamentals of engineering-drawing with particular attention to machine design application. He covers elementary mathematics, ratio, proportion, power, areas, circular speeds, trigonometry, logarithms, etc. There are four members of the faculty in the class: Wilfrid Bowen, Andrew Truxal, Jos6 M. Arce and Oliver Lilley. There are also twelve girls, who are later going into machine shops, from the neighboring towns of Claremont, Brattleboro, Lebanon, etc. There is tremendous interest shown and many of the students after an eight-hour day come back for further work at night.
The members of the faculty who are taking physics are: Professors Bradley, Choukas, Dargan, Foley, Folger, Goldthwait, Greene, Hill, Holben, Karwoski, Lanphear, Lathrop, Low, Messer, Morrison, Neale, Page, Picard, Sadler, Sensenig, Stearns, Stevens, Theriault, Truxal, Verriest, Waterman, and Elliot White. Mrs. Brode, research librarian, who already knows a good deal of physics, also takes the course.
Those taking Bancroft Brown's course include Professors Bailor, Ballard, Behrendt, Benezet, Carr, Carter, Roy Chamberlin, Cowden, Crow, Denison, England, Guthrie, Horton, Lyon, Montsie, Riegel, Stagner, Charles Stone, Wheelwright, and Williams.
I am sure that I do not overstate when I say that faculty participation in these courses has been an exhilarating and memorable experience for them all. The results will be far reaching and may be highly useful to Dartmouth's part in the war.
LIBERAL ARTS FACULTY COOPERATE IN PHYSICS LABORATORY FOR WAR EFFORT Left, Instructor Leslie F. Murch watches Professors John Stearns, classics, and Fletcher Low, chemistry, experiment with the densityof liquids while Mrs. Mildred Brode, Baker Library, and Professor Ernest Greene, Romance Languages, work on the same experiment. In the background, watching another "student," is Instructor Allen King. Right, measuring an angle are Professors FrederickPage, botany, Hugh Morrison, art, Instructor Charles Hadley, and Professor Stuart Messer, Latin.
THREE MEN AND A MACHINE Professor Wayne Stevens, history, and Professor Leon Verriest, French, learn about theequilibrium of forces under the guidance of Instructor Carl Nordstrom, center.
