THE BROOKES MORE PRIZE WINNER Helen Mowe Philbrook Is Given Award OUR UR editorial prophecy that the judges in the Brookes More contest were not going to have an easy task to select the winner was amply fulfilled. Miss Converse in the Atlantic the Monthly office in Boston, Dean Holliday in the University of Toledo, and Professor Rand at Massachusetts Agricultural College read and studied the files of the magazine and made their selections. Then they exchanged lists-and were dismayed at the variance shown. It seemed almost impossible to come to a decision. But they went at it again, and by weighing and considering and analyzing they at last reached an agreement which we know will meet the approval of all our readers. The award of fifty dollars for the best poem in regular metrical form appearing in the 1922 issues of the GRANITE MONTHLY goes to Helen Mowe Philbrook for her poem, "The Turning of the Tide" appearing in the March issue. Miss Philbrook lives in California now but she really belongs to Tilton, N. H., where her family lived for many years. In addition to the prize winning poem, the judges were of the opinion that special mention should be made of the following poetry: New Houses, by Cora S. Day; Return, Spring Flame, and Last Days, by Harold Vinal; To Those Who Come After, by A. A. D; My Song That Was a Sword, by Hazel Hall; Haven of Lost Ships, by Erwin F. Keene; My Arcady, by E. R. Musgrove; Sonnet (on the Commonplace), by Louise P. Guyol; Dreams, and The Alien, by Lilian S. Keech. THE TURNING OF THE TIDE The Prize Winning Poem BY HELEN MOWE PHILBROOK We talked, the half-remembered sea beside, Blent with our words its murmurous voice and low; One moment thus-the next the wind's warm flow With far clear call the great deep veered once more So felt I once faith's turning ebb tide roll ROOMS IN DORMITORIES ARE SO SCARCE THAT MORE THAN HALF THE GIRLS MUST LIVE ELSEWHERE MAKING TEACHERS AT KEENE A Problem Which Presses for Solution ILLUSTRATIONS BY MURIEL COX It's a long wet walk each morn to breakfast, It's a long dark walk on rainy evenings If the wise men our parents sent to Concord Som O sing the students at Keene Normal as they tramp back and forth in the deep snows of this hard winter from the school grounds, where they all meet for recitations and meals, to their rooms scattered throughout the city. For in the school dormitory, eagerly sought and over crowded, are so that more than one-half of the girls must seek living quarters elsewhere. rooms scarce The Normal School at Keene has in fact grown now so rapidly that it finds itself in the serious. situation of not having rooms enough to house its students, nor dining room space large enough to properly feed them. Such a condition is not only proving detrimental to the training and instruction given at the school itself, but is vitally affecting the welfare and efficiency of our whole public school system. "The one most essential improvement necessary, in order that we may have sufficient trained teachers for our schools," declares the New Hampshire State Board of Education, "is the construction of an additional dormitory in connection with the Keene Normal School," and a bill lies before the legislature rec It's a long, THE GROWTH OF THE NORMAL SCHOOL HAS OUTSTRIPPED HOUSING FACILITIES ommending an immediate appropriation of $225,000, for the construction of such a dormitory and for increased dining room capacity. $225,000! It is quite a large sum for a state of the size of New Hampshire, and at a time when strict economy and a cutting down of expenses is not only a popular demand but a governmental necessity. What is this situation, this problem which our state board of education thinks so serious and of such importance? Many of us know very little about our Normal schools, their needs. and problems. Many of us know little about the intimate relationship between good and well equipped normal schools and the right education for our children. And yet it is upon us, citizens of New Hampshire, through our representatives in the legislature, that all responsibility must rest for the best usefulness and efficiency of these normal schools. We have in the state two normal schools, Keene and Plymouth, both of which are crowded beyond their capacity. The growth of the Keene Normal School indeed has been phenomenal. Starting only twelve years. ago with 26 students, it has increased at such a rate that in 1922 it had an enrollment of 281. But though the school has thus grown nearly 300 per cent the appro priations for maintenance in the same length of time have only increased about 100 per cent, with the result that the demand for trained teachers and the growth of the normal school have far outstripped any housing facilities now available. Two very unfortunate situations have arisen from this condition; a shortage of trained teachers in the state and a real hardship and handicap to the students and faculties of the schools themselves. The Keene Normal School can house in its own dormitories less than one half of its student body. The others board in rooms scattered throughout the city at a cost to the state which next year will amount to $13,000, and which results in a per capita cost to the state nearly twice as large as that of rooms in the dormitory building. The dining-room space too is so small that meals are now served in two shifts. All this not only makes it extremely difficult for the management in planning its school program, etc., but it causes a very unsatisfactory situation in respect to the proper supervision of the girls, which is not only desirable but is expected by the parents. It has also involved a real hardship on the students who in all kinds of weather are obliged to go back and forth from their rooms to meals and recitations. Perhaps even more serious is the shortage in our state of trained teachers resulting from this lack of housing facilities. Of the two thousand teachers in our elementary schools fully one-third are practically untrained. Every year we have to furnish to our public school system about 350 new teachers. Of these only a little over one-third are furnished by our normal schools. One-third of the vacancies are filled by teachers from other states who come here only temporarily, and who usually want to return to their own states when opportunity arises, and the remaining third are untrained. How to furnish two hundred additional teachers from our own schools? This is the problem which the state board thinks of such importance and so necessary to the welfare of our public school sys tem. That one-third of our public school teachers are untrained is an unfortunate condition and one that all must agree should not be permitted to continue. Untrained teachers mean poorly instructed children. We want our children in New Hampshire to have as good an education and as good a preparation for meeting life as the children of Massachusetts or other states. "We can at once assume," says the State Board of Education, "that all the people of New Hamp shire believe in good schools. The welfare of the state in the next generation depends on the right education of the boys and girls of this generation......The foundation of our whole school system rests upon the quality of our teachers and their quality is largely dependent upon the training and instruction given in our state normal schools." New Hampshire has a right to be proud of her normal school in Keene. Under the able and progressive management of Wallace E. Mason, the director, during the twelve years of its life, it not only has come to be eighth in size of the eighteen New England Normal Schools, but now ranks among the best of this country in respect to academic standing. One of the especially well thought out and thorough departments of the Keene Normal School course is the practice work. Through a very favorable contract made with the local school board the Keene Normal School students students have the opportunity of having eighteen weeks devoted to this important side of the training; that is, the actual practice in teacing in the schools. This is an especially long period of time as many of the New England normal schools are able to give only twelve weeks to such work. The tuition is free, the only stu dent expense being $5 per week, year. ers. and skis and the necessary material for a "bacon bat." As for social life, there is a glee club, a school orchestra, a debating club, the Y. W. C. A., the de La Salle club, the French club, the Outing Club, etc. Club, etc. There are social parties and dances held in the school hall and there are the "Sunday Morning Sings" and the Sunday evening firelight gatherings. In this connection one of the interesting courses of instruction given to the entering students is a class in customs and manners, where recognized rules of etiquette, good manners and social There is a splendid atmosphere in the school of hard work and earnest purpose. The students are of course drawn from the very best class of young people in the state, and anyone visiting a gathering of the usages are explained and also taught. student body is impressed with All this goes to make two or a happy, healthy MEALS ARE SERVED IN TWO SHIFTS three years of group they are. A great many of hard work and pleasant, wholesome of them earn a part or all of recreation never to be forgotten, their expenses. Last year the stu- years which develop the student dents earned $1,800 working in the into a trained efficient and comserving room, waiting on the table, petent teacher, prepared intelligently etc., and over $1,500 by acting as to conduct a school and usefully and substitute teachers in the neighbor- gracefully to take her place in any ing towns. community. The students come to Keene to work, but in their spare moments much is done for their physical and social welfare. There is, for instance, a gymnasium, a school physician, a school nurse, a physical director, and a dean who keeps a constant watch the health of each student. Outdoor sports are encouraged, and it is not an uncommon sight to see on a Saturday a group of thirty or more. members of the Outing Club starting off for a winter's hike with snowshoes But things have come to a standstill now with the Keene Normal School. There are adequate school rooms, housing facilities, and in fact a full equipment for turning out many more teachers if there were but suitable housing facilities. In other words, by increasing the present plant to the proper unit the school could provide all the teachers needed by the state each year at a less expense per capita than ever before has been accomplished in New Hampshire. |