Page images
PDF
EPUB

in the correspondence study division have later come to the university and attended the regular session. A few students in the regular session who have been obliged to discontinue regular work in residence have completed it by correspondence study. Through summer school work, correspondence study, and attendance at the regular session, a few students have been able to obtain a degree who otherwise could not have taken the necessary time from their livelihood to give full residence during the four years.

CLUB STUDY COURSES.

During the past year a plan has been devised by which the correspondence study division cooperates with the North Carolina Federation of Women's Clubs to aid the members of literary departments in planning the year's programs.

The president of the federation, together with a professor from the department of history and the secretary of the correspondence study division, chose Latin America as the general topic of study for the year and worked out in detail topics and programs for the year's study and club discussion.

This program was printed in attractive booklet form under the university's direction and is supplied with a syllabus on Latin America and a textbook for each member, together with a map of the country for club use, to the literary clubs for a $1 fee from each member of those clubs which register. The university undertakes to aid further by furnishing reference books from the college library to individual members in the preparation of club papers or club discussions.

V. LECTURES.

For many years the university has, upon invitation, sent members of its faculty to communities of the State to deliver special lectures and educational addresses. In 1913-14 it extended this work through the Bureau of Extension by organizing a lecture division, through which it might aid schools, Young Men's Christian Associations, women's clubs, and other organizations in obtaining speakers to discuss with them the problems incident to their daily activities and to interest them in the welfare of the State and in the cultivation of the finer things of the spirit.

During the four years members of the faculty have offered annually a total of from 100 to 152 subjects suitable for various organizations. A bulletin has been published annually indicating the character of the lectures, a number of which are illustrated with stereopticon slides.

No fee has been given the instructor delivering the lecture, and no charge has been made for the service except that in every instance

the traveling expenses of the lecturer have been met by the organization securing him. Under no circumstances is the organization permitted to charge admission to the lecture.

In this work, which has met such a generous response that 175 engagements are filled annually in sixty-odd of the 100 counties and an equal number of invitations has had to be declined, the alumni of the university have played an important part. Frequently, in cooperation with a local organization, they provide for a series of three, four, five, or six lectures, look after all the details, meet the expenses incurred, and thereby extend in a most acceptable way the service of the university.

VI. MUNICIPAL REFERENCE.

Gratification of a very high sort is felt by the Bureau of Extension that the general assembly, at its 1915 meeting, provided for the establishment of a Legislative Reference Bureau for the State and appropriated $5,000 annually for its maintenance. The bureau had felt that North Carolina greatly needed the service of such a reference bureau, and, in so far as it could, had placed since its organization comparative legislative material in the hands of legislators seeking information concerning proposed laws.

While this bureau has been established at the State capital at Raleigh, no provision has been made for a similar bureau for municipalities. Consequently, the division of legislative reference, under the direction of Profs. C. L. Raper and J. G. de R. Hamilton, has been continued as the division of municipal reference. During recent sessions of the general assembly information has been supplied municipalities concerning charters, franchises, taxation, etc., and material from the university library has been loaned. Recently the standard municipal journals of the United States and a number of books on charters, franchises, city planning, commission form of government, playgrounds, municipal ownership of public utilities, etc., have been added to the municipal reference library, and special investigations concerning city school systems, chambers of commerce, markets, etc., have been carried out by various departments of the university. There is a distinct field of service here, and while the organization for supplying it has not been adequately developed, it is the purpose of this division to develop it as rapidly as possible.

VII. EDUCATIONAL INFORMATION AND ASSISTANCE. The extension work of the school of education has been of the most varied sort, and has constantly increased, both in volume and in definiteness of service. The following are some of the ways in which the school has been active in solving the many problems of North Carolina's educational development:

1. With the foundation of the News Letter, the school began the publication of a weekly letter on some specific educational topic as a part of each issue. This plan has been continued, and the total number of letters written by members of the school is, to date, 126. As the News Letter has a circulation of 10,000, the school is able by this means to reach directly the great body of progressive teachers and school officials of the State. These letters have dealt with all sorts of educational topics, including classroom methods, plans for county commencements, attendance, rural and city school supervision, the larger problems of school administration, and have in particular tried to present for the benefit of the teaching profession of the State as a whole any noteworthy advance made in educational work anywhere within its borders. The response which these letters have met with has been most gratifying.

2. It is difficult to give in brief space any idea of the variety of services rendered by the individual members of the school. Calls for addresses on educational topics, at school commencements, rallies, county and city teachers' meetings, before women's clubs and other organizations, have been so numerous that, in spite of the fact that over 200 such addresses have been made by the members of the school in the last three years, many calls have necessarily been refused.

Assistance of a more definite sort has been rendered a considerable number of city school systems. A detailed survey of the WinstonSalem schools is now in progress; the sections dealing with the larger administrative problems, including the form of organization, the plant, the pupils, the teaching and supervisory force, and the finances of the system, are completed and in press. More superficial examinations of a number of systems have been made and recommendations offered, and in most cases adopted, with regard to such outstanding problems as disclosed themselves. Mental examinations of pupils by the Binet and other tests have been conducted in four systems. As a result, special classes have been organized in three of the systems, and in the other, in which a beginning of such work had already been made, it has been enlarged. Interest in the subject of educational measurements has been stimulated, and some 16 of the city superintendents of the State are planning to stress this work during the coming year, the school of education serving as a clearing house, offering guidance and formulating State standards.

During the past year reading circles have been organized and guided in 15 counties of the State, in cooperation with the State department of public instruction. The other institutions of higher education in the State have also shared in this work. Much assistance, both formal and informal, during the last two years has been rendered the supervising officials of the schools of the county in which the university is situated.

All sorts of requests for information and assistance have been received and attended to through correspondence as well as by personal visitation. They have ranged from suggestions for the resurfacing of old blackboards to the criticism of plans for school buildings. Suggestions for debates and commencement addresses have been forwarded to pupils, and inquiries from teachers as to school exhibits, the teaching of particular subjects, the gradation of pupils, books for professional libraries, playground apparatus, and scores of other matters have been answered.

3. Three years ago the teacher's bureau was remodeled along the lines which had already proyed successful at various other State universities. The bureau has given its services free of cost, and has made recommendations only when asked by school officials to do so. Even with this limitation, it has often been embarrassed in finding men for the positions about which it has been consulted. The director of the summer school also conducts a bureau for teachers who are in summer attendance but have never been regularly enrolled students of the university.

4. Extension bulletins, written or compiled by the school of education and designed particularly for the teachers of the State, include the following titles: "A Professional Library for Teachers in Secondary Schools," "The Teaching of County Geography," "Measurement of Achievement in the Fundamental Elementary School Subjects."

Portions of the revised bulletin of the State department of public instruction on "Plans for Public Schoolhouses" (1915) were also written by a member of the school. In addition to these publications and to the weekly educational letters mentioned above, the school of education has been able to reach the teachers of the State through the columns of the High School Bulletin, published at the university and edited by the State inspector of high schools.

VIII. GOOD ROADS INSTITUTE.

None of the forces for the State's upbuilding is receiving more general attention at the present time than the building of public roads; and the necessity for having systems of roads, a State system as well as county and township systems, is being realized more and more. With this realization the first impulse was to supply funds for building the roads and little thought was given to the proper expenditure of these funds. Large sums of money from bond issues, special taxes, private subscriptions, etc., were yearly expended by counties and townships, with results not commensurate with the expenditure.

The second stage in the State's road development has now been reached, however, and the people are beginning to realize the neces

sity of having men fitted by training and experience to administer these funds, to plan road systems, and secure the very best possible locations, construction, and maintenance of roads.

Realizing this opportunity for State service, the university, cooperating with the North Carolina Geological and Economic Survey, began in March, 1914, the first of a series of road institutes. In the third of the series, held in February, 1916, the State highway commission, established by the legislature of 1915, cooperated with the survey and extended the scope and general usefulness of the institute.

It has not been the purpose of those conducting the institute to train thoroughly in one week's time experienced and efficient road engineers; but it has been their purpose to give information and instruction which would be of benefit to road engineers and would increase the knowledge and efficiency of road superintendents, foremen, supervisors, etc. To road commissioners the institute has endeavored to give an opportunity for familiarizing themselves with the character of road problems and has demonstrated the importance of placing skilled engineers in charge of the road work in their townships and counties.

The institute is held annually during February, and lasts for six days. A carefully prepared program is provided in which representatives of the university, the geological survey, the State highway commission, and road experts from the Federal and other State Governments participate. In 1917 these lecturers and instructors numbered 34. In connection with the lectures and discussions, practical demonstrations are given daily in road construction, road machinery, etc., on the streets of the town and the roads of the county.

At the first institute 24 counties were represented, with 54 men attending; at the second, held in February, 1915, 29 counties were represented, with 80 men at ending; at the third, held in February, 1916, 127 men were present, representing 43 counties. Of the 1916 attendance, 20 were road engineers, 19 road superintendents, 31 road commissioners and county commissioners, 12 road supervisors, 4 patrolmen, 20 machinery and materials men and contractors; the remainder were men who were interested in road work, including 20 students of the university. In 1917 the total number present was 130.

IX. POSTGRADUATE INSTRUCTION IN MEDICINE.

Conservation of public health has received steadily increasing consideration throughout North Carolina from many individuals, organizations, and public institutions during the past decade. Among these has been the university, whose participation in the campaign for increased physical welfare has been expressed through the members of its medical faculty. In order to further emphasize the im

« PreviousContinue »