OCR Text |
Show VOLUME XVI itate Lawmakers Give Weber Look Dixon Names Threats For Utah Education Addresses School Dedication Rites Importance of Christian education in American life was stressed by Dr. Henry Aldous Dixon in the address dedicating Ogden's new Wasatch Elementary school at recent rites. Several hundred parents and patrons of the school, located in the vicinity of the new Weber campus, then heard the college president follow up his seven-point list of major Utah educational accomplishments with a 10-point warning. He declared that satisfying statistics are dangerous since they lead to complacency and reflect past achievement rather than what is now being accomplished. He asked what would be the effect upon Utah of these factors: "1. A great tendency on the part of the public to over-emphasize thp economic or money values of education. President David O. McKay said: 'After all is said and done, the most potent force for training youth in America is our school system. But let us face clearly the fact that the paramount ideal permeating all education should be more spiritual than economic' "2. The tremendous inroads by the Federal government upon tax funds which otherwise could go to schools. "3. Overcrowded classrooms and overworked teachers. "4. Shortage of instructors. "5. Too little money to do the basic things that . need to be done for the children of a free people, especially in a period of moral disintegration, materialism, and national confusion. "6. Apprehension on the part of the teachers for the State Teachers' Retirement Fund. "7. The encouragement of youth to surrender long-time preparation plans for temporary high-paying, blind alley jobs which might cease to exist with any turn in the national economy. "8. Discrimination on the college level that threatens the second most populous area in Utah with educational bankruptcy. Surveys show that four will attend college if there is a college at home, for only one who will attend if the college is away from home. "9. The financial crisis now faced by Utah State colleges and universities due to the loss of Federal funds as the result of the expiration of G. I. entitlements. "10. Over-complacency in our assurance that we are the nation of scientists and technicians." Or. Hixon cited ex-President Hoover's warning that we must find our strength in trained leaders, not in physical numbers. "We must allow," he said, quoting Mr. Hoover, "no manpower seekers to shear us, Delilah-like, of that strength." In tracing growth of Utah schools. Dr. Dixon showed how the unique contribution of the Pilgrims in providing free education had been maintained for more than 300 years by forward-looking governments of the nation and of the State of Utah. "The homes, the schools and the churches of Utah have wrought miracles in 106 years," he declared in listing the following accomplishments:"1. Utah is the envy of the nation in its form of state school organization. We have only 40 districts, Minnesota has 7,200 districts, and Nebraska, with a population only twice as large as Utah's, has 6,769 school districts. "2. Utah's streamlined organization is reflected in the very small number of inefficient one-teacher schools. Utah has only 6 per cent one-teacher schools, as compared with a national average of 39 per cent, and with 80 per cent in North Dakota and Nebraska. "On the other hand, the average enrollment in Utah's elementary and secondary schools is 303, al- I most twice the national average of 164 pupils. Only three states have a higher enrollment per school than Utah. "3. Utah's teachers carry a student load of 28.9 students per teacher. Only Mississippi, California and North Carolina have a higher pupil-teacher ratio. "4. As a result of the consolidated school districts, the large schools, the heavy teacher load and the general economy, Utah's cost per pupil is $178.56 as contrasted with an average of $220.58 in the mountain states. Utah ranks 36th among the 48 states in per capita costs for elementary and high school pupils. "5. In spite of this lower per capita cost, Utah tops the nation in its efforts to support elementary and secondary education. Two of the reasons for this are that, first, Utah's public school load is third highest in the nation, with 22.3 per cent of the total population enrolled, and second, that Utah's wealth or ability to support public schools is 37th among the 48 states. "6. Utah tops the nation by a wide margin in the percentage of total population enrolled in college. Utah has 256 per 10,000 population, three times the national average of 82. "7. Lancelot and Hughes, in their book "Education, America's Magic", place Utah first among all of the states in education." "This is the remarkable program built upon implicit faith in the power of Christian education to transform the lives of the people," the speaker went on to say. He then named a series of general benefits attributable to Christian education in the state, as follows: "Utah's death rate is 6.95 per 1000. while that of the nation is 11.19 per 1000. "A threat to America's stability is the fact that the birth rate is declining so rapidly among our leaders and increasing among the less intelligent, underprivileged stratum of our people. We are breeding at the bottom and dying out at the top. Not so with Utah. Our birth rate is 26.8 per 1000 as compared with 20.5 for the nation. "Illegitimate births in Utah are 10 per 1000 as compared with a national average of 40.4 per 1000. "Utah has 26.8 robberies per 1000 people, while the mountain states average 79.3 per 1000 people.J "Utah tops the nation with regard to the number of eligible (voters who exercise their franchise, over 80 per cent. OGDEN, UTAH, FEBRUARY 11, 1953 J. 1 r" v V Mark Paxton, Senate president, left, and Merrill K. Davis, House speaker, are among the prominent guests invited to Weber Wednesday. Utah Senate and House Leaders Reveal Backgrounds, Positions Leaders of the state legislature expected to be present Wednesday morning at Weber college and to speak to the students and possibly introduce legislators in the assembly, are Mark Paxton, Fillmore, president of the Senate, and Merrill K. Davis, Salt Lake City, speaker of the House. Mr. Paxton is reported as being friendly to education and attended Millard high school and Brigham Young university. The Republican leader has served seven years in the legislature with the present term, and describes himself as being uncommitted to anything or any person. Business interests of the senator include operation of a 500-acre farm and a gasoline and oil distributorship. His relaxations, so far as his busy life will permit, are hunting and enjoying the company of his wife and three daughters. Mr. Davis, youthful attorney, who has served his fourth legislative term with the current one, is a University of Utah graduate, formerly was an agent with the Federal Bureau of Investigation, served in counter-intelligence during World War II, was attached to "Only one state in the union had more officers in the last war in proportion to population. "Only the state of Washington in the last war excelled Utah in the low number of rejectees for mental and educational deficiencies. Washington had .8 per cent, while Utah had 1 per cent. "Thorndike's study of greatness in men as measured by several criteria, places Utah far out in the lead. "Salt Lake City ranks with the top three cities of its size in home ownership. If statistics were available for our other cities, I am sure that they would show up equally well. "If comparative statistics were available to show church attendance, the investment in new churches, the appreciation of music and the arts, the knowledge of foreign languages, and sympathetic understanding of other countries, that world citizenship point of view so necessary to peace, I'm sure that Utah would be among the leaders." Dr. Dixon concluded his dedicatory address by reminding the audience that "Free education in Utah has weathered far worse storms than it faces today. We have lost a few skirmishes in the great cause of free education in America, but never a majorbattle." r H the Manhattan Engineering Project, where the atom bomb was developed. With his background, it is reliably presumed that the House speaker understands what education and advanced training can mean to any segment of society. Among other important matters, he is said to be particularly interested in appropriation measures. Among other legislators for whom students may have a special interest are Charles E. Peterson, Provo, formerly of Ogden, GOP floor leader in the lower chamber; Clair R. Hopkins, Vernal, Republican party whip in the House; Rendell L. Mabey, Bountiful, Senate majority floor leader; besides the legislators from the Ogden and northern Utah area, who are generally well known here. Music Director Judges Contests Judging joint Class A band and orchestra contests of school district number 48 at Grace, Idaho, April 17 and 18 will be Delmar Dickson, Weber college instrumental director. Fifteen high schools will participate. Mr. Dickson also has been engaged to judge Region Five high school band and orchestra contests in eastern Utah May 1 and 2. Site of the contests will be Carbon college, Price. Alumnus Gains High CAA Post Appointment of a former Weber college student, Vaughn Clayton, to the post of chief of maintenance for the sixth region of the Civil Aeronautics Administration, was announced here this week. The region includes Utah, Nevada, Arizona and California. Mr. Clayton said he had been a radio bug all his life, and it was only natural for him to take electrical engineering at Weber college after high school graduation. Xumber 8 See Utah legislators will visit Weber Wednesday to see the new campus the state is developing, to observe work of the institution, and get a better idea of financial needs. . Original plans to spend a full day in Ogden have been changed to permit them to return to Salt Lake in the early afternoon. Accordingly, the guests, expected to number between 90 and 100 legislators and partners, will have a busy morning while they get as complete a picture of the college as possible. Climax of the tour, especially for i Weber Students and faculty, will be the assembly at 10:45 a.m., where Weberites will have a close-up view of their lawmakers. The legislators will probably be introduced individually to the several hundred persons able to squeeze into Moench auditorium. The occasion will be, most students feel, the most crucial hour and a half in the history of the college. During that time Dr. Henry Aldous Dixon, president, will address the assembly, and particularly the guests, on college matters vitally affecting higher education in this area. Topics which the president will deal with have not been made known, but they will probably include the new campus situation, finances and the four-year proposal, which has been near to the hearts of the people here for many years. Weber college advisory board and Ogden city and Weber county officials will be in attendance. Those directing genera! arrangements for the visit for the college are Val Lofgreen, student body president, and Dr. Robert A. Clarke, dean of the faculty. Assisting is a student and faculty committee, besides several subcommittees.The legislature will arrive In busses at 9:30 a.m. at the new-campus from Salt Lake City by way of Harrison Blvd., according to Dr. Clarke. First stop will be at the campus entrance at the stone wall bearing the name. A public address system will explain purchase of the campus, acreage, cost, water facilities, over-all campus plan of building, equipment, curb and gutter, costs and further development plans. Prospective sites of a vocational building and gymnasium will be pointed out. The information will be given by Kl-liott Rich, engineering instructor. Then the legislators will go to "building four" of the classroom structures and get a view of the city, return with a rather brisk walk down the ramp through all four structures. This phase of the tour will be a complete review of everything connected directly with the buildings and will be accompanied by full explanations by escorts, said Wallace D. Baddley. directing the upper campus visit. The guides will be Dr. Dean Farnsvvorth, Howard Knight, John G. Kelly and Dr. Jennings Olson. Next on the itinerary will be the tour of the old campus. The busses will make a circle of the block while the visitors are jointed out all buildings owned by the state school together with other details. Then the legislators will leave the busses at the Gym and be fittingly received there before commencing an inspection of the grounds and buildings in several groups. Various proposals for the future of the lower campus and the sev-Cont. on page 2, col. 5 |