EDUCATION EDUCATION ‘My Natural Habitat Was School’ natural habitat was school. That fall I enrolled full time. I graduated in 1958 as an honor student and addressed the graduating class in the old Ogden LDS tabernacle. That night was one of the happiest of my life. I didn’t feel that Weber College had failed me in any way. Weber State College became central in my life. Although I went on to receive three more degrees and to study at other prestigious institutions of higher learning — including the University of California at Berkeley, Oxford University in England, University College Dublin, and the University of Edinburgh — I never encountered any better instructors at any of those institutions. The instructors at Weber College, although not worldrenowned scholars, had a strong sense of themselves as educators in a system that they firmly believed in. They felt that what they were doing was part of a by LaVon B. Carroll | _. recently ran across an old copy of U.S. News and World Report (Jan. 24, 1958). The headline in bold red letters asked, “What is Wrong with American Schools?” The same question, of course, is still being asked today. Our education system seems in perpetual crisis. Ever since | retumed to college in 1955, I have been hearing about the failures of American education, and the criticism seems to have gotten worse since I retired in 1986. All this has caused me to reflect on my own education and wonder if it too was lacking in some way. I went to a small country grade school in Alpine, Utah, first grade through eighth. From all I later learned of good pedagogical practices, my dear teachers there were excellent. For the times — the 1930s — the school was well-equipped. We had paper, pencils, crayons, desks, books, blackboards and larger, more important enter- chalk, and sometimes in the upper grades, creaky science films, steel pens and inkwells. The school was clean, warm and comfortable and I, at least, had a feeling of security, order and personal wellbeing. I went to school every day with a sense of joy, and my high expectations were always fulfilled. The teachers kept discipline but were encouraging and understanding. American Fork High School, where I spent the next four years, gave me the same feeling of joy and excitement in learning. I loved and respected most of my teachers. They were hard working and firm, but caring. 24 LaVon Carroll When I graduated in 19339, I wanted to go to college, but my father had been out of work for nearly 10 years. And so I turned down the scholarship that BYU offered me and went to work at J.C. Penney’s, got married and had two children. In 1943, we moved to Ogden and built a home. As time wore on, I all but gave up the dream of continuing my education. Frankly, I was discouraged because I didn’t think Weber College, beset by war-time difficulties, had much to offer. But one day I met Olive MacCarthy, of Weber State’s education faculty. I was demonstrating a sewing machine to her. She felt that I had teaching skills and urged me to return to school. Having been out of high school for 17 years, I felt that I probably had lost the ability to learn. However, I ventured timidly to college and enrolled in Mr. (Floyd) Woodfield’s “Intro- duction to Literature” class and William Stratford’s “Introduction to Psychology.” Before the summer ended, I knew that I was “home.” My prise. They were not only teaching young people well, they were also making a major contribution to the welfare of the community and to society. Dr. Dello Dayton strengthened my resolve to continue my education, and many other faculty members had a strong influence on my life — among them Jennings Olson, Milton Mecham, Leland Monson, Walter Buss, Sheldon Hayes, Charles Osmond, Fred Rabe, Carl Green, Robert Mikkelsen, Floyd Woodfield, Earl Smart, Victor Hancock, Merle Allen, William Stratford, Bessie Mumford, Walter Neville and Many other people on campus — people like President William P. Miller — assisted me in many ways, not only by imparting knowledge and information in the classroom but also by sharing their unshakable conviction that what they were doing was important and valuable. They believed in the power of education to improve and validate life. Perhaps because Weber College was so small then, I felt a coherence throughout the school — a unity of purpose and a support of each other’s roles on the campus. Everyone seemed to be working for the same thing: the best education for the individual student. Every fall, Dr. Monson opened the humanities faculty meetings with the same speech. He said that “man is a four-fold being — spiritual, mental, physical and emotional,” and the duty of the school was to educate the whole person, not just train, inform, socialize or prepare the student as a product for the modern industrial-technological society. As I listen to all the lamentations about our educational system, I wonder if we have lost sight of the spirit of education. Teachers have lost confidence in themselves and in what they do. They have lost the larger vision and have become entrenched in their own areas of expertise. Perhaps it is inevitable: as institutions grow larger, fragmentation results; and it becomes difficult to feel the identity and loyalty that are natural to smaller entities. But there’s more to the question, “What is Wrong with American Schools?” Consider the social values now stressed through our powerful media. What can schools do to counteract a culture whose heroes are Bart Simpson, animate turtles, Roseanne, and sports figures? How can schools promote academic excellence when actors and athletes get astronomical salaries? While I am sure that much of the spirit remains of the Weber College I attended when I was hungry for intellectual stimulation and verification, I worry that WSU has been wounded by society’s disaffection with our educational system. Today’s educators struggle with monumental problems. If we are to salvage the American dream, we must challenge our schools to teach those universal values that shape character and develop the best of human qualities, not just transitory “marketable skills.” Although retired from teach- errs ing, I still believe in the redeem- ing power of a humanizing education. I hope that the spirits of the founders of Weber State — and those of my dear departed instructors who have joined them — are still roaming the halls, hopeful that their love of and belief in education will prevail. # LaVon B. Carroll, professor emeri- tus of English at Weber State, received the 1992 H. Aldous Dixon Award. This article is adapted from her talk at the Dixon Award ceremony in May. - with books, stude up and touc ~ Treach and tell it, “Don - with this tree. Fall is coming Lawrence Burton. ZD