XXXII. The Summer School
So far, we have described only those activities of the
School or Department of Education which related to
such fundamental subjects as class instruction, high
school inspection, and school hygiene. We will now
take up two additional activities of equal importance in
their own provinces; namely, the summer school and
the extension lecture.
For a period of nine years, there assembled at the
University, the Virginia Summer School of Methods,
under the general supervision of E. C. Glass and his
associates. During the holding of these successive
sessions, there was no official connection between the
University of Virginia and that school. Indeed, while
this independent status lasted, the school was practically
an ordinary institute; but when it came under the
general control of Professor Payne, as the representative
of the University, it assumed the much more difficult
function of offering additional courses that rose to
the dignity and fullness of those taught in the higher
seats of learning. As long as it was the conventional
School of Methods, the attendance, owing to competition
with other small normal schools, had fallen below three
hundred students. This dwindling prosperity suggested
to the watchful State Superintendent of Public Instruction,
Joseph D. Eggleston, that it would be an advantage
to the public school system should the University reorganize
the School of Methods on a broader and higher
platform. The old work of equipping teachers for the
elementary schools was not, under his plan, to be discontinued,
but, by the employment of the University's
professors, in cooperation with other distinguished
educators, the ripest instruction could be rendered
practicable for men and women who were already engaged
as teachers, principals, or superintendents of high
schools or colleges, or who aspired to advanced standing
in the courses of the University at the regular session.
The adoption of Superintendent Eggleston's proposal
made the University of Virginia the culminating centre
for the summer term work. At the time that the
summer session was established in 1907, numerous
communities of the State were busy erecting buildings
for their projected high schools; and in order to equip
them for use and to obtain teachers for them, steps had
been taken to collect the funds wanted by means of
county and local taxation. The most knotty difficulty,
however, was to secure a sufficient number of instructors
for their service. We have seen already how influential
this fact became in encouraging the addition of a
school of education to the University. It seemed to be
impracticable for the teachers to go out of Virginia to
acquire, in their few months of leisure, the special training
which they needed; and what training they really
required could only be fully comprehended within their
own State. The summer school at the University, so
soon as its standards were raised, seemed to meet exactly
the demands of their case, for it was not expensive to
reach its precincts; it was not dear to reside there during
the summer season; and instructors could be found there
who knew and could remove their particular deficiencies.
The allurement of the advantages offered was so
great that, beginning, in 1907, with five hundred
students, the attendance, during the next three years, increased
to thirteen hundred and fifty; and the registration
continued to grow larger with the progress of time.
The quality of that registration may be discerned from
an examination of the antecedents of the students enrolled
in 1911,—during that session, there were to be
found in the list three hundred graduates of colleges, four
hundred and seven graduates of high schools, one
hundred and twenty-four bachelors of arts, twenty-one
masters of arts, two doctors of philosophy, eleven college
instructors, and one hundred and forty principals
of schools. Directing the studies of this earnest body
of men and women were fifty-three instructors. Two
years afterwards, there were sixty-eight; and three years
afterwards, seventy-three.
During the summer session of 1906–07, the subjects
embraced in the courses of instruction were English
grammar, rhetoric, and composition; English literature
and American literature; ancient, mediaeval, and modern
history; American history and government; algebra,
plane geometry, nature, botany, biology and physical
geography; physics, chemistry, agriculture, manual training,
first-year Latin and French, second-year German and
French; school administration, methods of teaching, psychology,
and logic. In time, archaeology, astronomy,
domestic economy, drawing, commerce, education, hygiene,
library methods, Spanish language, story telling,
and the art of composition and music, were added to the
round of topics. By 1909, the number of courses had
swelled from sixty-three to one hundred and one. The
demand after this for vocational studies in the public
schools steadily increased,—such studies, for instance,
as those which prepared for agricultural demonstrations,
and for the organization of farmers' clubs, canning clubs,
and the like. The summer school recognized the pertinency
of this popular disposition, and grounded the
teachers in the best methods of serving it. Moreover,
it held numerous rural life conferences, and endeavored
thereby to stimulate interest in all that would raise the
status of that life.
In 1914, the General Assembly increased the State
appropriation from four thousand dollars to ten thousand,
five hundred, on condition that every teacher registering
from Virginia should be admitted without any
charge for tuition. Students who entered from another
State were called upon, in 1914–15, to pay a fee of twelve
dollars. In 1918, the appropriation by the University
for a single summer session amounted to fifteen hundred
dollars, and by the town of Charlottesville, to
five hundred. From all sources, the summer school of
this year received an income of $19,977.50. The expenses
did not exceed $18,618.87, which left a surplus
of $1,357.00. In 1917, however, there had been a deficit
of $936.72.
As already mentioned in a previous chapter, credits
for advanced standing in the regular classes of the University
were allowed for successful work accomplished
during the summer session. An industrious and ambitious
young man could, by the application of three such
sessions, shorten the time for winning his baccalaureate
degree by at least one year. Extraordinary strictness,
however, was shown in scanning the character of this
work. It did not follow that it would always relieve
the candidate of the necessity of meeting satisfactorily
the entrance requirements of the University. The
rules governing his case demanded that no course in the
summer session should be accepted in lieu of these entrance
requirements unless the dean and professor of his
future class should decide that the summer courses were
equivalent to them; and the same condition was attached
to a grant of advanced standing for certain primary
studies which he had previously covered in the summer
school. And he was allowed still more advanced
standing, if the dean of the college, the faculty committee
on degrees and courses, and the professor in charge
of the subject for which credit was desired, should join
in a similar decision touching the advanced work which
he had accomplished in that school.
In addition to the advantages of instruction given
by professors of great learning and ability, the students
of the summer session enjoyed the use of the laboratories,
museums, and libraries of the University. Rest
rooms were also provided for them. Madison Hall,
with its reading-room, was thrown open to them from
nine in the morning until ten in the evening. Daily addresses
were delivered in Cabell Hall, interspersed with
music, both vocal and instrumental. The gymnasium,
with its swimming pool and baths, was accessible to
them without the payment of a fee. There were vesper
services in the chapel on Sunday; organ recitals in the
public hall; and excursions to Monticello, Natural
Bridge, Luray, and the battle-fields.
But the most picturesque forms of recreation enjoyed
by the students of the summer school were the games and
pageants which were organized for their amusement.
The games were conducted on the Lawn by an expert,
and a large number of teachers took a delighted part
in them. Stories of folk-lore or ancient myths were recited
from the Rotunda steps to attentive audiences
gathered to listen. At other times, folk-dances were
danced on the Lawn in the twilight. In July, 1911, a
series of tableaux, with a chorus, were presented in
three parts, each of which illustrated a dramatic phase
of the history of the Nation. A stage for these tableaux
was found in the south front of the Rotunda. The pageant
which was celebrated in July, 1913, was long remembered
for its highly colored beauty. The cast embraced
as many as two hundred persons, and it required
the area of Lambeth Field to afford the space needed
for the performance. Plays were also acted by regular
companies that possessed an international reputation
for their trained skill,—thus, during one session, the
Cobourn troupe appeared in
Richard III, the
Tempest,
and the
Rivals; and during another, the Clifford Devereux
troupe in
She Stoops to Conquer, Scarecrow, and
A Comedy of Errors.
So strong waxed the feeling of unity and fraternity
among the members of the school, that, about 1913,
they entered into an association for its formal and permanent
expression. This organization gave the director
information about prospective students; aided him in
spreading abroad knowledge of the courses of instruction;
and pointed out additional Southern communities
to which the influence of the school might be extended.
There were minor divisions of this central association
in all parts of the country where it was represented by
graduates.
