The Lake County times. [volume], October 11, 1921, Image 14

About The Lake County times. [volume] (Hammond, Ind.) 1906-1933

Image provided by: Indiana State Library

                
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WHERE TEACHING OF 125,000 WO MEM
MEAMS MAKING OF 125,000 FR
HEMD
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mniesftnc Arts
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K World
Women's Institute
Facts
Founded 1916.
Total enrollment
125,070. Largest
women's college in
the world.
Students 'from
every State and
many foreign coun
tries. Five hundred
forty-six instructors
and assistants.
Courses taught:
dress-making, mil
linery and cookery.
AS widely a? they varied in
the scale of human needs,
they were characteristic of
Mrs. Picken's morning mail.
A high school girl in Fresno
was not popular. She bewailed
the shyness and inditYerence of
the males. How would she corn
pel for herself the attention she
saw lavished on girls not half
so sprightly and attractive?
The wife of an underpaid sta
tion agent in a Gopher Prairie
town was in full revolt against
the drabness and stupidity of
her. Main Street existence. Why
should she not forsake her hus
band and seek the brightness
life somewhere must hold for
her?
A seventy-year-old woman,
sheltered throughout her life
from the crudities of existence,
was faced with the necessity of
earning bread for herself and
her sightless husband. Could
she learn to do plain sewing and
keep a roof above their heads?
Was there any hope for their
destitute age?
Although the problems of her
correspondents in great cities,
towns and rural sections hae
first claim on her attention, the
office of Mary Brooks Picken is
not at all like the sanctum of an
"agony column" editor. Lo
cated in the tower of the now
million-dollar building just dedi
cated for the Woman's Institute
of Domestic Arts and Sciences
in Scranton, Pa., her office sug
gests the headquarters from
which a great industry is
directed.
A "Personalized
Service" School
The letters seem out of place.
The fact that Mrs. Picken is the
Institute's Director of Instruc
tion and that the Institute is the
world's greatest woman's col
lege, does not explain the morn
ing mail. The letters are an
enigma until it is understood
that "personalized service" is
not only the keynote of Mrs.
Picken's career but the moving
principle of the very college she
serves.
It is a monument to the ideal
of personalized service, and
Thursday. September 2S. the
day of dedication, will always
be memorable in the history of
Scranton. When the dedica
tion was planned, it was decided
that its elaborate ceremonies
should be graced by guests of
distinction. Among those who
accepted the invitation to at
tend were Admiral Austin
M. Knight, of the United
States Navy; Governor Sproul,
of Pennsylvania; Miss Neysa
McMein, the magazine cover ar
tist who recently painted Presi
dent Harding; Miss Sally James
Farnham, the sculptor who
made a bust of the President
while Miss McMein was "doing
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DISTINGUISHED C5UEST0)oAT DEDICATION'
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TT-IEL 2lEW..iILLTOJ-DOLL,AR BDILDIT3G OF T.HF3
"WOMFVMS INSTITUTE. OP DOMESTIC ARTS S 6CE.CE?
him on canvas; Dr. Thomas E. Fin- personally the student it never
M'es. Through an inge
system, the Institute
prol:".n wr.en tne sfuuent enrolls.
The Personal Information blank
which she fills out at the beginning
irus record
this
negan, rennsyivania c-tate Superin
tendent of Education, and Miss
Mary E. Sweeney. President (( the
American Home Economics Asso
ciation, and Dean f the Depart
ment of !loi:"e Economics at M ichi
gan Agricultural Coi'eee. ?.liss
McMein :!so painted a portrait of
Mrs. Picken to hang in the Insti
tute building.
Its System Adopted
by Canada
The letters on Mrs. Picken's desk
demonstrate the success the Insti
tute has aeh'eved in maintaining a
relation of personal intimacy with
its student body. Its record of
contact with more than a million
women in all parts of the world, social
its growm in a i ew years irom an attend. n urn tier cak
idea to a potent civilizing force, her biscuits are sotrirv
and the honor of having its nerds individual assistance in ap-
mothods and text books adopted by plying her lessons in cookery, the
an agency as uncommercial as the record will show the kind of fuel
Canadian government, have not she uses, the type of stove in her
brought it scholastic formality, kitchen, her cook book and any
Its growth, in fact, lias served to otht-r important factor that would
make more sensitive its contact not be covered in her letter,
with individual students.
Mrs. Picken directs the force that
is today teaching dress making,
millinery and cookery to more than
To.Ol'O women. Still she finds time
for the problems of the high school
girl, the Gopher Prairie wife and
the aged woman. Moreover, she
has found a way of saturating her
organization with the same zeal
for helpfulness. In the eyes of
the Institute, the student is tirst. of
all a woman. When she v rites
or nor course gives not only a
detailed picture of herself but a
comprehensive sketch of her do
mestic environment and social
background.
The instructors have this infor
mation always before them in an
swering the student's letters and
grading her papers. If, in the
course of her dress-rraking studies,
she asks what kind of party frock
would be most In-coming to her,
the instructors know her complex
ion, color of her hair and eyes, all
her measurements and the kind of
itTairs she probablv will
Jails or
and she
v.-iJ.;'rV, -J : -t;i y
1
One section op the large, cofps of instructors
corre.ctimc stude.njts' le5son -pape.rs (m the-,
NEW C-llLLICN'DOLLAf, BUll-UitsiG
about her intimate domestic per
plexities, and she writes about
them frequently, she finds her in
structors more interested in the
pattern she is fashioning for her
:ift
r a
future than the
ing for her
one
ne if
Every
letti
student receives from the Institute
begins "Dear Friend " and it is not
long before she learns there is a
wealth of meaning behind that
salutation.
Students Pictured
in Records
At frst glance it might seem
impossible for any school to serve
Names Maiden and
Married
Keeping the records of a col
lege aiming at personalized service
is a difficult task. Hut even if they
were pruned to the ultimate word
of simplicity, there would remain
one ever-present source of trouble.
A student begins a course under
one name, and frequently finishes
it u n.ler another. Often the bride-to-be
recogi-izt s that personal
charm may not be all-sufficient, and
that a sound knowledge of cooking
might, make a gor,,l second line
of offense. She begins the les
sons as a bride-to-be and continues
them as a bride. ('onseou--ntly
"jaav
"VlCE-PRE-&lnEjrT &DTRECTttfvb IN5TR:VCncrf-r
ti
Personalized Service'
"Personalized service,"
rendered unitedly by the
whole Institute organiza
tion under Mrs. Mary
Brooks Picken, Director
of Instruction, is the se
cret of the Institute's suc
cess. Every personal
characteristic of face, ap
pearance, education, taste
and environment is known
to the Institute for every
student. The record of
them is before every in
structor when grading
lesson papers and answer
ing letters. The student
miles away is visualized
like a girl in a class room.
Instruction, guidance and
advice are fashioned to fit
her particular needs.
instructors reads and corrects vision of a loader, and their work,
papers. The lessons of beginners when finished, must pass the scru
concern themselves with elements tiny of an inspector. In every case
as fundamental as the proper the grade and comment must lit
threading of a needle and the the lesson and sample. In the cook-
simplest kinds of stitches. With
the passing of the primary and
intermediate stages of her instruc
tion, the r-udent finds herself mas
tering the fine points of tailoring.
125,000 Students in
Five Years
marble to a height of nine feet,
and above that in Caen stone. The
building is 246 feet Ionjr, 66 feet
wide and contains on each of its
five floors a total of 11,600 square
feet of space. Among its large
offices are eight measuring- 102
feet by 57 feet.
In arranging the dedication the
following program was adopted:
An afternoon meeting with Dr.
Finnegan as the speaker to deliver
the dedicatory address; a tea for
distinguished guests presided over
by Mrs. Picken, and a dinner in
Scranton's Town Hall with covers
laid for all the Institute staff and
more than 2r0 guests. Before
work on the new building began it
was decided that a film should be
made to show at this dedication
dinner which would depict the
work of construction from the day
the cornerstone was laid until
the day the building was com
pleted. Governor Sproul and Dean
Sweeney were the speakers selected
for the dinner.
The College of the
Future
From the days when the Greek
philosophers lectured in the market
places, through the Middle Ages
when the universities of England
and the continent were founded
and down to the present day, the
or hat trimming or cake-making.
In all the courses but cookery, the
student mitst submit samples of
hex work.
ery course the students submit re
ports on their work which afford
a basis of making and criticism.
For the convenience of the stu
dents, especially those far removed
The growth of the Institute has
been phenomenal among educa
tional institutions. At the end of
T.H, its first year, it had a staff bulk of all instruction has been by
of 25, floor space amounting to the "class room" method. During
2,500 square feet and an enroll- the centuries when printing was
inent of 3,022 students. A year unknown or laboriously slow, and
later there were nearly 0,000 stu- the few books in existence were
dents. In 1018 the enrollment was in the hands of scholars, no other
her name mu-t be changed in the
records throughout the many de
partments of the school. So often
does this occur that a routine pro
cedure is established, d the prop
er change is made instantly and
without confusion.
The persona! touch is present
abundantly in the division of the
institution where the corps of
from fhe metropolitan shopping over 17,000. Since then it has method was possible. The unquali-
centers the Ins'ituo maintains a advanced with giant strides. The lied success and admitted effective-
SUpplV Shop that riva's a denart- l'Lrtl himhuu: eoiuuineiiL ir, ow ue.- o i. tot- iiniiitiii oio tpiMnirnv c
,,,,. frAtrl over io.uou. l ne siau n.is in- .Tiioyi nave raise'i a question as
croaked tv, 54c nn,j the floor space to the character of our educational
to (T'..00( square feet. institutions in the future. With
Since the cornerstone was laid our methods of printing becoming
linn, 1 n tin K,iiii;ni r.,, ;i,- ,i j
thf l,-OT, r- .-,,-1 nnWn nrl' nnift .... - T .
, , , , ' 1 ' . ' ' , . grnduaMv has assumed th
r-.verv samnie aim ieson .i'er 01 (ne large scnie on wmcn tne
Constructive Comment
on Lessons
ment store. Evorv accessory from
needles and notions to sewing
machines and bolts of costly ma
terial may be had bv the student
is judged carefully on its own mer
its. When the work is graded it
is returned to the student with
comprehensive and constructive
comment. The instructors wnrK m
small groups each under the super-
th
Institute does things is afforded
by its printed matter. Preparing
it lesson books and other litera
ture occupies much of the time of
the largest private printing estab
lishment in the world.
r-i'iy has assumed t ne propor- tal system reaching to every man s
tions ot one of Scranton s most 1m- gate, it becomes a problem as to
posing structures. The style is whether the great colleges of the
collegiate Gothic, and the con- future will be those which wait
struction is reinforced concrete for the student to enter their halls,
with a facing of tapestry brick or those which raise the ideal of
and Indiana lime stone. The main personalized service and go out to
hall is finished in Pink Kasota seek the student.
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