Letters to FOCUS

Alumna pleased with FYE FOCUS publication

To Mark E. Cate and the staff of the FOCUS:

I spent several hours with FOCUS, Winter of 2006 on a dreary afternoon last week. The more I read it, the more delighted I felt with the organization of the articles and the substance of the material. The ideas were clearly expressed and smoothly written, something that I find rare in the material that comes through my door.  As for coddling, one needs to deal with the students as they are, and my brief experience with non-credit composition students in a community college in the 90's was that these kids did not have the quality of high school education that I had. If we really want to develop people who can think, reason and make sound decisions for themselves and us, we must teach them how to do this. That is not my idea of coddling; instead, these skills enable them to learn effectively and thus to become truly educated people, not just someone putting in time for a degree.

I had heard of the FYE experience from our college here. Western Illinois University has some 12,000 students, many from rural backgrounds, and like Maryville's, the first in their families to attend.  And alas, as I can see from your addition of Alcohol Edu for College for the coming year, this problem also. Our president, Al Gordfarb, devotes himself to trying new approaches and this is one. Education today is in such trouble that any effort to grow beyond the superficial in learning raises ones hopes Thank you for not just "going along" with what is all too easy.  Maybe the time will come again that an A or a B means more than just attendance.

I am thrilled that Maryville spends the effort and time to produce such an outstanding publication. Congratulations to the editors and staff!

Sincerely yours,
Virginia Fisler Schwarz Mock '50
Part-time secretary to Dr. Hunter, minor in philosophy because of Dr. Orr, lover of Jane Austin and Henry James because of Mr. Bushing, and deeply grateful to Maryville for inoculating me with an incurable love of learning.

Gardner responds

In an email message to Vice President and Dean Dr. Robert Naylor, John Gardner, executive director of the Policy Center on the First Year of College, responded to say that he “really enjoyed [the FOCUS Winter 2006 issue]” and was “so glad” to be included in it. (See pages 14-15.)

“Coincidentally,” Gardner wrote in the email, “the other day a faculty member at Brevard College sent me a message to compliment me on this issue. She is married to a Maryville alum.”

Gardner went on to request extra copies of FOCUS to share with other educators around the country. He also requested use of the magazine’s stories as “texts” for a proposed five-day Appalachian College Association professional development event, during which Gardner’s Policy Center was to present on the first-year experience.

“ … one of the things I would like to do is showcase the Maryville total institutional approach to the first year,” he wrote.