La Salle University La Salle University Digital Commons Explorer (Yearbooks) University Publications 1948 Explorer 1948 La Salle University Follow this and additional works at: http://digitalcommons.lasalle.edu/explorer Recommended Citation La Salle University, "Explorer 1948" (1948). Explorer (Yearbooks). 5. http://digitalcommons.lasalle.edu/explorer/5 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the University Publications at La Salle University Digital Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in Explorer (Yearbooks) by an authorized administrator of La Salle University Digital Commons. For more information, please contact [email protected]. The view taken of a University in these dis- courses is the following;: That it is a place of teach- ing universal knowledge. This implies that its object is, on the one hand, intellectual, not moral, and, on the other hand that it is the diffusion and extension of knowledge rather than the advance- imam- ment. John Henr\ Cardinal NeuiJinn. jj^ttfff i:. M' ;Ji'"" W will! •f!=?HM!'i!l! il I f- I: mnnii I! n l»VlJ I \ \<^ '•I'l-rrrrt, !^f H ^l^^H i :llLUilLl.L r HUfiii ^S Mir I !,. ilStin m'- ililMt^n II ipl I If /gllMW ,tiitti«^ I PUBLISHED 1948 Editor LEO C. INGLESBY Associate Editors EDWARD J. CARLIN EDWARD \\^ EHRLICH FRANCIS T. FOTI HARRY J. GIBBONS FRANCIS J. NATHANS Photographic Editor LAWRENCE CORNELL Business Manager JOSEPH R. GUERIN g^»w*' .»0»"»: li lineieen ^J^undred ^ortu-^^La'C^iaki mstmmmsa^at f L V A N 1 A It has been almost a century since Cardinal New- man delivered the lectures on education which sub- sequently became known as the Idea of a University. His views are as valid in our day as they were in his; but though widely admired as theory, they were just as widely neglected in educational practise. We have designed this yearbook to be a fresh statement of our Catholic conviction that the essence of education in the fullest sense of the term is in fact the cultivation of "the force, the steadiness, the comprehensiveness and the versatility of the intellect, the command over our own powers, the instinctive just estimate of things as they pass before us" which Newman understood it to be. We are aware that the practical requirements of a^tnc^ our age have made intensive technical training, par- ticularly in the fields of science and business, an es- sential element of the modem educational program, and that the techniques of such training should in- evitably modify our thinking on the subject. But we feel that in the course of this modification it has be- come habitual with us to regard the cultivation of the whole of human nature, as such and for its own sake, as secondary to the cultivation of some single func- tion of human nature, inquisitive or acquisitive. It is against precisely this inversion of value that a careful attention to Newman's ideas on education would be able to protect us; and we hope that one effect of this publication will be a stimulation of interest in those ideas among Catholic students. In a world not yet freed from the chains of i<inor- History often belies the meaning of the word ance, doubt and mistrust, St. John Baptist de La Salle "progress", and it is only in the field of education and Cardinal Newman stand as two beacons lighting that it can be accurately measured; for science has a the way to intellectual franchisement and religious way of destroying itself and men have a way of per- certitude. vertin" their religion. Over two hundred and fifty years ago, St. John To these sons of St. John Baptist de La Salle on Baptist de La Salle began to bring education to the their completion of a century of devotion in behalf of masses held ignorant by law lest they rise up to wreak Catholic youth and in grateful appreciation for what havoc on a system that enslaved them. This was the they have accomplished for the Church of God in start of an educational process destined to stimulate America by keeping alive the ideals of their founder learning throughout the world. The group-teaching and of giving life to the lofty conception of educa- principle of St. John Baptist de La Salle made pos- tion fostered by Cardinal Newman, we respectfully sible the wider spread of ideas and truths, primary dedicate this book. weapons in the eternal war against injustice and ^lie C^xnlorer S^tail oppression. Co eaium9 he phenomenon of the ever-changing and the changeless existing side by side in the same institution is nowhere more apparent than in schools. Through our univers- ities and colleges pass legions of students^^eir minds grasping new ideas, their hearts ^^yP.-i rs. supporting new ideals; yet, here at La Salle, we can see the ever-changing and the &A^- changeless existing Together. Throughout Li Salle's eighty-n%e years, the growth of the student body jind the expansion of the plivMcal plant manifest the dynamic aspect of our college. Concnrrent with this is the unchangmg aspect: a Catholic Philosophy of a Liberal Education. The pictures on the following pages show how La Salle has expanded to fulfill its declared aim of providing to thps^wl^-^ifciire it, .1 .oilge for Catholic higher education. of the necessar)- facilities and buildings, i!i tl>c storJB the a^er-c4»anging t.icet of La Salle. Cameras, however wiTtin 3]OSG-'411!---.-tO ciptuft: the spirit of a iireraj education which has %M^ ,^.,.:, ^\,^ ^leePas'tfle static — . |j^g5^ ei^hty-3\iq y^rs.^To..record that aspect of our I U isti \<5 rrvuyz seajCou je^mSnts ^N'-hich ;^createithi> spirit and sustained it -to^mi^^^^h. e teacT^ tjie cur^culum, and-th« end in view. We 'faftDTj KaveV^V it possible to drop in on'clas'ses comduaed at the original site of La Sadli' s, we would be conscious of many similanties between the The Christian Brother «4;pnductine the class^ — clothed 5ay ar?||inspired with tht;.saiiie.|mr^ose, would ^« or J ^Pb** t<^be the immediate predecessor the Brother of today rather than separated^^ - ' p^Thali^yeats^ffoi)^%ia|i^yeai^*o '^e!^e a liberal education,educatron, a^eache^a- needs ntorc than excellence of "^ Ir' •»« ^cbolafihip; m^^dto^or rnB^t^efmore than a specialist_ifl.iu*' field. He must have a ^ton^ptett»kno*ledt,'e';6l?^ie ?!%l*ire of rnan .andid arr integrated ^ucation himself. I"*' %< These' hicl1«te.ue. lett out imrortant jBubjeas, that have put too much stress ve prc^n^*all the subjects with no effort to integrate them into an educatloi " e said tq be completely educated if Jie has no idJa'of tions and duties hn Cfeator.' 6ai a man been educatea% his setlboP' it 4» h A. cJLa ^atle years are devoted solely to the mastery of one subject or the intense preparation for some profession? Does a man have anything more than a grab-bag collection of subjects if each subject is given as an entity unrelated to anything else? Obviously not. To avoid the pitfalls of this pseudo-education, the Brothers at La Salle have alwayj sought to include all of those subjects which' ilttnmnr«t«):»4ta m,^ i,f|m^|^ facets of th^ human personality. The litst of courses given can very neatly be summarized as thos which will teach meriTiow to live and how to make a living. The purpose of La Salle, the third integral of that trinity whence the spirit of a liberal education springs, is anbther manifestation of constancy. Whether you look to the charter issued in 1863 or to the 1947-48 handbook, you will tihd Catholic higher education as the avowed purpose of the college. .To bring about the combined develop- ment, of moral and intellectual powers, to cultivate intellectual excellence, to^emphasize Christian morality as the vital force in character formation and sound citizenship — these are the purposes to which the educator's labors are applied. As long as they strive towafd these ends the spirit of a liberal education will survive at La Salle. It IS indeed remarkable that such an elusive thing as this spirit has become the .steadfast element at _ 'our college. This spirit must be inculcated in students even before it is understood by them, and they o^tJgeeventually led to believe in it. The practical demands of the day seem to be acting again.st it continuously, and diverse philo.sophies discrediting it periodically. In seeking a reason for this changelessness we arrive at two things intimately connected with the colleges. The first is the teaching of the Church on the nature of rfiah incorporated into a philosophy of education. The secortd is the religious order tWHas labored at Xa Salle since its inception. As a reflection of the agelessness of the Church and the constancy of its Catholic educators, the prevailing spirit at La Salle c(mld<«be nothmg |)ut perpetual. ^^Wt w'^ld bd indeed vain wefe we to believe that La Salle was the perfect^ ihe S]\ WW faultless example of the Liberal Arts College. We are consciou&^^of its shortcomings; we haje seffrt "Row the real differs from the ideal. Such a realization is not discouraging, we are grotSl^hat in a world where integrated education has often disintegrated, La so close ideal. hope that La Salle, on the eve of post-war » -1-1* •SalTe has come to the We \ ^expansioti and consolidation, will rededicate itself to the ideals and goals proper to the Liberal Arts College.