Watauga Democrat. [volume] (Boone, Watauga County, N.C.) 1888-current, 1926-07-08
NORMAL SCHOOL
VISITED BY MANY
Demonstration School Said to Be One
of the Finest in South; Stu
dents Like Mountains

Quite number of friends and
some strangers have been recent
= welcome visitors at the Normal dur
ing the past few days. Hon. J. T.
Spainhour of Morganton and great
friend of education, and especially in
terested in the Normal here in a
speech at chapel exercises said that
he hardly hoped to see the Normal
develop as it has, and that now he
hopes to see it a first-class college
very soon. Mr.. Adolphus Taylor of
Wilkes, a former trustee of the Nor
nal, compared to conditions here to
what they were fifty years ago, to
the advantage of those present. Mr..
John c. Boyd, banker of Charlotte,
plead for closer relation between
schools and business DR.. Roy F.
Thomas, who has been teacher of
science at Winthrop College, Rock
Hill, S. c., and head of the chemical
department, expressed himself as
surprised at the size and equipment
Of the Normal, and in his excellent
speech at chapel said he was greatly
pleased with what he saw. Prof. W.
S. Tatum, former graduate and a
graduate of the University of Ore
gon, was greatly pleased at the
growth of his Alma Mater.
DR.. B. B. Dougherty, president of
the normal, and Prof. Chapel Will
son, director of the demonstration
school, attended the recent Confer
ence of Elementary Education at
Chapel Hill, in which conference it
was brought out that the Normal
here has this season enrolled not only
the largest number of elementary
teachers of any summer school in
the State, but the largest number Of
elementary teachers ever assembled
in the State at any time, the num-
Der here being GIG. Mrs. Snyder,
'whO has been at the Normal for
several days, representing the B. F.
Johnson Publishing Company and
who made a very fine talk at chapel,
in talk at faculty meeting reported
that many were saying to her that
the Normal here had not only the
best summer school in the State for
elementary teachers but also the best
monstration school. Now if there
are any who do not approve of this
statement let them not blame the
writer nor the Normal, but those who
say this, and if this does not con-
vince them let them come and see for
themselves.
The following facts may be of in
tereSt to the many friends of the
Normal. Of the twenty-eight men,
be1s of the Normal faculty proper,
there are five B. S. graduates, tWen
ty A. BIS, ten have \. NJ, one has
S. T. D. and one Lit. D. In the
student body in the first summer
school there are sixty-eight counties
in North Carolina represented and
eighteen in other states, making SO
counties in all. Of the student body
of 916 enrolled, 32S are recent high
school graduates taking the first
summer school unit of work.
The students of the Normal, with
quite a number of friends of the
town were splendidly entertained on
Saturday night by Mrs. Bertha Orn-
dorff, noted soloist of New York
City, who has quite a reputation in
the various States as "a fine soprano;
and Miss Ruth Rankin, of Boone,
who is one of the most thlented
pianists in this section of the coun-
try, and all who hear her are i'm
pressed with this fact as it is not
only the great skill that she dis
plays in her performance but the
soul that is manifest which thrills
the audience.