Evening star., 1938-04-10
Miss Parkt,an to Be HOnOred
For 80 Years. School Seruice
WiIsOn Teacher AuthOr
of Text Books for
Children.
BY JESSIE FANT EVANS.

To signalize the 80 years of service
which Miss Mary Rose Parkman has
given to the public schools of WASH
ington as heae of the English depart
ment Of the Wilson Normal School
and its successor, the Wilson Teachers
College from 1907 to 1887, the Wilson
Alumni Association is honoring her at
its annual meeting tomorrow.
In the role of guest of honor at the
Wilson Teachers College at Eleventh
and Harvard streets NV, she will be
greeted by prominent school officials
and hundreds of former pupils, now
teachers in our Washington public
schools, who will gather to pay tribute
to this native-born product Of its
graded, high and normal school
system.
Her series of biographies and text
books for children have not only made
her famous in educational circles
throughout the United States, but are
in daily classroom use in the District
Of Columbia and in Americas Eastern
school sector and have had Statewide
adoptions in many of the school sys-
TENS of the Southern and Western
parts of our country.
Miss Parkman's first teaching as
signment after her own graduation
from the Washington Normal School
when 1t was housed in the garret of
the present headquarters of our public
school system at the Franklin School,
Thirteenth and K streets NV, was
trial one-from May to June closing
time-in a sixth grade at the Buchau-
an School,
Efforts Rewarded.
The following September her sue
cessful efforts in coping with the
sixth graders at the Buchanan was
rewarded by her appointment to a
first grade teaching position at the
nearby Cranch School. Here she sue
cessively taught its first second and
third grades. Then came her designa-
ton as model teacher for this school
division. In this position teachers
after their own teaching periods came
to observe her methods and proceed
ures that they might more effectively
handle similar pedagogic problems in
their own class rooms.
Subsequently she was promoted to
the position of practice teacher in the
Wilson Normal School. with head
quarters at the Seaton School Her
province was not only to serve as a
model teacher herself, but to direct
the students in training under her in
the theory and practice of teaching
as part of their normal school train
ing.
To fit herself for this position. Miss
Parkman had in the meantime pur-
sued various courses at the George
Washington University after her own
teaching hours, and supplemented
these at the University of Chicago
during her summer vacations. She
holds her A. B. from the University
of Chicago and her NJ A. from the
University of Vermont In comment-
ing upon her work at the latter in
stitution of learning, Miss Parkman
comments upon being in a Shake
speare class with John Coolidge, son
of the late President, while he too was
spending his vacation in this environ
ment so beloved by his father and
grandfather.
With touch of humor, Miss Park
man recalls her English classes at
the Franklin School Because of the
over-crowding three teachers often
hoH fo feon1, r,,k;
simultaneously in different corners of
the schools assembly hall
Shakespeare's admonition as to "a
low voice being an excellent thing in
woman" was not only virtue but
a necessity on the part of teachers
and students alike in "our sky parlor,"
as it was facetiously dubbed by the
students. Let either raise her oues-
ton or answer above a mumbling
pitch, and confusion would ensue, with
all sorts of bizarre bits from all three
classes being tossed out into the con-
ficting aura.
A table with solitary drawer in
which she kept her roll book of class
attendance and such important papers
as its meager space afforded, was the
only teaching equipment supplied.
At the outset of her teaching career,
Miss Parkman formed the habit of
early rising. Often she used this
period for special planning in connec-
ton with her teaching program. Out
OF this grew a series of biographical
sketches for childish readers which
she used in her classroom and later
published in st. Nicholas magazine