Evening star., 1942-08-30
Wilson College, D. c. Schools
Lose CoIorfuI Personality
Miss Breen Retiring,
Although She PIons
Hours Of Service
BY JESSE FAINT EVANS.

| One OF the most efficient and
colorful personalities in Washing
tons public schools will be missing
from her accustomed duties at the
Wilson Teachers College when its
September sessions open.
For the first time in her nearly
fifty years of consecutive service to
the Washington public school sys-
tenn, Miss Mary Cecilia Breen will
not be needing the summons of a
school bell. She is retiring to pri-
vate life, If retirement is q term
that can ever be appropriately used
in connection with personality as
dynamic as Miss Breen's.
In the official statement made to
the Board of Education by the
school authorities, Miss Breen is
declared to have been "a guide to
more Washington teachers than any
other one teacher" This same sum-
mary also states: "A native of
Washington, Miss Breen has been
able to carry on the valuable tradi-
tions Of older Washington. and at
the same time interpret the newer
educational practices at this critical
moment in our Nations history
when deep roots are so necessary for
future growth"
Immediately after graduating
from the old Washington Normal
School in 1893. Miss Breen was ap-
pointed a teacher with entire charge
of its two second-grade classes.
Saw Wilson Grow
In the ~ continuous years Of
service that have followed in the
institution that Is now known as
the Wilson Teachers College, Miss
Breen has been an integral part Of
the growth and progress Of this
training school for teachers, in its
evolution from q one-year Normal
School to q four-year Teachers
College.
Her inquiring mind and love Of
her profession have caused her to
take q leadership In educational
procedures and patterns. and many
of her ideas now are incorporated
into the warp and woof Of our pres
ent educational system.
Before the days of social hygiene
and community health programs
she interested her students, the
future teachers of Washington, In
looking to their own health and that
of their little charges. Practical in
struction was given in food habits,
heating, ventilation, adequate
amounts of sleep and outdoor ex-
ercise. Hot lunches for school chill
dren, wherever practical, and the
midmorning glass of milk with a
graham cracker, were advocated by
Miss Breen long before they became
an actuality in our schools.
She was an early and enthusiastic
advocate of the Binet and other sys-
TENS for evaluating the capacity Of
pupils as guide to their instruc-
ton, and acceleration If need be, In
their school environment. These
are now an accepted part Of the
record Of every pupil in the public
school system. Miss Breen having
been In charge Of the initiation of
the Mental Testing Program In the
Wilson Normal School when 1t was
first started there Immediately after
World War I.
Many Scholastic Credits.
Hundreds Of mothers, once teach
ers, are reminded whenever they
pass Franklin Park, opposite what
Is now the administrative head
quarters Of the school system in the
Franklin School at Thirteenth and
K streets NV, Of their outdoor ma
ture study classes with Miss Breen
and her second grade pupils, when
she unfolded to them the mysteries
Of bud or flower. or nesting bird.
Although she never obtained a
college degree, she had scholastic
credits In many lines of specialized
academic endeavor far above those
required for degree, long before
such qualifications were required Of
those who teach in our higher in
stitutions. Especially interested in
the exact sciences, she specialized
in them at the George Washington
University, at Cornell and else
where. To gain wider geograph-
ical teaching background and to In
terpret 1t wisely to her pupils, she
taught nature study and gardening
In the summer sessions of normal
schools at Plymouth, N. H.; Stark
vile, Miss. and Hampton, Va.
In 1920 Miss Breen began her work
with academic classes, because her
superior officers realized the inspi-
ration that would come in a training
school for teachers through the cor
relation of her intellectual attain
ments with her intimate knowledge