The people's voice. [volume] (Helena, Mont.) 1939-1969, 1942-10-23
BY GRACE JEAN WHEELER

Speaking in very general terms, one
may say students fall into two classes
those who educate themselves IL
order to make life easier, and those
who educate themselves to make life
better. The first group endeavors to
simplify the process of living so as
to avoid finding themselves in posi-,
lions where they must expend effort,
either mental or physical, in order to
make living a pleasant activity The
second group endeavors to fit itself
for meeting such situations squarely
and eagerly, in such a way that they
can contribute materially and vitality
toward the solution of the problems
facing them, and so make living still
more fruitful and productive.
The Laboratory's Job
1t is the function of the Social Work
Laboratory to satisfy the desires of
the second group, and to do it SO at
tractively that the first group cannot
help being enticed into changing their
philosophy of living to the more ag-
gressive, vital philosophy that must
be characteristic of progressing de-
mocracy.
The Guiding Light
1t has been said that good teachers
can be Unidentified by the fact that
they make better people of their stu
dents than they are themselves. Ger
tainly then, If we as a nation are to
continue to progress, to avoid stag
mating on our present level, or even
backsliding to a lesser level good
teaching methods must be constantly
demanded, and constantly be i'm
proved upon. In order to improve
upon his own methods, and to give
his students insights greater than his
own, the teacher must constantly
draw upon resources outside his own
knowledge and skills The Social |
Work Laboratory is founded upon the
principle that the best and most USE
full resource available is the real-life
community in which the student cir
culates, and into which he must fit
himself after graduation.
Why "Moved Into" the Lab
I speak so glibly of the Social Work
Laboratory because I, as major in
Sociology, lived in the laboratory most
of my college career. Perhaps l was
more fortunate than most students, in
that my choice of profession had
been pretty well settled upon before
| came to the university My high
school principal taught economics and I
sociology, one semester of each, and /
somehow, quite without intending to t
do so, l am sure, he instilled in me t
OF those fields. I wanted to be 6
social worker. So without preamble, 6
my college curriculum was designed t
toward that end. Ii
On the Ground Floor a
1t was my good luck to enter uni a
versity in the fall of the year during C
which the Social Work Laboratory '
was born. In fact, l was working in t
Dr.. Tascher's office at the time, and t
was given the job of drafting some e
Of the first forms used by the new t
Laboratory group, and 1 typed the E
'irst records to be handed in under
he new field work program l sat in fl
IN the earliest policymaking confer T
'nces, and my head ached with all the +,
'ther twenty-five or thirty heads i,
which were involved in the Herculean il
ask of planting field work program fl
n the virgin soil of this community. ii
The Driving Force d
Those twenty-five or thirty students N
we're university seniors, who were T
lex and tired of the continual round, IL
ay in and day out, of classes in CT