About the diary writer
- Barbara McDowell Whitt
- Kansas City, Missouri, Alexandria, Virginia, United States
- ~ About: A 1961-65 Park College Diary ~ As a high school girl and then a college coed in the first half of the 1960s, I wrote nightly entries on the pages of one-year diaries. In January 2010 I began transcribing the entries into a blog and gave each one a title. I grew up on three farms within 30 miles of Iowa City and the University of Iowa with its Iowa Writers' Workshop. As the oldest of four daughters, in my diaries I sometimes referred to my sisters as "the kids" or "the girls." We helped our parents, but we also had good, wholesome fun - a characteristic I took with me to Park. Park is 300 miles southwest of West Chester, Iowa, in Parkville, Missouri, on the Missouri River 10 miles northwest of Kansas City, Missouri, and across the river from Kansas City, Kansas. In 2000 Park College became Park University. Today Park's flagship campus is in Parkville and there are an additional 41 campus centers across the nation. Park was one of the first educational institutions in the United States to offer online learning. My last post was on May 22, 2018. I may be followed on Twitter @BarbaraMcDWhitt.
Mimeograph Paper Evaluation - Friday, January 27, 1961
For some reason (and I wonder why!) Fridays are my most relaxing school day. Except for when I gave my declam speech. I gave it for the English class, but if I do like that tomorrow, I'll be lucky to get a III. Then the kids in French class wanted to hear it, too, so I said it again. We finally received word from Iowa City about our newspaper evaluation. They gave a few suggestions (all of which I could have "helped") and said with these improvements this could be the top mimeograph paper in the state! Phyllis, Linda Timmins and I went to the North English game at Kalona. We won.
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4 comments:
I can't remember if you told what your speech was about. Do you remember it? And was is declam short for? Seems like a word I don't know.
Declam is an abbreviated form of declamation. English teachers worked with students in several categories as we memorized our speeches for delivery. Some were dramatic, some were humorous and I was among those who wrote our own speeches--thus the name original oratory. I took advantage of the developing interest in the space race and wrote and presented "The Decade of Man in Space" as a junior and "Greetings, Extra-terrestrials" as a senior.
What a great thing to have. I don't think I did it in HS. When I got to college and had to do speeches in Rhetoric class, I was terrified and found out I loved it.
It is good to have had the experience.
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