March 2022: History of TWU

In the 1935-1936 school year, students could major
in home demonstration where “the primary purpose
of the Home Demonstration Group [was] to qualify
students for positions as Home Demonstration
Agents and extension specialists in home-making,”
according to the catalog. Courses were offered in
vegetable gardening, home management for cottage
residences and poultry production. The university
had two practice cottages, where students learning
home economics work could practice their laundering,
cooking and domestic leadership skills in a cottage
residence.
Through the 1940s and 1950s, classes expanded to
where there were language classes in German, Latin,
Portuguese, Spanish and French. Additionally, they
offered introductory athletics courses in a variety
of sports including archery, badminton, basketball,
bowling, fencing, golf, hockey, rifle shooting, softball,
roller skating, soccer and speedball, tennis and
volleyball.
Although some of these classes may be outdated for
today’s times, these classes offered an unprecedented
opportunity for rural women to gain an education.
Many of these programs served as a precursor to
TWU’s current reputation as an excellent university
for health sciences, social services, music, fashion
design and more.
There was also a course in pandemic chemistry which
sought to “meet the needs of those students who
[did] not care to acquire a skill in handling chemical
apparatus, but which, nevertheless, to learn something
of the methods of this science, its origin, and the role
which it is playing in our changing world,” according
to the 1935-1936 class catalog.
There was also a major in costume design, where
students took classes in sewing and costume
construction, which served as an introduction to
TWU’s later renowned textiles department.
The Lasso |
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