John Tryon Marshman

              JOHN TRYON MARSHMAN




FigureJOHN TRYON MARSHMAN



A.M., LIT. D., LECTURER, TEACHER, AUTHOR, READER AND PREACHER






Biographical Sketch



EDUCATION:



Village School:  Galion, Ohio; High School:  Wooster, Ohio; College:  Ohio Wesleyan University; Heidleberg Theological Seminary; Pennsylvania State College.





TEACHING EXPERIENCE:



Village and Country Schools; teacher in:  Galion High School; State Normal School, Cedar City, Utah; Heidelberg College, Tiffin, Ohio; Ohio Wesleyan University; Pennsylvania State College; New York University; Edward Belcher Studio, Los Angeles, California; University of Wisconsin.  Head of Speech Department at Ohio Wesleyan University, 1920–1938.





PLATFORM EXPERIENCE:



Lecturer for ten summers throughout New England, Mid-Atlantic and Southern States, and Eastern Canada.  Speaker and Lecturer at commencements and High School Assemblies, Women's Clubs, Service Clubs, Institutes, National Council of Teachers of English, National and District Associations of Teachers of Speech.  Has preached in leading churches throughout the country.





PROFESSIONAL AND HONORARY SOCIETIES:



National Association of Teachers of Speech (President, 1938); Eastern and Central States Associations of Teachers of Speech; National Educational Association; National Educational Policies Commission.  Phi Beta Kappa; Delta Sigma Rho; Theta Alpha Phi; Pi Gamma Mu.





AUTHOR:



Modern short stories for Oral Interpretation, and articles for professional magazines.







Lecture Subjects



FIREPROOFING THE WORLD



Our twentieth century world is again a raging conflagration.  Neither our own house nor any other nation's house is fireproof.  Can civilization fireproof its houses or must we be content with armament insurance as our doubtful protection?  Education is a better safeguard to our liberties than standing armies.  Billions for necessities of education rather than for accessories of war!  The pen is mightier than the sword; the book than the catapult; the professor than the policeman.  We must educate or perish by our own armament insurance.





IDOLS OR IDEALS



What the world needs today is humanized scientists, humanized philosophers, humanized capitalists.  The ideal humanizes, the idol de-humanizes.  What is an idol?  What is an ideal?  Great poets are great idealists, therefore, great prophets.  Examples:  The ideal is the pull in life.  Ideas are not what make a people civilization, it is their ideals.  It is important to keep the climbing mood dominant in life.  The worm of greed and the fatter worm of ease as offspring of idols honeycomb walls and towers of state in unsuspecting hours.





VITAL VALUES IN EDUCATION or AM I EDUCATED?



The youth is somewhat of a chaos, a miniature philosopher, a world former, and the issues that make for the highest and the lowest in his personality are largely fought out in his education.  The youth is not a finality, but a possibility.  Whether the youth be victim or victor depends largely upon his education.  What are some of the vital values to be held in the foreground as the youth travels the risky road in becoming a conscious somebody in the world?  The following are essential:  knowledge; self-direction; aesthetic sense; universal mental techniques; enthusiasm; poise.





ESSENTIAL METHOD IN EDUCATION or AM I A TEACHER?



It has been said that you can always tell a teacher, but that you can't tell him much.  To be a teacher one must not only know the subject he is to teach, but he must also know the subject (the youth) on which he is to teach.  The teacher must be a leader in thought and action, that is, he must know where he is going; must be able to persuade others to follow; and must always be several steps ahead.  The essential method in teaching is the sharing of life of both the subject taught and of the teacher himself.





WHAT MAKES MEN GREAT?  or HUMAN MASTERPIECES



H. G. Welles, the historian, names six greatest men of all time.  What are the historians' standards of greatness?  Jesus of Nazareth, without reference to his divinity or deity, the greatest man of all times.  What were his standards of greatness?  Whom did Jesus name as the greatest man of his day; or of any other time previous?  What were the qualities in this man that Jesus named?  Is courage a mark of greatness?  Is acquisitive nature a mark of greatness?  Is enthusiasm a mark of greatness?  Is culture a mark of greatness?  Can anyone become great?  Examples —





HARP OF THE SENSES



The voice is the harp of the senses.  The voice — a harp of two strings with a thousand possibilities.  The human voice — the most used, the most abused, the most useful and the most universal sound instrument in the world.  Defects in voice mechanism and also in its functioning come from six sources.  The voice much of the time is out of tune.  Tune the voice!





THE VOICE OF LITERATURE



Literature — a cross section of life.  Form and substance in literature.  Prose and poetry.  Interpreting through voice narrative, lyrical, epic and dramatic poetry.  Imaginative, emotional, intellectual and volitional elements of literature and their interpretation through voice.  Illustrations.  (Readings).





THE OLYMPIAD OF LIFE or THE CINDER PATH



(Commencements or High School Assemblies)




The main issue in life is not victory, but the fight.  The essential thing is not to have won, but to have fought well.  Life is a long distance race.  Can we hold out for the laps?  Altius, fortius, citius — higher, braver, swifter.  We defeat ourselves by lowing our ideals; we defeat ourselves by shifting blame.  We win by getting our second wind.  
The courage of the commonplace prepares us for the courage of the crisis.
  Prepare today for tomorrow!





SHARPENED TOOLS



(Commencements or High School Assemblies)




One of the purposes of education is to fit the individual with mental tools for survival and service among his fellows.  Education is like a pocketknife with several blades buried in the handle.  What are the blades in this knife which education opens and keeps in condition?  How shall we get fullness of knowledge?  How shall we get exactness of knowledge?  How shall we get readiness of knowledge?





FACTORY OR FAMILY



The heart out of which the energies of our civilization flow is the factory.  Once the heart was the home; once the church; once the school.  The factory influence has permeated even these ancient institutions.  The worker in the factory is himself a machine.  Can the factory be humanized and the individual individualized?





YOUR VOICE — ASSET OR LIABILITY



A good voice is always an asset; a poor voice — always a liability.  The world today is more voice conscious than at any time previous.  A civilization is largely measured by its vocal utterances in social and public discourse.  Older civilizations are ahead of us in good speech.  Europeans laugh at our carelessness in speech and at our bad voices.  The typical American voice is flat and thin; is nasal; or is muffled.  What is the cure for our bad voices, and our indifferent pronunciation?







Comments
 ...



I have been in close contact with the work of Professor Marshman for many years.  Having heard him on many occasions, I am convinced that he not only knows the principles of speech, but is himself a speaker of great clarity and power.




EDMUND D. SOPER, President, Emeritus, Ohio Wesleyan University.




Dr. Marshman gave four lectures in all at our Tazewell County Institute.  We have received only the highest praises for him from the teachers for his splendid effort.  We appreciate his being recommended to us.  We enjoyed his personality and his ability to put it over.




F. R. ISENBURG, Sup't.  Tazewell County Schools, Pekin, Illinois




Ohio Wesleyan may well be proud of the impression Dr. Marshman made when he lectured before the college women here.  His lecture was splendid.




BLANCHE KEYSER, Secretary-Treasurer of University Women's Club, Dayton, Ohio




Those who heard Professor Marshman read Henry Van Dyke's 
THE LOST WORLD,
 showed their appreciation by flocking to the auditorium to hear the lecture on Monday

 morning.  Professor Marshman's reading is superbly done, and his lecturing is just as superb.
FORT PLAIN STANDARD, Fort Plain, New York




I was so impressed with your talks at Spencerville, Ohio, at the Farmer's Institute that I felt that I should write and tell you so.  The people of Spencerville are indeed fortunate to have had you as their guest speaker.  We need more of your type.




MRS. J. ELMER KEPHART, Bloomfield Hills, Michigan




I had the thrill of my life when I walked into the banquet room at the Michigan Union and discovered that you, my old teacher, were the speaker for the State convention.  How thrilling to hear a real logical speech at a speech banquet!




H. C. KLINGBEIL, Bay City Junior College, Michigan




I want to tell you, Professor Marshman, that the teachers enjoyed your lectures very much and are still talking about them.  They were much inspired and have asked that we might secure your services for a return date.




J. KENNETH RONEY, Shelby County, Ill. Sup't. of Schools, Sept. 16, 1939.