Bridgewater State University - Alpha Yearbook (Bridgewater, MA)

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I927 NORMAL OFFERING- is permanent.' The work of the skilled teacher is excellent. Look about you during every hour of every day if you would see the permanent values of good teaching. A line from Chaucer adorns one of the ancient buildings at Oxford. It reads, 'Gladly does he learn and gladly teach.' No more fitting inscription could grace the portal of this school, and no more compelling ideal guide its work. Generously has the Commonwealth here provided an institution worthy of its task. Gladly, let us hope and believe, will thou- sa-nds leave this campus to return to the State an hundred fold the benefits here received. I-IORACE MANN AUDITORI UM Following more music, came the dedicatory address by Principal Arthur C. Boyden, of the State Normal School at Bridgewater. We regret that because of the unavoidable lack of space we cannot print the whole of this most interesting and enlightening address. First Mr. Boyden paid tribute to Mr. Samuel P. Gates, a graduate of the school, through whose generosity the present advantageous site of the building was made possible. Then in words of sincere admiration, Mr. Boyden spoke of Horace Mann, the great educator, after which he spoke as follows: There are four objectives in the Normal school ideal: CID A professional centre. The new conception gaining force in education emphasizes the fact that the 'child is the centre of gravity in education', and not the subject matter of instruction. This means that the amplest facilities for the observation of children, for demonstration purposes, and for training in teaching, both intensive and extensive, are the vitals of a Normal school. This means that both the cultural and the technical instruction ...Q 10 5...

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THE SCHOOL 'Dedication of the State Normal School at Bridgewater On October 23, 1926, there gathered in the Horace Mann Auditorium, an impressive assembly of many of the foremost educators in New England. A great number of them were Bridgewater Normal Alumni, who, rejoicing in the erection of the beautiful new buildings of their Alma Mater, came to attend the dedicatory exercises. Dr. Payson Smith, State Commissioner of Education, was the presiding officer. After an invocation by the Reverend Egbert C. Prime, of Bridgewater, musical numbers were rendered by a trio, composed of violin, cello, and piano. The first address was given by His Excellency, Alvan T. Fuller, Governor of the State of Massachusetts, who spoke in part, as follows: We honor Bridgewater for vastly more than the length of her service and the number of her graduates. We hold Bridgewater in the highest esteem for the sterling principles which she has championed from the beginning, and I refer particularly to the principle that any education worthy of the name must minister to spirit as well as to intellect. In the second report of the Board of Education signed by Edward Everett, I find the following significant statement: 'The principles of Christian ethics and piety common to the different sects of Christians will be carefully inculcated, and a portion of Scripture will be daily read in all the normal schools established by the Board'. Education and character training were to go hand in hand in order to achieve the noblest results. . From the time of her foundation to the present day Bridgewater has been favored with the highest type of leadership, and one that has given continuity to these early conceptions of education. The first principal, Colonel Nicholas Tillinghast, was characterized as a man of strong religious feeling, pure character, and unfiinching devotion to principle, and I find Mr. Albert G. Boyden, the honored leader of this institution during more than half of her entire history, expressing his educational philosophy in the following language: 'The nor- mal school stands for certain definite ideals-first, for the inspiration of its students with the spirit of the true teacher who has the spirit of service and comes to his pupils as the Great Teacher comes to men, 'that they may have life and have it more abundantly'. Next, the schoolGlee Club, under the direction of Miss Frieda Rand, sang two selections. In the absence of Dr. William G. Vinal, president of the Bridgewater Normal School Alumni Association, Mrs. Cora M. Barry, vice-president of the association, extended a few words of greeting. Greetings from the town of Bridgewater were given by Clifton C. Putney, Superinten- dent of Schools. Mr. Frank W. Wright, Director of the Division of Elementary and Secondary Education and Normal Schools, then addressed the audience. In part, he said: We see in these splendid buildings renewed evidence that Massachusetts places the preparation of her teachers among her primary duties. She is here rededicating herself to the task of carrying forward, through the decades of the future, the important work begun by our far-visioned leaders of more than four-score years ago. On the simple stone that marks the grave of Horace Mann in the Old North Burying Ground in Providence is this meaningful inscription, 'Whatever is excellent, as God lives, T. ...g 9 T...

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THE SCHOOL must focus on the specific professional purpose of the school, just as a lens held in right relation to the sun's rays and to sensitive tinder, will cause a burning Flame. Students in the Normal school must live the life that will best prepare them to direct the experiences of those whom they teach, and teaching thus becomes a fine art. The old Prophet in his description of the ideal condition of life closed with those beautiful words-'and a little child shall lead them.' C2j A professional faculty. The expression often heard to-day is-'to teach is to interpret'. The older phases of the teacher's work are not neglected, but it is being more clearly recognized that the principal function of the teacher is twofold-to interpret to her- self the young life in all of its many, and often strange, manifestations, and to interpret life in all its complexity to the new generation. Only a teacher who is perpetually young can do this. This power to interpret life in its rich meaning is a gift and an achievement-the real teacher is born and 'born again'. There is a still fundamental truth in Garfield's well- known description of a college-'a youth at one end of a log and Mark Hopkins at the other end.' There is also a wonderful inspiration in the words of the great scientist who wished placed on his monument these simple words-'Louis Agassiz. Teacher.' The great Teacher defined teaching for us,-AI came that ye might have life and have it more abundantly'. C31 A professional equipment. There is such a thing as an equipment appropriate and adequate to its purpose, and the equipment of a normal school should resemble that of other great professional schools, because it has a specific purpose. It also must be a com- prehensive equipment-an equipment for an all-round physical development, an equipment with which to interpret the world of our new environment, a social equipment, to meet rationally and happily the great social hunger of young minds, a library equipment, that includes the treasures of the cultural and professional literature of the agesg an artistic equip- ment, that appeals to the imagination through the eye and ear, and, if you allow the term, an ethical equipment, that provides opportunity for such exercises as tend to the uplifting of the spiritual nature, remembering, as Dean Franklin told the Conference at Framingham- 'The ethical is the gateway to the moral and religious'. CLD A professional spirit. 'It is not the letter but the spirit that quickenethh The most influential factor in the establishment of the Massachusetts normal schools was the high devotion of a small band of men and women who laid the foundations so securely. The names of such great promoters of teacher training as James G. Carter, Edmund Dwight, and Horace Mann will ever be in our minds. The first principals of the normal school,- Father Peirce, Samuel Newman, and Nicholas Tillinghast,-were men of scholarship, men of vision, men of high purpose, men who could teach and inspire. The traditions of this particular school cluster around the names of men and women who gave their minds, their hearts, and their lives to this school. This is our priceless heritage. For long years there has been on the walls of our buildings, as well as in the hearts of the faculty, students, and graduates, this motto, which still remains as an inspiration for the years to come,-'Not to be ministered unto, but to minister'. ANSWER A faded moon, a faded rose, A dimly gleaming path That leads to nowhere, ending not- Love's bitter aftermath. B. COOKE, B1 ...g 11 Q...