Bridgewater State University - Alpha Yearbook (Bridgewater, MA)

Page 19 text:

TQE ECHOOI XVILLIAM D. JACKSON SCHOLAR, FRIEND W'ho faithfully served from February, 1883, to june, 1926 ...4 13 5...

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l927 NORMAL OFFERING 'CORA A. NEWTON TEACHER, FRIEND Who faithfully served from September, 1912, to February, 1927 T. ...Q 12 T...

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i927 NORMAL OFFERING Destroy this Temple and in Three Days I will Build it up Again In the Words of our Lord- Destroy this temple and in three days I will build it up again, -the spirit behind our school has a graphic parallel. After careful consideration,- and at the risk of criticism,-we have decided that no other words can so aptly express our thought as this quotation. It symbolizes to us the triumphing of spirit over matter. The material things of this world may be destroyed, but the spirit cannot. A short while ago our school building crumbled into ashes. Nothing that was earthly remained. But the soul of the school,-the knowledge of the necessity of well-trained teachers,-lived on in the hearts of the Massachusetts educators. A few months found erected in the place of the destroyed building a structure more power- ful, more adequate, and more beautiful than ever. Destroy this temple and in three days I will build it up again. Each year the members of our school have instilled in them the spirit of well-trained teachers. His excellency Alvan T. Fuller, Governor of Massachusetts, says, Schools can-I not rise above the teachers in them. If this be so, and we feel that it is, how vitally essen- tial it is for us to carry the high ideal of Bridgewater Normal School, through which it sur- vived a calamity, into the schools in which we teach. Centuries ago, the Greek philosopher, Diogenes, uttered a modern view when he said, The foundation of every state is the education of its youth. He did not say that a nation needed great industries, powerful trade routes, or conquering armies in order to survive. He knew that there is something more fundamental which forms the basis of a state. Educa- tion is the bed-rock on which the rest is constructed. All mundane effects may be destroyed, but if the spirit lives on, reconstruction will follow. If, as Napoleon says, Public instruction should be the first object of government , then the second should be that the public instruction should be the best possible. The State Normal School at Bridgewater has ever aimed to graduate only students who have at- tained a high degree of pedagogical ability. Because this skill was possessed by our in- structors, they were able to carry on through disaster and into the new life of the school. A spirit was there which could not be destroyed. The temple is but a fragile place, at best. It is the will to fight and conquer that counts. Destroy this temple and in three days I will build it up again. Marie Hayes. ...Q 14 5...