London Normal School - Spectrum Yearbook (London, Ontario Canada)

Page 7 text:

a message from the clergy he Clergy who teach Religious guidance to the students of the London Normal School are very conscious of the honour and privilege which is theirs to meet with and teach the students week by week in their classes. They are convinced that if they have been able to render any effective service to the students who come to them, the time and effort which they have put forth is amply repaid. Having spent a year at the Normal School preparing yourselves for your chosen pro- fession, the clergy would like you to carry with you into your life work their sincere good wishes for a highly successful career. You are joining a great army of highly trained and unselfish public servants whose duty it is to guide and direct the mental, moral and physical welfare of the future citizens of this important Province of Ontario. It is our fervent hope that you will put your heart and soul into your work so that in years to come an increasing number of your students will rise up and call you blessed . As you go forth, you carry with you our prayer that Almighty God will abundantly bless you in your work. On behalf of the Clergy, Yours very sincerely, GEORGE W. MOORE.

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a message to the class of ' 52 rize fighters have a useful term. It is called leading with your chin . This year educa- tors seem to have led with their chins. For they have adopted a slogan, Education is everybody ' s business . Certainly, within recent weeks, almost everyone seems to have made the school system his business. On all sides the modern school has been lustily buffeted about. There are those who blame it for not teaching enough of manners and morality; there are others who blame it for usurping the place of the home, apparently for trying to teach too much of manners and morality. There are those who blame it for losing students because it failed to challenge and interest them; there are others who blame it for making work interesting instead oi making it arduous and drudging. There are those who blame it for ignoring the individual in the mass, and there are those who blame it for paying too much attention to the individual. There are those who blame it for neglecting the traditional core of fundamental skills, and there are those who blame it for failing to keep pace with the age of the electron. All this is healthy and right. It is right that those who pay the piper should call the tune. You are entering a job where you are the servants of the public. If your skin is too thin to bear the slings and arrows of public criticism, then I am afraid that teaching is not for you. And it is healthy that those who pay you should take a sharp interest in what you do. In one sense at least, education is only the tail upon the national dog — in the sense that it can move only as its owner wills it to move. So it will move further and faster when it is whisked with some irritation; not when it is wagged in mere amiability. It appears, then, that you are entering teaching at a time when what you do, or fail to do, is very much in the public eye. The public, your masters, will expect you to give their children those things which make life richer, without neglecting those things which are necessary if life is to go on at all. They will expect you to respect the right of every individual child to achieve his full stature as a person, without neglecting those limitations which the rights of all impose upon the rights of one. They will expect you to practise and to teach that all growth in freedom must be bought at a price; it must be bought in the hard coin of greater responsibility. Within these limitations, I hope that you will continue to explore new trails in your job. If sometimes the way seems hard and the criticism unjust, remember that you are in good com- pany. About twenty-five hundred years ago a certain teacher was accused of corrupting the youth of his time with new-fangled educational ideas. The name of this early progressive edu- cator was Socrates. F. C. BIEHL.

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if . . . you will remember, early in the school year, you were asked to decide whether or not you wanted to have a Yearbook. The decision was unanimous and so you now have a copy of the 1952 Spectrum in your hands. A great deal of time and hard work was involved in selecting and getting into print a representative cross-section of the year ' s activities so that the main purpose of this book might be served. The purpose, of course, is that we might have something more tangible and permanent than a memory to recall the friends and events of our year. I don ' t believe it would be necessary to have you decide on the question of whether we have spent a successful year at London Normal. The decision, once again I am sure, would be unanimous. What has made it such a success? The answer lies within the covers of this book — approximately (250) students and teachers. In a relatively small group such as this, with common interests and aims, a spirit of friendship and harmony has existed that is hard to dupli- cate. Many friends have been made and experiences shared that we hope will long stay with us. However, this year would not be complete if we left with only memories of friends and events. We came here with a purpose, and I hope that we will all be successful in seeing it ful- filled. All of us have had some teaching experience and so we are familiar with the joys and the problems that it can bring. We have had an opportunity to see and to appreciate the respon- sibilities that rest with the teacher. But, when we enter our own class-rooms this fall, these joys, problems and responsibilities will become more real because they will be ours. In meeting these experiences of the teacher, and in all other endeavours, I would like to extend to everyone my best wishes for success in the years to come. Yours respectfully, DOUGLAS COPLAND, P.M., Student Pari.