Bridgewater State University - Alpha Yearbook (Bridgewater, MA)

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l PAGE TWENTY NORMAL OFFERING VOLUME TEN El Gontribution. BY CAROLINE HAZARD. HE CELEBRATION of Washington's Birthday sends one - afresh to the study of his wonderful Farewell Address. - H . There is one brief paragraph in this address which ought to appeal very strongly to all who are proposing to have any- thing to do with the teaching profession: Promote then as an object of primary importance institutions for the general diffusion of knowledge. In proportion as the structure of the government gives force to public opinion, it is essential that public opinion should be en- lightened. .Beside the actual teaching of the rudiments of learning, and even the higher branches, including science and literature, the ultimate need must always be the enlightening of public opinion. In a country such as ours, in which it is our glory that every man stands equal before the law, and one man's opinion is as good as another's the only criterion is the actual value to the community of a man's life and thought. The teacher's greatest function is to promote the normal and healthy growth of the pupils under his charge, as the mind awakens to give it proper food, to open out the riches of learning and make the young student understand that he is a part of one great whole and has his share in maintaining his part loyally and honorably. We hear a great deal of systems of foreign education. The German school boy at the age of six begins a rigorous routine. In japan, the whole system is evolved in a wonderful fashion, far up the Nile schools are being founded and conducted on lines of modern education. The young man or woman who proposes to become a teacher should know something of all these movements, for it is impossible to hand on light unless the flame is kindled in one's own mind. There must be enthusiasm as well as learning in the leaders of the pupil, and the students in our normal schools should appreciate their great responsibility to thc state and to the country as future teachers of the youth of their communities. Our schools are after all the bulwark of our democracy, and those who are to teach in them have a responsibility second to none in the land.

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voLUMi-3 TEN NORMAL OFFERING PAGE NINETEEN jfaculty 1Flotes. FTENTIMES it seems that those who have left us are quickly ' forgotten in our desire to welcome those who have come to take their places. But this is only superficial judgment of D . .gigs I . . . jfiiggyh r our feelings, for surely, under the surface and the apparent forgetfulness, none of us really lose from memory the friends who have played, worked and lived among us. Especially is this true of those who have been our instructors. They are with us sometimes only a few years, but when they go, it is not to be forgotten, for they leave behind the loving memory of their patience, help and knowledge which were given unstintingly for our good. To them, then, is due our grati- tude and sincere wishes for their success and happiness. But we welcome the new friends with as much sincerity as we give our good wishes to the old. We are glad they are here, and we hope their stay will be long. Miss, Annie L. Sawyer who has had charge of the Second Grade in the Model School has left for a year's rest in New Hampshire, and her place is filled by Miss Neva I. Lockwood, a graduate of the Randolph, Vt., Normal School, and who was a member of the Special Class of 1907 after having taught in Randolph, Vt., and St. johnsbury, Vt. Miss Grace Smith, a student at the Boston Normal Art School, and who has supervised the drawing in Dalton, West Springfield and Barnstable succeeds Miss Lillie E. Merritt who is studying at the Pratt Institute. Miss Margaret E. Fisher left in June to fill the position of Physical Director in the Oshkosh, Wis., Normal School. Miss Ruth Smith, a graduate of the Northfield Seminary and the Boston Normal School of Gymnastics is now the Assistant Instructor in the Physical Training Department. Illness again prevented Miss Carolyn S. Hardwick from carrying on her work in Vocal Expression, and we have been both benefited and enters tained by the work of Miss Anna W. Brown who is her successor, and who is also from the Curry School of Expression.

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voLUME TEN NORMAL OFFERING PAGE TWENTM-ONE With the responsibility there always comes the joy of independent effort. After one has learned one's business, so that the exercise of it can be free, without the trammels of the technical, then comes the joy of work. It is worth while to serve a long apprenticeship to acquire details, to learn methods, to become familiar with principles, until those details and methods and principles shall enter into one's very life, and fused together give the freest activity to the mind and heart. lEV6Ilil1Q Boat 5OI1Q My paddle gleams in the sunset light, My heart leaps up at the goodly sight Of black-stemmed pines, against an orange sky ! So smoothly on my boat doth glide, With soft and fragrant banks beside, I know not which is Silence, which is I ! MAUD M. Bkowms, 'oI.