Calgary Normal School - Chinook Yearbook (Calgary, Alberta Canada)

Page 18 text:

OAjl QAe tiwA A (Sributp to Sr. (Coffin from tl|r taff C i T is impossible, at the moment, for us as a staff to visualize the Calgary Normal School without Dr. Coffin. It is not alone because of our years v of association with him as principal, but rather because during that time of service, he has impressed us with his dignity, his integrity, his never-failing courtesy, and his great humanity. His regard for personality as something sacred and inviolate in each individual has been a magnetic force in all his relations with staff and students. This regard has ever been evident in his tolerant attitude towards various opinions, and in his power to inspire others towards the attainment of a broader vision of life, as well as the realization of the possibilities of their own achievement. The brilliance of his mind and the spontaneity of his wit have been constant joys to us, his associates, and to the countless students whose good fortune it has been to come into the sphere of his kindly guidance. The departure of Dr. Coffin from his duties as Principal of the Calgary Normal School is indicative of the passing of an era — an era beginning in the days when the Province was first organized and called young men and young women of culture and scholarship, trained in the traditions of the great univers¬ ities of the East, to help build the educational institutions of the West. To realize the vast importance of that contribution to a youthful Province, one has only to scan the achievements of Dr. Coffin and other men in similar positions, who have given the best years of their lives in unfailing devotion to duty, never gratifying selfish interests but always considering the well-being of the youth entrusted to their care. Dr. Coffin’s vision of the educational opportunities necessary for the development of each and every individual was indeed far-seeing, but perhaps his greatest contribution has been in his sympathetic and tolerant understanding of every problem that a student might bring for his consideration, knowing full well that that problem would receive fair treatment and kindly attention in the fullest possible measure. The motto of the Calgary Normal School, Juvare Optamus — We choose to serve, has indeed been Dr. Coffin’s motto, gleaming like a star in all his endeavors, and shedding a radiance over the atmosphere of the school whose honor it has been to have claimed him as a principal — a radiance that will fade little with the passing of the years from the minds of those on whom it has so brightly shone. —OLIVE M. FISHER. Page fourteen

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OAc QA novA - ' A iFrorn ®ur JInttripal Y NOTHER year, with its abbreviations and interruptions, is nearing its r close, and once more we are to sever immediate relations just as we are C getting acquainted. Invariably we feel that if we had another year together we each might appreciate what the other is driving at, and why we try so hard to keep each other busy. This has been a year of happy co-operation. All we seem to have needed is more space and more time. Fortunately, mumps, whooping-cough, and other such belated “enterprises” have been conspicuously absent from the time-table, and the attendance, barring a few home-sick week ends, has been amazingly good. Basketball, hockey, folk-dancing, orchestra, chess, and current events have made successful appeals, dramatics and choral practice have given wonder¬ ful promise for stage and concert hall. The Year Book threatens to be a master¬ piece, and even the boredom of class periods has been heroically endured. There has been no sign of mental depression. The Staff, student friends, most heartily appreciate your co-operation and your initiative. And now that you have passed through two of the three regulation stages of teacher development, namely the pre-training (normal entrance), and the pre¬ service, what about the third, the “in-service”? Frequent testimonies of “normalites” from their first year on the job is that the only real preparation they got at Normal was the week they weren’t there, the week of rural practice. Of course they don’t mean it just that way. But, inevitably, amid the clatter of schoolroom routine, there is but a hazy realization, or even recollection, of aims and objects, educational principles, psychological theories, readiness, apper¬ ceptive basis, maturation, mental discipline and all the rest of it. The novice is careful and troubled about many things amid the pots and pans of the elementary school which he has forgotten, so that he is apt to w r onder why he could not have got his training right on the job, instead of spending so long wandering away from it through mazes of matriculation courses, professional abstractions and mastery of equipment that he is puzzled to find time to use. So next year is the real try out. And if we seem to have violated our own professional maxims and put generalities first, theory before practice, forced upon us in a one-year course, please believe that this is a complimentary acknow¬ ledgment of your maturity, of your ability to reason deductively, to apply prin¬ ciples to instances. But don’t forget that the instance puts the principle to the test and may correct it. Therein you have the thrilling opportunity to make a contribution to educational theory and to Normal School treatment. When the forest is visible through the trees, the course as a whole through the beggarly details, the maturing mind through the daily lessons, you may begin to refer the scraps in the scene to the whole picture framed—or so attempted—on the Hill. We trust that you will find abundant satisfaction, happy companionship, increasing appreciation, and the joy of discovery and stimulation in your first year of public school service, and be encouraged to continue this service long enough to find out what the concepts and principles mean in the teacher-pupil association. E. W. COFFIN. Page thirteen

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YEAR BOOK STAFF Belt to right: Reece Gibb, Biography Editor; Lloyd Anderson, Photography Editor; Robert Armstrong, Business Manager; Charlotte M ontgomery, Assistant Editor; Janet McGregor, Biography Editor; Melvin Sillito, Editor; John Tuskey, Art Editor; Miss Chittick, Staff Advisor; Audrey Innis, Secretary. lEiittnrtal VF.R a generation ago the first class of Normal students began the process of creating Vf7 an atmosphere—a soul if you like—about this school. Year by year, succeeding classes thronged these halls and added their contribution to the connotation of “The Calgary Normal School.” Have we made our contribution? Have we added to their accomplish¬ ments or taken the sting out of some of their disappointments? Or have we passively accepted their heritage? If we have not yet made some contribution, however small, to our chosen profession, we should pity ourselves. If we do not begin soon to make some such contribution, we should pity those whom we shall influence in the course of our pro¬ fessional careers. But we believe we have begun to shoulder our share of the burdens of teaching. This class must of necessity do the pioneering in a changing system of education: we go to build a highway where as yet there is only a faint path. All of us will not succeed; few of us will measure up to our own ideals in this work. But for those who valiantly strive there will be a reward—the happiness of children, the kind word of a parent, the deep satisfaction of sincere effort. To us falls the honor of expressing to our principal, Dr. Coffin, the cumulative tribute of many classes and the appreciation of thirty years of work well done. To this tribute may we add our grateful thanks, not only for the privilege of being a student under Dr. Coffin’s friendly guidance, but for the Calgary Normal School heritage which has been created through the years under the gracious influence and understanding personality of Dr. Coffin. No problem was too small for his consideration, no effort too insignificant for his recognition, no failure so great as to be final. He gave to all a scholarly ideal, an understanding of the meaning of tolerance, and an inspiration for the days to come. And now a word of thanks to those who helped us in our work, and perhaps, in the final analysis, made our work possible. Without the help of Miss Chittick as our staff adviser, the valuable aid of the Year Book Staff, and the co-operation of the Student Body, our book would have been found wanting. This has been our goal—that the Student Body, to whom this book will be a souvenir of a year’s experience, may find pleasure and perchance inspiration from its pages when memories grow less vivid. The hope we hold, that this book shall attain in some degree its goal, is our reward. We ask no other. THE EDITORS. Page fifteen