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

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F. C. BIEHL, B.A., B.Paed. Principal A MESSAGE TO THE GRADUATING CLASS OF 1949 You enter your chosen work at an exciting time. This is not because the rewards for your effort are higher than they have ever been in the past. Nor is it because great changes in education in Ontario are casting their shadows before them. Both of these statements are true. But the teachers of 1949 face something more drastic than either. You are going to have something to do, not only with making a new world, but with helping to decide whether we shall continue to have a world at all. The physical scienc es have brought man to the edge of a steep place. For the first time in history it is in man ' s power to destroy his whole planet. To do this, all that is necessary is that he keep for another generation the tribal way of thinking that has been his in the past. Or he can begin to think in a new way; a way larger than himself, larger even than his own country. He can start to think of himself as a citizen of the whole world, a citizen with duties toward all mankind. Man ' s fate on this earth depends on the result of a race between this new way of thinking and the old. In this race you will be more than an onlooker. You will be a runner yourself, and you will train many of the other runners. You will have much to do with the kind of thinking done by the next and most critical generation of humanity. To this extent, and to a degree never shared by teachers at any time in the past, the fate of the world will rest upon your shoulders. F. C. BIEHL Page Two

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Tho Spectrum 1949 LONDON NORMAL SCHOOL LONDON. ONTARIO

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HONOURABLE DANA PORTER Minister of Education Ontario ' s population is expanding. New industries are taking root, and older industries are adopting modern ways. Education has felt the stir, and some hundreds of new School buildings have sprung into being during the post-war years. Meanwhile, every aspect of our school system is under scrutiny. In the midst of these changes, what is asked of the graduates of our Normal Schools? Sir Richard Livingstone has pointed out that all men have three jobs — earning a living, performing their duties as citizens, and developing them- selves as individuals. To prepare boys and girls for these tasks is to be your three-fold responsibility. The elementary school trains for earning a living when it develops skill in the three R ' s and gives some understanding of the world and man ' s life upon it. But the other two tasks, though less tangible, are no less important. To train for life in a democratic community, and to lead young people to develop themselves in body, mind, and character, the teacher must know children, know what is first-rate, and know how to inspire enthusiasm for worthy things and noble actions. You are entering a great profession. May you realize in it both happi- ness and success. MINISTER OF EDUCATION e Three