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

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I N the Teachers ' Colleges of Ontario there are this year more than 3,000 men and women, most of whom will be teaching in the elementary schools of the Province, beginning September, 1956. Of course, there are some who have another year of instruction and practice-teaching ahead of them. You who are graduating from the London Teachers ' Colleges will have no difficulty whatever in obtaining good positions; you have been well-prepared for a teaching career; and to you I send on this occasion my most cordial good wishes for abundant success in your work. Speaking from a long experience in teaching and in administration, I can assert that three essential factors for success are these. First, every teacher must be prepared to work hard and to like it. Second, every teacher must take part as a full-fledged citizen in the community. Third, every teacher must get as much fun as possible out of teaching because good humour is essential to success. Very well do I realize that there are times when sternness and unbending firmness are necessary because discipline must be kept at all costs but those occasions are rather rare nowadays in most schools. Teaching is fun if the teacher commences by refusing to be annoyed by the various peculiar incidents that occur in almost any class. Rewards are better than punishments; in an elementary school marks or stars are prized rewards (unless times have changed since I taught) and are much more effective than those peculiar punishments known as keeping in or writing lines which are surely obsolete in these enlightened days. As you read the newspapers and the magazines today, you cannot fail to realize that there is far too much international bad feeling in the world ; and elsewhere you see evidence occasionally of selfish shrewdness and delinquency of many sorts. That peculiar word, frustration, is far too often heard today from dis- contented people who think they should have rewards for which they have not worked or who feel that the world is all wrong. Teachers, being good citizens, can do a great deal to promote good feeling in their communities; for example, there is no need for quarrels between teachers and trustees nor between teachers and parents. So, if you find, as I am sure you will, that teaching is fun, you can spread that same spirit of light-heartedness among your friends and associates wherever you go. This I hope you will do. Permit me, then, to extend to every one of you the very best of good wishes for a satisfying and rewarding career in the teaching profession. Page

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A frame of beams and steel, walls of cold brick and masonry stand, firm-planted, bold-faced against a half a hundred years. Within, a youthful, corporate heart warmed by filial love, by loyalty, by happy retrospection, beats and shall beat with steady strength, transcending change of outward form or place.

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1 1 To The Graduate I WELCOME you, a new teacher, into a challenging and rewarding profession. The challenge is that of giving meaning and reality to our national traditions, and of imparting them to the youth of Ontario. In so doing you will help to develop a generation of citizens well prepared to take their places in a democratic society. As a beginner, you will find the profession rewarding to the extent that you realize that you are entering upon a career of learning as well as of teaching. Your education thus far has equipped you only to begin your career. To advance in your chosen work you must continue to grow intellectually and professionally. Next September you will be responsible for the instruction of a group of girls and boys in one of our elementary schools. May you approach the task with the vigour, the enthusiasm, and the fresh outlook of youth. F. S. RIVERS Superintendent of Professional Training. Page 5