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

Page 12 text:

jfrum the rinripaI'5 ffire... No one told you it was going to be easy to succeed as a teacher, You have taken only the first step on the way to becoming a successful teacher. l hope you found it difficult because few worthwhile things are achieved easily. One of the few, is not the career of a successful teacher. As a teacher the challenges are innumerableg the problems are difficult to defineg the solutions, even the brilliant ones, are slow to prove themselves. My hope for you is that you have the commitment to persevere and the energy of constant courage to reach the highest of goals and the greatest of rewardsg to be recogni- Zed by those you teach as a great teacher. O D. F. Harris

Page 11 text:

NEIIMF . :xl t Ji o N TA R 1 o MINISTER OF EDUCATION The first time you read over this Yearbook you will probably skip anything as formal and dull as a foreword. In later days, in a reminiscent orthoughtfulmood, you may turn over these pages again. I hope, at such time, that you will on reading this message reflect on your responsibilities as a teacher and consider some of the experiences that make teaching worthwhile. In these days of change and reorganization, it may seem to some people that we have totally abandoned our past to seek salvation in anything that is new or different. While there is a tendency for educational institutions to be conservative and we must continually search for viable relationships with life as it exists, we have not, in my opinion, ever sought to abandon out past. It is probably as true today as it was many years ago that the things a teacher lives by are the things of the spirit. In this connection, I would hope that faith is still with us - faith in mankind, faith in the final sovereignty of truth and faith in ourselves. I would hope that optimism is still with us - optimism to brighten a dull day or to enhance monotony. I would hope that good-will is still with us for this makes our relationships with our fellows more pleasant and more positive and helps to turn the wheels of existence more smoothly. Finally, I would hope that success is still with us - the success that springs from the knowledge that we have given our best and have not been found wanting. I have mentioned but a few of the things of the spirit. You will be able to add others of your own. I hope, as you read this page, that either you look forward to success in teaching or are able to contemplate a success that is already under way. That it has been said so often in no way diminishes the fact that the girls and boys of the Province hold the future - yours and mine - in their hands and your responsibilities as a teacher still demand the best that you can offer as they always have. I wish each of you the best of good fortune in your career. MMI William G. Davis, Minister of Education.

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W jftnm the Bite- tintipaI'5 ffite... These are exciting days to be entering the teaching profession: By comparison, becoming a teacher must have been much less challenging when' one facilitated the educational process by creating and maintaining an atmosphere of silence and submission to oneself as the dispenser of learning and the overt moulder of pupils' minds. With the recognition of individual differences and the acknowledgement of the right of different types of pupils to different educational treatment, really significant changes in the attitude toward school discipline have resulted. Now, it seems to me, uncertainty regarding classroom discipline has become an area of grave concern to many beginning teachers, I should like to take this opportunity to share with you some ideas that may help to make your entrance to your first teaching assignment a little less traumatic. Good discipline is no longer considered equivalent to unrelieved silence and con- formity to rules, nor can it be measured in terms of outward obedience to explicit com- mands of the teacher, nor does it consist of good behaviour in the teachers' presence only, Good discipline depends upon good communication. Rules should be as few as pos- sible, as simple and unambiguous as circumstances allow. General standards of behaviour should be inculcated which will be applied to varying and unforeseen situations, Such be- haviour will be ensured when as far as possible pupils understand the reasons for the rules to which they must submit and the standards which they are expected to achieve. Recognize that there still remains things that are true, honest, just, pure, of good re- port and acknowledge them as the authoritative context of educational behaviour.