SUNY at Oswego - Ontarian Yearbook (Oswego, NY)

Page 9 text:

mr-mem ITTITHITIHIT f f vu AQ 5, rx - ff, o3,, R.' , SALAQQ A 1 -.ALA :asf , A, 1, fifv '+P-Q - -5:5 , published by THE ELASS UE T935 To commemoration of THE Toth ANNIVERSARY UE STATE NUTTMAL SEHUUL USWEEU- N -Y

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lLlVIll'NIllTEH To Edward Austin Sheldon O blue are Qntario's waters, And lair in the sunset glow, But fairer, O Alma Mater, ls the name thy children lfnow. REFRAIN Then hail, all hail to Oswego, To our Normal School so dear, Roam we the wide world over, Qur hearts, our hearts, they are here. And the name, the Fame ot our Founder Thro' the changing years it stands, For he built as they built over yonder, The house not built with hands. OF wisdom and love he builded, ln the willing hearts of youth, Fair temples of loving service, Fair shrines to beauty and truth. He carved and wrought the temple, With the love that never tires, Keep we the altars lcindled, Guard we the sacred liresl

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Past-Present-Future. Ufime goeth not baclqward, nor tarries with yesterday. Seventy-five years have witnessed many changes throughout our land. We have changed from an agricultural to an industrial society. Migrations from the farms have concentrated the greater part of our population in cities. lnventions and their application to our occupations have changed our mode of living, have enhanced our comforts, enlarged our fields of activity, facilitated our inter- course with others. Occupations are more specialized and many of the old-time occupations have disappeared. Mass production and modern transportation facilities overwhelm us with plethora of goods of which the man of the ox-cart stage did not even ltnow the names. These material changes have wrought far-reaching influences upon our social ideals, standards of living, moral codes, amusements and the use of the greater leisure which the present day affords. The farmer of the past might be content to wring a living from the soil. l-le had little leisure to satisfy any aspirations for the aesthetic phases of living which we thinlc of as cultural. Literature, music, graphic and plastic arts were too remote to be attainable. It required modern inventions to malce the products of culture accessible to all. Educational aims and practices also have undergone extensive modifications. Schools have had to assume functions once performed by the home. Urban- ization of population has compelled group instruction and made possible more homogeneous group- ing of children. The enrichment of school curricula has demanded more and more intensive preparation for the practice of teaching. When Edward Austen Sheldon entered upon his career, education was essentially a function of the agricultural home. Children were sent to school to be trained in the arts of reading, writing and computation which they could not learn at home. ln addition to these arts, the schools attempted to familiarize children with information relating to history, geography, and literature. The system- atized content of these subjects had no immediate bearing upon the active life of children and had to be acquired from boolcs, by the process of memorizing. The gulf between natural learning in the home and boolc learning was broad, since the content of boolc learning was remote from the real life of the children and the learning process was artificial and unlilce the method of learning in real life. Many thoughtful teachers were aware of the existence of this gulf. Some, more enterprising than others, made attempts to bridge the gulf. Sheldon, among others, was alert to the need of a teaching technique more in accord with natural learning and with the needs of children. l'lis Search made him acquainted with l7'estalozzi's objective method of teaching the school arts, and he made this Pesta- lozzian method the basis of a reform of instruction which he introduced into the Oswego city schools of which he was at the time superintendent. This innovation attracted many progressive teachers, and Oswego became the Mecca for many earnest teachers in their quest for improved teaching methods. As the numbers of these pilgrims increased it became inevitable that Sheldon's attention be focused upon the problem of teacher training in addition to improvement of teaching children. The resources of a city training class soon became inadequate to meet the influx of teachers in search of improved methods of teaching. ln 1867 the state of New York subsidized the city training class and established it as one of a system of normal schools designed for the improvement of teaching. The Qswego State Normal and Training School from henceforth was explicitly dedicated to two aims, better teaching and training better teachers. Pestalozzian objective teaching was only the initial step in the advancement of teaching children.