Salem State University - Clipper Yearbook

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SZVS TQGIZI' 7300! I 928 We, the members of the class of 1928, desire to be artists in our chosen field. Some of us will reach the goal. Some of us will be constant students ofthe new and adapt to ourselves the suggestions that will make us masters of the technique of teaching. We shall at the same time enrich and ennoble our lives by our association with what we believe to be good, we shall share our untold riches and make life nobler and finer for those who come to us. May the Salem Normal School record among its annals many artists from the class of 1928. A. F. C. THE BUSINESS OF BEING A TEACHER When we consider what an important part education plays in the life of every individual and how fundamental it is in every phase of the business and social world, the attitude of the general public towards the teaching profession requires some explanation. Many people think of teachers as precise persons who exist merely to rule in the classroom, who lack the desirable characteristics of understanding and sympathy, of humor and sociability. Teachers are looked upon as people to admire and respect, but not as creatures with a warm friendly spirit. The reason for the prevailing attitude may be attributed to many causes, but the principal one centers around the teacher herself. After a few years of schoolroom teaching, she allows herself to lose the enthusiasm and vigor with which she started her career. She becomes pedantic, critical, and self-centered. Consciously or un- consciously, she acquires characteristics which stamp her as a school ma'am. Little by little she withdraws from outside interests and lives within her own small sphere. Instead of broadening her mental horizon by varying her activities and by making new associations she allows her world to become encompassed by the school- room walls. To her the days become one monotonous round of lessons, papers, as- signments, and discipline. She misses the joy of awakening a latent talent, of leading alert minds to new discoveries, of instilling Cby example rather than by wordb prin- ciples of gentle courtesy and of noble character, of satisfying the inexhaustible curiosity of expanding interests, and of visioning the future of each individual, pre- paring him to face it stronger in mind and in body. Perhaps the difficulty is that the teacher has never put her profession on a business basis. She has yet to learn that in justice to herself and her pupils, she must cultivate leisure interests that will provide her with the necessary physical and mental relaxa- tion. A frequent tendency of the teacher is to carry a classroom attitude into social life. As this attitude is too often unnecessarily reserved and formal, it makes the attendant environment strained and unnatural. 21

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AHVS 71w' Hoof I 928 i ,. i 'f 'Q .J ,f ,, f ...I L.. L' f 5, Wx .J kill ff da Q: .:'7i,, 'fl' Xowqle 0 asf? M if 'e X 2 :rl 'lx Ng 5 4-I EE iff .X ? f fa? 5 X915 B. , N ' i-La'-fiaii. - se TEACHING: THE TECHNIQUE AND THE ART Formerly the arts included music, painting, architecture, sculpture, and litera- ture. Teaching was not called an art, it was, rather, a science or a skill. Today, however, it is becoming universally known that teaching is an art. It is admittedly true that each art requires an accompanying technical skill. Teaching, also, is artistic only when its basic sciences are perfected and used with a skill that conceals the finely wrought workmanship and calls attention only to the finished product, The mosaic of teaching consists of a mastery of the tools of teaching technique. Each piece must be perfection, there can be no diamond shapes where circles ought to be, no scientific analysis where appreciation ought to be, but each part in proper shape, in right proportion, and in harmonious coloring. The cement that binds the teaching technique together is personality. The greatest teachers have always been those of inspiring personalities. A teacher who is alive will awaken life, she will inspire order, industry, and love of knowledge, she can command attention, solicit interest, and suggest thoughts. Without such a personality the school can accom- plish little, for what the soul is to the body, what the mind is to the man, that the teacher is to the school. The artistry of the teacher is not so easily measured as that of the artist who leaves an inimitable, tangible, permanent record. The teacher's art extends far across space and delves deep into the hearts of men. It is here that we must look for values. We ask, What skill has been mastered? What power has been obtained? The highest measure of a teacher's art, however, is an outcome less tangible, more precious. There is the spiritual outcome: the confidence begotten in one's self, the drive to forge ahead, the courage to refute the wrong, the belief in the nobility of another's soul. 20

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AHVS 7 'Cdl' 13 f!0f I 928 Success in the business of being a teacher centers around .1 pleasing personality, e a personality that is conducive to friendliness both in school and out of school. Being Ll teacher does not mean being Ll f.lSlilllLlliCl', being strict does not mean being stringentg being iirm does not mean being obsti11.1teg being critical does not mean being faulttindingg being methodical dues not mean being mechanical, A teacher can secure as much order and industry in a Cl.lSSl'OUlll Cl1.1l'.lCICl'lZCLl bv .1 responsible free- dom, by contentment, and by cheer, as in one where Pupils are afraid, inhibited, and repulsed. To summarize: The ideal teacher is genuinely enthusiastic, optimistic, patient, encouraging, and resourceful. She teaches because she loves the teacher's task, and finds her richest prize in eves that open and in minds that ask, At all times she shows fairness and self-control, good-humor, pluck, and patience in the race. Such is the teacher we should resolve to be. E. S. The primary function of our school is to receive youth in an atmosphere ofbroad and varied associations, in contact with wise and noble lives, and to offer them such experience in evoking manhood and capacity, and such knowledge of man, nature, and spirit that they shall gain power to enter into life with character, intelligence and enthusiasm. 1 ll XX lf! ffl' Q5 '75 xx 0 . ll ef.,f WI 1 ya , ,g.,',, . M , 1 I I U X 11 ' 'l V , Hg 11 , ,g1. f ,,Mpf!,, e,s.2,fg X' P 22