University of California Los Angeles - Bruin Life / Southern Campus Yearbook (Los Angeles, CA)

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Better far pursue a frivolous trade by serious means than a sublime art frivolously. — Elizabeth Barrett Browning. In the multiplicity of daily ministrations teachers tend to forget them- selves. And on the whole this is well. It is both appropriate and wholesome that we should think mostly of the things our profession ofifers us to do. But let us for a moment reverse the inquiry and consider what our pro- fession may do with us. What are the recoil effects of our work? The (jues- tion is pertinent, for here, as in the physical world, reaction is equal to action. We not only shape our work, but our workk in a profound sense shapes us. The teacher stands where the tide flows forth and back again. The scientific doctrine of the conservation of energy is not better grounded than this doc- trine of the recoil influences of behavior. Concretely applied, the principle means that no man can escape from his work. If a man refuses to put life into the things he does, the death microbe will return space to canker his own heart. AA e may cease to teach, but we cannot abandon our profession. Its reaction upon us, for each day and week and month, will abide always in the lasting calendar of the soul. Every act contributes to the soul mansion, and in the aggregate our acts fashion it wide and stately, or narrow and humble. If we come to our work with slovenly preparation, then shoddy material goes into our own life. If we teach fallacies we not only mislead our pupils but we fasten our errors more tightly on our own minds. And we cannot thrive if we feed thus upon reinforced ignorance. But let it not be forgotten that the principle presents a twofold aspect. If it is terrible that the shame of our unconsecrated work is wrought into the very tissue of our personality, it is no less sublime that we cannot be de- prived of the glory of our real accomplishments. Fidelity is its own certain reward. It does not depend upon overt success. The meed of gold awarded us by a more or less appreciative public may or may not balance our faithful- ness to the trust. The eft ' ects wrought on a young life by a faithful teacher can never be placed on a ledger and made to read : So many quantums of mental culture for so many dollars in money. We are not hirelings and our meagre stipend is not wages. But though our accomplishments are incom- mensurable with any material rewards, the balance is fully struck by the re- coil effects, which always come in exact proportion to our spiritual devotion. Contrary to common opinion, our work, if properly pursued, favors growth. It can hardly be an accident that most great scholars have been great teachers and that so many statesmen, governors, congressmen, judges, and even presidents, have graduated from our ranks. The true teacher is in- 19

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Ui I ... Class roem ... »0 TT¥Vr¥WVYVT g From many places, stream-like do we come And eddy through these halls, as waters run Their course between high cliffs of stone, And chafe their little while and straight are gone. These walls now look on our receding wave, That looked on many a passing wave before. And still shall stand to look, when we are gone, On manv surges more. So glide we from the shadow of their care Into the sunlit spaces, and are free To wander in a wider channel there. Upon our way to the Eternal Sea. And certain drops will carry children ' s toys. And certain will support the youth ' s canoe, AMiile others freight bold manhood ' s griefs and joys. Or bear the laden funeral barge from view. Although we wander in a wider way, Although as separate drops we seek the Sea, Still we are part of one, great, useful stream That bears life forward with a movement strong: Xot lonely, helpless drops : but with a song Of cheerful fellowship and many a gleam Of sunlight, half reflected through the spray Of wholesome tears, back toward its source, the Sun, We rejoice to know we still are One. The Class of 1909. — AVill R. Tanner.

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s]Mre(l b - the ])assi )n of a luiiiian mis i( n. He dreams, dreams and sees visions. Hut he has an outlet for his dreams and so should be saved from the Dead Sea of intellectual stagnation. And beine: a medium rather than merely an agent, he must have also an inlet. He must first get for himself what he would give to others. The cobbler may be himself poorly shod, the architect may live in humble quarters; but the teacher can give only what he himself possesses. Our work therefore involves a purely spiritual reciprocity. We use the material apparatus and methods prescribed and supplied but we never suc- ceed unless we march straight to the personal life. The lawyer must reach humanitv, if at all. through statutes ; the merchant through goods ; the builder through wood and stone : but the teacher works directly upon vitality itself. The history of art is adorned with many beautiful legends which relate, with varving detail, the miraculous bestowal of life upon an artist ' s creation. How many sculptors and ])ainters have longed in vain for this perfect appro- bation of the goods! IWit the legendary miracle of art is universally factual in the school. To the teacher-artist alone is it vouchsafed to look upon ma- terial that answers the look in kind: to speak to material that replies in kindred speech; to loev the material till it sometimes loves back again . Lewis M. Terman.