University of Alberta Calgary - Evergreen and Gold Yearbook (Calgary, Alberta Canada)

Page 15 text:

The Dean H. E. Smith, M.A., M.Ed., Ph.D. Teaching is an occupation whose limits of service are set only by the abilities of the teacher. Its privileges are to open up pupil horizons, to inform, and to create in the classroom a nursery for democratic living. Most of us cannot do these things too well for they are very difficult things to do. Per¬ haps that is one reason why teaching is the greatest of all professions, often frustrating but always challenging. Pro¬ fessional growth means improvement in performance. It may sometimes mean taking courses, reading books, or going on travels, but it means primarily improvement in performance. And that takes interest and effort and courage. And so as you go out to work may your interest be that of the explorer, your effort that of the mountaineer, and your courage that of the missionary. If you have these, you will not need my heartiest good wishes for your success.

Page 17 text:

The Director. . . AUDIATUR ET ALTERA PARS (Let us hear both sides) A. L. Doucette, B.Sc., M.A., Ed. D. At this mid-point of the twentieth centu ry we should beware of the witchery of words which arises from time to time when extreme points of view are presented in the cause of education. Aristophanes, in The Wasps says: ' Twas a very acute and intelligent man, Whoever it was, that happened to say ' Don ' t make up your mind, till you ' ve heard both sides ' . You have reviewed the mental discipline theory in your psy¬ chology classes. In place of totally discarding the theory we might re-examine it in order to bring it into line with modern educational thought. For those who have the intelligence to absorb it, academic education can be said to develop in such individuals the broad out¬ comes proposed by the modern educator: understandings, skills, abilities, habits, appreciations, attitudes, and interests. Academic courses can be justified in terms of modern psychology of learning: gestaltism, need for drill, laws of use and disuse, need for certain automatic responses, pupil purposes, self-activity, and interest. Our democratic leaders represent the aristocracy of mind and of character . Our potential future leaders should be democratic¬ ally selected and trained according to their higher intellectual cap¬ acities. They should be given a type of curriculum which carries their thinking into the realm of ideas and of abstract thinking. The curriculum would include such pertinent areas as English, foreign languages, history, economics, mathematics and science. Such a liberal arts program should, in order to round out the personality, be interspersed with physical, social, aesthetic, and spiritual activities. Our high schools should continue to offer the academic courses for bright, ambitious, and scholastically-minded youth. High school teachers in large school systems should be carefully selected in order that they may cater to the needs of the bright students. It is of vital concern to the future of Alberta and of Canada that we recruit into the teaching profession people of good brain and of good character. If such persons choose not to enrol in the Faculty of Education, remember that the university is still eager to receive them in other faculties. Democratic public education must not stop with helping the average child to be a good average child. It must go further and provide for the bright and the gifted, since such young people rep¬ resent the nation ' s wealth. My message to the prospective teachers at the Calgary Branch is for you to develop to the fullest extent the slower and the average child. In addition however, you must be ever on the alert for university potential, the gifted children of our province. These few best must also be brought to full fruition.