isa-normaladvance-1909-00269

Description:	THE NORMAL ADVANCE 269To Our AlumniThe editor of the Advance asks me to write for the June number a word of greeting to the returning alumni and under-graduates. I am glad to do this, as the commencement season is fromyear to year bringing back increasing numbers of former students, and perhaps this number ofthe Advance will fall into the hands of more Normal school students than any other number ofthe year.The custom of returning at the commencement season is a growing one among the studentsand should be encouraged in every way possible. It ought to be, and doubtless is, a source ofgenuine pleasure to students who have spent years in the institution and have gone out and worked in different portions of the state and country to return at the annual commencement and greettheir friends and mark the improvements and advances made by the school. The commencement season is not a time simply for closing up the work of a three or four years course of study,receiving diplomas and bidding good-bye to frimds and the institution. It ought to be a timeat which the thoughts of the schools former stu lents would naturally turn to the scenes of theirwork as young men and women, and when they would feel impelled to renew their former associations with their fellow-students, teachers an I friends.But the pleasure of such greeting is hot all on one side. To a teacher who has spent monthsand years in instructing a class of young men and women it is a source of great happiness to havethe opportunity to greet these after years of separation. There is something peculiar in theteaching relation. To teach is not simply to lead others to acquire a given body of informationor knowledge the relations of teachers and pupils are not the formal relations of the commercialworld teaching involves a contact of heart and spirit, and it begets a sympathetic interest whichdoes not end with the school room. The teachers chief reward lies in the spiritual and intellectual advancement and development of those under his instruction. To witness the steady unfolding of the best that is in the pupil during the period of class and lecture instruction is theteachers highest pleasure. To meet and greet former students, to know of their success and advancement in the Avorld is a great stimulus to the teacher in his work and it contributes a degreeof genuine satisfaction that few other vocations could offer.Returning graduates and under-graduates will find many changes in the State Normal School.In its efforts to meet more adequately from year to year the needs of its growing body of students and the increased demands of public school work, the school has greatly enlarged thescope of its work and added in every possible way to its facilities. Its laboratories will be foundmore fully equipped, the library has grown steadily during the past years (soon to be housed inthe most modern, complete, fire-proof library to be found in Indiana) and the faculty has beenenlarged by many additions. While the student-body will be found to have changed, the facultyto contain many new faces and the material surroundings of the school somewhat different, thespirit of the Normal School will be found to remain—the spirit of earnest, thorough, devotedstudy and preparation for the work of the school room. We hope that all returning studentswill find enough that is familiar to enable them to feel thoroughly at home during the com-
Source:	http://indstate.contentdm.oclc.org/cdm/ref/collection/isuarchive/id/34299
Collection:	Indiana State University Archives

Further information on this record can be found at its source.