![]() Sorry, this is going to be boring, but just had to write something about it. I recently re-discovered the badge I gained when attending Burwood Teachers’ College, way back when. The Latin inscription reads: ‘Animum Cultum Parabo’, words which formed the introductory part of the College song (or anthem). Following the Latin words, we sang, ‘foundations firm we lay…’. I guess that was what we aspired to do as future teachers. I hope I did lay a few ‘firm foundations’. Some translations: Animum (translated form the Latin): mind/intellect/soul. Cultum: service/cultivate/promote. Parabo: prepare/provide/raise. I can only hope that during my many teaching days, I did manage to cultivate and prepare some minds. I think I did, but can never be sure of how much. I undertook teacher ‘training’ via (firstly) a year in a school as a student teacher (no doubt referred to as an internship nowadays) followed by three years at Teachers’ College. Procedures changed not long after I finished college and that place of learning turned into Deakin University and the students then graduated with either a Diploma of Teaching (Primary) or a Bachelor of Education. These qualifications give a more scholarly and accomplished impression than the ‘Trained Infant Teachers’Certificate’ with which I graduated. But I do wonder if these latest teachers are as grounded in the ‘nitty gritty’ of teaching as we earlier graduates were. Does a grander sounding graduate title make a better teacher? As a footnote: Times of singing the College song – and the college song itself - vanished with the change to the ‘new’ university life; students no longer gather on Wednesday mornings to sing the anthem and enjoy a morning of togetherness, with singing and talking and (yes, even) some entertainment. People are a lot more insular, it seems, and each student does their best (or not) in their own way. I guess that’s progress. PS: The 1954 inscription on the badge does not indicate the year I graduated (!), but the year the college was formed.
4 Comments
Di Hillman
1/4/2016 11:37:29 am
Six of us who started at BTC IN 1966 are having a 50 years celebration this month. Do you by any chance have a copy of the words to the song?
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John Gough
24/12/2018 01:04:31 pm
I was a lecturer at Burwood State College from 1976, and continued there, with a few "gaps" until I retired at the end of 2011.
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Dianna Edwards
24/12/2018 01:27:53 pm
Thanks so much for that info, John. When I was contacted a couple of years ago regarding the Teachers' College song, I did (miraculously!) remember all the words correctly - after a mere 57 or so years.
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John Gough
28/12/2018 09:27:38 am
It was my pleasure to have helped, Dianna. Leave a Reply. |
Author notesI choose to comment on social issues and write creatively on a variety of subjects - for a variety of audiences.
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