Alameda High School - Acorn Yearbook (Alameda, CA)

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should be asked to contribute their help and advice in the matter. With the new freedom that is abroad in the land and with the new possibilities for cooperative life, it would seem wise that the wife and the children should be made to feel that they have a share and a responsibility in helping to balance the budget. I am firmly convinced that such a plan is a wise one and the right one and the one that will bring the most happiness to all concerned. In school life the position of a teacher is calculated to develop autocracy, a teacher standing in loco parentis, has to be boss, in a way, and keep order and say what has to be done and what has not to be done with the intellectual re- sources. Consequently, too often in the past under the old regime, the things that students had to digest in the way of intellectual pabulum were set before them and they were told to swallow, and that was all there was to it. This was an ineffective and dangerous tendency, but not necessarily the final outcome. There are many wise teachers, as there have been from all times, who know how to live with their students in a democratic way, namely on a consultation and a budgetary plan, and who on all occasions exhibit that wise understanding of human nature which takes into account the thoughts, the wishes and the nature of the indi- vidual student. They have known that our greatest task is to train our students in judgment. Even in making out a program of studies and a curriculum, in making out even the assignments of projects for unit work in the classroom, it helps to sit down, so to speak, around the council table and talk things over with our students. By putting ourselves on their own level and putting them upon our level, we are in a position to treat them as intelligent councilors and direct them in the way of developing self-reliance. balanced judgment and use- ful citizenship. I do not know just how far we should go in this direction, but | do know that we ought to go a long way, and I know without question that the principle enunciated here of giving thought to the budget, either a financial one in the home or an intellectual one in school, is fundamental to the development of the best and most useful character. The greatest force of life is loyalty, the greatest force in loyalty is love and friendship. Friendship has as its heart re- gard for others, consideration and tolerance. | commend not only the motto NOBLESSE OBLIGE but the other motto IT IS THE DUTY OF ALL TO SERVE AND NOT MERELY THE BEST in working out the problems of living together in a democracy. Our high school has emphasized in infinite ways this cooperative spirit. Particularly has this been emphasized recently on several outstanding occa- sions, namely, Public Schools Week, the production of ROBIN HOOD, and now by the present senior classes in the publication of our annual ACORN, where the work-together spirit with their advisers, with Dr. Vigness, their splendid director, and with the entire school is exemplified in a marked degree. I ex- tend to them my hearty compliments! —GEorGE C. THOMPSON.