Johnstown High School - Spectator Yearbook (Johnstown, PA)

Page 30 text:

28 THE SPECTATOR (liti' figh §rluuil djmlatnr JOHNSTOWN, PA., MARCH, 1912. SUBSCRIPTION PRICE 75 CENTS. PER COPY. IO CENTS. fcfoturial anil UuBittrsH § taff Editor DONALD E. CUSTER, 1912. Associate Editor. CARL E. GEIS. 1913. School News EMLYN EVANS. 1912 KINTER BLOUGH, 1912 DON O'CONNOR, 1912 Current Events EVERETT CUSTER. 1912 Athletic Editor JOSEPH P. REPLOGLE 1912 Exchange Editors ELDA SHAFFER, 1912 MARGARET A MB ROSE. 1913 Society Editors EVA KATZENSTE1N, 1912 MARGARET WALTERS. '13 Art Editor KARL I). LUDWIG. 1912 ROY KUNTZ, 1913 LEON COLLINS '13 CHARLES ROSE. '13 JULIUS L. PORI AS. '12 School Reporter, FRANK R. GEIS, '12 Business Manager KENNETH P. RIPPLE, 1912 Associates Assistants HARRY RODGERS. 1913 CLARK MESSENGER ’13 FORREST SHAFFER, '12 WALLACE SMITH, ’13 THE SPECTATOR Is published monthly during the school term. Address all communications to The Spectator. High School Building. Johnstown, Pa. Entered at the Postoffice. Johnstown. Pa., as second-class mail matter. In order to insure publication in the current issue, all MSS. must be handed in to the editor not later than the 12th of each month. EDITORIAL I THE HONOR SYSTEM. Honor is a grand virtue, one of the few virtues that can be cul- tivated. It is wortli every effort made to strengthen it. There- fore, it behooves each one of us to take advantage of opportuni- ties that tend to exercise the noble virtue.

Page 29 text:

THE SPECTATOR 27 Over and over she told herself, “What a silly girl I am to think that Jack Farley still has that tally and ever gives poor Kathie Reynor a thought. Why there are hundreds of other girls to think about besides me.” She determined to forget the old card and was even tempted to tear it up, but something persisted in telling her to keep it. Meantime designing Cupid, hovering near her, interpreted her thoughts and slyly flew away to the town hotel where lonely Jack Farley sat smoking in his apartments, his father having sent him to attend to some affairs concerning their old home. Lighting on his shoulder, the tricky little fellow whispered something to him which made Jack absently reach into his vest pocket and draw forth a torn old tally. He stared at it and then suddenly re- membered. “By Jove! this is Valentine Day! I wonder if they still have their dances? Does Kathie have that tally yet? O, what a fool I am to suppose she even thinks about me any more!” He shoved the bit of paper aside resolutely, puffed away at his cigar, but could not forget Kathie. Jumping up he swung into his overcoat, grabbed his hat, and dashed down the steps to the walk. “Hang it all, there can’t be any harm in walking over to her house and peeping in,” he soliloquized, walking off in that di- rection. Well pleased and chuckling to himself, Cupid sped away, happy over what he had accomplished. In ten minutes Farley stood before the familiar house. Yes, there they were dancing as of old, but—where, where was Kathie ? Nowhere among the laughing dancers could he find her. Then remembering that the bay window was her favorite haunt, he walked over to it and peeped in. There she was—more beautiful than ever and—what was that in her hand ? Surely it was not— yes, it was the tally! Waiting for nothing else, he walked straight through the un- locked door, tiptoed across the floor, unnoticed by any one, and stepped inside the bay window curtains. Kathie, looking up when the curtains were whisked apart, saw him and was too startled to cry out, but vainly tried to conceal her card under a pillow. “Ah, Kathie, you can’t hide it; so won’t you please tell me again you will be my valentine?” he pleaded. Finding herself caught, Kathie surrendered, and her silent mood was ended.

Page 31 text:

THE SPECTATOR 29 During the mid-term examinations, the honor system was used in one subject, as it had been, to some extent, in former years. That this system would be beneficial if introduced in all the sub- jects no one doubts. Nor is it too much to hope for, for every teacher with the interest of the pupils at heart is ready to make the introduction. It rests with the students to prove that they appreciate the benefits of the honor system, and that they have developed sufficient self-reliance to warrant its success. THE IDEAL SCHOOL. Educators delight in visions of an ideal school. Yet their dreams seldom become more than visions. Why is this? Either teachers are not honestly interested in the welfare of students or the ideals are too lofty. One English educator writes, “For, al- though we hear a very great deal in these days about ‘self-ex- pression' in school, yet those ‘in authority over us’ still appear to require the self-expression served up in the same old dishes of method, accompanied by notes, schemes, marks, reports, and examinations which seasoned the mental food of those who went before us.” There exists an over-abundance of caution against new reforms, new methods. This caution no doubt arises from doubt as to what really are beneficial reforms. What is school? What it is and what it should be are two different conditions. “School should be the place in which the mind grows by being supplied with mental food and opportuni- ties of exercise. But the pupil himself must eat the food, and he alone can make the effort which constitutes exercise. In short, we desire that he shall himself realize the forces that exist within him.” The above reference voices Harriet Finlay-Johnson’s opinion of what a school should be. Schools are, as a rule, the opposite. Pupils too often do not “eat the food” themselves, nor do they realize the forces that exist within them. All the pal- pable forces are from without. The pupil studies, recites, bends to all the forms of the school, without exercising an iota of his in- ward force. A student enters his assembly room, for example. He wishes to converse with a neighbor on a question concerning his work. He is not permitted to. One article written on an ideal school contains the following: “Every one is talking, yet there is no undue confusion, no appearance of contraband naught- iness.” Freedom of speech is one of the foremost requisites of a successful school, just as it is of a successful government. Again, every regulation and every rule which makes education unpleasant is detrimental. The work must appear beneficial, not forced. It must assume a connection with the pupil’s everyday