John Burroughs Middle School - Burr Yearbook (Los Angeles, CA)

Page 12 text:

Editorial EDUCATION BUILDS YOUTH TO ADULTHOOD By MILDRED TYRE Three years have elapsed; years that have wrought memories, sad and joyous, and most important of all, friends. Starting as children of ten and eleven years of age, girls with short skirts and boys with shorter pants, pupils of John Burroughs Junior High School, when they graduate, have completed the initial phase of their education; they are on the threshold to high school. If John Burroughs has instilled the spark of a desire for erudition, it has fulfilled its duty in the process of building an American student. The idea of building brings first to mind the construction of bridges, monu- ments and skyscrapers; but this small word may connote much more. It may refer to the construction, or development of the mind and the body, in short— character. During the three years which students pass at John Burroughs, the principals and teachers are the architects and engineers. With the aid and cooperation of the student, th? faculty creates the foundation for young manhood and young woman- hood. The girls with their various gymnasium activities are aided in achieving physical perfection With their many athletic functions, the boys are enabled to develop in height, weight and physical vigor. Through the medium of mathematics, science, history, foreign languages, English, to say nothing of the social intercourse between the boys and girls, the character of the educational neophytes is molded. Meeting new friends, coming in contact with new ideas and being surrounded by new environments, the environment of the school, each has contributed its bit in the formation of the student ' s personality. And now, the architects and engineers having done all that lies within their power to complete the edifice of character which makes for a better man and woman, John Burroughs graduates march forth as proof of their own determination, the ability ' , sincerity, and teaching acumen of the instructors who so materially aided in the finished product.

Page 11 text:

BUILD! That command as it has rung out clearly through the centuries, has brought out of Man the best that is m him - has caused his eyes to shine with the desire to create - has made his heart beat with icy at the opportunity to accomplish - has made his whole soul nobler with a selfless purpose - the enrichment of the world in which he of all God ' s creations, is most highly favored. Build ' and from the wilderness of the plains have risen cities. Build ' and from the ashes of catastrophe have risen re-created cities. Build ' and from economic chaos, has come a new hope in the hearts of discouraged men Even so, to you young men and women who now take another step forward toward your goal, rings the cry; Build ' And in thus urging you to give of your best for the benefit of Man - be it in stone stee or in business I can think of no finer inspiration than that of Ruskin in his Seven Lamps of Architecture when he writes: Therefore, when we build, let us think that we build forever Let it not be for present use, alone, let it be for such work as our descendants will thank us for; and let us think, as we lay stone on stone, that a time IS to come when those stones will be sacred because our hands have touched them, and that men will say as they look upon the labor and wrought substance of them, ' See! this our fathers did for us. ' J C. Lipman, Vice-President, UNION BANK TRUST CO of L A

Page 13 text:

EDITORS Jane Blumenthal, Walter Friedlander, Mildred Tyre, Le Vaughn Bradley. BUILDING CHARACTER BRINGS LASTING CIVILIZATION By WALTER FRIEDLANDER Building civilizations based upon magnificent palaces, huge temples, mighty water ways, extensive roads and a complicated social society, the Egyptians, the Grecians, the Romans, the Mayans, and many others, in the course of time, forgot to build character of the type that is capable of surviving through the ages, and thus they fell, only to be revealed upon the pages of history. The ancients taught, men know thyself. It must be admitted that such teaching is, after all, a self-centered philosophy. Today are we superior in this respect to the nations of old? ' Today we find ourselves members of a civilization equally as entangled and complex. We have buift skyscrapers, canals, bridges, dams, many jails, and insane asylums. Have we forgotten to build character, the missing factor that helped bring ruina- tion to Rome, Athens, Egypt and Mayan! ' In the future, let our task be to build character which is sound, firm and enduring. And as we pass from this school to another we take with us the experience and the development which our three-year stay here has taught us and for our guide we should keep before us the immortal words of Holmes ' Chambered Nautilus : Build thee more stately mansions. my soul As the sw.ft seasons rol l ' Leave thy low-vaulted past. Let each new temple, nobler than the last. Shut thee from heaven with a dome more vast. Till thou at length art free. Leaving thine outgrown shell by life ' s unrested sea!