Leominster High School - Magnet Yearbook (Leominster, MA)

Page 13 text:

EVERYTHING HAS A BEAUTY SOMEWHERE “Everything has a beauty somewhere—a beauty not yet disclosed, perhaps never to be disclosed except to the eye of the thoughtful observer. Let us, then, seek it out. For why should we live in darkness when light 1s all around us? So it is given to the blind man to see, with his ears and his mind and his heart, the beauties of life and even the beauties of nature. He hears an oriole’s song, and though a screen of night covers his eyes, he sees the golden bird with jet black wings lilting on a swinging bough, he sees the sunlight playing on its gorgeous back. Did I say this man was blind? You pity him? Oh, there are many, many men more blind than he. But the beauties of lots of things are not so evident as are those of the singing birds and the frolicking sunbeams. The beauties of some things are past—past but not gone. An old, weather-beaten tree, fallen on its side, keeps deep within its hollow trunk, where none but earnest desirers may read, a record of a happy time, in fact, of many happy times when tiny leaves sprang out and grew upon its now bare branches. We love it, not for what it is, but for what it was. On the other hand, the beauties of some things are not yet come. Should we therefore scorn them, or would it be better to take a peep into the future and see what Miss Earl discusses her active retire- ment with Miss Lillian Ricker and Mr. Theodore Kucharski at the party given in her honor by the Leominster High School faculty. their chances may be? I once read a story about a man of literary ambitions (there are many such). He had no friends (geniuses never do). Struggling on, he at last produced a work of merit, and society immediately de- manded his acquaintance. Disgusted with the world, he committed suicide. Now, if caterpillars could only fore- see how the hatred of women would change to ‘ohs’ and ‘ahs’ of delight when they turned into butterflies, they would probably sigh at the fickleness of the world, and after the very next rain crawl into some puddle and drown themselves. Foolish man! Foolish caterpillars! If they could give anything to the world, they should have stayed in it. It is not what the world does for us but what we do for the world that really matters. But here, I have wandered a bit from the subject. The true reason for introducing the caterpillars was to show that we should not scorn a thing for apparent ugli- ness. The past and the future, as well as the present, must be considered before you deny that one single atom has beauty. I said ‘before you can,’ but even then you cannot. For there is beauty everywhere. Seek, and you will find, and be the happier for it.” Taken from 1911 Magnet... M. Earl

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DEDICATION “A teacher affects eternity; he can never tell where his influence stops” —Henry Brooks Adams MISS MARGARET EARL With a deep sense of appreciation for all that she has meant to Leominster High School, we dedicate this 1964 MAGNET to Miss Margaret Earl, our friend and teacher. Those of us who have been personally acquainted with Miss Earl have observed her sincere devotion to her work. For thirty-seven years she dedicated herself to the science and mathematics students of Leominster High School, guiding them through confusions of geometric proofs and chemical equations. Her vitality, keen wit, and enthusiasm for learning electrified her classes and created for her students an atmosphere of intellectual challenge and curiosity. Margaret Earl will long be remembered by her former students and associates as one of the finest teachers in the Leo- minster School System.

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FACULTY aAnpb ADMINISTRATION The members of the L.H.S. faculty and administration are the respected and admired friends of the student body. To each student, they give three years of instruction, direction and counsel, and these roles—instructor, director, and counselor— are their most important. During these three years, they teach the student to look at the world about him and encourage him to digest an assortment of facts and impressions. They prepare him to accept increasing responsibility in a demanding society and impart knowledge, wisdom, and a thirst for learning. The graduating senior is a remodeled, overhauled person . not quite a finished product .. . but a product of Leominster High School, its classes, its studies, and its teachers. If he has learned his lessons well, he looks into his future boldly, but not blindly. He is graduated. He is the hope of his teachers, his community, his nation and the world.