Valparaiso High School - Valenian Yearbook (Valparaiso, IN)

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HIGH SCHOOL ANNUAL 23 interfere with a child’s growth. Many children lose their vitality by pushing in school, especially in the seventh and eighth grades. I believe that a good system of hygiene should be a part of the instruction in schools and health laws should be enforced. And how about our young men who are above school age, the frequenters of pool rooms, bowling alleys and other places of questionable amusement? Many boys spend all their leisure time in these resorts. True, there is a law saying that minors shall not be allowed in such places, but the law is not enforced. In these dens young men associate with all kinds of evil charac- ters, and I venture to say that many who are on the downward path received a push in that direction from just such companions. Now, it is the duty of voters to right these wrongs, to change existing conditions, to throw all possible safeguards about the youth of our nation, and it is my hope that the day will come when there will be no difficulties to prevent any child growing up an honorable, industrious, God-fearing man or woman.

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22 HIGH SCHOOL ANNUAL • playground. How much better those women can work for their employer, and how much better a community will follow such an arrangement ! Often when children are left at home they get into bad company and are influenced by low characters of the neighborhood. The establishment of playgrounds in connection with all manufactories would be a great improvement and a help to the solving of this social question. Another subject to be considered in connection with the poorer class of children is the compulsory school laws. In some states a clause is added to the usual school law. saying that if a child at fourteen has not accom- plished a certain amount of the prescribed course, he shall not go to work until he is sixteen. Now many children are detained at home to help care for younger children and to do other things which an employed mother can not do. Then, the children may be foreigners who have not learned our language very well, or they may not have the mental capacity of the average child; and so get hopelessly behind in their schooling. If they are allowed to go until sixteen in this condition, then when they are permitted to work, they have lost ambition, or are addicted to some habit contracted while they were kept from work. Do not the men who make these law ' s see that such a law is pushing children down into a level lower than that in which they were born? I)o they not realize that the lowering of children will naturally lower parents? Why, thousands of these people become criminals. But the children of the rich are also to be considered. The great majority of them attend private schools where they have everything to suit them. If they wish to study, they do so ; if they do not wish to study, they do not. In this way the best training of life is missed; they are not compelled to be regular and punctual, and in later years they can not be expected to exhibit characteristics which have never been developed. If rich men would only stop to realize that their children can not absorb the abilities by which they have become famous they would insist upon more rigid training. Now as to the middle class of boys and girls. They have neither poverty nor great riches to hinder them, but they also have problems to be solved. There is a feeling among people of moderate means that great wealth can not be accumulated honestly, and this idea causes much dissatisfaction. The idea is prevalent that if a man is very rich he is exempt from many penalties which the law imposes. It is the duty of rich men to insist upon respect for the law, and it is the duty of judges, not merely to reprimand, but to punish the wrongdoer as the law prescribes; how otherwise can young people be imbued with respect for the law of our land? It is better to neglect a child under school age than one over that age. I believe that every child in school in the United States should be personally considered by individuals appointed for that purpose. I believe that every child should receive a thorough physical examination at stated intervals, and all defects reported to his parents, who should be forced to correct them, if possible. I believe that school work should be selected which will not

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24 HIGH SCHOOL ANNUAL Alumni Department. ELLEN C. ANDERSON, Editor. Alumni Officers — 1908. Mr. C. E. Foster President Mr. George Beach Treasurer M iss Alice Talcott Secretary THE ALUMNI. T SEEMS strange that one of the youngest members of the Alumni •Association should be Historian for an order whose history dates back far beyond the knowledge of any of the present class, but since I have been chosen as such, I will discharge my duty to the best of my ability. While it is the custom of some historians to exaggerate the achieve- ments of those whose life’s history they portray, it is with the utmost pleasure that I find the simple truth concerning the members of this order sounds better than a fairy tale. The Alumni Association consists of three hundred and seventy-eight members, from almost every state of the Union. Many, after graduating from the Valparaiso High School, have pursued their studies at colleges or universities, a large number taking advantage of our own splendid Univer- sity. In the association there is a wide range of occupations — we have teachers, lawyers, stenographers, book-keepers, bankers, doctors and farmers, but whatever the vocation, each is making a good record in the world. The Class of ’07, following the example of previous classes, has lost no time in setting to work. Four are teaching, three are stenographers, two are book-keepers, four are attending the University of Valparaiso, one is at Ann Arbor, one at the University of Chicago, and the remainder are quietly assuming home duties. The past year has been no exception to those preceding it in the number of changes in the fate and fortune of our members. Three have been called to the Great Beyond — Laura Jones, December, 1907 ; Susie Mae Pierce, November 28, 1907; Ruth Eaton Leets, March, 1908. Several have married — Bertha Drawns to Mr. Robert Ewing; Minnie Winslow Maulsby to Mr. S. L. Finney; Louise Winslow to Dr. C. R. Davlin; and some have enjoyed promotions in their position — Harvey Lantz has been made Professor of Law, Washington University, Seattle; Gordon Stoner, Professor of Law,