Wayne High School - Sentry Yearbook (Fort Wayne, IN)

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We spend a lot of time together at Wayne over the space of four year ' s time — we in the edu- cation business. We give and take tests, assign and complete mountains of homework assignments. We all are happy on Fridays, cheer when vacation comes around, secretly dread Mondays, get totally bored during the summer, and are visibly saddened when we finally realize that some old friends, having grad- uated, are gone forever. But what does it mean? But what should it mean? And why are these not always the same? It means that we are supposed to learn some- thing, and it is hoped that on occasion we act-

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STORIES tunity to further world understanding and promote brotherhood, etc., etc., right? And what did we talk about? WHAT WE DISLIKED ABOUT OUR HAIRSTYLES. what are you going to wear tonight? It appears that Amer- icans are overly concerned with their appearance. With new experiences their adamant refusal to see the world as a rigid textbook, they are the most alive of any people Who ' d of thought of the Gong Show as entertainment? bursting all around them, they are content to fret because they didn ' t bring a curling iron, or wonder if they need to shave their legs before going out. They are stolid middle- American Babbits, who tra- vel through another world by hauling THEIR entire world with them. And yet, these boring, exasperating, annoying, irritating, make-me-want-to- scream people are the most They are stolid middle American Babbits, who travel through another world by hauling THEIR entire world with them. So it went, the entire week. At the pyramids: sunburn and the trauma of pale legs in the first shorts of the season. Museum of Anthropology: too dark for Instamatics. Basillica de Guadalupe: blisters and joyous I ' ve ever seen. Be- cause of their ability to live in their own private circle of sensations, and in the world, or of any in America. We sat on a hot patio outside the Museum of Anthropology one day, two thousand miles from Holly- wood, and entertained our- selves with our impressions of the Gong Show. The Mexican viewers had no idea of what we were doing, but laughed at the crazy American touristas anyway. And we laughed back, because we had triumphed over hot weather and warm Cokes and sore feet and WE WERE HAVING FUN. All by taking ourselves out of our immediate surroundings and making up our own. Who ' d of thought of the Gong Show as entertainment? —peri gruber, April 30th

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ually do — we in the edu- cation business. It is further hoped that some of what we learn has to do with the courses we take and give. And it is known In questioning we push against our limits and, in pushing, expand our hor- izons. In addition to giving us the atomic bomb, Al- bert Einstein gave us a different picture of our universe. According to Einstein, our universe We learn in the present, of the past, for the future. that what teachers primar- ily teach and students pri- marily learn is how to be students. How to take tests. How to do homework. How to answer questions. How to live up to the ex- pectations of others. How, in a word, to get along in a structured society. And this is valuable, but is it all? No it is not. Life is not true-false, multiple choice, or even short es- say, and a student ' s job is not to worship the known but to question it. does not go on forever, but rather, at some point, space as we know it ends. It has an edge, but that edge is moving. Our un- iverse, though finite, is growing, expanding into the void, becoming larger. This can also be seen as a picture of ourselves and the way we learn, for know- ledge is personal— an un- ending adventure at the edge of uncertainty. We do not go on forever, but If we try, we can keep expan- ding into new areas of knowledge. All of us, stu- dents and teachers alike, must keep questioning and learning and expanding. The only tragedy is that occasionally some teachers stop expanding and some students never start. Our expansion is also into the future. We learn in the present, of the past, for the future. We must be free to go eas- ily with the waves of that future and diciplined e- nough to keep that future from becoming a night- mare. It is a tense and English philosopher A.N. Whitehead put it, It is the business of the future to be dangerous. If this is true, then it is the business of education to be fearless and teach courage. We must learn as It is the business of education to be fearless and teach courage . . . Let us be brave. dangerous business, ed- ucation, the adventure of learning things— strik- ing out into the unknown of the future— but as the much as we can — it is our destiny. Let us be brave, —alien peters, may first 11