West Nottingham Academy - Pege Yearbook (Colora, MD)

Page 8 text:

In the years of its history, the Academy has seen many instructors. In the thirty-seven years of the Pege ' s existence, as many individuals have been singled out for recognition as the one to whom the graduating class has dedicated the yearbook. This signal honor falls this year upon an instructor finishing his fifth year. He is noted for his high demands upon his students, for penetrating questions, and for yard sticks snapped upon the desks of drowsy students. He is one-half of the Contemporary Civilization course, the European half. He has served more than three years as master of the senior boys ' dormitory. In this capacity, he serves as advisor, disciplinarian, and, once a year, Santa Claus. In all, over the years of his service here, he has become a true part of the Academy. Therefore, with pleasure the Senior Class dedicates this 1967 Pege to MR. WILLIAM W. JONES

Page 10 text:

Headmaster ' s Message To The Class Of 1967 I take this responsibility of writing a message to each graduating class very seriously. Each year I try to express to each class some of the thoughts that grip my heart, my mind, my very being. I hope that these words I write each year provide some current thinking that is applicable to your present situation. This year I am much concerned with the social forces which constitute the framework of life in which you and I as individuals must live. These forces are powerful and determine the very direction that our common life takes. Yet we must not view them as things beyond our control, for, indeed, we shape them as a result of what we as individuals stand for in terms of goals, values, and moral principles. We simply must perceive that our individual positions merge to form collective strength as we live in our schools, in our neighborhoods, in our cities, in our states, in our nation, and in the world. In noting that nineteen of the twenty-one world ' s civilizations died not from an outside enemy but from internal decay, someone has pointed out that the average age of these world ' s great civili- zations was two hundred years and that the United States will be two hundred years old very shortly. He also asserted that these nations progressed through this sequence: From Bondage to Spiritual Faith From Spiritual Faith to Great Courage, From Great Courage to Liberty, From Liberty to Abundance, From Abundance to Selfishness, From Selfishness to Complacency, From Complacency to Apathy, From Apathy to Dependence, From Dependence back again to Bondage. Although this cycle is apparent from the past, it need not be repeated if you and I have the stuff by which it can be broken. And this stuff is grounded in what we believe about life as it must be lived from day to day by each of us. In order to develop the full life of social happiness and achievement, you and I must persist in finding personal meaning to the historical, dynamic concepts of God, dignity of labor, inner peace, world peace, brotherhood, marriage, family, distribution of wealth, equal op- portunity, and a responsible morality. We are undergoing the most rapid period of technical and scientific change in history. Dr. Harr Gideonse, president of Brooklyn College, delivered an address to a convention which I attended last year entitled The Values of Youth and Accelerated Social Dislocation . A powerful talk it was, and in it he pointed out that There is only one thing that is certainly predictable about their circumstances of their [young people] lives: The pace of change which is already difficult to digest today will sharp- en and intensify. The competitive and conflicting pressures which beat about our heads will not diminish but they will grow in number and intensity. Ruling beliefs and values are being seriously challenged today and new ones must replace them in order to provide stable direction to the new society that is being born out of the technical and scientific progress we are experiencing. I urge you to continue your search for knowledge about the totality of life so that you can make your contribution, not to the breakdown of a great civilization as illustrated by the cycle previously mentioned, but to the further development of the American dream once placed firmly on the stage of history by our founding fathers, many of whom studied here at this old place of learning. They saw so clearly that they would not be victims of social forces but rather makers of these forces. We need such makers again — depart and do your job well!