West Reading High School - Vaquero Yearbook (West Reading, PA)

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Public speaking practice was continued occasionally in morning exercises in the assembly hall, when each member in the four upper grades gave short: speeches or recitations. Special lectures, illustrated by beautiful colored slides, were given by Alfred Small '27, Marian VVix '26, and Helen Schiffner '25. Music of the better kind was encouraged and fostered in our two Literary Societies. Very fine work was done, and the vocal selections rendered thruout the year were very commendable. The music rendered on the zither, flute, saxaphone and violin was of a higher order than one would usually expect in a small high school such aS ours. This was even more true in the case of the piano, where the compositions of such difficult masters such as Paderewski, Mendelssohn and Chopin were rendered with such wonderful touch that the sound of each note was like the tinkling of some bell from a far-off monastery. , Interschool Debates From out the shadows of the past of more than fifty years ago, drifts the fiery debating spirit of Lincoln and Douglas when they met that memorable day in Free- port, Illinois. That spirit lived again when our boys stood upon the platform in the auditorium and proved to a thrilled audience why the United States should not at once enter The League of Nations. We competed with the VVyomissing High School in this first experience in interschool debating, and, through the earnest efforts of our coach, Miss Ahrens, and the team Robert Fisher, Ellis Miller, Malcolm Ruth and Bernard Leightheiser- we won, and we are mighty proud of that victory. We were not quite so fortunate two weeks later when we opposed Shillington. Perhaps the honor of the school rested too heavily upon the shoulders of our speakers, who, incidentally, had to change their thoughts and their speeches to the afhrmative side of the question in the meanwhileg and, perhaps they, too, felt a forbidding something in the air that night. We had the saddest blow of our young lives when that brainy team fthe best in the county, we are surel went down to defeat that night. Both decisions were two to one. The Judges in the Vifyomissing-West Reading debate were VVilliam E. Richardson, Esq., George Eves, Esq. and Dr. VVarren F. Teel, in the Shillington-lfVest Reading bat- tle, Mr. Charles S. Adams, Attorney H. P. Keiscr and the Hon. XVm. E. Sharman. Spring Concert An exceptionally line concert, made possible through Mr. Brown 's effort, was held in the school auditorium on the evening of April twenty-ninth. It was given by Mr. Clyde Dengler of Fleetwood, and his Ladies' Octet. The piano accompanist was Miss Lillian Keener. Delightful melodies such as I Love a Lassie , One Sweet Dayu, Sleep and Dreamy Melody were sung by the octet. There were solos by the Misses Evelyn Brown, Eva Moyer, Kathryn Kauffman, Mary Adams, Arlene Dengler, Ruth Gehret, Pauline VVaters, Kathryn Dengler and some beautiful tenor solos by Mr. Dengler himself. The songs were typical of spring, radiant with a rhythmic joy. A few of the Solo numbers were I Love Life'l, Carinina , Will O the XVisp , Song of Joy , At Dawning , An Open Secret , The Angelus , Sunrise and You . VVe predict a brilliant future for Mr. Dengler and his singers who are already in great demand locally. Page 26 Friday Morning Assemblies It would be difficult and rather lengthy to consider individually each speaker that honored us on various assembly occasions. Their talks were so wonderful and full of advice that we want to thank them all for coming, and we wish also to express to those who suggested their coming and made it possible, especially to Mr. Ranck, our appreciation of these splendid speakers. They were Rev. Max lViant from the First Baptist Church. His subject was Leadership . Rev. William H. Lindenmuth of the Episcopal Church who spoke on the building of character. Rev. Elmer C. Coblentz, with an eloquent discourse on Education for Successful Living . Dr. Sheldon, the famous efficiency expert, who gave a practical talk in a very unusual manner. We shall not forget his Q. Q. M. sign, shall We? Dr. Warren Teel from Schuylkill College who gave an address on Abraham Lincoln . There was an interesting variation in the nature of these talks whem: Dr. Hollister spoke on The Care of the Teeth , and his assistant supplemented the lecture with a most delightful chalk talk. The next speaker was: . I Mr. Norman Reppert who told us how ambition can win us laurels. just before the Easter vacation: Mr. George Beggs of Reading gave us a very interesting and instructive talk on the big three of Literature, The Bible, Shakespeare and the Life of Lincoln. Faculty Items The opening of school this year found the personnel of the 1922-1923 teaching staff unchanged. VVithin a few days Mrs. Maggie Sanders Barth was engaged as an additional teacher for the junior high school. During the summer, a number of the teachers had studied. Mr. Brown, Mr. Yeich and Miss Stamm took post-graduate courses at the University of Pennsylvania, and Miss Fritz continued her study of French at the Ecole Francaise of Middlebury College, Vermont. The announcement was made recently that Mr. Delp had resigned as prinicpal of the lfVest Reading schools, but that he would continue to give us his services in the regular work of the high school. Mr. Herbert P. Holz- man, supervising principal of the Fleetwood schools has been elected to fill the vacancy. Mr. Holzman is a graduate of Dickinson College and Dickinson Law School, and has received his master's degree at the University of Pennsylvania. He has taught fourteen years and for ten years has held the position of supervis- ing principal. The engagement of Miss Dorothy Althouse to Mr. Forrest Shanaman, an attorney of Reading, has been announced. Miss Althouse's position will be filled next year by Miss Sara E. Koch of the Fleetwood High School. The members of our faculty are already making plans for this summer. Miss Ahrens expects to go abroad with a party of friends, touring France, Italy and Switzerland, and touching at main points in Belgium, Holland, and England. Several of our teaching staff are again planning summer Work at Penn State and the University of Pennsylvania. School News Editor T lzorma M. H eckman

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ffi f e IEEE LQ ilir 'iz s ,I --QQ Xli wta. l'-HEI E Dil TORI ff I .X ,X J, '!STi as if x --iiii 'id kmli-'UZ i - E H Eu , Si 13' 3-7: 6 ii' 5 -M!! . Def-I ,ii XFZBSW ',f .- lf? Q if t I ' i I I I I Editor-in-Chief Bernard E. Leightheiser C0-OPERATION f'VVe must all hang together, or assuredly we shall all hang separately ,Benjamin Franklin is reported to have said at the signing of the Declaration of Indepen- dence. Co-operation has indeed been a powerful factor not only in the formative period of our country but in all its succeeding years of prosperity and success. ' welfare of our If it IS a quality that is essential to the country, then it must be a quality that should exist in our schools as well, for are not the schools today recognized as the training places for the future citizens and leaders of our government? Perhaps the meaning of co-operation in the school will be clearer if we think of it as a working-together spirit. There is no phase of school work where the need for co-operation is not manifest. We have had interesting morning assemblies this year, but imagine the resulting bedlam if each person had followed his or her own whim instead of contributing to the good of the whole group by giving his attention to what was said and done, by joining in the singing, or by sympathizing with a fellow pupil trying out his powers. There is something vital in the very feeling that you are a part of a big group and partaking of its spirit-your spirit, but intensified so that you realize its strength. In literary activities nothing worth while is accom- plished without co-operation. Wle need the help of our teachers if our work is to improve each time and be a real benefit to us. VVe need unified work from com- mittee members if we wish to put on creditable prog- rams, and above all we must have the hearty co- operation of every individual performer. A play, for instance, or a debate is ruined if only one participant fails to prepare his part. The various projects that such a school as ours un- dertakes require a great deal of co-operative business activity. One person alone, in a few hours of time can earn very little extra money for the schoolg but all of us, working together in our campaign and bazaar, earned hundreds of dollars with which to purchase a piano and other useful equipment. You would not be reading this Beacon if the staff had not worked together as a team, each member contributing a definite portion of the book and each working hard to finance it by secur- ing subscriptions and advertisements. Another prominent activity of all schools at present is athletics. In this field a true appreciation of co- operation will undoubtedly reap success, individual effort alone will mean failure. The teams must be organized and coached in some systematic manner, and all the participants must have but one goal in mind, the success of the team. Then and then only will the school rank with the best. In classroom work, the real work of the school after all, teamwork is quite as necessary. When everyone contributes brain and effort to a knotty problem it is soon solved, and itls more fun, too. When a whole class is prepared on the work of the clay, the recitation proceeds much faster and more interestingly for all. Co-operation then often means self-control and sacrifice of personal ambition to shine. You may know the answer ever so well, but you cannot display your know- ledge because the next fellow was called upon. You know it would not do for everyone to shout the answer aloud simultaneously, so you co-operate in silence until your turn comes. Practicing co-operation always means a certain amount of personal sacrifice. Subordination of self to efficient leaders is essential, whether in school, in tha community, or in the nation. To achieve the goal, to win the day, as Rudyard Kipling says It ain't the individual, Nor the army as a whole, But the everlasting team-work Of every bloomin' soul . Page 27