Asheville School - Blue and White Yearbook (Asheville, NC)

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courts, and a rowing course for the crews, three-fourths of a mile in length. At the lake there is a canoe house with several canoes, and for boys interested in rowing, one boat house with two four-oared gigs, two four-oared shells, two eight-oared shells, one single shell and a motor launch for the coach. The Athletic grounds have been named Jackson Field, in memory of George Jackson, the late Headmaster. Adjacent to the school grounds is the excellent nine-hole golf course of the Malvern Hills Club. Playing privileges of the club are extended to the boys free of charge. It is the intention not only to encourage the usual school sports, but also to arrange for such pastimes as will develop individual talent and inventiveness. It is the conviction that, while football, baseball, and track athletics are excellent training, they should be supplemented to a considerable degree by natural play. The neglect of this old-time play for the conventional routine of athletics leaves boys too dependent upon others and lacking in resources. With the woods, streams, lakes, hills, fields, and the shops, there are abundant opportunities for all kinds of recreation. The School is divided into two clubs, known as the Blues and the Whites. These clubs have contests in the various athletic sports, to which certain points or credits are assigned. The club whose members have won the greatest number of points is declared the winner for the year. The School is not a sanatorium for sickly boys, but rather a place where boys may grow up and develop under the most favorable condi- tions. Boys having tubercular troubles are not admitted. A course in equitation, which is given on two afternoons a lv I DI N G i , .... . i . . week, may be elected in lieu of other required exercise on those days. On one of the two afternoons the class is given a thorough drill in the basic principles of equitation, including jumping; and on the other afternoon there is a ride over one of the mountain trails. No charge is made for instruction, but boys taking the course are charged $40 a term (one-third of the school year) for the use of the horses. There are opportunities for riding under supervision on free after- noons and on whole holidays. The trails of the Biltmore Estate and of Sunset Mountain offer excellent and varied fields for this exercise. [ 21 ]

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SCHOOL LIFE AND ADMINISTRATION T EACHERS The Masters have been selected with reference to their recognized ability. They are graduates of the best American and foreign colleges and universities, and most of them have specialized in the particular fields which they have elected to teach. Care of Boys The Headmaster has the especial care and charge of all the boys. He and the Masters desire to know every boy intimately, so that natural aptitudes may be discovered and encouraged, and defects of character remedied. Boys known to be vicious, objectionable, dull, or persistently lazy will not be admitted; if unwittingly admitted, they will not be retained. Medical Care A Resident Nurse is in charge of the Infirmary and an Asheville physician makes daily visits to the School for consultations; his services are supplemented by those of specialists when required, and private nurses from the local hospitals are always available. A Dispensary which is open at all times provides for the care of minor injuries and sicknesses. Physical Examination The School physicians make examina- tions each year, that they may find any physical weaknesses and prescribe proper exercises to remedy them. Physical Training Physical training is one of the unique fea- tures of the School, opportunities for health- ful exercise being unsurpassed. The climate of the mountain region of North Carolina invites open-air exercise twelve months in the year. Inclement days which drive boys from their exercise on the playing fields are few. Each boy is required to exercise out-of-doors when possible; otherwise in the gymnasium. The Masters supervise and control the athletic exercise and games of the boys and coach them in their sports. For the various forms of exercise the School grounds contain three baseball diamonds, football fields, soccer football fields, a quarter-mile cinder track with a two-hundred-twenty-yard straightaway, ten tennis [20]

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Manual Training Opportunities for carpentry, boat-building, cabinet-making, wood-carving, and other forms of manual work are offered by the Department of Manual Train- ing. A workshop equipped with modern tools and machinery is used for the regular Manual Training courses in the lower Forms, and is, in addition, available at designated periods each day for the use of any boys who are interested in projects of this sort. During these periods there is ample supervision and boys are given assistance in the planning or execution of their work. The Dramatic Society was founded in 1902 and since Dramatics , . , , , that time has been among the most active extra- curricular organizations. Several full-length plays are given during the year, and a number of one-act plays. Because of the large number of productions, there is an opportunity for all members of the student body who are interested in Dramatics to participate, and, in addition to the opportunity for acting, boys whose interests are along those lines are encouraged to take part in directing and in the designing and building of scenery. The stage in the Assembly Room, with its excellent equipment of sets, lights, cyclorama, and other modern stage accessories, offers adequate facilities for the staging of such ambitious productions as The Dover Road, Journey's End and other contemporary plays of recognized merit. All the sound and lighting effects in these plays are under the direction of the boys, who are given constant opportunity for instruction and experiment in whatever field of dramatic activity most interests them. The society makes an effort to keep the School abreast of modern theatrical trends by contributing volumes of plays to the School library and by public or private reading of such plays as may be impossible of presentation because of technical difficulties in staging or lack of time. Convocations and Entertainments The last period every Saturday morning is given over to a Convocation of the entire School, which is held in the Assembly Room. At this time students are provided the opportunity to hear many promi- nent men speak on subjects of current interest or on the claims and [22]