Atwood Hammond High School - Post Yearbook (Atwood, IL)

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day laborer get $1.50 per day, 300 days in the year, or $450 in a year. In forty years he earns $18,000. The difference or $22,-000, equals the value of an education. To acquire this earning' capacity requires twelve j’ears at school of 180 days each, or 2,160 days. Dividing 22,000, the value of an education, by 2160, the number of days required in getting it, we find that each day at school is worth a little more than $10 to a pupil. Can’t afford to miss school, can we?’ We have met people who ask us—has our High School course benefited us if we have forgotten a greater part of what it taught us? We ask them how much they remember of their work, and whether or not they are the better off for having gone to school. Their skepticism has lost its force. We insist, that if the good afforded by any training is to be measured by the facts retained in after life, all schooling is a waste of time. One eminent educator of today has well said that “we are what we are more because of what we have forgotten than what we know”. That has the ring of sound sense in it. We cannot recall all we have learned, but we have it and it has left its mark. Just as w’e perform the thousand acts of everyday life without any consciousness on our part, so are wre constant- ly applying the lessons our school days have given us. The past has recast us, we forget some of it, but the effect of all has been left with us. Whatever training one receives will be of little avail if i does not awaken in that person a profound desire for the truth, a love of the beautiful in literature and in life, and a determination to work out more thoroughly and to solve some of the problems of human endeavor The school can never be the laboratory where the problems of life are done, but it can be, and is the rock, the foundation upon which we may more safely build a towering superstructure. All progress has been brought about by a raising of ideals. We would, if you please, have the school aid in inculcating the most exalted and the worthiest ideals of life. We would have it impart a thirst for something about fhe ordinary. We would have it arouse us to a greater appreciation of the world about us. We have heard of a certain 8th grade teacher who told his pupils that unless they intended to teach, there was no need going through the high school. We say that such a narrow and perverted person is not fit to have a class in charge. He will crush whatever spark of ambition and inspiration there is inherent in its breast. Give it nourishment, give it the proper food, and it will burst forth. Point to the light that is burning for those willing to make an effort to reach it.

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EDITORIALS It is a recognized fact that there has been a rapid improvement in our school during recent years. The term of ’07-’08 has contributed no small amount to this advancement. This has been brought about in various ways, but in two in particular. Parents are fast awakening to the importance of a high school education. Consequently, pupils are encouraged in their work and are becoming much more willing to grasp the opportunity of a bright future that lies before them. But there is still another cause for the growth of our school, in effeciency, if not in numbers. Ours is one of the many smaller High Schools that have lately been demanding as instructors young college graduates. These bring with them the true college spirit and instill it into the minds of those who are under their instruction, causing them to appreciate the chance they htave to learn and to become ambitious of a higher education in the college. This is true in-deedof our presentteachers who, together with their more immediate predecessors, have done a great deal toward bringing the school to its present good condition. Authorities agree that it is not the text book but actual work and demonstration that is the best source for learning a scientific study. Consequently, to get much from zoology, botany, physiology, and physics, one must have access to an ample supply of apparatus. Much better work has been done in these branches in recent years tlnn before. And this fact is due to the new material which has been added for making experiments. This is especially true of physics, for which a great amount ot new apparatus 1 as been purchased this term. Our library has been enlarged somewhat this year. The English classes are ne longer obliged to buy their own copies of‘ the classics which they use, for a number of each have been placed in the library. We have quite a large addition of English and Ancient History reference books. After Mr Hollister’s first inspection of our school we were given eleven credits on entrance to the University of Illinois. The number required to be fully accredited was then fourteen. It is now fifteen. After Mr. Hollister’s visit in the first semester of this term, we were granted fourteen and a half. We now lack one credit in English. Commercial Arithmetic which we take for one semester is never accredited. We expect to be fully accredited next year. Less than half of the high schools of the state are fully accredited We should feel proud that we are soon to be one of them. For the bench' of some who are getting tired of school we publish the following extract from our first Post: “The average educated man gets a salary of 11,000 per year. He works forty years, making a total of $40,000 in a life. The average

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CLASS HIS T O R Y 1JY MYRTLE McCLAIN The American race lias its historians, its artists and its prophets. Every class that graduates from the Atwood High School, and especially is this true of the class of 1908,— has its own wonderful class history. So wonderful, indeed, that as I look back upon the records of our own class, I am overwhelmed with the magnitude of our accomplishments. But our class annals will soon come to an end. From now on, it will be known as prophecy, which will in time become history, for “history is prophecy fulfilled.” So as a historian, I will endeavor to give you, briefly, the events that go to make up the story of the class of 1908. On the first Monday morning in September, 1904, eleven pupils entered the high school. I will mention, but will not attempt to describe, how frightened they were, how much they stood in awe of their teacher, Mr. Thrasher, how with trembling hands, and fluttering hearts, they arose, in the presence of that august body of high school pupils and endeavored with stammering tongues to recite their first lesson. This was only the beginning of their course in the Atwood High School. The class had seemingly, entered another world, and, although it was strange at first, they soon became accustomed to their surroundings. They began to realize that work must be done f any good was to be accomplished; so with a will to work and to win,—which was a characteristic of the class, they took up their studies with this one aim in view. When the class of ten, from the eighth grade entered the high school, Ethel Sutton, from Huinbolt joined us, making eleven pupils in all. Hitherto, the course, had consisted of three years only, but in 1904 another year was added. The board of education asked Prof. Hollister, the High School inspector from the University of Illinois to visit our school; and we received a few credits, which tended to put us in the rauk with others. At the end of the first year for various reasons five members of the class dropped out, leaving onlv six to take up the second year’s work. It was in the second year tbatour president, Leslie Lewis, went to Mont ice Ho with some other boys from our high school. Here by Leslie’s help they obtained third place in the athletic contest; for many of the points were won by him. Our president, Leslie Lewis, was born near Atwood, Illinois, in the nineteenth century. At an early age he began school, and before he joined us he had attended about fifteen different country schools. It was at the mature age of eleven that he became identified with the class of 1908. In 1907 he was chosen by the