Axton High School - Axtonian Yearbook (Axton, VA)

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THE AXTONIAN Postwar Education 0 say the farewell words of the Class of ’45 to our many friends is a great honor and I appreciate it. But you will no doubt think I am brave when I ask your attention, for a little while, to the topic I want you to think about with me : Postwar Education. We, the graduates tonight, have worked patiently to obtain the best education our school can offer. However, I have been thinking of the many who have not had the opportunities that we have had, either because of the war, or for many other reasons. I have also been wondering if the education we have is the kind that will be needed by the majority of the young citizens in the postwar world. When we look into the war situation, we find that about 10,000,000 of our United States service men have less education than we who appear on this platform tonight 1 . We have heard much about the provision for the help of the 5,000,000 service men whose education puts them on the college level, but little has been said of the 10,000,000 below that level. So many of these men are returning to communities like Axton. Do we have what they need? We must turn to the service men for the answer. One ex-marine, who has already returned to high school ranks, says: Education, as we ex-fighters see it, should serve two purposes. It should prepare us to earn a living, and prepare us for God-fearing citizenship Many returning veterans will want and need intensive courses in practical trades. Arrangement for these courses should be made now, before the boys start pouring home in big numbers. Courses of six weeks to six months dura- tion in such trades as welding, farming, carpentering, machine shop work, clerk- ing in stores, even landscaping and barbering should be offered. Then our men can fit into peacetime industry quickly, leaving Longfellow and Shakespeare electives for those who want them 2 . While we agree with the young man that opportunity for vocational education should be included in the school curriculums, we do not think that the cultural side should be neglected. Both should be developed in the individual for true enjoyment of life. Coincident with the ex-fighters’ postwar education, we must take under consideration that of those cast adrift from the demobilization of war workers. So many of them have left school to become independent workers, and after the war, when their services are no longer needed, they will find themselves unprepared for other jobs. Unless something is done by social organizations to educate these younger workers, the high level of juvenile delinquency will increase. In regard to war workers, we will not only need to consider youth, but also adults who are unprepared to fill other jobs. These must be retrained for other useful work so that we will not have a great number of unemployed during the first postwar years. To carry out an adequate system of education for all, a heavy responsibility falls on our present educational system and social organizations. Our State Department of Edu- cation in Virginia has expressed full realization of this fact. However, if a postwar pro- gram is to be a success, local communities must wake up to the situation and make a survey of the needs and the possibilities of meeting them. The G.I. Bill of Rights makes available money to returning veterans to take advantage of educational opportunities, but the individual veteran can use this aid only “if he can find facilities to meet his needs.” 3 One drawback to educational expansion for the duration is the teacher shortage, caused by the drafting of so many men and the attracting of women into full-time jobs at better salaries. This problem will, in part, solve itself in the postwar period when war workers return to their before-war jobs. However, to enable schools to attract the best Page Thirty

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THE AXTONIAN good moral homes for postwar America is unity among a God-fearing people in Chris- tian families. There must be a turning Godward for postwar success. Next, let us look into our churches. Is the moral situation there promising for our re- turning veterans? Servicemen are now returning at the rate of 100,000 monthly and they are passing judgment on the church. They find many of us insincere and half-hearted in our faith and fellowship. When one has been so close to death and felt that Providence alone has saved him, he respects sincerity in religion. He expects the church to exalt and enrich family life and to fight for a practical program for permanent peace. He demands that the church be a social champion of poor people and show more tolerance for other faiths. The church must not forget that “freedom of religion” is one of the four free- doms for which our men are fighting. Third, let us think of the morals of America as a whole. The war abroad is serious, but the war at home is more serious. Victories at the battlefront bought at the cost of American blood cannot offset the moral loss in America. The moral order of our age is far from what it should be. Many have not learned that morals are the secret of morale. The British labor statesman, Lord Elton, has said, “Morale, which is to say morals, is the foundation of successful civilization.” American veterans of World War I saw the demoralization which was the forerunner of the downfall of France twenty-five years ago in the streets of Paris and Marseille. They may not have recognized it then, but French patriots have recognized it now. Our soldiers of 1918 didn’t imagine that the same symptoms might appear on the streets of American cities. They have been appearing for several years. It took France twenty-five years to collapse. How long can America last ? Something must be done about the drinking, the reveling, the absenteeism and the im- morality that is weakening our nation. There is reckless spending and lawlessness abroad. There seems to be a breakdown in individual responsibility. We have seen that in many of our fellow pupils at school. The desire to make money is forever in the minds of many. Money is in the hands of people who never before had it and when the postwar factories open and the things people wish to buy are made available, the situation may become worse. We must become aware of the dangers and take steps to check them. Our motto, classmates, is “The truth will set us free.” Shall we, who have been seeking the true ideals these eleven years, let these moral disorders continue in our nation? Surely not. We must also study our labor situation and see where human values are being crowded out. Clearly, haphazard methods of meeting labor problems are not going to work. There must be a definite cooperative labor policy and disputes must be settled by arbitration. Management and labor are not opponents in life’s struggles, but partners in the battle for production. United they can help hold our nation together and show the world how democ- racy works. Likewise race problems must be faced and controlled in a fair way. There must be a brotherhood of men. We as individuals must learn to let God guide and control our hearts; and if we do, as Dr. Peter Marshall has said, “We have the genius and the skill, the political forms, the wealth, the natural resources, and the ability to lead the whole world into a bright tomorrow in which the hopes of the human heart may be achieved and our desires and prayers be realized.” Tonight as we welcome you to our graduation, we are facing the future more seriously than we ever have before. We hope that the principles of democracy, for which Ameri- cans have died on every battlefront, may be achieved in the postwar world. May Old Glory wave over a people who have become aware of the lax conditions of morals as they now exist in America. May they assume the responsibility of correcting the weaknesses and develop a strong unified nation for the good of mankind and the glory of our Creator. With these words, we salute you. Mary Elliott, Salutatorian Page Twenty-nine

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THE AXTONIAN qualified teachers, to meet the great need for better instruction, higher pay must be given all teachers. Furthermore, qualified teachers cannot instruct pupils effectively unless they have more and better equipment. As an example of what the best equipment can do, the army and navy have reduced to six months some courses which in our public schools or colleges require one full year of work. Our educators understand the reason for the difference. Dr. Dabney Lancaster, our State Superintendent of Education, has said : The armed forces have all the teaching aids needed: maps, charts, diagrams, pictures, equipment, regardless of cost. Give public schools the same facilities, the same skilled teachers, and the results will follow. 4 In order to secure better teaching equipment, our State Board of Education is backing a program for the postwar consolidation of high schools; that is, the six hundred recog- nized high schools may be consolidated into two hundred, “so that better academic, tech- nical, and vocational courses can be offered.” 5 The cost of this program cannot be borne by the state alone; the local communities must do their part. There are many counties whose support of education does not correspond with their ability. Our county of Henry, I am confident, will not fall into this list but will carry out her part well in putting over an ef- ficient postwar educational program. The federal government will also expand educational opportunities at the youth level after the war, but not along the same lines perhaps as the N.Y.A. and C.C.C. Camps of the depression. There are, for example, the postwar vo- cational schools to serve rural communities as proposed by the George Dondero Bill. Presi- dent Roosevelt’s statement, made before a White House Conference on rural education, that “the federal government must provide aid to schools where needed” 6 is another evi- dence of the federal recognition of educational needs. Adult education will also be given more attention in the already established vocational schools. After the war we shall see an advance in the conception of education, not only in the schools but in non-school agencies also. Greater emphasis will be placed on the home, the church, clubs, recreation centers, travel and other types of personal contacts as educational features. In the postwar years education for democracy will receive greater emphasis. Democ- racy is measured by the number of true leaders and one of the ways to produce these is to seek out the talents of our young people and develop these for true leadership in our gov- ernment. How to train young people to be better leaders is an important problem. The Dean of Columbia University says: Training does not mean turning out bright young men who have been taught pat answers. It means developing in scores of thousands of men the talent for bringing intelligence to bear on our national needs. 7 If young people are to have the ability to solve our nations’ problems, the curriculum must be enlarged to include more basic things. First in everyone’s life is health. A healthy body and mind is needed by everyone to enable him to be a happy and useful citizen. If the larger number of people is to benefit by health education, it must be included in the schools for both veterans and school chil- dren. Veterans must have psychiatric as well as medical care to enable them to overcome their war experiences. School children must become more health conscious. Lois Benedict, Director of the Children’s Bureau of Virginia’s Welfare Department, says that children committed as delinquents are not in good physical health ; only 4.8 per cent need no medi- cal attention. 8 There is no doubt but that children in general need more physical care both in school and out. More people can be reached through the schools by physical education programs and clinics. Physical education instructors and school nurses must be provided for in every public school. The responsibility must not rest on the class room teachers alone. Page Thirty-one