Ballston Spa High School - Realms of Gold Yearbook (Ballston Spa, NY)

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Principal’s Message A PHILOSOPHY OF LIFE If I were to ask many of you the question, What is your philosophy of life?” you would look at me blankly and ask, What are you talking about? Whether or not you have ever realized it, each of you does have a philosophy of life. It maybe a good one or a poor one; it may be simple or complicated. Whatever it is, you have acquired it through the sum total of your experiences up to now. Your philosophy of life is simply your plan for the future and the code of behavior by which you live. As a part of your education you should do some serious thinking about this matter. I would like to pass along to you two ideas which will serve to illustrate what I am talking about and which would make a good starting point in the formulation of your own philosophy. The. first idea might be stated as follows: My ultimate aim in life is to make this world a better place in which to live. This aim implies service to humanity. A person can live up to this regardless of what his vocation happens to be, if he develops his particular talents to the fullest and uses them to the benefit of others. If you, as students, have this objective, you will try each day to develop your capacities as much as you can, so that you will be able to be of most service later on. It will influence almost everything that you do. The second idea is this: You get out of life what you put into it. If you recognize and accept this truth, it, too, can greatly affect the way in which you live. It teaches that to have friends you must be a friend, and that to do a good job and get a great deal out of a project, you must throw yourself wholeheartedly into it. R. C. TEFFT Experience through the years has proved that those who live by these ideas achieve success and happiness. I have only touched upon them. I hope you will think about them, expand and develop them, and come up with a real philosophy of your own that will lead to success and happiness for you, and one that will truly make this a better world because you have lived in it.

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’Dedication HARLANDV. WHITTREDGE We are proud to dedicate this yearbook to the late Mr. Harland V. Whittredge, who was always ready to help us with our problems and who proved himself a great friend of our class. Earth hath no sorrow that heaven cannot heal. --Moore

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Superintendent’s Message During the past year our nation and we, its people, have experi-encedseveral momentsof crisis. Tensions even in hitherto remote parts of the globe have had in them the tinder for a world conflagration. Any irresponsibly dropped spark injected into the situation before the tension subsided could have set the world aflame. Indeed, so close to our shores was the Cuban crisis that each of us, no doubt, could envision pillars of nuclear fire and heat riding over our homes and communities. Moments of crisis compel us to reconsider what we believe in and what we value most highly. At such times most of us resolve again to stand steadfastly for the ideals that brought this country and our people their elements of greatness. Unfortunately, our determination to act in consonance with our ideals seems to waiver and then to flag as the peril becomes further and further removed. This periodic loss of moral and spiritual timber permits, if indeed it does not contribute to, the building of another moment of crisis. It is my hope that your years in the Ballston Spa Central Schools has convinced you of the need for holding fast to the ideals of American democracy which, in essence, promotes activities which upgrade mankind and abhors that which degrades any human being; and of seeking with fixed purpose a goal in life for yourself consistent with your ability. In a real sense, you and succeeding young people will inherit the earth. No generation in the past has had the opportunity to enjoy so completely all the resources of the world, and its cultures, and its beauty. The challenge is to take advantage of this opportunity yourself in such a way as to guarantee accessibility of the same opportunity to all other people. This would be the surest way, and the sanest way to eliminate moments of crisis in the future or the catastrophe of a holocaust. Toward such a rich and promising future, I wish you good-speed with God's help.