Barre High School - Barretone Yearbook (Barre, MA)

Page 9 text:

BEFORE OUR EYES Row many of you after reading the headlines, sports, and comic strip of the daily nov spaper read any more of it? V hen v;e read history today about the World War, v;e feel it would have been exciting to have been alive when some thing was going on. An archduke and his wife v crc shot, little Belgium would not lay down her arms and let Germany’s array pass through to France, the big ocean liner, Lusitania , v as torpedoed. VJcrc those things any more exciting than the Panay affair, the Spanish V ar, Hitler’s march into Austria, and the Japancso-Chinosc affair? There arc many highlights in the v;orld of international affairs today. It is the duty of the present generation, viho 7ill be the voters of tomorrow, o acquaint ourselves with the important things that arc happening today, so that wo shall know what is going on outside of the town in which v c live. When wo pick up the newspaper, we should read the sports if v;o v ant to knov; hov the Rod Sox arc hitting; wo should read the comic strip if v c want to knov; what Maggie and Jiggs are up to; and wo should also road about v hat is going on in Washington, D.C., England, Germany, and other points of in- terest in the world. Turn to the editorial page, and you will find that it requires only a little concentration to grasp v hat the v ritcr is trying to tell you. Ttiose editorials v ill give you some- thing to think about. Some v arnlng sJiould be given as to how a person should fi ' rra his ideas from editorials. V c should not be so partial to one newspaper that after reading its editorials, v;c refuse to consider the points which aro in favor of the side of the question which the editorial docs not take. This docs not mean v e need to subscribe to more than one newspaper. After v c have read the editorials, we should discuss them with our friends and then form our ov n opinions on the matter. Some of us may feel that nov spapers aro controlled by politics, advertising pov er, and other agencies v hich do not permit all the truth to bo printed. There is no denying this but until we find, a better method of keeping in touch with everyday affairs v c v. ill have to roly on the facts the news- papers do give. Let’s start reading the news of today so that v o may be able to give sound opinions when it comes our turn to take part in making the history of the world. Louis Hadley 38

Page 11 text:

SHOULD HAVE PINAL EXAMINATIONS The roaGons why v c have final examinationo are purely in relation te the loosens studied, not because the teachers want to make it harder for the students. Pinal examinations toll just hov; much of wiiat the student has learned during the year ho has retained in his memory. If there were no final examinations solic students would not learn things; they viTould only ronomber thorn until the monthly examination was over. Since a final examination covers only v hat is studied during the year, the student v ho has studied his lessons and learned each one thoroughly has nothing tc fear concerning the outcome. Most of the monthly examinations given during the year are not to see how much the student knows, but hov much he doesn’t knov . Tiic purpose of those is for the teacher to find out just what the class needs more study on. In this way the narks of the class as a whole can be brought up to a better average. I sincerely think that if every pupil thoroughly learned his lessons every day, and every pupil received a good mark- B or A-- in tlio final . examination, there would be no further need of final oxam.inations . In this case they v;ould probably be abolished. The final examinations no Icngcr play an important part in the marking for the year, for it is not right to count one examination for as much as three or four months’ v ork. If there were no final examinations in Barre High School I do not think that Barre would hold its Class A rating very long. This Class A rating makes it r.iuch easier for Barre graduates to enter college, because if they do good v;ork in high school, the principal can sign a certificate for them and they v ill be spared the job of taking an entrance exam- ination to enter college. For the reasons which I have stated above, I believe that final examinations arc a benefit to the school as a whole both to students and to teachers, because it gives them a good idea of v hat the student has learned during the year in a manner which is not hard for either teachers or students. It is reasonably safe to say that if the student has remem- bered his lessons for all the school year, he will remember them iTiuch longer. Harold Lackey ‘’38 WHY WE SHOULD NOT HAVE FINAL EXA::INATI0N3 ’ - The students’ main argument for the abolishing of final examinations, Finals are too much v;ork, is one that is founded on the students’ first thought on the subject. In a v ay these pupils arc right, for finals arc more work than ordinary exams, yet there arc more sensible and convincing arguments to be used in support of the abolishment of the time-honor custom. In former years the exams counted one- third of a student? year rank in a subject. Of recent years this practice has been eliminated. Why was this system stopped? The school