Ben Blewett Junior High School - Junior Life Yearbook (St Louis, MO)

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gg- self-government which lonlg since has been judged a failure or a fake. The making of The junior Life convinces one that the machinery of co-opera- tion between students and faculty is made so simple that, under the guidance and advice of the faculty, boys and girls of this age may do some real purpos- ing, planning and executing resulting in achievements worth while. The junior Life is but one of many projects successfully accomplished by you. This message is designed to stimulate you in making the best of these opportunities and in so doing to live nobly the life of your school which life is composed of the real elements of future citizenship. I desire to strengthen this message by supplementing my own words with the message of 24592 boys and girls of your present ages who have been de- prived of the opportunities you now possess of acquiring the experiences which come in living the life you are now living, with citizens of their own ages under supervision of friends instead of being forced too early into the environment of adult life where adult experiences come upon them so fast with no one at times to interpret these experiences that they make miserable failures, neither they nor their parents knowing why the failures have come. Boys and girls to make the best men and women must live this early adolescent life with citizens of their own age and not try to live the life of the adult before having acquired gradually the experiences of the adult. I would like to give you the contents of 2592 letters I received recently from boys and girls in the Continuation Schools, who quit the elementary school at 14 years of age, most of them without completing the elementary school and are now found struggling in the busy streams of industry and commerce. Over 67.405 advise pupils to remain in school as long as possible. This is my message. You should not fail, if possible, to take advantage of an education when you have the opportunity of thinking and acting for yourself under the guid- ance of sympathetic counsellors: of living the life of a junior before trying to live the life of an adult-a school life where junior citizenship is composed of all the elements of adult citizenship. Stay in school. Do your part well in making the citizenship of junior High healthy and wholesome. L-. W. Rader, Assistant Superintendent of Instruction. Mr. Taylor's Comments Mr. Taylor, is principal of a good junior High School, and, before visiting Blewett, had visited a number of the best junior High Schools in the Mis- sissippi Valley. His comments for the superintendent of his city were in sub- stance as follows: The three fundamentals upon which a Junior High School must be built, first, scientific grouping of pupils: second, pupil participation in school life, and third, socialized recitatiorns, are exemplified more fully in the Blewett School than in any school visited. This school is really delivering the goods along this line. 18

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sm ugxavf' L..-r 433 Ullbe Eluninr life Bear ibnuk PUBLISHED ANNUALLY BY THE BEN BLEWETT JUNIOR HIGH SCHOOL ST. LOUIS, MISSOURI EDITORIAL STAFF Lucille Powell .........,................................. Editor-in-Chief Robert Short .......... Associate Editor Jessie Gorman .... .... S ec. of Reporters' Club Billy Candy .... .......... B usiness Manager Muriel Cote ..... ...Eighth Grade Asst. Editor Eddie Carlin ..... ..... A dvertising Manager Margaret North .... .............. N ews Editor Harry Loeb .,., .. .Ninth Grade Asst. Editor Helen Levin ........... Auditorium Editor Helen McKee ..... .... S eventh Grade Asst. Editor Sam Van Dyne. .. ............... Athletic Editor Mildred Benas ..... .... E xchange Editor May Mulholland ..... Club Reporter The Meaning of Junior High Y'-,Q JUNIOR High is an organized school which permits pupils of 1525 the early, adolescent period to live the most abundant life pos- KQ gg sible. A reader of The Junior Life is made conscious of the ,ggjzeglgg multiplied activities in which the pupils of Blewett Junior participate. It is with much pleasure and profit that I read each issue of your valu- able paper always laden and sparkling with the real and positive experiences of the boys and girls who are given the opportunity accepted so promptly and splendidly of participating in every phase of activity of the life of a school which is endeavoring to put into practice the ideal so true, that training for citizenship like any other training must come through practice. 1' gfbg fs I mention this because some of the critics of Junior High confuse pupil participation in the co-operative life of Blewett with the traditional notion of ll'

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U- ., 'EW'-EN 'wr 3 Y brief stay in St. Louis was delightful in every way. I appre- ggn Q 9 ciated the heartiness of your hospitality. It is a pleasure to add Mfg that of the fifteen or twenty schools I have visited this spring none was more interesting to me than Ben Blewett junior High School. The work being done by your teachers was not only interesting, but, I think, effective. I was especially impressed with the spirit of both pupils and teachers. It is so easy, when teachers are tired, or un- skilled, or undevoted, to nag the sweetness out of English instruction. The only reason why I did not kidnap your teachers and a hundred of your nice boys and girls and carry them with me to New England Was mistrust of my ability to carry the thing through successfully. Q Y Alfred M. Hitchcock, Director of English, Hartford High School, Author of junior English. Blewett Junior High-An Appreciation if ,' 3 HE junior High Idea as evidenced to me through the working of 3 your school stands for: u Q3 Economy of time-In that it bridges, through concentration of subject matter and intellectual energy, the wasteful period of the orthodox grade school, wherein the student marks time be- cause of uncertainty of educational objective and duplication in traditional course of study. Directness of Objective-In that the student develops initiative, judg- ment and power through purposeful clinics in his study of race experience in history, literature, science and industry which through dramatic action makes him a part of this junior Republic. The older order of education developed spectators in citizenship, social science, contests, athletics and industrial arts, but the junior High makes each student a participant in the actual practice machinery of living. It is no far cry from student government, legislative, judicial and exec- 11tive functions as performed in your junior High Congress to the same func- tions in the larger, social, industrial, national life. Your school makes the boys and girls residents of a miniature, social, in- dustrial and political world and habituates them in the practices, industrial life, ethics and patriotic impulses of the future citizen and makes them truly residents of the celestial city of Fine Minds. Freedom of expression: The disciple of mature years may criticize the transfer of discipline from the quiet mental inertia of the older education to responsive dynamic brain and thought reaction that comes from the junior organization, but I consider it a very great virtue-this recognition of the lf!