Binghamton Central High School - Panorama Yearbook (Binghamton, NY)

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In view of the significance of its theme, Citizenship in a Democracy respectfully dedicate this record of a year’s activities to Our Parents

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PANORAMA ANNUAL A STUDENT PUBLICATION DEMOCRACY ISSUE Volume 48 - June 1941 Edited by the PANORAMA BOARD Central High School Binghamton, New York

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CITIZENSHIP IN A DEMOCRACY In June 1939 our school began as a basis for succeeding commence¬ ment exercises a contin¬ uing theme, Citizenship in a Democracy , with the purpose of endeavoring each year to reaffirm our faith in Democracy and to substantiate the assumption that its con¬ tinued existence is dependent upon the support of an intelligent, active and loyal citizenship. Since that time our student commencement speakers have further attempted to establish the truth of this con¬ tention by showing how some of our outstanding contemporary Americans have in their thoughts and their actions con¬ tributed to the mainten¬ ance of our Democracy. Members of the June 1939 class commenced this theme in the form of brief biographical sket¬ ches of the lives of two outstanding leaders in the field of industry, Mr. George F. Johnson and Mr. Thomas J. Watson. The following year the classes paid tribute to leaders in the field of science. Dr. William Beebe, Dr. Florence Sab¬ in, Dr. George Washington Carver, Dr. Roy Chapman Andrews, Dr. Maude Slye and Dr. Irving Langmuir. The classes of ' 41 con¬ tinued the theme in the field of literature by outlining the illustrious careers of Mr. Christopher Morley, Mrs. Anne O ' Hare McCormick, Mr. Carl Sand¬ burg, Mr.Maxwell Anderson, Miss Willa Cather and Mr. Robert Frost. graduate will be focused upon the fine examples of worthwhile citizenship as exemplified by these Americans, leaders in their chosen work. But, the thought occurred to us as we were planning this Annual that these short speeches at com¬ mencement weren ' t the only lessons in Democracy that we learned in high school, they were but the culmination of many. After all, we asked our¬ selves, wasn ' t our every¬ day life here at Central a typical example of a Democracy in action? Our school life, as in all other American in¬ stitutions is patterned after the Constitution, for we have the encour¬ agement of freedom of speech through dramatics, debate and classroom discussion; freedom of press-the Panorama; freedom of assembly in the corridors and in the cafeteria; free use of a fine library, shop mach¬ inery, drawing instruments and materials, textbooks, etc. We have a governing body patterned after that described in the Con¬ stitution, and have many clubs and organizations as a result of this group. We felt that B. C. H. S. offered a good example of these freedoms , so we chose the topic Cit¬ izenship in a Democracy as the theme for our Annual, and in the pages that follow we have attempted to show in simple pictoral form the results of citizenship in a democratic high school. This theme will be continued in subsequent commencement programs, and the attention of each