Brattleboro Union High School - Colonel Yearbook (Brattleboro, VT)

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PRINCIPAL JOSEPH A. WIGGIN

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7 RJ IN ACKNOXVLEDGMENT OF I-IIS SPLENDID XVORK IN THE HISTORY DEPARTMENT IN RECOGNITION OF HIS UNI-'AILING INTEREST IN SCHOOL ACTIVITIES MANIFESTED IN HIS LOYAL AND EXCELLENT COACHING OF THE TENNIS TEAIXI AND AS AN EXPRESSION OF OUR APPRECIATION FOR HIS EVER READY OPTIMISM AND XVIT NVE GRATEFULLY DEDICATE THIS BOOK T0 XVARD N. BOYLSTON

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BRATTLEBORO , , BRATTLEBORO HIGH SCHOOL VERMONT VOLUME XXVII JUNE, 1932 NUMBER 5 PRESI DENT'S ADDRESS Alumni, mcnxbers of the faculty, parvum, friends, and cIa.r.rmates: ODAY for the forty-eighth time the graduating class of Brattleboro High School is holding its commencement exercises. Deep and hallowed traditions of the school have grown up with the years, traditions which this class will strive to carry on as have the classes in the past. This day will stand forth as one of the most glorious of our lives. Each one of us will en- deavor to perpetuate the honor of the school and to make of himself a justified credit to our Alma Mater. For the last forty-seven years the graduating classes of Brattleboro High School have gone forth to discover the real meaning of a world that has been made better by them and because of them. This year we have something greater to cope with, something worthy of our mettle. Let us not be dismayed by the economic upheaval around us. Rather let us conquer it and override it to the heights of Prosperity. From this day on, our course is, in a sense, our own. VVe have received the loving care of our parents, the words of wisdom of our teachers, and the benedictious of our friends. Now we are confronted in reality by the W'orld! The VVorld will make us-The VVorld might break us, but it can never be said that our future is the product of any but our own hands. This is a most fitting time to express our appreciation for the help of our parents and teachers in starting us on our careers-whatsoever they may be. It is then, my pleasure, in behalf of the class of 1932, ,to welcome you, alunmi, members of the faculty, parents and friends, to the Class Day Exercises of Brattleboro High School. --PAUL W Arenorr. CLASS ORATION ERE are some conservative estimates of the quality of the citizenry of this country as revealed by the Army intelli- gence tests given during the Wlorld VVar. Fifty million persons are living in America who have not sufficient brains to get through our certified high schools. The members of this graduating class, there- fore, have reason to feel some pride and relief in the fact that they are not included in this huge lump of stupidity. Eighty-five million lack sufficient intelli- gence to go beyond high school. That means roughly that only one-half of this glorious class of '32 have mental stamina enough even to squeeze through college. And finally, only the very top four or five million of our one hundred twenty million people are bright enough to graduate from college with any degree of brilliancy. Furthermore, do you know that there are about twenty million people in the United States who can never learn to read a book of any importance in an understand- ing way, that ten million can probably never learn to write an intelligent letter homeg that there are forty million who can probably never go, by present educa- tional methods, much beyond the eighth grade! How can democracy be anything but a. name when there are not much over fifteen million Americans who have any real ability to think independently upon social and political problems? In short, one-fourth of the great American population is pretty bright, and about three-fourths are pretty dull. On the average, the bright people have bright children, the dull people have dull children. Of course, there are significant exceptions, but it is the average that counts. If this graduating class were divided into two groups according to intelligence, I am certain that, in general, you would find that the brighter pupils come from the brighter parents. In the same way, you would find that the healthier pupils come from the healthier families, the taller pupils from the taller parents, and the fair damsels from mothers who were once just as fair. For the moment, it makes no difference whether this result is caused more by heredity or by environment. All we need to know is that, to a large extent, the better children come from the better families. Of course, great men often rise out of the slums from the parents who, on the sur- face at least, do not seem at all brilliant, but we must not let these exceptions blind us to the fact that for every one of these self-made men the slums produce hun- dreds and hundreds of others who are just slummers. There is no law to prevent a President of the United States from having fContiuued on page 421 Q