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

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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

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PRINCIPAL JOSEPH A. WIGGIN

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6 THEDIAI. CLASS ESSAY INFLUENCE OF THE MOTION PICTURE INCE the time of Marlowe, Shake- speare and Jonson, men have tried to reproduce, on the stage, the joys and tribula- tions of human life. The characters that these great artists of the drama have created still live today, and their stories are well known. But of late years, because of that wonderful, far-seeing mind of Edison, actors of great ability have made both the old and the new characters of literature move, speak, and live for the public on the screen! The movie has become one of the greatest sources of entertainment in this country. The industry has spread to all parts of the world, and now every civilized nation has theatres and motion pictures. France now has some six thousand projec- tors in different institutions, and these are used for the most part for instruction. But France is not the only country that has realized the importance of the motion pic- ture for education. From data gained by the Federal Otitise of Education in the United States, it is shown that more than sixty per cent of the elementary and high schools in this country use motion picture films for pur- poses of instruction. In such courses as those of natural science, social science, physical education, and home economics the films are a great help to both the teacher and the pupil. The possibilities for instruction by the motion picture are many. In the grade schools, such subjects as History, Geog- raphy, Reading, and Hygiene could be made much more interesting to the pupil. Al- though books are greatly improved today with their illustrations and attractive bind- ings, a child would much rather see some- thing take place before him, than to read a dry account of it in a book or newspaper. And he remembers it better and for a longer time! History from the year of Columbus' great voyage to the present time could be pre- sented on the screen and so made alive and realistic. How vividly one would re- member the small, storm-tossed ship of the Pilgrims as it landed on the rocky New England shore! All the important events in American history could be pictured-the struggle of the early colonists against starvation and the Indians: the great war caused by taxation without representa- A A A CLASS POEM A new day dawns! Scarce do we feel its gracious rays, For yet we dream of yesterdays, All yesterdays seem fairy Tomorrow canni t, we declare, Be half so swe t or half so rare. Youth's early days, Vivid with mirt 1 and keen delight, VVhicl1 fade befiore the harsh daylight, Your ideals we'll hold true, And join with those determined few Who truth or r1inbow's gold pursue. How bright the noong Bold over all its light is shedp 'eel the past is dead, eal. Quite soon we Today alone is Our dreams are truths, and deep hurts heal, VVe laugh at fears we used to feel. We greet the rainy Perchance it leaves us chilled and drenched, But with our ve y soul's thirst quenchedg , refreshingg . 'Tis gentle, cal It is a mother's kind caressing, Her children's anguished tremors easing. Wihen twilight comes, We'll live again our yesterdays In memory, the sun's soft rays VVill gently on 'is glow, At last we shall not mind it so, For youth and life must onward go. -ALICE GRANT. V V V tion g tl1e terrible crisis of '6lg and the Vlforld lNar, with its havoc and ruin. Such pictures as All Quiet on the VVestern Front and Journey's End, show the hell and awfulness of war, and make young people resolve that there will never be an- other such conHict. The Covered NNagon and The Gold Rush picture the emigra- tion of the pioneers to the West, and make us realize the general hardships and diffi- culties which these men had to endure. The VVestern picture, which is shown in many theatres, gives a new, true portrayal of the old VVest, with its dashing cowboys, its bandits and its fights for law and order in a new land. Cimarron, a motion picture based on Edna Ferber's book, brings to the screen a story of the settlement of Oklahoma. In this picture, the conditions of living in a small frontier town are shown. The more religious settlers wisl1 to start a church, and they have to fight against the rougher class to get it. A newspaper is started by a man who believes that all the news should be published. He has to fight to continue his work, for his life is threatened by the enemies he has made in this way. Old friends are divided by the conliict for law and order. Men who have lived adven- turous lives, doing as they please, resent the new law, and have to be forced to aCCCDf if. So the movie can show the everyday life and strife of a pioneer, as no history book could ever describe the human relations of these argonauts of the Xvest. The story of the lives of such men as George Vliashington, Alexander Hamilton, Abraham Lincoln, and Theodore Roosevelt can be brought to the pupil, not as a thick book of biography with its uninteresting close-written pages, but as motion pictures such as Abraham Lincoln, played by VValter Huston, and Alexander Hamilton, played by George Arliss. These movies give very vivid portrayals of characters and scenery. Abraham Lincoln is one of the greatest history films ever made. llValter Huston is a wonderful Lincoln, and he makes this well-loved American more human and more understanding than does any history book tContinued on page 135