Burke High School - Silver Lamp Yearbook (Dorchester, MA)

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DR. ELLEN G. WISEMAN

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Ami through flvcc, I fzcfiezfv In the noble mul great . . . To Our Head Muster DR. ELLEN G. WISIEMAN with sinccrc gratitude for thc high ideals with which for fou 1' years she has COl1Sti11'1t- I y inspired us, wc dctiiczitc The Silrw' M1111 fn of 1941 1. IN

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Message from the Head Muster DEAR GRADUATES OF 1944: If General Eisenhower's suggestion that victory may come before another year proves true, you will be known as the Victory class. You have entered whole-heartedly into the success of the salvage campaigns, the sale of war stamps and bonds, and the rationing projects. By devoted study you have taken your place early in the business world or have trained for higher institu- tions of learning. You, therefore, as students share in the victory on the home front. Now may we consider some aspects of victory that suggest a larger and broader view? You have read in current newspapers and magazines some of the many problems that will face our country after this war. Probably in the next dec- ade, the direction of our Ship of State will be determined for long decades there- after. To the extent that that statement is true, your obligation to your com- munity and to your country is increased. You have had every educational op- portunity that a generous city can provide--a beautiful school and able teach- ers. High school graduates throughout our Country have to a great extent en- ioyed similar advantages. It is said that about forty per cent of our armed forces are graduates of secondary schools. You join then this privileged and important group on which our country depends for vision, growth, and stability. Understand that I speak of the obligation that is yours. Do not interpret privilege to mean that greater rewards should somehow come to you in life. You are in a sense the aristocracy of our society. Aristocracy comes from the Greek aristor meaning bert. In a true aristocracy the spirit of noblesse oblige is the impelling power. Because you have received much, you give much, vol- untarily, as free men, for the higher good of others. Every gift carries with it a corresponding duty. Your education, which permits you to enter the best group, imposes also on you the duty to give back to your community and to your country generous service a hundred-fold, for the rights and advantages which are yours today because you are an American, educated by America to take your noblest part in a free society. This aristocracy of which I speak must be willing to serve those less for- tunate both in America and in the devastated lands of the world. It will be America's opportunity to aid in many ways, to feed the hungry and clothe the naked, and, more generously still, to help to establish policies that will assist these people to share more abundantly in the sources of raw materials and in world trade, so that they may have a fair opportunity to become self-supporting people with a living wage. In distant lands, American travellers have seen page six