Compton High School - El Companile Yearbook (Compton, CA)

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THF IfC.THIM Prog rcss The school district known as the Compton Union High School District, composed of 29 1 2 square miles in area, and a population of about 50.000 people, has made unusual growth and development during the past ten years, and particularly the past four years. The high school district has developed from an enrollment of about 300 ten years ago to an enrollment of 1750 today, and there has been added to that an enrollment of over 600 pupils in the district junior college. Probably the greatest step forward in the progress of this school district took place when the people voted to establish a junior high school in each of the five elementary districts making up the union. This action was carried bv a very large majority and at the present time the district owns one junior high school plant complete, and is building four other junior high school plants. By addition of the junior high schools to the high school and junior col- lege, the Compton Union High School District has become the Compton Union Secondary School District, and is the only union district in the state of Cali- fornia having under its direction all the pupils from the seventh grade through the junior college. Beginning next year, this district will have enrolled in its schools approxi- mately four thousand pupils. Since the district controls all the pupils from the seventh grade on. this has made possible the development of the 6-4-4 plan of organization which seems to be the most promising type of organization for schools in the future. This means that we are to have six grades in the lower portion of the system, four grades in the junior high school and four grades in the upper instituion. which will be known as the junior college. There are great possibilities involved in this plan of organization, which will mean much not only for the pupils concerned, but also for the residents of the entire district. If we are to consider progress only from the standpoint of material things such as have mentioned above, the Compton Union Secondary School District has certainly made great progress, but after all this is not the real progress over which we ought to be pleased, because progress in material things is more or less passing and evanescent after all. On the other hand real progress should come in those great dynamic ideals such as tolerance, unselfishness, kindness and service, which have always been and always will be indispensable to the highest and most abundant living. If I were to say one thing to the people interested in this volume, it would be this: Permanent progress only comes when we remember to practice in our daily lives those intangible ideals which we all recognize as the greatest things in life. Like Browning, we should say: A man ' s reach should exceed his grasp, or what ' s a Heaven for. p ' , which means that progress, growth and development come only by and through the spirit of men reaching out beyond the accomplishments of today for greater and better accomplishments tomorrow. If the Compton Union Secondary Schools will dedicate their work in the next ten years toward progress in this regard, we ought to be able at that time to feel that we have really accomplished something worth while. — O. Scott Thompson Fifteen

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THF DPCTHIM

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T.HF DPCTHIM O. Scott Thompson Principal and District Superintendent