Coopersville High School - Zenith Yearbook (Coopersville, MI)

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less of ;iccom| lishment, from the moment their eves first open to the blessed sunlight until deatli closes those eyes for the last time and thus expels them from the greatest school of learning, that men are pleased to call life. Tim great school of life is divided into two parts: one we attend all through life: the other most of us attend to a varied extent during the earlier part of our life. This last, our formal education, attained in grammar schools, high schools, colleges and universities, may be compared to a prepara- tory school for the other division, that great university of “Life after school” wherein we will be under that greatest and best of teachers, experience. In the preparatory or formal education we are taught the compiled results of the experiences of others who have preceded us. In the division of our education consisting of the actual contact with the more serious problems of life we ob- tain our lessons from our own experiences. The education ob- tained at school is valuable only to the extent that we profit by the experience of the others in encountering our own little prob- lems. So as we step forth through the gateway tonight, classmates, let us walk out into the world bravely, with a full realization of all that will be expected of us, but just as full a realization of our own ability to meet every requirement. Thus is our life to be what we make it. Our object in education should be to learn to live. Our aim in lile should be to obtain the maximum amount of enjoyment out of life. This should not be done on the efficiency basis of the maximum output for the minimum effort. We will receive no more from life than we put into it. Do not misconstrue my state- ment concerning enjoying life to be part of an European philos- ophy. I speak of that purest enjoyment obtained from satisfaction of having done one’s best in every sense of the word. It is on the path toward that object, a life happy because of its usefulness, and in the field of education, which should help one attain that object, that I wish you to fare well. Friends, let me repeat, may we all fare well. EARL FAIRCHILD. I’age Nineteen

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Valedictory IBRLIFVL that the common office of the Yaleditorian is to ex- press his regret and display his remorse at the immediate pros- pect of leaving the institution that lias played a large and vital part in his life during the preceding twelve years. In other words it is a “farewell” in the modern sense of the word. The word valedictory is derived from the Latin—rah, meaning farewell and the Latin infinitive dicera, meaning to say. Mine is the invalu- able privilege and honor “to say farewell in behalf of my esteemed classmates. However, mine is of the variety of farewell that does not entail regret, remorse, and relative compassions in any great degree. The farewell that I bid you our benefactors and you my classmates is one pertaining to vour welfare, and not an ordinary “Good Bye” in the modern leave-taking sense; although if this expression “Good Bve” were applied in its original meaning, the contraction of a sincere “God be with you, no expression could be coined that would better suit my purpose. Farewell, too, has forfeited its original portent to become an every day expression of a desire that one should fare well. Now people employ it without thought or intentions. It is merely a perfunctory verbal method of ridding one’s self of some one’s presence. My office tonight is to offer a farewell of the old order. May we fare well. Manx think of graduation as a termination of education for those who will not be afforded the enviable privilege of continuing their formal education in institutions of higher learning. Their attitude toward the graduation that is to usher the student from one school so that he may enter another is literally a metamoro- pliosis or graduation from one stage of learning to another. This group are right in their latter belief but it is my belief that their convictions concerning the former class of graduates is erroneous. Tlisv, too, are undergoing a metamorophosis, graduating from one stage of education to another. The difference is that the former group makes a larger step than the latter and in doing so, unfor- tunatelv they expend and waste energy that could have been con- served. Shakespeare, in that excellent pastoral comedy “As You Like It wrote “All the world is a stage and all the men and women merely players.” If I may be granted the license to bor- row from this well known quotation from tin better known work of a still better known king of literary geniuses, the frame work on which that admirable statement is formed, allow me to state one phase of my philosophy of life. In niv estimation, although practically worthless because it is tempered bv so negligible quantity of years, “All the world is a school, and all the people merely students.” Some few are pre- cocious scholars, still more are students of the chart class and have been members of that initial class for decades But poor and rich, great and humble, all are enlisted on the roll of that school regard- Page Right Ml

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Salutatory WK, the class of 1930, extend to you, parents, teachers and friends, a most hearty and sincere welcome to this, our Commencement. This evening has not become a reality through our efforts alone; you have all helped. Allow me, in behalf of tlie class, to endeavor to thank our dear parents and friends who have made a high school education possible and our teachers who have so faithfullv guided us through our four years of high school life. And here let us express our sincere regret in the severance of the pleasant associations with our teachers. We also extend our thanks to the Board of Education who have contributed the necessary equipment for the completion of our high school education. We are happy that you are with 11s because we feel that as a result of vour presence you are interested in our accomplishments and our success in the future. We consider you as an audience who have gathered here at this time to witness this our commencement of life in fields which are new to us. We realize that we are young and inexperienced along the rough pathway of lib', but if we place our aims high and work for those aims we will ultimately reach success. Now let us go back for a moment and consider the meaning of the word Commencement. Webster says it means beginning or origin. With us Com- mencement surelv means the beginning of a different life, a beginning in new fields of learning. Some of us u ill attain a higher level of learning by study, others will learn by practical experience; that is, experience which one gains by the performing of certain activities and practices. Indeed, know ledge gained in this way is most eiheient because experience is an excellent teacher. Also w ith Commencement we begin to realize how little we know and how much there is to learn here. No man has ever obtained all the know ledge the w orld has to offer. But the more f-ompletely we are clothed in this suit of learning the better we are equipped to meet and conquer the problems of life. It has been wisely said that “know ledge is power:’’ however we say. as does the Bible in the Book of Proverbs, “Wisdom is the principal thing: therefore get wisdom and with all thv getting get understanding.” The facts w hich w e have compiled at high school are worthy of h morable mention but our ultimate purpose has been to develop ourselves: that is. to enlarge our capacities and understanding. For understand ing is that which is necessary to shape and mold our destinies. We all know the prominent position the airplane holds and w ill continue to hold in the w orld of today. A great many of you realize too the long time it has taken to develop the airplane even to its present state of perfection. The development of the airplane has not been the work of days, months or even vears. Its success has meant much thinking, much work and much ardent ap- plication of more than one life time. It has been a problem of adding to and subtracting from bouyant successam! deepest discouragement. Some of us little realize this struggle when we see the plane living majestically along as though almost upheld bv superhuman force. And so it is in our lives. We must build them carefullv and thoughtfully, conquering each obstacle as it presents itself, ad linof to and subtracting from until we, too, are ready to try our wings. And w ith our work carefullv done we can and shall have confidence in our -aicces-.. It takes a little courage, and a little self control And some grim determination, if you want to reach the goal. It takes a deal of striving, and a firm and well set chin. No matter what the battle, if vou reallv wish to win. ARCHIE EASTON Page Twenty