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Page 7 text:
“
WILLIAM A. WIRT January 21, 1874-March 11, 1938 Of what use is language on an occasion like this—a memorial to Mr. William A. Wirt, the guiding influence in the Gary Public Schools? Silence seems a more perfect tribute. It was here in Emerson School that Mr. Wirt’s educational ideal first materialized. Emerson School is proud to be the first complete expression of this ideal, the Work-Study-Play philosophy of education. Emerson School stands as a symbol of this philosophy. When Emerson School was planned thirty years ago, the space selected for its site was wilderness and sandy acres, but today it is ten acres of well-cared-for grounds. Now within this space, housed within three structures, there are well-managed playgrounds, well-planned science laboratories, art and music studios, shops, libraries, and classrooms. This environment creates a child world within the adult world in our city in which children may be kept wholesomely busy all day long at work, study, and play. Through such a program, it is possible to solve the problem of making the modern city a fit place for the rearing of children. Modern educators agree that it is the duty of the school to industry, to the modern home, and to the church to make the child intelligent, reliable, industrious, and strong physically. To take the child away from the streets and alleys and places of dissipation, from homes in the slum districts and to inform him about modern industrial and social life is the ideal behind the Gary schools. Essentially the school is a playground, a garden, a workshop, a social center, a library, and a stage combined under one management. In the planning of Gary, schools were given early consideration. The superintendent of these schools had to be a man of vision; one who could see into the future. Such a man was Mr. Wirt. Because of his vision, Mr. Wirt, like the American philosopher, Ralph Waldo Emerson, after whom our school is named, belongs to no one town, province, or con¬ tinent; he is the common property of mankind. Yet we love to think of him as breathing the same air and treading the same halls that we and some of our fathers have breathed and trodden, and we hope that our children may breathe and tread. We are grateful for the heritage left us by this great educator. The Work-Study-Play program of our schools could well be adopted by all men as a standard by which to live. The three form a triangle of living and man is not complete if he leaves out one side. In our school system, the boy and the girl are required to live the triangular life of the Work- Study-Play ideal. It is unfortunate, but true, that some drop one side of the triangle upon leaving school. Mr. Wirt needs no monument other than the Gary schools and their influence in the lives of boys and girls, for we remember that the child is fathe r to the man. It is for us, the graduates and present students, to be dedicated to the unfinished work he so nobly advanced at the begin¬ ning of the twentieth century. It is for us to be here dedicated to the great assignment that confronts us. Mr. Wirt’s service to this community for the past thirty years has ignited a torch of increased devotion to the great cause of education for all. Let us resolve that his work shall not have been in vain; for with God’s aid let us strive to make every one of his dreams for us and ours come true. The above tribute was composed by George Rand, Joel Daniels, Jay Swan, and Chester Chieply, 12 B students of Miss Benscoter. George Rand delivered the tribute at the memorial service in Emerson Auditorium, March 28, 1938. The picture, taken by Edward Sopcak, was the last one taken of Mr. Wirt.
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Page 8 text:
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SCENARIO: YOUTH ON PARADE On location, the camera reel fore us a series of events that c a plot always closely knit by strands, Work, Study, and Play unreeling may seem to include camera angles, but the theme o scenario. Youth on Parade, is e ' sharp focus. the The odd the sr in th hig i for tur !! he unreeling gives us flashes of busy world of Emerson stressing subject, comedy, tragedy, farce, comedy, and melodrama; in n, special features, double fea- i, serials, news reels, shorts, and lijnated cartoons, but all contribut- to the Emerson chronicle of 1938. Page four
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