Everett High School - Crimson Tide / Memories Yearbook (Everett, MA)

Page 12 text:

E. H. S. MEMORIES OP 1931 E. H. S. OUR APPRECIATION OF MR. WILBUR J. ROCKWOOD By the retirement of Mr. Wilbur J. Rockwood, education loses one of the ablest men ever at the helm of secondary education in this city. Principal Rockwood has felt not less than an exalted devotion to the duties and responsibilities of his position as administrative officer of one of the most efficient public high schools in New England. This, he has expressed in his educational service day in and day out with a constancy and an attentiveness which all his young charges have revered and admired. That Everett and we, the present pupils of Everett Senior High School, were able to have the services of such an educator as Wil¬ bur J. Rockwood is a matter for us all to mark and remember. Wilbur J. Rockwood was possessed of remarkable equipment as a teacher of youth. This equipment was three-fold: high and definite ideals, clear insight, and a developed individu¬ ality. Ideals, conscientiously held, determine life in its various phases. Having a definite aim stimulates one to put forth every effort to realize that aim. Definite ideals secure that con¬ centration of energy which is essential to the highest success. One secret of Mr. Rockwood’s success as a teacher of youth was that he was able to secure the hearty co-operation of the institution in all that pertained to the advancement of secondary education in Everett and Mr. Rockwood was of the type of man and good citizen able to hold up before the students ideals which appealed to our interest and our reason. Mr. Rockwood had a clear insight into all that pertained to his work. Best of all he had an insight into the nature of the student with whom he dealt. He had an insight into the interests, the mental power, the capacities, and the needs of the students at the various periods of their high school career, and of the order and relative prominence of mental phenomena as they manifest themselves in the growing minds that he could more wisely choose the best methods to aid nature in pronouncing a well-rounded, fully developed, win¬ some character. Wilbur J. Rockwood also has a clear insight into the process of learning, which is but the converse of the process of teaching. Mr. Rockwood seemed to be a master in the art of securing a vivid impression, a correct assimulation, and a varied and ready expres¬ sion on the part of the student and thus gave Everett a master in the finest of the fine- arts— the art of teaching, that is why Mr. Rockwood had such success as a teacher because all of us know that other things being equal, the teacher with the profoundest insight into the nature of the pupil, the content of the means and the process of learning, will be the most successful teacher. 8

Page 11 text:

E. H. S. MEMORIES OP 1931 E. H. S. IjiE members of ttje class of 1931 mill be tlje last to carry tlje imprint of four years effort by a master crafts¬ man. DM ay ttjey line lony anb continue to be a rrebit to Ijirn. 7

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E. H. S. MEMORIES OF 1931 E. H. S. Principal Rockwoocl had a developed individuality. That is why he was able to make the oe.st use of the means at his disposal for the realization of his ideals. He was always himself. Our world is full of imitators. What is needed is an interest in the number of those who are not willing to follow slavishly the methods of others, but who strive to ex¬ press themselves in their work, seeking to lead rather than to follow. Such an educator was Wilbur J. Ilockwood. Mr. Rockwood gave to all the affairs of Everett High School the advantage of his keen human insight and thorough experience of youth and of secondary education problems in general. Everett can ill afford the loss of such a man, but in retiring from the educational field the entire citizenship of the communitywill appreciate that Wilbur J. Rockwood has written a record and set an example that will endure long after he and his successors have returned to the dust. Ruth Ferguson, Editor-in-Chief