Frankfort High School - Cauldron Yearbook (Frankfort, IN)

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High School English HE learner should always recollect and review his lectures, read over some other author or authors on the subject, confer upon it with his instructor, or with his associates, and write down the clearest results of his present thoughts, reasonings, and inquiries, to which he may have recourse hereafter, either to re-examine them and apply them to proper use, or to improve them farther to his own advantage.” The purpose of high school English is two-fold: to familiarize the student with the lives and works of the best authors, and to teach him the easiest and best expression of his thoughts, both in composition and conversation. Bacon’s oft-quoted dictum, that ‘‘reading maketh a full man, conference a ready man, and writing an exact man,” applies with unusual aptness to the study of English, for the wise teacher will combine all of these habits in the English course he gives to his pupils. He will cause them to read the most famous and most representative works of the recognized masters in literature; he will so train them that they will be able to discuss fluently and clearly what they have studied; and he will demand written work of them, covering their own experiences as well as subjects they have read about. When a youth has really completed a high school course in English, he should at least be familiar with, if he has not studied, such classics as ‘‘Gil Bias,” ‘ Don Quixote,” ‘‘Tom Jones,” ‘‘Hamlet,” and In Memoriam.” He should be able to express himself clearly and simply in written composition and in oral conversation. There are by-products of an English course, too. For instance, one is the “dictionary habit.” If Samuel Johnson or Noah Webster (suddenly and secretly resurrected) should walk into a class room or home where we are studying, and see the multitude of words that we daily pass by with only a vague— and often no—idea of their meaning, I fancy their opinion of the good results which are said to have accrued from their labors would very noticeably decrease. In a conversation with a well educated woman of my acquaintance, a question arose as to whether the famous sculptor Saint-Gaudens were yet living. The question was quickly disposed of, when, consulting a dictionary, she informed me that he had died in 1907. This seems a petty example, yet it has remained stamped on my memory, and 1 doubt whether I shall ever entirely forget the date of the death of the sculptor of the famous Stevenson bas-relief. A high school English course should be a key to the best that has been written in the world, a kind of “Open Sesame” to the higher things, a taste presented in such a way that the mind hungers continually after what is best, and does not rest until it is nourished by contact with such recognized masters of style as Addison and Macaulay, such masters of content as Wordsworth and Scott. DONALD BOND, ’18. Nine

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The Staff

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THE CAULDRON Lack of Ambition in the Frankfort High School There is a feeling, which is frequently expressed, among the members of the faculty of the Frankfort High School, that the student body lacks an essential, which seems to be ambition. Ambition, in the sense the faculty use it, is the desire which should be cultivated in the heart of every student, to be a better student than the average. The feeling among the faculty, that we lack this desire, certainly is not unfounded. Let us analyze the fault, and, if possible, find the cause and a remedy. There is no doubt that there are many students in the Frankfort High School who are ambitious. Probably the true fault is not the lack of an ambition, but rather the lack of the right kind of ambition. There are many who have a desire to become leaders in life, yet they are willing to be only average students. They hope to be successes in life, but they feel that the time for consistent effort has not yet come. We do not think that the Frankfor High School is retrograding, or that the ideals of the students are being lowered. We think the fault lies in the inability of many of the students to appreciate the value of good high school training. Two-thirds of the students that come to the high school come for reasons other than those the school is primarily intended for. Some come for pleasure, and have no intention of doing good work. Others come because their parents compel them to do so. Still others come because they desire to enter into some outside activity of the school, such as athletics or oratory. Probably only one-third of the students of the high school come with the express intention of becoming leaders in class work. Not only this, but possibly only half of this one-third have the pluck and determination to stay with the work the entire four years. The other half of the students, that started to school wih the right intentions, are drawn aside by outside events, or they lose interest and fall into the class of “loafers.” 1 believe that a larger number of consistent workers will be found in the Freshman class than in the Senior class, owing to the divided interests of the Seniors. Thus we see that only about one-sixth of the entire -student body comes to school with the desire to make the grades on the report cards come up to the standard desired by the faculty, and it is because of this fact that the faculty says that this school lacks ambition. The causes, as we have found them, seem to be the inability of the students to comprehend the value of consistent work in the high school, and the divided interests of the students. To determine the fault and establish a cause were easy enough, but to suggest a remedy is a far more difficult matter. It seems almost impossible to impress upon the students the seriousness and value of high school life. To stop the outside activities of the school would be to kill the interest of two-thirds of the students. The laurels won through outside activities are much more luring than the A’s in the class work. Besides, there is a possibility of gaining inside help through outside effort. There is a fault, recognized by all, yet admitted by few, existing in this school, which comes through the qualifications demanded for entrance into the outside activities. The fact that students are compelled to be up in three subjects, is supposed to influence the participants to better work, but the fact is that the students depend upon the outside activities to help their grades. When the good student is given the same praise and the same encouragement as the winners in outside events; when the winners of outside events are no longer shown partiality; when the students learn to look to the school work Ten