Germantown High School - Record Yearbook (Philadelphia, PA)

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EDlT0 'IA S' Q El 1, . tml! 1 Lei' uw here create .romellzing beauiQ'ul in arf and Iiferalurej .romefhing lhouglzffulfor every-day living, .romeflzing joyous for llze lzlqhier mooa'.r of levi!-y. SGHOGDLS GIBANNIDQEF EIDUIEACIIIB HE standards of American education are practical and comprehensive, a fact that may be demonstrated by the convention of young scholars who under- went a competitive examination supervised by Thomas E. Edison a few months ago. Those boys were required to answer a list of questions ranging from physics to abstract sciences and ethics, and they made a creditable showing for immature minds in a test prepared by mature intellects. The ideal of education is a mind hospitable to all knowledge. It was said by Isaac Newton that the sum of a man's education is the knowledge of his own ignorance-or put in plain words, a man does not begin to grow mentally until he realizes his own limitations. Whatever might be the extent of formal schooling, education, like reputation, is almost wholly self-made. A person might win the highest of academic honors, and yet because he stores his knowledge like a miser, be uneducated. Another man might have been denied schooling, but because of his will power and intelligence, achieve success. Everyone has within him the capacity to develop his faculties of learning, oi money, of understanding and wisdom, and perhaps, most important of all, of will. Faculties that the highbrows and lowbrows name differently, but which after all may be summarized in one word-the soul. The final test of any system of schooling is not what it gives to the student, but what he takes from it. Teachers provide the mental tools, but only the student can decide how he will use them. D. B. 1. .QI 4 Ig..

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AN INTERVIEW WITH DR. SEELY Dorus B. IONES E HAVE concluded that Dr. Seely has no anti-interview com- plex, else he could not have received us in so gracious a manner, nor have been so very understanding of just what the Young Interviewer simply must find out. Our quest was for biographical and other materials, so of course the first question had to do with his boyhood and education and we learned that he was born in Nanticoke County, Pennsyl- vania. He spent his boyhood in the country and graduated in 1897 from the Bloomsberg State Normal School. After teaching elsewhere for one year, he re- turned to Bloomsburg to teach and pre- pare for college. He graduated from Haverford in 1902, after which he taught for three years in a private school in New York State. In 1906 he came to Northeast High School, then the Manual Training School, as teacher of Physics, and in 1915 was transferred to German- town as head of the Science Department, which position he held until 1924, when upon the death of Dr. Keller, he became Principal of our school. Dr. Seely was asked whether there was any rule of conduct or maxim that he felt had contributed to his success, and replied that hard work and com- mon sense are the most valuable factors in the achievement of one's goal. He said that one must not fancy that one can do well in only one kind of work, that the same perseverance and applica- tion which we lend to the thing we enjoy doing will guarantee our success if given to any other line of work. The thing to do is to conquer one difficult job, then another. ' When he was asked about his prefer- ences in books and music, he said that he mostenjoyed the reading of scientific works, both physical and biological and liked orchestral music. Dr. Seely has learned the value of having some hobbies far removed from his usual line of work, and finds his favorite recreation in gunning and fishing. Our closing query was whether or not he thought the young people of today deserved to be called Flaming Youth , and we adored his vigorous negative to this question. He said there was a natural breakdown in conventions dur- ing and after the war, when girls of refined character who would never have done it otherwise, sold poppies and liberty bonds in public places. Let- downs like these gradually led to others, and there were some people who carried it to extremes. Every generation has had its own extremes of conduct, but those of the present one have been more noticeable because of the advent of the war. As a group though, Dr. Seely believes this younger generation is as industrious and serious as any of the older ones which have been so' highly esteemed. When she emerged from his ollice, the interviewer felt she had been in contact with a life pleasant in its wholesome- ness, significant for its purposeful achievement, inspiring in its ideals, and with a lingering memory of a personality --kindly, human and approachable. -rsr-

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A 1I?f4D4DlID SGIAIRGI AND A SGTIEBAEGY PAGE IV e never fully realize the value of ilzz'ng.r until we no longer have them. OW many students are there in this school who can honestly and sincerely say that they have never crammed for an examination? Very few. How many pay their class dues on time? Also very few. When homework is assigned for a lesson a week in advance, when is that homework actually done? Usually the night before it is to be handed in. These facts are true, if not logical. For some reason or other, it seems to be more convenient to put things off and then work hard at the last minute, than to do a little at a time and spread the work out on the installment plan. Each day in the year is our own, to do with it what we will. It is our servant, to use to our best advantage. Why do we neglect the minutes and the hours, which pass us by, never to return again? Is it laziness that causes such a detrimental apathy on our part? Are we mentally blind not to see the advantages of a steady, organized process? Not only in this school, but in other schools as well, it is quite noticeable that the majority of the students just drift along in the lower classes, accepting home- work and lessons as a necessary evil g until suddenly they wake up with a start to realize that they are Seniors, and that they must work doubly hard to achieve a high average and a record of which they can be proud. Would it not be much easier to begin in the Freshman class and obtain a good foundation? ' In scholastic work as well as in other things momentum is a big factor. Those who obtain a good start and keep up a steady pace are sure to win out when com- peting against those who depend entirely on a sprint, or a series of sprints, to carry them through. Every year the college requirements become more strict, and every year it becomes more and more necessary to have a good foundation in all your studies. Those of you in the lower grades who will try hard now, and become well-grounded in all your subjects will find the going much easier when you become Seniors and must give more of your time to other activities. Start now and be prepared for later on. Remember-- The .rfarf i.r half ilze race. GEORGE D. GIDEON, III. lr 3 rn eams If f mn.. 'viz k I at ' SV ei-5 lr Q I