Great Falls High School - Roundup Yearbook (Great Falls, MT)

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Roundup on sale at Post Office News Stand, Great Falls, Montana. EDITORIAL STAFF Editor-in-Chief ALEX WARDEN. ' 14 Associate Editors — Frances Burlingame. ' 14; Edna Barnes, ' 14; Dorothy Smith. ' 15; Joyce Austin. ' 14; Lena Cockrill, ' IS; Jennie Lundell. ' 14; Opal Marsh. ' 15; Grace Taylor, 15; Christina Wilson. ' 15; Doris Robinson. ' 14. Exchange Editor -.-------... Doris Robinson Athletic Editor ........... . Norman Gill-tte Business Managers . - . . . Morris Bridgeman. Lee Singer. Ernest Steel Assistant Managers . . - . . Roy Johnson, David Wertheim, Nelson Hall Seventh Year JANUARY 1914 Number One School Democracy An elderly lady while gossi iiii;.;- with several friends hmuvilit ii » the snbject of scIkmiI democracy and the followinLj convcr alio i ensued: 1 dim ' t see any sense in intri duciiiL; dein eracy into the l)nl)lic schools here jnst because the I )eniocrats are in power now. and anvwav. nobodv has a ri ht tn dictate to a stndent whetlier he liall be a Democrat or a Republican. ' ow this may not be the axerage i)erson s conception of scho li democracN- and it certainly is to be hoped that it is not. . nyone who will lake the trouble to look into the matter will find that de-nocracy uiereK- contains the idea of equality or e(|ual rii lit tor all. A )pl in this to the school we take this principle of e(|iial ri-hix and (irk mt the basic princi])le of school democracy to mean re specting ' the rights of the other fellow; th.at is. each individual respcct- ini;- the rights of the other fellow: th.it i- . each individual respectin.y; the ri-hts of all and all respectin- the ri-hts of each individual, l- ' ach student in a school has an ecjual ri, ht to be inclu led in all school acti ities (with e ery other student

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16 ROUNDUP 3u HJj mnrtam tutfrrb §tinrl|trnmb (ElaBB of 1915

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18 RO UN 1)1 ' I ' just as ill lik ' . there is a certain social readjustnieiit in the school. Do not understand this to mean the forming- of certain so called Sets or cli(|ues, l)ut merel}- the going ahead of some who have a greater amount of natural abilit} ' than otlicrs. So from this it is seen that the school de eloi)S an aristocrac} ' as well as a democracy. It is charged that the public schools and especially the high school e.xercise a tendency which is ojjposed to democracy in that they create a distaste for labor, that is. physical labor. Tart of this is again connected with the idea of social rise which means to many less work on the ])art of the individual rising. Mere is where such courses of industrial training as manual training, gardening and do- mestic science are justified because of the fact that they gi e the student manual lai)or and the best ways in which to do it. One eminent man e en goes so far as to blame the modes of dress of the girls for the a;)parent lack of democracy. He suggests that it be made a law for all girls in high school to wear an established fashion of dress. But Democrac}- reall} ' seems to mean respecting the rights of the other fellow and giving everyone the scjuare deal from start to finish. It will be a long step toward school democracy when every student in the school will be able to go into every class and sav e er - da} ' that he or she has worked honestlv for the day ' s lesson. Whether this will come before the school is a self-go -erning body or as the result of self-government remains to be seen, but with e eryone get- ting the S(|uare deal all around there will be about the nearest ap])roach to school democracy that is possible. When our school system was originated, the one thing that the originators of it ])rided themselves on w as that it afforded an equal opportunity for all. but they overlooked the fact that only those who could afford higher education had equal oj)pt)rtunities. I3emocracy in the schools cannot shut this door of ecpial op])ortunit - to aiiv. ' i ' o have democracy we should at least have as practical an educa- tion as ])ossible for those who are not able to go on with higher education. The business of the schools is to make life worth li ing and not onl}- to make a man lla])]) ■ but to make him good for some- thing. It it is possible to make a man an honest leader in his own field. a workman who is not afraid, or ashamed of his work, there is no cause to dread the coiise(|uences of social democracy. This task nun- be impossible but democracy will ne er become i)ractical tiiitil what is now an ideal becomes the basis of its i)ractical)ility.