Greenfield High School - Evergreen / Exponent Yearbook (Greenfield, MA)

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12 THE EXPONENT heroes of the World War died we must all do our utmost that this great change will be for the best interests of humanity and towards that higher plane of civilization which has been the object of humanity for centuries. Since the war the nations of the world have been taxed to their utmost to solve successfully the gigantic problems created by the World War. These problems represent difficulties in our national life which must be correctly solved before the country can return to the normal state of peace times. These problems occupy the time of those in whose hands the reins of government lie. But when we study them and consider the ef¬ fects of the war, we often fail to realize that the standards of things have changed since 1914 and that the world has entered a new era, that we are living in the beginning of a new age and so these problems must be considered from standpoints which are in accord with the advance of the world. Let us endeavor there¬ fore to keep our ideas in tune with the world’s progress. To solve the problems of return¬ ing the country to a pre-war basis calls for the best there is in us. The industrial problems have caused us all great anxiety and discomfort. But let none of us sit back and criti¬ cize while we throw the blame for the conditions on certain parties. Rather let each one offer a solution for what he believes wrong. Let us study these problems and so come to realize the complicated nature of the troubles for this will keep us from censuring unneedfully and will give us the opportunity to help out by our advice and support being placed where they can be most ef¬ fective. The times make it neces¬ sary for every person to support the government to the best of his abil¬ ity. We should not expect the gov¬ ernment to do it all for that is im¬ possible. It is only thru co-opera¬ tion that the difficulties can be settled. We always find in rapid progress evil tendencies and forces. So in this time of progress the radical and revolutionary elements have seized on the new opportunities to instill harmful doctrines in the minds of those who will listen to them. They seek to pervert the working man with an account of his wrongs and a promise of an unobtainable Utopia. They desire revolutionary change in all our lines of national life. They wish to destroy the whole existing social fabric. Here then is the op¬ portunity for the individual to play a part in the happy outcome of this change. He is able to do something toward making this change gradual and within the bounds of reason. He can help to prevent fanatics from changing this progress towards a higher civilization to a downward course, for their aims are backward and if they were given leeway they might cause us to retrograde to the conditions under which Russia ex¬ ists today. It is necessary now more than ever for the individual to enlarge his viewpoint and to widen the scope of his thought. He must think in terms of the world and while retain¬ ing a steadfast love for his native land he should let his mind function with perfect freedom and not allow narrow ideas to hold him back to days of international rivalries. Per¬ haps we still have our international quarrels but there is a constantly growing sentiment, I hope, which arises from the love of peace in the hearts of men on this earth. We must think of our brothers in other lands as friends, not enemies. Therefore in this new age of the world’s history let each individual live his life so that it will be a factor in our progress, so that he may help in making the country a more noble, upright, and carefully progressive nation which will aid the world to reach a state where there is friend¬ liness instead of enmity as a pre¬ dominating characteristic.

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THE EXPONENT 11 PRESIDENT’S ADDRESS OF WELCOME In behalf of the Class of 1921, I extend a very sincere welcome to all those who have seen fit to attend this, our last informal gathering be¬ fore our graduation. Graduation will, we all know, mean the parting of the ways for us, of the class of 1921, but it will not mean the dislodgment from a prominent place in our minds of our school motto, — Loyalty, Honor, Scholarship. This motto, and what it means, along with other pleasant memories, will always linger with us. The longer we live and the more often we go over again, in our dreams, our younger days, the more and more of our thoughts they will occupy. As to the benefits we have de¬ rived from our period in High School, they cannot be fully de¬ scribed nor too fully appreciated. For we Seniors, on the point of leav¬ ing Greenfield High, know that we have received instruction and as¬ sistance of inestimable value. These benefits will figure prominently with us in our immediate futures and the results will , I feel sure, prove to you that we are not unappreciative. Thus will our debt to the school be, in part, paid. It is, however, to our parents for giving us financially the chance to go thru High School, and to the faculty and teachers for their un¬ tiring and unceasing efforts in our behalf, that we owe the most. The best and only way, to show our grat¬ itude is, we have decided, to make a striking success in overcoming the serious problems that will face us from now on. For our High School course has provided us with an edu¬ cation and knowledge that will easily solve the problems of life. Yet, all has not been hard work, for Vail work and no play make Jack a dull boy” and my classmates are anything but dull, I am convinc d We have had, under the friend! supervision of the Faculty, clean competition in athletics, outings and pleasure trips of all kinds, as well as social affair ' s and parties occa¬ sionally. These, along with the feel¬ ing of good fellowship, have made the past four years, four of the hap¬ piest years of our lives. This, we know, now that they are completed. And so now, classmates, let us do to all men in the future, as we have done to each other in the past, even tho they be our rivals. Let Us fol¬ low out our class motto and—“Lend A Hand.” ELPHEAGE V. KIROUAC. Pres’t ’21. THE DUTY OF THE INDIVIDUAL IN THE NEW AGE Class Oration The World War, in which the Allies so nobly, heroically, and at such a sacrifice saved civilization for the world, led us into a new epoch, the dawn of which we have seen spreading its growing light over the shattered and disorganized world. We cannot realize the immensity of the change which has been wrought in the economic, political, and social forces of the world. We live in a new age with the triumph of autoc¬ racy over democracy still uppermost in our minds. The effects of the war in changing the existing order of things can be fully realized by no one and only partly appreciated by a few whose minds are great enough to grasp the significance of the progress which is steadily going on around them. It is necessary in this great age for each to play his part in the prog¬ ress of civilization. The individual must do his share toward making the most out of his opportunities in or¬ der to become an asset to his coun¬ try and to the world rather than a liability. In order to insure to pos¬ terity the benefits for which the

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THE EXPONENT 13 IVY ORATION The Pioneer Women Educators Commencement week, when so many girls all over the country are finishing their high school courses, is an appropriate time to think of some of those women, who by their conscientious work, made it possible for the girls of today to receive an good an education as the boys. To the women of the nineteenth century the credit for preparing the way for the future liberal education of women belongs. Before this time it was hardly possible for a woman to obtain an education from any out¬ side resources, since both colleges and universities were closed to her. If she did succeed in raising herself from the uneducated position in which she found herself, it was through her own exertions. A lib¬ eral education formerly was not con¬ sidered necessary for a woman. She was only expected to marry and to know how to keep a comfortable home. To men, exclusively, be¬ longed the college and university training. At last, however, through the untiring efforts of several wom¬ en, the gate was opened so that wom¬ en desirous of further education, could obtain it. Chief among these were Mrs. Emma Hart Willard and Mary Lyon, names which are known far and wide because of their won¬ derful work for women. The town in which Mrs. Emma Willard was born was the quiet country parish of Worthington in Berlin, Connecticut. Her father, a man of unusual strength of intel¬ lect and will, well-read at least in the English literature of the times; her mother possessed of the quali¬ ties of a practical woman,—tact, shrewdness, efficiency and firmness, provided the background which made it possible for the girl to develop as she did. Picture for yourselves a mid-win¬ ter spent in their home. The even¬ ing over and the younger children put to bed, the rest of the family group themselves about a blazing fire. After the children have fin¬ ished their accounts of the day’s fun and work, they read selected pass¬ ages from famous authors, testing their ability in reading aloud. Then for another half-hour the father and mother read aloud. With this in¬ struction even the youngest was stirred by new, strange thoughts. This admirable home-training with two years in the village academy, then just opened, brought Emma forward to the commencement of her real life-work. She first experiment¬ ed by teaching in a village school, where, by her tact, she won the hearts of her pupils. Much of her spare time was spent in studying at the schools of Mrs. Royce and the Misses Patter. Soon after this Miss Hart went to teach in Westfield as assistant teach¬ er but after a year there she accepted a better position in Middlebury. At this time, she married Dr. John Wil¬ lard, a physician of Middlebury. For a few years her teaching was in¬ terrupted, but because of pecuniary reverses, she resumed her work again, and opened a boarding-school at Middlebury for girls. Even then she noticed how low and unworthy were the schools for women. She tried to get leaders of the day in¬ terested in the betterment of wom¬ en’s schools, but they showed no in¬ terest. After four years of the girls’ boarding-school experiment, the fame of it had gone far and wide. In an address sent to the New York Legis¬ lature, on a plan for improving fe¬ male education, she set forth the necessity of higher education for women so clearly that her plea met with the approval of the governor of New York and resulted in the es-