Harding High School - Folio Yearbook (Bridgeport, CT)

Page 13 text:

COMMONPLACE things for years amd, These books, some objects of much scorn, The buzzer's long accustomed sound, These very classerooms, which each morn For us oft held small interest when With friends and teachers, who have been Companions, we have studied here Take on a kindlier air, familiar now and dear. We do not fear the future-but Glad would we be if time would pause To grant us 'ere the door is shut A space to straighten out our flaws, To work, but then the worth to see Of each thing in its true degree Before we here our steps retrace And only strangers find in our accustomed place X93

Page 12 text:

LIKE eagle caught and newly caged A freshman sits in class and dreams Of summers spent in open air When without a care he roamed Thru helds, by brooks, in sun and rain, To watch some bird or catch some snake To camp and eat or joke and sing, Outside he stares for old times sake. The teacher's voice becomes a drone, What does he care for x plus y, School now is dull and prisonflikeg Each room in dungeon form appears, The air seems damp, oppressive and cold Without the world moves in a din, No subject can his mind retain, His thoughts remain on what has been. EST

Page 14 text:

THE STYL S 'lQJe re Glad 'ZQJe're were PON the Amer' T, X 'X ican schools 5 in Y I p our country rests sf. ' j her hopes for the WW, gf - 'i future. Through WW h h 1 j t em s e pans to perpetuate thedemf ai m ocratic principle. ' ' -'-' We are fortunate to be a part of the plan. In the first few years the colonists spent here, the need for a sensible system of educaf tion became eminent to them, and accordingly they founded our first schools, modelling the curriculum more or less after the classic educaf tion then existing in England, but emphasizing duty to God and to the community. From that time on, our progress has not been hamp' ered as has that of France and Germany, by serious governmental upheavals or terrible wars, for our republic has remained stable. One of the American educational principles especially fortunate for students at Harding is equal opportunity for everyone, regardless of caste, creed, or race. The old German plan did not include every child in its educational scope. Rather it limited cultural education to those who were able to pay best for it. Of course, the war has tended to change the former narf rowness of educational opportunity, but still much of the old remains. In former days, when a German boy was very young, his parents decided whether he was to be educated for a trade, or for a learned profession. This early for the wellftofdo, for they could meet choice of career was easy 5 the payments necesf I I sary at every prof gressive stage. The result was that a ,A boy usually folf A lowed the trade of 'E E' fggi: ' A his father or chose 4'-in some occupation consistent with his family's financial and social station. Then he was segregated from the great group, comprisf ing students of all classes and aims, and sent to a special school where all the students were preparing for the trades. Such a plan only strengthened class feeling and continued an already existing aristocracy. France, too, had a similar system, and in England a high school education was restricted to those who could afford it. In our progress we have taken such subjects and customs from European countries as we have deemed advisable but have always used essentially original methods. Our curriculum is far more varied and an opportunity is given each of us for ndependence and selffexpression in our choice of subjects. In Germany, for inf stance, the subjects are fixed, or compulsory, as in grammar school, with a curriculum o n c e extremely stinted, featuring Latin and Greek, but now growing more comprehenf gil. ,T.uh A .I hx 5 -'J Tit! .3 1- -rf 5---t 4:-.- if 'f -- sive like ours. AR A-?6' at 'Ulm '- . 15 f,Qx f A- 31 x J, N ix f . ii-- --Xi -X - ' Z1 fg- Perhaps because our country's his' tory has been a series of the romantic achieve- ments of common people, our idol or subject for student hero worship is the athlete. We respect the scholar, but we acclaim the student of athletic prowess. In France such a trend does not exist, the dominating purpose being expression, not possession, with the emphasis on the intellectual. In England, too, studies take priority over games, a clever boy being not merely tolerated but envied. In spite of the keen rivalry in sports existing between English schools, the boy who wins some covf eted open scholarship may become as much an idol to his fellows as the captain of a team to us. In our high schools, the government is not determined wholly by the faculty, but some chance is given for the selffexpression of the I10I