Harrisonburg High School - Taj Yearbook (Harrisonburg, VA)

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4- T1-IE TAJ normal individuals, but are maintained for the clearly avowed purpose of giving thorough vocational instruction to healthy, normal individuals, that they may be prepared for profitable and efficient eniploymentf' What we really need are vocational schools for pupils who aremisfits in public high schools. Each pupil, on entering high school, should be given a psychological test to determine what studies he should pursue. The mishts, deicient and back- ward pupils should be placed in the vocational department or in a separate school where they would be taught trades and industries in which they are interested and in which they can make a' living. At Anderson, Indiana, a plan has been worked out between the vocational department of the high school and the Delco-Remy Corporation for the train- ing of students on the cooperative part-time basis. Part of the class receives instructions in public school in the technical side of the trades, while the other part of the group is employed in the shop, receiving practical training in the trade. Every week the groups are reversed. The pupils take other classes, and when they have the required number of credits they are given a certificate. An advisory committee works with the school and plant in seeing to discipline and other matters. This plan is being tried in other states and is proving successful in all of them. It is being tried, however, only on a small scale and few pupils are receiving the advantages of it. So many schools have just such con- ditions as Miss Raum had in her classroom. The work of pushing through mis- Fits is crowding out the more intelligent children. It is a battle between Quant- ity and Quality, and Quantity is winning. A Step Forward MONTGOMERY JOHNSTON Vie are about to enter upon a new period of realism and of sane reform in the United States and we shall require unity of purpose, if not of opinion, if we are to achieve permanent results. ZFRANKLIN D. Roosizvizifr. For many years We have looked on the material side of life. We have measured everything in dollars and cents, and we have been thinking of systems and machines, but the time has come when we have to remake our social order and get away from ,extreme materialism. It has become imperative that we con- sider the man and not the system, because there is a living in the United States for 120-,000,000 people, and yet not all of them are getting it. The question is how can they get it. To get it a change must be made in every walk of life. We have for years been trying to run a modern society with a set of anti- quated social institutions and a change must come. To make this change we must have a unity of purpose, which must include economic planning of society so that every man is able to get a decent living. Our capitalistic system has been in the past, every man for himself and the devil take the hindmostf' but there happen to be twelve million hindmost in the form of unemployed and that has not worked out so well. In the past years men have been able to go West if they could not get jobs in the East, but now there is no West, so we have to make plans that will include them. Not only must the basis of society be changed, but the surface has to be remodeled. For instance, we must change our justice from a justice for a system, to a justice for the individual: We have many laws on our statutes which punish crime and not the criminal. Take if

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THE TAJ 3 N, I' F F 5 H H ' LD! G, VDBUALE S Quality vs. Quantity LOTS SLOOP 'lThornas, you read next. And so the- Monarch. And so the monarch went into his-into his-what is that, Miss Raum? Think, Thomas, how would you say P-A-L-A-C-E? I-I clon't know. Palace-pal-ace. . And so the monarch went into his palace- Meanwhile the other pupils wiggle and squirm. They are wasting their time. A school system-any school system is wrong that allows such things to become routine, and yet they can be seen in every school room-from the kindergarten through high school. Can we allow the quick brains of children who might make future governmental officials, authors, scientists and world leaders to be neglected for the sake of passing a large number of pupils who, after having been literally pushed through, never use the information which the teachers have painstakingly drilled into their heads? Briefly, shall we sacrifice quality for quantity? This question applies particularly to high schools, where, although diversi- fied courses are offered, certain practical and cultural subjects are required. If the pupil must take them and can't understand them, he is at a standstill- and he holds the rest of the class back with him. It is not fair to hold the class back for him and at the same time it is hardly fair to leave him wading, bewildered and amazed, through something far above his understanding. He may keep struggling and eventually pass it, but the majority of pupils in this condition stop school and it is this group of pupils which make the future criminals of the nation. The Sing Sing Prison records for 1932 show that almost one-half the prisoners there never completed the sixth grade, two-thirds did not finish high school and of 500 criminals only 5 were college graduates. There should be some way in which to separate the two classes of pupilsg to give the backward child an education which will prepare him for his life, and to leave the teacher free to give her time to the pupils who can and will appreciate the additional opportunity. Might not vocational schools be the an- swer to this problem? Present day vocational schools are not established for the purpose of giving instruction to the backward, deficient, incorrigible or otherwise sub-

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THE TAJ -5 stealing-if a man steals, the fact that it is his first offense, or the fact that he might have needs, is not taken into consideration when the penalty is fixed. Another example in the teaching profession. In New York State, alone, there are six thousand people qualified to teach who cannot get jobs, yet if we had eco- nomic planning we could provide for them to make a living. We must realize that there will not be a sameness of opinion for the experiments as a definite indi- cation of progression. From a Junior Knave DOLORES PHALEN And then they put on their helms and departed, and there was weeping and great sorrow. Anon the time draws nigh when I will be bereft of the fairest fellowship and the truest of knighthood that ever were seen together in any realm of the world, for when ye Seniors depart from hence I wot that we shall seldom meet again on account of your scattered quests. And so it forthinketh me a little, for I have loved ye as well as my lifeg wherefore it shall grieve me sore, the departitioniof this fellowship, for I have had an old custom to have ye in my fellowship. It falleth to me as the youngest, who must needs remain to bid ye depart- ing knights farewell. Your departure should give me mickle plesaunce, for thus I can be advanced from knaveryg but nay, my heart filleth with sorrow because, even if my career as a kitchen knave endeth, your guidance and en- couragement will be lacking to me. Certes ye also must regret that fate doth thus part us, but be ye of good cheer--you are only awakening to a glorious dawn while we are behight one more year of slumber with dreams. To me and my fellow knaves are beleft the cares and responsibilities that were thine. And now sith ye are leaving could it not beseem ye to will to thy successor the ability to Hll your place adequately, and likewise, to leave them the don of bearing the travail of being Senior knights? Might I add hereto, that wherever thy quests may lead, it is my hope that thou wilt be the kemps as behaveth the lot of a former knight of King Arthur. From a heart sadly burdened with dole kindly accept this benevolence, and ever bear thyselves upright in mind and heart. Render the good example outside that thou hast rendered here. Pax Domini sit semper vobiscum. -GARETH.