Hart High School - Hartian Yearbook (Hart, MI)

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 You May Be a Genius OMEONE has said: Genius is dictatorial without knowing it, obstructive without wishing to to be, intolerant unawares, and unsocial because it cannot help it.” Right away someone jumps up and exclaims, I’m a genius!’ We are not printing the above quo-tation to furnish anyone with an excuse for being bossy or for always being on the contrary side, or for thinking that he knows it all and that other persons are therefore surely wrong, or for holding himself aloof from his fellow beings. Upon discovering the consistency of this attitude, we inquired of said person, and she gave us this comment: “In a public meeting, somebody has to be obtrusive or the matter will not be thoroughly thrashed out, and action may be taken hastily without due consideration for all of the things at stake. I have made it a lifetime policy always to be obtrusive. Therefore I have been thoroughly disliked and hated in public more than anyone about me—and I have had a glorious time!” If the above characteristics constituted all that there is to genius, we would advise our friends to knock genius over the head with an “alley apple” whenever they see it popping up in their lives. Bu ' let’s stop a moment and conside ' the above elements of human nature. How often almost anyone is inclined to be dictatorial! Sometimes, if we look back at a week or month of our associations with others in the home, or at business, or in social relationships, we can see instances wherein we actually were dictatorial, without knowing it. There are more geniuses than this world has been given credit for, if being unsocial because of timidity puts one in that class. Many people will discover, as the horses did when automobiles first came out, that familiarity will breed con tempt for anything of which one is at first afraid. It will not take a great deal of acting for a very long period for a person who feels that he cannot be sociable to cultivate many sociable instincts and habits. It merely requires constant practice as occasion affords, or as opportunity can be made. But for the most part, people know when they are assuming this attitude. To recognize a fault is the first step in overcoming it. Stop a moment and think. Are you ever dictatorial in situations wherein you have no right to be? The next point in the quotation is that genius is often obtrusive, without wishing to be. We once knew a person who always took the opposite side of a question being discussed, especially if it were an aggressive program of advancement. Anyone can be a genius in a certain sense. By resolving to watch themselves in relation to the above undesirable characteristics, and by constantly endeavoring to cultivate the last one or sociability. That is, after a given period of time of such effort, they can look back and see what great progress they have made. The effect in just a little effort will be so miraculous that one will feel like exclaiming to himself because of his success: “Why, you certainly are a genius!” • -

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Scholarship and School Spirit If one has no school spirit he is a slacker, and probably will be through the rest of his life. So let’s take an active part in the activities of the school, and we will be sure to make better and more prosperous citizens. STUDENTS are beginning to learn that the standards of scholarship are much higher in college than in high school. In using the term “scholarship” it should not be confined to one’s ability to learn, or one’s knowledge of economics, education, history or sociology; we consider this as only one-half of the term. The other half is success in extracurricula activities, the ability and willingness to adjust oneself to one’s environment; good, wholesome school spirit. It has been proved by different educationalists that scholarship and success in extra-curricula activities go hand in hand. Although many students say as an alibi, “I came to college to get an education,” and use the term education as meaning book knowledge only. Coaches have found that students who come to college solely to play football are not always the best football players. A young man who is strong and brawny in stature, right away thinks he will make a star football player. With his strength he can keep any man from the goal—not only his opponents, even his own men. As soon as the ball gets into his hands, he runs with the ball, feeling that he must win the game alone and that his strength is sufficient to do it. Let me compliment the young man upon his morale, but it takes more than morale on the gridiron. Coaches have experienced this many times and have come to the conclusion that “brain is superior to brawn.” Many a’player who is short in stature but quick and ac- curate in thinking has replaced another player who was large in body but slow and inaccurate in mind. A student who hopes to attain the highest scholarship must, as has been stated, adjust himself to his environment. He must remember and believe that “time” is the one commodity of which all of us have an equal amount. The story of man’s progress, both as an individual and as a race, shows that efficient utilization of time means successful achievement. Therefore in order for an individual to obtain the highest scholarship possible he must be able to engage successfully in extra-curricula activities, which aid in the development of personality; he must know the value of time, his study must be correlated so as to be of practical benefit to society as well as to himself; he must remember the old quotation, “Scholarship without good breeding is but half an education”; he must further develop a keen interest in his school, and if his school is not just what he would like for it to be, let him remember that— “Real schools aren’t made by students afraid Lest somebody else gets ahead. When everyone works and nobody shirks You can raise a school from the dead. And if while you earn the honors you crave, Your neighbor may earn some, too. Your school will be what you want it to be. It isn’t your school, it’s you.” PAGE 2