Hartford High School - Hartford Key Yearbook (White River Junction, VT)

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■ PAUL CHAPIN Class President President's Address As the doors of high school close behind us, we look forward, not to a gloomy atmosphere of stagnation, but to a new and exciting experience. This is as it should be for when the world ceases to be exciting its people will be in danger of extinction. We, the younger generation, have been repeatedly told that the world is ours. We have been instructed to take it and make it over to suit our desires. This is all very well; but, as we look deeper into world affairs, we see fear and, where fear is not found, despondency is. We look with awe on this fear because it is something new to us. What is it? It seems that man fears himself. He has made a tremendous weapon in the atom bomb, and he does not know how to control it. Because of the lack of control he fears it and fear soon becomes despondency and fatalism. It seems to be the work of us, the younger generation, to overcome this fear, find a use for atomic energy and improve this world of ours in general affairs. A big assignment? Not at all. It takes only courage, foresight, and the will to learn or improve. It is up to us, the Class of ’49, and the coming generations to fulfill these obligations and build a better world for the future. 8

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Message to Members of the Class of 1949 I am pleased to have been asked to say a word to you at this time of your graduation from Hartford High School. It has been my privilege to know most of you during your entire high school course and to see you grow from adolescence to young manhood and young womanhood—from membership in gangs and small clubs to membership in world citizenry. You have been fortunate to have had the guidance and leadership and inspiration of an excellent group of teachers. You will appreciate more and more their teaching as you live and make a living. Your town and state and nation have made an investment in your education—an investment of hundreds of dollars. It is only right that they should have done so. But it is also only right that they should receive a fair return on their investment. This can occur only if you so live your lives that your town and state and nation are better because you are better citizens than you would have been without your education. Are you prepared to meet that challenge? I believe that you are, but only you can prove it. Herman H. Richardson Supt. of Schools 7

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Student Body President An efficient, hard-working student council of any high school, of any size, is a great benefit to that school. A student council brings the faculty and the students into closer contact. A closer contact makes for a better relationship and better understanding between the two. The students and the faculty are the two dependent cogs of the great machine which is a smoothly functioning high school. A student council also undertakes many tasks in improving its school with whatever means it has. Activities such as repairs to the building, improved recreational facilities, interests and support and various school clubs, and the constructing of school moral can be fostered. This year our student council at Hartford High School has had as its basis a Better Relationship Program. To promote this better relationship we have had two informal meetings with the faculty. We have labored to have the students obtain a better understanding of the student council. The student council is their representative body and it is undoubtedly their obligation to know what the organization is all about. Of our projects this year we prize most our new “Point System” to be adopted in September of 1940. The Point System calls for a distribution of the offices of the different clubs and classes throughout the school, instead of having these positions monojxdized by a limited few. Its prime purpose is to develop more leaders in the school, to give them the opportunity to exercise the leadership abilities they possess which would be going to waste if they weren t given the chance to fulfill the authoritive positions among their fellow students. We believe that the Point System” will prove to be acceptable, and will serve its purpose. I sincerely hope that my successor, whoever he or she may be, will enjoy working for and with the students of Hartford High School as much as I have this year. I don’t hesitate to say that being student council president was the greatest honor of my high school career. 1 thank each and every student who helped me obtain this position, and 1 shall never forget the friendliness of everyone. 9 Buddy Romano