Huntington North High School - Modulus Yearbook (Huntington, IN)

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ESSAY ON THE AMERICAN STUDENT By Erma Burton For too many years the American people have been content with the education which they have been offering to their children, and have not realized its deficiencies. Indeed, they have thought that our sys- tem of public training was superior to that of Europe and hence, need- ed no readjustment. But now, we are beginning to awake to the real needs as a result of the severe criticisms broadcast from Europeans, and we no longer look upon the foreign statements as being mere criticisms produced in jeal- ous minds but as suggestions, which in many cases, would be of great con- structive value if applied to our educational system. Yet we do not say ; that there are not hundreds of misstatements made about us nor a total j lack of jealousy and rivalry among our European neighbors. We know j that the youth of America is an easy prey for those foreigners who have j for their sole purpose the finding of all the fallacies possible in our stu- • dents to the exclusion of any commendable features. But this severe • criticism is given by a few only, and a fairer decision and authority rests j in the reports of various Europeans who have entertained as guests ■ or watched as scholars the American students who have toured the major j countries of Europe for educational purposes. The people of those na- j tions who are thrown into direct contact with and who make acquaintance j with these youths, unconsciously submit their criticisms to American j investigators and, as a rule, the reports are favorable. f Only recently did such a band of college graduates enjoy a tour of | Europe and an American correspondent in that great division of the world j reports the general conclusion of the people concerning them in an article j in the Outlook entitled The American Student Abroad. Primarily j he mentions their natural revelation of the true American spirit of I | want to know. But, he states further, I noted as well their superior { qualities of manner and deportment. They were not noisy, boisterous, ) or bumptious. They had a quiet serenity almost beyond their years. j Their habits were really austere; not one of them gave the impression J of not having been well brought up. In speech they were simple, sincere, j frank. They constitute the kind of virgin soil in which good or bad j seed quickly sprouts. In other portions of the article the author states j that they were hospitably received everywhere, which opened the way j for propaganda of all sorts and made them an easy prey for the dissem- [ inators of false reports. In all, he says, the students were appreciative ( and displayed a desire for truth. I This summary of the natural characteristics of our students we ac- I cept most gladly, believing it to be a report of the true type of high j American moral and scholastic standards, and hoping that our youths j might always inspire the same hospitality and favor. j At the same time the impression made by our students abroad is j quite different from that contracted and expressed by a few Europeans I who have visited in this country. The latter impression invariably reveals J r I

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i i i HOW A SENIOR GAINED HIS INSPIRATION i By Neil Crull ! The Senior has a right to hold up his head and look down on his fel- J low si udents of lower standing. After successfully weathering three years I of snow, rain and storms, does he not deserve some credit for still existing? ' Take the case, for example, of Friedman Crisco. In his Freshman I year he lived a life of ease, doing but little studying outside of school. In his Soijhomore year, while trying to beat Caesar in his progress through Gaul, he found out that his little first year Latin grammar should have been in use every night instead of being left in his locker. Finding that Caesar was giving him a merry race, still going strong while he was weak- ening, he decided to resort to other means. So, accordingly, he wrote to Sears, Roebuck Company, inclosing a money order for some small amount, asking their assistance in his great struggle for success by sending him their largest and easiest riding pony for swift traveling through Gaul. Not being an expert at handling ponies, he had many falls and made many miser- able mistakes but in the end he outrode Caesar, and Nellie passed him as • one of her greatest students. It had been hard work to keep such a bril- I liant pony a secret, but he trained it hard and passed all inspection. i Friedman, while in his Senior year, realized how mixed up the modem I ponies were, so he set to work on his masterpiece and today, in any book- 1 store, you can find Friedman Crlsco ' s Translations of Caesar ' s Gallic Wars. j Upon looking in magazines for an advertisement for this great book you I will find his trade mark, Crisco ' s makes the translations of Caesar as slick as grease. If you look into almost any Sophomore ' s locker you are almost sure to find one of these great books and it has been rumored that the Hunt- ington Press is going to give each and every person one of Crisco ' s mas- terpieces for obtaining only three new yearly subscriptions to the said newspaper. Sophomores, wake up! This is a chance of a lifetime. Get busy now! BACKWARD, TURN BACKWARD Backward, turn backward. Oh time in thy flight; feed me on gruel again just for tonight. I am so weary of sole leather steak, petrified doughnuts and vulcanized cake; oysters that slept in a watery bath, but- ter as strong as Goliath of Gath. Weary paying for what I don ' t eat, chewing up rubber and calling it meat. Backward, turn backward, for weary 1 am; give me a whack at my grandmother ' s jam; let me drink milk that has never been skimmed, let me eat butter whose hair has been trim- med. Let me once more have an old-fashioned pie, and then I ' ll be ready to turn up and die. TWENTY-THIRD PSALM OF A GEOMETRY STUDENT I have a study in which I shall not pass. It maketh me to expose my ignorance before the class ; It maketh me, to draw figures on the board for my grade ' s sake ; Yea, though I study until midnight I shall gain no Geometry, For X ' s bother me and AB ' s sorely trouble me. It prepareth puzzles for me in the presence of my classmates ; Surely zeros and conditions will follow me all the days of my life, And I shall dwell in the class of Geometry forever. ■r-a

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. of speech, and that where the European is developed intellectually, the ■| American possesses in addition a social and physical development as well, i i ] a weakness in our plan of education. Rev. A. H. Gray of Scotland who ] has been a worker in the Y. M. C. A. in this country for some time, was •j asked to give his impression of the American student as he saw him. He did so and a part of his opinion was published in a current magazine. I We may accept his statements as being general and unstudied, since he J devoted little time to the study of the situation but merely gave his can- I did opinion. It is well, however, to weigh the impartial criticisms and, j :? ' ; with those as a key, discover where our discrepancies lie. The one big startling statement which has aroused the indignation ' of many patriotic American students is that they are intellectually j docile, suffering from a strange paralysis of the will, and that a ' great number of them will become later on the victims of mere fash- ' ,1 ion and the dupes of popular orators. We hesitate to accept the stirring .1 criticism and decline to receive it as a general statement, but we know I that this summary is embarrassingly true in many cases. Then the ques- .1 tion arises, whose fault is it? Is the boy or girl naturally inferior in .1 intellect and will to the European youth who is credited as being intel- .1 lectually rebellious? Has the general American home-life been too leni- J ent to promote deeper reasoning, or the nation too progressive to pro- I duce an intellectual independence in its youths? We cannot see it thus, I and these reasons have not been given by Rev. Gray, but he attacks the ' educational system itself which we have always prized so highly, only • ' to find it torn to shreds by the onlookers of Europe. The colleges, we be- lieve, contrary to the statement of Dr. Gray, are well controlled and gov- erned, and with such a large number of institutions and pupils as are found in the United States, better system of management could hardly be hoped for. We do agree, however, that there is too much of a paternalism ' of the faculty over the students and that the pupils as a whole look up- on the opinions of their respective instructors as being indisputable. Thus the true purpose of a teacher, which is to be a challenger and pro- moter of thought, not merely a source of information, has been modified in America and the psychology of the student ' s mind overlooked by the faculty. Too often the teachers fear to provoke the original ideas of the pupils, due to the partial belief of the superior authority of some narrow regulation of the school. The word education is derived from the Latin word educo, meaning to draw from. Hence, education is not the fill- ing of the mind but the withdrawal of the latent forces endowed by na- I ture. The opinion of our foremost educators and critics is that this prin- I ciple is overlooked in normal training, and the false basis of education ' has developed to a degree in which it is harmful to the students. But we will not accept the criticism that the will of an American boy or girl is inferior to that of a European of the same age. We need but reverse the criticism of American intellectual docility to state that where the Euro- pean student possesses a rebellious intellect and independent mind, he lacks the American freedom of nature, physical fitness, and frankness