Independence High School - Orange and Black Yearbook (Independence, KS)

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if ee.. a lndependence High School The Board of Education F. M. Wilhelm, Pres. .... Secretary, Prairie Pipe Line Co. L. R. Spradling ...............A.......,........ Spradling Fruit 'Co. W. N. Banks ........ .... A ttorney, Banks, O'Brien Sz fMcVey T. E. Wagstaff .................................... Attorney at Law J. A. Pinkston .................,............ 1. Physician and Surgeon Gus Mahan ........ General Manager, National Supply Co. This is one body of men we seldom see as a body official though they are seen frequently at their various places of business. But we know enough to understand that they constitute the governing force of the city schools, are all eminently successful as busiess men, and are decidedly public spirited. Thus we can approach the matter of writing a word about our Board of Education. 'These gentlemen have not only their own affairs to attend to but there is an unusually large amount of public business to be administered. Their duties this year are more extensive and more exacting than they were last year, and it is not unlikely that the next few years will lay even 'greater burdens upon them. iTheir reward will be measured almost wholly by the use the boys and girls make of the abundant opportunities offered by these splendid schools. This year they have the added weight of the High School to carry, and the new Junior to be built. Next year the entire High School system must be revised and run to suit the new conditions. While the im-mediate management devolves upon the superintendent and the principals, still the Board is the base upon which all these operations are worked out. They are the combined executive and legislative system, and ultimately to them we look for that strong, rational ba-cking an aggressive super- intendent and his teachers must have in order in insure the highest type of success. Not only are these gentlemen good business and professional men but they are men of pleasing personality. We sin-cerely hope we will not be misunderstood if we call your attention to the fine group shown on the page opposite. This, as you will readily observe, includes not only the members of our Board of Education but their co-worker, our super- intendent, Mr. Risdon. It is not flattery to say you cannot find a finer group pictured in any book. We think it crudely stating a fact. The class is in hearty accord with our Annual staff in their dedication of this number of The 'Orange and Black to these gentlemen. Eleven Orange and Black 1922 t

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lndependence High School The Function of 0 High School It is our ambition to make the Independence High School serve the needs of the 'boys and girls to the fullest possible extent. At no time in the life of youth, is opportunity more important or the dividends on right teaching greater. The high school age is the sorting out, the testing per- iod. We should here discover the ambitions, the tastes, the capabilities of each individual student and so manipulate his environment, so direct his thinking, so adapt courses of study to him as to guarantee the richest re- wards. Not only must this institution fully meet the needs of the boys and girls who will enter college, but it must just as completely, just as def- initely prepare that larger group who enter the various activities in the arena of life. It must do its utmost to store his mind with useful knowl- edge, to develop and discipline all his faculties, inspire confidence in his powers, broaden his mental vision, elevate and crystallize his ideals, develop habits of social service and enrich his personality by the associations of broad minded, well poised, sympathetic men and women. An unhappy person is never an efficient individual. Nature so organ- ized us that it is only when we find joy in our work that our faculties func- tion to their full capacity. So the atmosphere of the school must be friendly, cordial, sympathetic, that optimism and happiness characterize the whole student body. School is not only a preparation for life, it is a vital sector of life itself. Most of the characteristics that prevail in man- hood are here acquired: habits become fixed, aims and purposes solidify. Here the keen diagnostician of human nature can quite accurately foretell Whether the youth promises to become an asset or a liability to society. Such fundamental qualities as industry, perseverance, straight thinking, tenacity of purpose, reliable judgment, and the like are clearly present or wanting. The floater of the school is pretty sure to be the driftwood of society. Society doesn't look upon the school as a charity and can reasonably expect it to be a dividend paying investment in the essential qualities of efficient citizenship. The recipient of the opportunities thus provded by pufblic taxation should pay back in service many times what it has cost to educate him. He should prove an efficient producer in whatever field of endeavor he may enter. Education is not for ease but for labor of the most effective type. It should not represent energy working at cross pur- poses, but energy organized, skilled, dire-cted so as to function in construc- tive enterprises. The more numerous and complicated life's demands become, the more extended and diversified must be the opportunities offered in the schools. It is our ambition to make the institution which is the finishing school for the masses meet to the fullest extent the demands of the hour. C. S. RISDON, Superintendent of Schools. T l a at Oranqe and Black 1922 e