Ionia High School - Ionian Yearbook (Ionia, MI)

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VALEDICTORY Friends: We, as Seniors stepping forth from class work into the world of adults, find ourselves face to face with challenges much more difficult than those existing in predepression days. Puzzling as these challenges are, they are not to be dreaded, but rather accepted cheerfully as our only means of social and personal salvation. Despite all of the talk about the depression, our greatest problem is still not an economic one, but a realization that we have personality to build, a life-long job in itself. As the poet said, “We are faulty—Why not? We have time in store. We are rough-hewn—nowise polished.” The foundation upon which we must build is courage. It will be no easy task to keep up our courage these days. It will be a fight all of the way along. People older and more experiencd than we are have given up in these days of chaos. As young people with high hopes, we shall find it harder to bear up under the strain of frequent disappointments. If we have the intellectual honesty to admit to ourselves the exact measure of the obstacles confronting us, we will be much better equipped to surmount them than if we try to deceive and comfort ourselves by saying we have no problems at all. Upon this basis of courage, our entire personality will be erected, with intellectual expansion as mortar. Now, more than ever before, the world needs people who are ever driving ahead to better things. To fulfill th s need, we must keep on growing mentally. Our courage will act as the force that propels us onward. It cannot let our minds stagnate in the montony of daily routine. Not only will it be easy to lose our desire for learning, but it will also be easy to feel that we can no longer learn. This is a dangerous theory and untrue, for Thorndike tells us that adults can learn as well as adolescents. All we need do is reach out and accept that which is offered to us. An expanding intellect is to personality as mortar is to a brick wall. It adds strength and is the power which holds portions of the whole together. Next, the parts of our wall, i. e., our personality, must be selected. The first stone we lay will be that denoting our desire to rise above mediocrity. The world no longer needs nor wants people who are unskilled or inefficient, as that field is now too crowded. Neither does it want those who try for the top positions in one step and who, if they get there at all, have not the initiative to stay. What it does 22

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PRESIDENT’S ADDRESS Parents and Friends: The Class of 1935 wishes to express its sincere appreciation to all who have made this day, and what it represents, possible. To us, it is a highlight in our lives; something substantial from which we may gain inspiration and the further determination to move on to greater achievement. Certain events and changes, trends of the economic world, make the problems which we must face even more difficult than those that have greeted graduating classes of the past. We are passing from a great crisis that all have felt deeply and that has threatened the very foundations of our educational program. The educational opportunity of which we have taken advantage makes us alert to the fact that one of life’s greatest problems is the recognition of, and adjustment to, change—which seems ever to be continuous and inevitable. Politically and morally, people are turning to new policies and principles, casting aside mere tradition as a governing factor in determining the rights and responsibilities of individuals in society. To us, this process of change seems to be greatly accelerating. Present policies of our own government force these conclusions upon us. With a modern outlook, stimulated by our educational background, we are eager—as future citizens—to aid in making the adjustments needed to keep abreast of change. Education teaches us the value of fellowship, the worth of cooperation and arbitration, and the advantages to be gained by the thoughtful, scientific analysis of life situations as opposed to impulsive decisions governed by emotion. We realize that free public education affords individual opportunity and also demands that the individual give cons deration to our common problems. Therefore, as alumni of Ionia High School, let us express our appreciation to the community, not merely in empty words, but in future successes in meeting and dealing intelligently with the common tasks of life. 21 —Wayne Dreger

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want are vital, ambitious workers willing to work from the lowest to the highest positions. This willingness on our part will be our best weapon with which to compete for our jobs with experienced laborers. We may do good work on our economic problem by developing a richer character. In striving to rise above the average, we will be on the way to a solution of the practical problems of earning a livelihood. After the stones of ambition are in place, we can turn our attention to the development of the quality of understanding and tolerance. Emphasis on the latter would likely do much to lessen the tension between classes that is causing much of the difficulty today. We are told that we are living in the midst of a transitional period, comparable to the Renaissance or the Industrial Revolution. We realize that we should prepare ourselves to meet these changes intelligently. Tolerance in any personality should be a means of getting ready to confront a changing world. One cannot expect to anticipate all problems that may arise in this world of flux and change. It is steadying to remember that life is not a theoretical problem to be solved, but is rather a series of concrete situations to be met. Robert Browning tells us how this should be done. ‘Then welcome each rebuff That turns earth’s smoothness rough, Each sting that bids nor sit nor stand but go! Be our joys three parts pain! Strive, and hold cheap the strain; Learn, nor account the pang; dare, never grudge the throe!” 23 —Hazel Scholtens