Ipswich High School - Tiger Yearbook (Ipswich, MA)

Page 32 text:

THE FACULTY Front row, left to right: Miss Brown, Mr. Chadbourne, Mr. Orcutt, Mr. Whipple, Mr. Riley, Mr. Tozer, Miss Whitney. Second row: Miss Blodgett, Miss Allen, Mrs. Lord, Mrs. Nitardy, Miss Manzer, Miss Cogswell, Miss Machaj, Miss Woolley. Back row: Mr. Burgess, Mr. Dorr, Mr. Mudge. iv

Page 31 text:

EDITORIAL June! Graduation! To us, the graduates of 1949, those are words of relief. We rejoice that we have finally attained our goal - gradua- tion, the end of four tedious years of book learning, of essay writing, of long source papers due on speci- fic dates, of math assignments, of afternoon slips, and of the general problems of school life. Our teachers have given us tasks to perform which we have in the majority of cases, we hope, car- ried through to completion. They have spent years teaching us to analyze subject matter, to formu- late opinions, and to adopt good work habits. In our class-room discussions we have learned to de- bate without argument, to make co- operative decisions without vacil- lation, to understand social ills without making unfair discrimina- tions. In fact, they have done their utmost to train us to become fair- minded citizens to fight for a prin- ciple , to bette r mankind. They, like the potter with his clay, have molded us with patience and understanding, constantly turning and shaping the clay into a useful object. But now with diplomas in hand, we realize that high school has been merely a preparation, a training ground. We shall discover that ed- ucation never ceases. Our future beckons; the great adventure calls. We have acquired only the founda- tion of living. The future will de- termine the structure. May it be a strong one. iii

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GRADUATION ESSAYS A PANEL ON DEMOCRACY THE PRIVILEGES OF LIVING IN A DEMOCRACY David Purdy This year, since our country, in its conflict with communism, is at a crucial stage in its survival as a democratic nation, and since the present condition is a further test for democracy as a government, we three, selected for graduation parts, decided to present our es- says in the form of a panel discus- sion on democracy. We shall try to bring out not only the superiority of the democratic form of govern- ment over other forms, but that as an ideal it is still not completely realized. Originating in certain Grecian states where the method resembled our town meetings rather than our modern representative government and where the right to vote was limited to specific classes, the democratic ideal has persisted de- spite repression and scorn and has shone most brightly when other forms of rule have become intol- erable. For one hundred and sixty years, the United States has main- tained a democracy which, despite its faults, still upholds its ideal of equality. In observing an unbiased, factual history of the United States as a democratic nation, and com- paring it with the history in almost all other countries during the same period, one must realize that dem- ocracy has given the American people exceptional growth, stability, and peace. First of ail a democracy works on the basis that freedom is the foundation for all society, and in order to live successfully, citizens must have certain inalienable rights. Perhaps our civil rights will have more meaning if we think of them as privileges that would be denied us by a totalitarian state. In such a government force and coercion are employed and the people are taught above all else obedience and submission to the state; a democracy, on the other hand, cherishes its traditional liberties --freedom of speech and of the press, of religion without fear of government intervention, thefreedomtoform ideas indepen- dently, and above all the right to criticize. V 7 e may speak freely of the policies of our government and the way it is run even in wartime, provided, of course, our words can not be used as we?oons by an enemy . Speaking of traditional free- doms, an interesting situation came up recently when communists in New York and other American cities held their traditional May Day parades bearing signs urging revolution and strikes. Walter 1