Ipswich High School - Tiger Yearbook (Ipswich, MA)

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government sponsored test. The others are subject to be called at any time. Even though education may be interrupted, many young men have come to realize that working for Uncle Sam is inevitable, and they are somewhat comforted by the reassuring college records of veterans who, educators agree, profit most by a college education under the G.I. Bill. There are arguments in favor and against the use of eighteen-year-olds. Foremost of the latter is the assumption that these fellows are too young for military service. Although many boys that age are immature, countless others settle down and profit by military training and experience. We have all seen wandering, disinterested young men enlist in the service and come back with a real sense of values and become useful citizens in their communities. Another advantage of the service is the oppor- tunity for young men to learn a profitable trade. Some of our draftees learn more in the service than they ever would in outside life. One of the main disadvantages of this plan for drafting eighteen-year-olds is that we need trained scientists, doctors, technicians, etc. These professions require many years of uninterrupted study which is difficult to attain under present world conditions. Paul Banfield has suggested a solution for this problem. He advocates the drafting of all eighteen- year-olds as soon as they finish high school. They could take military training in the summer between their junior and senior years in high school, and the year following graduation. They would then be allowed to attend college. Such students could take Reserve Officers’ Training Corps courses at college and spend summers training. Thus they would be ready in case of an emergency. Whether it will be necessary to use the eighteen-year-old group, we do not yet know; but if it is, we can count on these boys to be ready. In the words of Emerson: “So nigh is grandeur to our dust, So near is God to man, When duty whispers low, Thou must, The youth replies, I can.” BUILDING CHARACTER FOR A By ELEANOR POWERS BETTER WORED A most important turning point in our lives is graduation from high school. To many it may mean going on to a higher level of education; others may apply for jobs, enlist or be drafted into the army. Whatever we do, we must realize that we are no longer to live sheltered lives, protected and cared for by our parents, and encouraged and helped by our teachers. Instead we are going to have to face the world by ourselves. “But,” you may ask, “what kind of world are we facing?” Let’s take a look at a picture of America today. It is a dark, gloomy one as revealed by the recent Kefauver investigation committee. Such an exposure of nationally organized gambling, racketeering, political corruption, and immorality is unprecedented in our country and evidence that we have reached a new low in public and private moral- ity. Not even young people are immune to the greedy machinations of totally unprincipled men as the basketball scandals and widespread sales of narcotics to teen-agers testify. Shocking and disturbing as these exposures are, perhaps even more so are the unethical, to say the least, practices and misuse of power and influence in high places as uncovered by Senator Fulbright’s investigation of the Reconstruction Finance Corpora- tion. More shocking, because we expect more from our leaders, who should be setting the pattern of conduct for the people. “If gold rust, what can iron do?” To say within the letter of the law but to fail to respect the spirit of the law, as offenders in government have done, is a gross derelition of duty and responsibility. Fortunately there is a brighter side to the picture. The people have been thoroughly aroused and shocked into action at these exposures, and steps are being taken to clean up America. The recommendations of the Kefauver Committee Report will without doubt be scrupulously followed ,and Senator Fulbright’s plea for higher standards of conduct in government officials will be heeded. Such a clean-up, of course, demands a people, alert and responsible to their civic duties and determined to vote into office only men of unquestioned integrity who will carry out the will of the people for honest government. But where do we as teen-agers fit into this pic- ture ? In building a strong character home, church, and school must join forces to place a renewed and stronger emphasis upon simple honesty. In the home it is necessary that there be a renewed emphasis upon character building and the inculcation of the simple virtues of honesty and uprightness in family and social relationships. 19

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A more recent improvement has been the instal- lation of life adjustment courses. Classes are now being offered in personality development, marriage and home economics, and other subjects which guide young people toward a fuller later life. In the same field as life adjustment is the guid- ance counselor, who is becoming a fixture in more and more schools. Known as “the teen-agers’ Mr. Anthony”, he aids students in selecting courses and ironing out personal worries. Most people agree that we obey rules more readily if we have had some voice in making them. There- fore, student government is becoming increasingly popular. The student council works closely with the faculty in making laws and supervising activities. For this reason there is more school spirit, and more students take active parts in extra-curricular activi- ties. Realizing that there are and will be great oppor- tunities for advancement in the armed services, pro- fessions, and countless vocations, educators are con- stantly striving to prepare youth to fill these needs. Already shortages exist in many key positions. High school graduates, in spite of prevailing conditions, should be looking toward the future with hope and energy instead of the defeatist attitude that so many have. It is imperative that these graduates be pre- pared to jump the hurdles ahead of them. They must be able to fill positions, create new homes, and help our government maintain its position of leadership. Thus we see that the success of our country de- pends on the products of our schools. Therefore each citizen must cooperate with educators in securing the best educational system possible both in the school and in the home. For in the words of Horace Mann: “If ever there be a cause, if ever there can be a cause worthy to be upheld by all toil or sacri- fice that the human heart can endure, it is the cause of education.” THE DRAFT OF EIGHTEEN YEAR OLDS By JEANNE TODD Many boys all over the land are receiving that familiar greeting from Uncle Sam telling them that they are now members of the armed forces. If it will prove any consolation to them, boys their age have faced the same problem for over two thousand years. About that long ago, when the Roman Em- pire faced attack by powerful outsiders, Servius Tullius called for the organization of a standing army which would be comprised of all able-bodied citizens of the upper and middle classes, together with slaves and farmers. In the middle ages each lord had his own knights, professional soldiers, and serfs who served him in return for his protection. He, in turn, was ready with his followers, to serve the king. In greater conflicts, kings supplemented their forces with hired aliens who were professional soldiers. This practice of hiring outsiders to fight continued on through our own Revolution when the British hired Hessian soldiers to aid them. If a boy had been drafted during the Civil War, the chances are that he might, without shame, have paid someone to take his place as this was a com- mon practice. Up to the time of World War I the number of volunteers was great enough so that comparatively few men had to be drafted. Although the United States’ policy has always been to main- tain a small peacetime army, the scale of fighting has increased and so have the numbers needed to wage war. This fact, combined with increasing ten- sion and the threat of spreading Communism, has forced our country into rearming and maintaining a powerful peacetime army. Another reason for military expansion is the number of men lost in Korea under the United Nations banner. Most of our men, according to the present selec- tive service law, have been drawn from the nineteen- to-twenty-six group, which is being rapidly depleted. Therefore, we must eventually dip into the untouched resource of our eighteen-year-olds. The number needed will, of course, depend upon the number of troops we commit to help safeguard various “hot spots” and the number who are killed helping free peoples oppressed by Communism. Consider, too, the number of eligible draftees in comparison with the total number of men in the eighteen-year-old age group. Many will not qualify because of mental or moral defects. Others are em- ployed in vital industry, a condition which eliminates them automatically from the draft. Then there are those who are exempt because they are married or have dependents. The small number of eligible eighteen-year-olds subject to draft beyond these exemptions brings up a serious problem: Should these eighteen-year-old boys be drafted for military service ? Consider the words “able-bodied.” Should only able-bodied men be taken into the service? What about the able-minded — those men who are skilled mentally but just have minor physical de- fects. President Conant of Harvard has suggested that able-minded men could do clerical or camp maintenance work even though they are physically unsound. Then consider the “military service” clause. Un- der present provisions each draftee is liable for twenty-seven months’ service which, in the case of the eighteen-year-old, will interrupt his education unless he can take advantage of a deferment plan. One can be deferred if he stands in the upper half of his college freshman class or if he passes a 18

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From the Church should come high ideals and the spiritual satisfaction that comes from right liv- ing. Senator Tobey during the Kefauver hearings called on the people to seek religious inspiration and predicted that through a return to religious prin- ciples “we will have a nation in which ‘dwelleth righteousness’ and before God, it is high time!” In the school more stress should be placed on development of sound character through a respon- sible attitude towards work on the part of the stu- dent. Many irresponsible pupils try to slide by with doing as little honest work and putting in as little time as possible in order to receive their diplomas. But a diploma should mean more than just sliding by. It should represent a key to the future which has been earned by honest perserverance, and it should be a symbol of a sound character as well as of academic achievement. So far as the teen-ager, or anybody else for that matter, is concerned, morality, like charity, begins at home. Sara Henderson Hay in her sonnet has expressed it well in these words: CLASS HISTOJRY CLASS HISTORY By EVELYN KARALIAS “When I, with bitter tongue, denounce those crimes Which man commits against his fellow men, And say he makes a shambles of the times. And list his evil deeds again, again; Cry he is ruthless to achieve his ends, Say he is cruel and greedy and unwise, That he betrays his honor and his friends, At my own door the accusation his. For I am part of the great body of Man And in my breast there lodges all I blame, Diminished merely in its scope and span, In its essential qualities the same. Between the world’s and my own sins I find ' lhe differences of degree, not kind.” This would lead us to conclude that the hope for the future then lies in the determined effort of each individual to make of himself a nobler character. This effort when multiplied by 150,000,000 would obviously result in a better America, and when multiplied still further by 2,000,000,000, a better world. It was a pleasant fall day in early September in the year of 1946 when our class, the class of 1951, launched its career at I. H. S. That year, our first, will not be easily forgotten, for it introduced to us a new system of learning and many new friends. Observing and somewhat brilliant, we, before long, had mastered locker combinations, drawn mental maps of the different routes to classrooms, and quickly learned which stairway to use. The one-way seats in Study Hall didn’t bother us. We just climbed over — gracefully if you happened to be a girl, not so gracefully if a boy. After all the excitement and thrill were over, we settled down and elected David Wilson as our president; Philip Ross as our vice-president; Eleanor Powers, our secretary; and Letitia Day, our treasurer. We held the traditional eighth grade social, which proved to be fun and served as our introduction to high school social life. Our talented class was already taking shape. We presented our first assembly in the form of a play. Most of the credit for its success was due to Miss Hill, who directed it. A rather tardy apology may not be out of order for the many distressing mo- ments we caused her by consuming quantities of potato chips backstage during rehearsals. The claim of our brilliance was finally justified when two of our supposed prodigies, Clark McCarthy and David Wilson, attempted to recite from memory the poem, “The Barefoot Boy,” backwards. Clark did very well with very few errors, but it was David who excelled in the recitations. The fall of 1947 found us full-fledged high school students — capable of appearing on the honor roll, studying subjects of our own choosing, and partici- pating in sports. To lead us this year, we kept our same president, David Wilson, and elected Charlie Bolles to the office of vice president; Maureen Sulli- van, secretary, and Letitia Day, treasurer. We were full of new ambition and vigor in this year, and not knowing all the rules, we wanted to mimic the upperclassmen and choose class celebrities and vote on this and that, but Miss Manzer curbed our enthusiasm and assured us there was plenty of time for these activities later. We were, however, allowed to choose class colors of royal blue and silver. We held our first dance for the school on Saint Patrick’s Day, which proved to be an enjoyable one. The old desire to show off our talent returned again this year when we presented our first enter- tainment to the school. Packed with a variety of talent and something different, it caused classes ahead of us to mention us in their wills, a bit of publicity which made us quite proud. In this very year our enthusiasm at one of the assemblies was mistaken for misconduct, and we were publicly and immediately subjected to lessons on how to enter and behave in the auditorium. This setback, to our prestige, however, did not lessen our enthusiasm for all future assemblies. We welcomed Lois Lindberg to our happy group this year. Lois has proved herself a friendly class- mate, a good student, often making our honor roll, 20