La Salle Peru Township High School - Ell Ess Pe Yearbook (La Salle, IL)

Page 25 text:

ELL Ess P13 Fman GRAY STIZVICNSUN, .S'11peri11ter1def1t Pulje Tu Cliff-0716

Page 24 text:

E LL Ess P11 XVOUNG CLANCY HACKMAN w 4 1 1 EH- . - 2. DIMOND CARUS KliliGAN Board JOHN YOUNG, Oglcsby, Prefident. . W. CLANCY, L11 Salle ,..,,..,., H. E. HACKMAN, Peru ...,....,. XuNCENTJ.IhMOND,LdS8HC .,.. EDwmRDI1.CARUs,LaSaHe ...... Of Education KATHERINE KEEGAN, Peru, Serretmj' ..., Pxlkqt' Tuwzty 1921 1917 1917 1931 1931 1924 1935 1936 1936 1934 1934 1934

Page 26 text:

ELL Ess PE The Spirit of La Salle-Peru LA SALLE-PERU owes its leadership among educational institutions to a combination of forces which have moulded its spirit. A great educator and a prophet among educators devoted a lifetime of service to developing an institution in which every student should be given the facili- ties and the incentives to reach his own highest stature as a citizen of great democracy. The vision and the philosophy of life of the late Dr. McCormack are built into the spirit of our school. A community composed of the residents of the cities and of the rural dis- tricts of our two townships has placed a high value on the education of boys and girls for more than thirty years and has elected as its trustees for the man- agement of its high school able men who have devoted themselves unselfishly to their task. Our citizens have rallied to the support of their Board of Educa- tion and have continued its members in office so that the school has profited from their experience. Public spirited citizens possessed of great wealth have made benefactions through which facilities that would have been otherwise impossible have been added to our school plant. The library, the social center, the new auditorium, the new building, and the masterpieces of art which we are permitted to enjoy, could not have been ours except for the generosity and the interest in education of the Matthiessen family. Our graduates who have taken their places in the community have continued to promote school interests. Those who have gone to other schools have been on their mettle to make a record for L.-P., and have spread its fame. The student-body and the faculty, the ofiice force and the janitorial staff all have a pride in their membership in such an institution, which stimulates them to do their best. We work for excellence in athletics, we work for excellence in dramatics, in music, and in all forms of extra-curricular activity, we work for excellence in preparation for more advanced studies, and for our own in- tellectual and spiritual growth. We also work for excellence in institutional record keeping, in business management and in school housekeeping. How can the Spirit of La Salle-Peru, which is the resultant of the interplay of these forces, be expressed in words? I fear that it cannot be so expressed. Anyone making the attempt would succeed only as he might have skill in expressing his own understanding of that spirit. But we can express that spirit in our response to our opportunities. We can live our faith that education is of those first things which we put first, that it is an active and not merely a passive process-our surroundings, our books, our teachers contribute to our education, but unless we educate ourselves we do not become educated. And the more educated we do become, the more completely do we realize that no education is ever finished. It is that view of education, that ambition to make the most of opportuni- ties and to create new opportunities, that refusal to follow in the rut, but to explore new roads and to scan the horizons in search of worth while goals and to map out our courses toward those goals,-that I believe characterizes the spirit of La Salle-Peru. -Fred G. Stevenson Page Twenty-twa