Lacon High School - Tickler Yearbook (Lacon, IL)

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LACON GRADE TEACHERS 5 .- +4 L JL Q Pu 'IJ Z U L 11 Z E: L. CL .C 4.. u.. .S 4. ri 11 U .- 0 ff. 1, F: 1-1 CE ,LT Q., Z W r. Cl' .LT U .4 5 P. Q 5 4- .S bl? C 4- 4- -.- L, ,JL fi m :L E x- CL C U GJ m TU 5 'E bb 5 :J F: L- :L 4.1 'L x. 'JZ P1 :J 'L f- C ii O 'L 'L CJ '-. ,.. +.f L1 P ld 1. 4.1 Z 'L 1. '1 1, Q .-1 1, Q f- 'lf L. f U .-1 11 P IJ 1, W .-E L1 S U ': CU 4 1: Fd .-'Tl H d E 7 U 4 U I-Y-T l E .- ra Q1 f -E -L

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LL tithingmen, kept strict watch. It is true that there may have been many complications, but the conununity was simple and their education was all that the word implies. And what of education today? XVhat of education at the crossing of many trails? VVe have tended to cast aside. from a laissez faire policy, the youth's physical and moral natures as those aspects of his life which would take care of themselves, develop as they might. Alas, they do develop more often to the eternal detriment of the youth and the community. XVe shut our children up from the world inside school buildings whose windows are so high that the children cannot see what is going on out in the world. They spend their lives irresponsibly, and, too often, never share in the coni- plex life which goes on all about them. Speak in plainer words. you say? Education implies a three-fold task- a Herculean task. Feeding and training the mind. building up the body. developing. strengthening and directing the moral nature and the will. But is this the task of the teacher alone? ls the teacher the sole educator? Sup- pose that the child goes to school from his seventh to his fifteenth year, he secures a minimum of about eight thousand hours of school work: while his hours of daily life during the same period, and not including the hours of sleep, are about eighty thousand. Think of it! One-tenth of his time in school! Hut he is in the school of life the other nine-tenths, his teachers being the household, the street companions. and that big hurly-burly of experience which we call his environment. Again-is the teacher the sole educator? Rather is every human being, either consciously or otherwise, a teacher, and the most powerful, or at least those possessing the greatest potentialities, are in the home, the father and mother., How little the average man and woman appreciate these truths. Thus the two greatest and most productive facts in the educational world are not widely known and realized upon. First, let us not neglect the threefold nature of the child. If we neglect the moral and physical, either in our schools or in the home. their mental training cannot function for the good of the individual or the community. The other great fact is the social view of education. The teacher is not the sole educator. The whole community must function in the rearing of the younger generation. Our home life must be conducive to the child's best interests: it must be wholesome and con-- genial, Our city government must be an exemplar of excellence and our community life must ever inspire the individual to greater service. Let us not deceive ourselves concerning the mission of the teacher. She must be the guide and the leader in the educational matters of the community. The school is but her oFF1ce.

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L ln conclusion. let us apply these general precepts to our own local schools. XVhat is the aim of the teachers of Lacon schools? XVhat is the far-off divine event toward which the administration of the school is con- tinually working? XYe continually ask ourselves the questions: .Xre wc doing all that is possible to conserve the child's health? Are we doing what is best. not on general principles. but in this particular individual case, to enlarge the child's mind? Are we losing no opportunities to build up to the highest possible point this child's character? These questions. indeed, and others even as important. are we continually asking, XYe must seek to make our school a replica of community life. XYe must ever seek to build up the physical being of our boys and girls by physical training and incul- cating habits of good hygiene. llut what of the boys and girls whom the parents are neglecting, who are running the streets, lured by the leadership of questionable excitement, immorality, movie shows and pool rooms? .Xrc we to ignore these questions as outside the pale of true education? These are moral questions we must do our best to recognize and tight to the last day. :Xml the pivotal question of all, the answer to all of our disagreeable problems. is awakening the community to the facts as stated. Charles XY. Eliot has said: The great problem of America today is that of adult edu- cation. XYe must educate the parents. 'l'o sharpen the scythe we must first have good steel. and if we do not have good steel. we must try to re- temper it, to the end that the teacher, the whetstone. may sharpen the edge. I-acon schools, during 1921, are going over the top to a great victory -the Community lligh School. Given this new organization and a continu- ing progressive lloard of Directors. and a thoroughly awakened community. as surely as we can say I am will we have a school and community which truly educates A physical director and a complete course in physical training and hygiene for all boys and girls, a man. call him what you will- Scoutmaster, lloys' Leader, Young People's Leader-to organize the out- of-door life of the l-acon school boy and girl along truly moral and elevat- ing lines--these human positive factors should be forthcoming. And along mental lines an agricultural course, music and music appreciation. a modern language. and complete commercial training will fulfill long-felt needs of I.acon lligh School students. Our aim in High School will be to lead the boy and girl out of the irresponsibility of childhood into the responsibility of men and women. Most important of all is that some one of the faculty, or perhaps all of faculty. hammer away at community awakening and appreciation of task that nine-tenths of the time belongs to the home. Let us follow lead of the true teacher. Hers is a glorious mission. L. G. HUTCHISON. the the the J