Lansdale High School - Highlights Yearbook (Lansdale, PA)

Page 13 text:

PRINCIPAL HERMAN L BISHOP It IS the desxre of every normal young per son to make a success of hrs or her llfe An rmportant factor rn anyone s success IS how he accepts the generally recogmzed stand ards and rules ot conduct How does he re gard the rules of behavlor whlch make peoples l1v1ng Wlth each other more pleas ant and comfortable? These rules are com monly referred to as etlquette They have to do wlth the usages of polite soclety Pollteness courtesy and good taste thus v1dual1ty By force of hablt these qualltles should become automatxc ln our dally llvmg Back in the days of kmghthood and chlvalry they were especlally sought after and cultl vated They were attrlbutes that characterlzed the lady and gentleman of that era They lent drgnlty to the age Today polxteness and courtesy are a part of the whole experlence of human relat1ons from the sxmplest assocxatlon to the most elaborate soclal occaslon Thus we thrnk of conversatxon manners eatlng manners sam tary manners telephone manners drrvmg manners and many others BUSIHGSS houses have long ago found that courtesy pays We are pollte and courteous to others because we want others to show consxderatlon for us But the most lmportant aspect of the whole matter IS that the practlce of these llttle n1ce tres makes l1v1ng w1th people so much more pleasant and agreeable We become more nexghborly frlendshlps become more mean lngful and our da1ly assoclatxons become more replete w1th human krndness All too often we find people who take hte as a matter of cold routlne They have not dlscovered the secret of polxte appreclatlve and unself1sh l1v1ng They not only do not help to spread sunshrne but rn the-1r crude ness they fall to absorb the cheery good w1ll and klndness of others Surely the world to day needs people young and old who take tlme to be pohte courteous and consld erate It costs so l1ttle means so much and pays such lrnmeasurable dlvldends I ' I I . . l , . . . . constitute a significant part of one's indi- . . 1 I ' .9-

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You young people llke all the hlgh school graduates ot former years have declded to make the theme of your commencement or the event of your graduatlon an 1nv1tat1on to partlcxpate ln a klnd of behavlor closely re lated to chlvalry Hlgh school semors used to select a class motto Thls motto would oc cupy a promment place on the prlnted gradu atlon program and not lnlrequently would be blazoned tn gold letters across the prosce n1um arch tn front ol the hlgh school audl torlum Every one of these mottoes or themes lnvxted the graduates to act nobly or ln other words to be chlvalrous How many of you have heard an older per son say ln a plalntlve volce that the age of chlvalry rs past? Actually what these older persons say IS true We should be very happy that the Age of Chlvalry oi the twelfth and thlrteenth centurles wlth all 1ts pageantry and rnartlal exercxse does not exlst today The fact IS that chlvalry rn tts own age rested for the most part on slave labor It could not SUPERINTENDENT RALPH n sM1'rH exlst ln a modern c1v1l1zat1on whxch tends most strongly to remove social barrlers We would dlsagree most heartlly wlth the oldsters that the quahhcatrons of the ldeal kmght of the age of chlvalry are no longer found m our present c1v1l1zat1on It we thlnk of those quallfrcatlons as honor protectlve klndness to the weak generos1ty gallantry and sxmllar vlrtues we need not look far aheld to tlnd these precepts hlghly developed ln human behavlor problems A French phllosopher spoke truth fully when he sald The trouble wlth our tlmes IS that the future 1S not what xt used to be however I honestly belleve that you young people have SLlff1Cl6Ill conhdence ln the future and control ln yourselves to con quer the dltflcultles whlch you will face how ever great they may be Have I helped to develop a generatxon of young people wxth hearts of rags and souls ol chalk 7 My an swer IS an emphatlc No' . . l . lt is true that you face extremely pressing . 3 .

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Durlng the Mtddle Ages when the organ 1zat1on of kntghthood exlsted the educatlon of a knlght was dtvlded largely tnto three t1me pertods Durtng the fxrst perlod starttng at the age of seven the kmght was sent to the court of ome baron where he acqutred k11l rn the use of arms Durlng the second perrod when hts age and exper1ence tn the use of arms had qual1f1ed htm for war he be came an esqurre and accompanied hrs lord 1n battle Tho thxrd and f1nal perlod of hrs tram 1ng was that of kntghthood whlch was gen erally not conferred before the twenty IITSI year Thxs system of educatron for the nobles taught them the best tdeals whxch the ttmes could understand However desxrable some of these qualltres may have been knrghthood was strlctly class educatlon and an arlsto cratrc tnstrtutxon Our educatxonal system ln Amerxca on the contrary xs a democratrc xnstltutron wxth a broader and a more practlcal purpose It IS our arm to educate the masses mstead of the classes and to help our crtlzenry to make an honest and mdependent llvmg and to enyoy the freedoms guaranteed by our constxtutlon In Amertca educatron IS a process whtch begrns rn the cradle and ends at the grave ASSISTANT PRINCIPAL MELVIN F sH1sLr:n Durmg your school years you have passed through a pertod of growth from chtldhood toward maturlty As the kmght passed through three t1me perxods ln the course of hrs educatlon you also can recall three pert od tn your educattonal development The frrst pertod of your formal tramlng was the elementary stage where most of you spent stx happy years learnrng among other thmgs the three R s whtch are fundamental to fur ther tramrng The second perlod was the t1me you spent rn Junror hlgh school where you were subjected to more exploratory courses Durlng th1s t1me you passed from chtldhood to adolescence Thls perxod should have arded you to make better selectlons for the thlrd stage rn your educatlonal development The fmal pertod of your hlgh school trarnxng came durrng your semor htgh school years when you were requlred to make greater declslons for yourself and when you were movlng away from a dependent to an mdependent stage It was here where you acqutred great er self government rn judgment and action Thls development to experxences of greater rnterdependence w1ll contxnue as you pursue your careers ln ltfe May the best of luck and the worthwhrle vlrtues of kmghthood accom pany all of you rn your future actrvttxes ' ' 1 1 r . . . . . . - , l - I I - S S . S . I - I I . . . . , , I - ' 1 1 . I . I . .10.