Lees McRae College - Ontaroga Yearbook (Banner Elk, NC)

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MM 1 m i mSmKBBF Among the distinguished guests at the Forty-Ninth Graduation Exercises were Mrs. and Mr. Robert G. Hayes for whom Hayes Auditorium is named. at left. Senator Helms that the educational establishment, the courts, and the bureaucracy do not want children to learn too much, for fear they might begin to understand what is going on in Washington and at Harvard. We have people in Washington who fear private schools — not because they are afraid private schools won ' t teach students what they ought to know, but because private schools might succeed in teaching what Washington doesn ' t want all and sundry to know. Like, how to think for yourself. Can ' t Separate Religion Education cannot be separated from religion, Helms pointed out. Certainly we cannot have schools without teaching history, and we can ' t teach history without discussing the great religions of mankind. Nor can any teacher honestly discuss such things without indicating his or her own attitude toward religion. This does not mean that every teacher must proselyte for his own denomination but it does mean that every serious school must have some kind of position or belief in God. on the nature of Jesus Christ, on moral questions, and on the power and limits of knowledge itself, which is also a religious question. Helms alerted the audience to the Federal Government ' s assault on UNC: Now it is fundamental that the Federal Government is not supposed to take a position on arguable religious matters, but, according to the First Amendment of the Constitution, is to leave such matters to the states and to the people. Those two facts — that education is necessarily concerned with religion, and that the Federal Government should not interfere in religious matters — show the most basic reason why the Federal Government should stay out of the school busine ss. UNC — Tragic Example The University of North Carolina and its problems with the Federal Government offer a tragic example of what I mean. 1 don ' t believe there ' s one soul in the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare, or connected with the Federal Courts, with any com- petency to run a great university. Graduation 199

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LEES-McRAE GRADUATION PLATFORM PARTICIPANTS (1-r): Banner Elk Mayor Charles VonConnon; James Stonesifer. Vice President for Academic Affairs; Mrs. Sara Bernice Moseley, baccalaureate speaker; Senator Jesse Helms, commencement speaker; Dr. H. C. Evans. Jr.. college president; Dr. Lawson Tate, who administered the professional oath for medical secretaries; Ms. Patricia White, President. Alumni Association, who inducted the graduates into the Alumni Association; and E. O ' dell Smith, Vice President for Stu- dent Affairs. FEDERAL GOVERNMENT SHOULD STAY OUT OF SCHOOLS - HELMS Lees-McRae College President H. C. hvans, Jr. and Vice President for Academic Affairs James A Stonesifer conferred 126 degrees upon the 1979 graduation class at the Banner Elk institution. Dr. Sara Bernice Moseley. Moderator, General Assembly. Presbyterian Church. U S ., delivered the Baccalaureate Address at 11:00 a.m. and the Senator from North Carolina. Jesse Helms, delivered the Commencement Address. Helms Tells Grads . . . Helms told the forty-ninth graduating class at Lees McRae that the Federal Government had a poor record in trying to run schools. When I was young most of the good schools were public; now most of the good schools are private, like this one, Helms opened his at- tack against Federal intervention in education It ' s often said that private schools are new, and, as organizations most of them are. But it is the private schools that carry on the permanent traditions of genuine schooling. It is today ' s public schools that are new. Today ' s public schools are the first in America to be run by the Federal Government, the first to use forced busing, the first to outlaw prayer, the first to question the use of tests and measurements of intelligence and achievement, the first to conceal from parents what goes on in school, the first where teachers are in physical danger from attack by students. Federal School Record Poor It is interesting to note that from 1960 to 1974 juvenile delin- quency cases (excluding traffic) increased, per 1,000 population from 10 to 17 years old, by 86 ' 2 percent. During those same years, expen- ditures on public schools — theoretically intended to prevent juvenile delinquency, and adult cnminality which could be expected to follow — expenditures increased from $15.6 billion in 1960 to $56.9 billion in 1974, or 265 percent. During the same years, test scores on scholastic aptitude and achievement tests declined at an alarming rate. In other words, costs were up, juvenile delinquency was up. and juvenile scholastic achievement was down. That ' s the record of our public schools since the Federal Government began running them. And the worse thing about it is that the Federal action was not taken in rdance with the constitution and or the expressed will of the peo- ple of the United States. It was taken in federal courts and by the ral bureaucracy — too often with the silent consent of the Con- gress, but sometimes in direct defiance of laws enacted by Congress — and always against the known wishes of the overwhelming majority of the American people of every religion and all races. You would think 1 ' iH Graduation

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Give ' Em Califano Look at the time and money spent in trying to resist the heavy-handedness of the Federal Government — time and money which could and should have been spent in continu- ing to build the quality of education at one of the greatest universities in our land. And when I think of the inordinate power of Secretary Califano, 1 become all the more per- suaded that we should have kept our canal in Panama, and set ' em Mr. Califano. Act Like Americans What can we. as individual Americans, do about all of our problems? The answer is: Let ' s start acting like Americans again. And the way to begin is by realizing that our nation ' s travai ' is the result of our having failed, for too long, to realize that our problems are manmade. The moral implications of our mistakes are obvious: We have been seeking easy solutions. We have been passing the buck to the government. We have avoided our personal responsibility. We have cut too many comers in hot pursuit of the fast buck. We have tried to pretend that the religious foundations on which our fore- fathers created this country are no longer important. We have been reluctant, even embarrassed, to get on our knees to pray for guidance. Well, our founding fathers weren ' t — and that ' s why they were successful. And that ' s why we are not. What insanity it is that we ignore the very principles that set our country apart from all other nations in history. Stand Firm Helms concluded, In a very few years it will be your generation that will be guiding the destiny of our country. You will find, as I have found, and as others have found, that you can ' t remedy all of the problems overnight. You wi discover that there are no instant or easy solutions. But you can chart a course for yourself that will forbid you to com- promise your principles. It ' s not an easy course, and you wi not always win your point. But you can set an example by standing firm. And if you stand on principle, you ' ll leave this world better than you found it.