Manchester High School - Somanhis Yearbook (Manchester, CT)

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16 SOMANHIS, EVENTS part. For a person with only frivolous interests, for a man or woman with no ambition and not even average ability, for a determinedly vicious character, col- lege, in all probability, can do nothing. For a college is neither a “winter resort, an insane asylum, nor a reformatory.” But to others the opportunity to grasp these benefits is open. A student at Oberlin college once asked the president if there was any way in which he might shorten his course. The president answered, “Certainly. It depends on what you want to make of yourself. When God wants to make a mighty tree, he takes many years, but he only takes a few months to produce a squash.” Now we Seniors have been working for some time in the South Manchester High School, and members of the other classes have still more work before them. Graduation must not mean the end. We owe it to our school and to those who have helped us through to avoid the short cut, to make Somebodies instead of Nobodies of ourselves—indeed, to “Carry On.” — Margaret I. Cheney, ’19. = KX KX WAR-MODIFIED EDUCATION HE war, in addition to shortening by a century the progressive path to J clearer and sounder educational thinking, has shown us our unprepared- ness in health and literacy. Such conditions can only be remedied through our school system. In the same schools that from 1898 proclaimed the panygerics of Kultur, true ideas of democracy are to be taught. Many dangers beset our educators, for there is a tendency to become t oo liberal and radical. Columbia’s radical plan to use psychological tests for entrance is an absurd application of a good idea. From Yale’s announcement that Latin would no longer be required for entrance, we easily construe our colleges’ new motto, “Drop everything that’s hard. In the residuum of War-Modified subjects Latin will remain because Eng- lish, which is destined to become a universal language is actually 60-70% Latin. Experiments in the commercial and domestic science courses in the Dorchester Massachusetts High School, where Latin was introduced to help students acquire a thorough mastery of English vocabulary, have proved very successful. In glancing down the page of any science book, we see that nearly all scientific words are of classical derivation. Unless we wish to become bar- baric, we cannot afford to lose Greek, the key to all literatures, and to English especially. Macauley, the great master of the English language, owed his suc- cess to Greek. Finally let us remember, ‘The question is not what we will do with Latin and Greek, but what Latin and Greek will do with us.” A dangerous tendency today is the madness to federalize education. The Smith Bill designed to encourage education is a thoroughly Prussian bili. Fringed and ornamental talk, hair-raising stories of illiteracy in Tuscaloone, Ala., the beautiful but grammarless shop girl cannot make it other than simon- pure educational autocracy. God forbid its adoption which would bring to an end our progress, political career and shatter our future prospects. James L. Burke, ’19.

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SOMANHIS EVENTS 15 make it impossible for you to carry out scientific experiments yourself, you can intelligently follow the researches of others. You may not be able to become a great author, but you can enjoy and comprehend good literature. Perhaps things which to a high school student seem merely “high-brow stuff” will con- tain new significance after four years of college training. To meet with true success in life it is essential that you should seek for the strength and development of your mind, character, moral being, and physica welfare. In the first case—the mental-—you may gain, if you will, ability to comprehend profound themes, growth of independent, analytical thought, and above all the broadening of your views. Perhaps all your life you have been of one religious denomination and have agreed with one political party, you may even be inclined to scorn all others. But if your best friend has utterly different views and can defend them, your intolerance and prejudices may be destroyed. This is surely an upward step of greatest importance. Also, if you hear all sides of a question freely discussed, you are more likely to escape radical theories and fadisms. The development of your character may be beneficially influenced by the professors. Some men consider the acquaintance of such professors the most valuable thing a college offers. You will also be trained to discipline your own will, for—despite the comparative freedom of the life—you cannot always do just what you want to. Morally, college is sometimes considered dangerous. Yet the average morality of the American college is fully as high as, if not higher than that of many social and business circles. Rowdyism is going out of fashion. Men of the last generation say that there is less gambling and hard drinking in colleges nowadays—and doubtless the latter evil will be eliminated altogether in the near future. Physical welfare is cared for by college athletics and the resultant training, by gymnastics and, in some men’s colleges, by military training. The pale, emaciated book-worm is no longer the prevalent type of American college graduate. “This is all very well,” you say, “but I want to settle on my future career and get started.” But if you get the “vision of a life work instead of a job”; if you have obtained a clear understanding of the values of things, a correct estimation of your own powers, and a good foundation for whatever you may later undertake; if your ambitions and enthusiasms have been directed—will you not make a wiser choice, and isn’t such a choice worth the work and the delay? One might as well ask, “Is happiness worth struggling for?” The desire among college students to serve the world is noticeable. And it is no wonder that higher education encourages that ambition. Among other things, it offers one, courses which are the necessary preliminaries for public activities—that is, public activities benefical to our country. There is an in- creasing need for this among women who will soon take an important part in politics, for they must not meet their new responsibilities unintelligently, and, through ignorance, misuse them. And so we see that college can give us discipline, inspiration, help in many branches of development, healthful good times and preparation for a life of usefulness. But all these things depend on one great “If —If you'll do your

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SOMANHIS EVENTS | LY. ART IN WARFARE HERE is in the civilized world one language which can be understood by @ all people regardless of race and mother tongue. I refer to art as a universal language in which has been written the most authentic history of wars since the world began. Art is always influenced by warfare to a greater or lesser degree, because war- fare is continually changing and bringing about new ideas and customs. Languages slowly but continually go through changes, but art remains con- stant. It is for this reason that the vase paintings and mural decorations that illustrate battles as far back as the Trojan War in 1194 B. C. still mean the same to us as they did to those people who lived so many hundred years ago. And so up through the history of the world, art has played a prominent part in giving us the real truth of the great conflicts that occurred before the ability of man to write. Art has probably played a greater part in this great world war than in any war preceding it. Our nation, from the very beginning of its physical participa- tion on the battle fields of the war, had artists at the front who actually lived the life of a common soldier, who shared their hardships and dangers, and saw the horrors and outrages of the war. From the inspirations thus gained they have painted pictures which make our blood run cold. The artists did a great deal in convincing the civilized world that it was being imperiled by a barbarism strangely scientific, and by a brute force devoid of soul. The various artists reacted to the war, of course, in their various ways. Farre saw it in the thrilling and perilous combats of the air; he not only pre- sented the wonderful deeds of heroism and bravery which constantly occurred in that branch of the service, but he opened an entirely new world of pictures of scenes above the clouds, wonderfully beautifully, and marvelously dramatic. Steinlen saw it in the depression and woe of the old, the ill, the homeless; he saw it in the agony of tormented hearts, brothers and sisters; mothers and fathers, parents and children torn from one another and driven from their homes, innocent as they were, to trudge along the streets and die from hunger, exposure, and the intense horror of it all. Dougherty, the marine painter, saw it in the sinking of hospital ships and the resulting hideous murder of thousands of helpless people, sunk without a trace, by blood-thirsty wolves of the sea. Jonas saw it in the heroic glory in the souls of men, proud to suffer and sacri- fice their lives for an ideal. It is thus that the artists have conveyed to us the horrors of war. There is one more striking picture, namely, “The Murder of Edith Cavell.” It was painted by George Bellows, one of our American artists. He seems to have been stirred to his innermost depths by his subject, and he has created the greatest composition of his career. Miss Cavell, the dignified English nurse, is portrayed at the moment when she was taken from her cell to be executed under the cover of night. This picture conveys immediately the methods of that monstrous thing called “Kultur.” It is well for us that we should see these sights so that we, who have been secure and comfortable at home, may reverently remember those who suffered ‘and died for our sake. Yet too much emphasis may be placed upon the horrors of war. The sweethearts and wives, the mothers and daughters, yes, and all