Manchester High School - Somanhis Yearbook (Manchester, CT)

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SOMANHIS EVENTS 27 SALUTATORY EVOLUTION OF EDUCATIONAL OPPORTUNITIES FOR WOMEN The Class of 1927 extends a hearty welcome to you—school officials, teach- ers, parents, friends, and underclassmen. We hope that you may enjoy these pre- cious rites which remain to us as Sen- iors. It is our desire that our high school may mean more to you than just a name. Perhaps our exercises tonight will help you to understand our student life better. During our four years as students here, we have learned to broad- cen our minds, to increase our knowledge of the outside world, to cooperate with our classmates and our teachers, and to appreciate the great advantages of a high school education. We wish to thank you, parents and friends, for giv- ing us such splendid opportunities, and we are glad that you may share in our commencement ceremonies. 2? The production of the educated twen- ticth century girl covers the whole story of the education of women. From the meager training of the Grecian girl who had only a primary education at the time of her marriage, which usually occurred at the age wher American girls are in high school, to the college grad- uate of 1927, is a change so great that hundreds of years have been necessary to bring it about. The ideal educational career of an Athenian girl as expressed by Xenophon was to see as little as possible, to hear as little as possible, and to ask as few questions as possible. There were no girls in the Athenian schools. For cen- turies the boy alone, as the future citi- zen, was given the opportunities of his generation. The girl was taught by her mother to spin, weave, and manage a household. Domestic science courses began in the home. In contrast to the Grecian woman, who was regarded by her husband as a housewife or a superior slave, was the Roman matron, who was the companion of her husband. She was the only teach- er of her children until they were seven years old, when both girls and boys at- tended school. “Up before dawn, with a lamp to light the way, and an attend- ant to carry her satchel, the little Roman maiden of seven years, or over, would trudge off to the portico, where the schoolmaster wielded his rod.” She learned to read, write, and cipher; then, being a girl, she stopped to learn her domestic duties. In the days of the Roman Empire the women of the wealthier class, as well as the men, began to receive what the world today would call a higher educa- tion. They became familiar with the Greek and Latin classics. These highly educated women were responsible for many changes in the government, since great Roman statesmen often asked and followed their advice. As the Roman Empire was breaking up, Christianity, the new religion in which all women were honored, spread rapidly over the known world. From the beginning, the Christians upheld education, combining it with their reli- gion. Later, monasteries and convents were established, which furnished the only schools of the Middle Ages. In the convents both rich and poor girls learned to speak and write Latin fluently, The founding of the university, one of the oldest institutions that we havs today, followed that of monasteries and convents. Early in the thirteenth cen- tury co-education was begun in the Ital- ian universities. It was only in Italy, however, that women demanded and gained the higher privileges accorded the men. Greek and Latin classics be- came very popular with the Italian wo- men during the time of the Renaissance. Many young girls could speak and write Latin easily and they were almost as familiar with Greek. This period was known in Italy as the “Golden Age for Women.” The English women quickly followed the example of their Italian — sisters. Queen Elizabeth was probably the best educated of all the queens of England. However, only girls of the nobility were well-educated. It was not until public elementary schools were organized that all girls could obtain a common school training. Even in the eighteenth cen- tury, Addison deplored the fact that an intelligent woman had no one to guide her reading.

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26 SOMANHIS EVENTS IVY ORATION Undergraduates: . s these, the closing days of our high school career, draw to an end, there is within ourselves a feel- ing of joy and sorrow—joy because we have finished a four year exposure to high school studies and should be able to shoulder our share of the responsib- ilities of life; and sorrow because we are breaking off many of the friendships of our high school days and because we shall never again occupy the place we have held during the past four years in this community. However, throughout our lives we shall be bound to our Alma Mater with the strong ties of love and reverence for her. These bonds are represented by the ivy. Our curriculum has not been made solely of academic work. On the con- trary, it has consisted of many extra- curriculum debating, Our athletic teams have been very suc- cessful. The football team was the best that ever wore the red and white; the basketball team remarkable; the track, tennis, and baseball teams have just concluded exceptional seasons. As for the debating team, it was made up of The dramatic club has pre- sented out-standing — perform- ances; “Somanhis Events” has retained its leadership; and the many literary clubs have been a help both to teacher and pupil. All in all, we can be proud of our leadership in the academic, ath- letic, and social fields, and as a class, in later years, look back upon them with “longful” expression. as athletics, clubs. such and activities dramatics, social was real orators. several Freshmen: Your class and scholastic spirit have attributed mnch to your suc- cess. Keep to it and as Seniors your re- egrets will be few. Sophomores: Your ciforts are much appreciated. They have given cause for many expectations. In all school life you are workers. kinds of Cast aside your baby ideas and your success as up- perclassmen will be unlimited, Juniors: The responsibility of main- taining good standing scholastically and the high code of sportsmanship athlet- ically becomes yours today. “Soman- his Events” is to be your product next year: write for it, subscribe to it, and work for it; so that you may be as The Debating The success of proud of it as we are, Club is entirely yours. all athletic teams is up to you next year; “vo to it” with the same old fighting spirit and you are bound to come out on top. The Alumni will look to you for the honor and reputation of S. M. H.S.; just dig fight in and you can't lose. Seniors: With the presentation of this trowel to the Juniors, we shall have ended our responsibilities here. Tomor- row night we shall no longer be Seniors of S. M. HLS. but Freshmen in the paths of life. We must go out with the same spirit and be successful in the positions that await us. In doing so, let us not forget the underlying “meaning of this ivy. Let us remember that we are a few of a vast number of the Alumni of S. M. H. S., who are working for its cause. Let us also join the Verplanck Foundation and attribute to its success, always keeping in mind our S. M. H. S$. days. Charles Treat

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28 SOMANHIS EVENTS During the first years of our country, the Pilgrims believed that women were inferior to men and therefore did not need an education. Schools were start- ed twenty years after the founding of Plymouth, but there were no girls as pupils until a hundred and fifty years later when the Boston public schools opened their doors to girls for half a year’s instruction in spelling, reading, and composition. In the meantime the girls went to dame schools, neighbor- hood schools taught by women, or had private instruction. Two hundred years went by before girls enjoyed the same rights and privileges as boys in this country. The pioneer work for the higher edu- cation of women in America was done by Mrs. Emma Willard, who establish- ed Troy Seminary for Girls 1821, and Mary Lyons, who established Holyoke Seminary in 1837. There the girls com- bined housework with their studies. Later this seminary was developed, and Mt. Holyoke College took its place with the other big colleges for women—Vas- sar, Wellesley, Smith, Bryn) Mawr— which have made it forever impossible to exclude American women from college life. When the states of the Middle West and Far West took up the problem of education for women, they promptly solved it by admitting them on an equal footing with men in their state univer- sities. Today all types of education and all professions are open to women. What- ever the high school graduate of today decides to adopt as her life’s work, she finds ample opportunities awaiting her. The last and most thrilling develop- ment of the education of women is the right to vote. This means that many college senior girls are voters as well as students. They not only study about improvements, but they can actually vote for them. There are enough women voters in this country to change the course of education. It has been a long and difficult struggle to prove that woman has a part in the community and state affairs, but at last she has been ac- cepted as man’s equal in every respect. Thus as the years have gone by, democracy, education, and the increasing freedom for women have developed the woman college graduate of today, the best equipped woman that. civilization has as yet produced, THE VALUE OF HI-Y The professed purpose of the [li-Y is “to create, maintain, and extend through- out the school and community high standards of Christian character.” Since the activities of the organization are concerned chiefly with school life, it is best that we consider here the Hi-Y in connection with the school. High Standards of Christian character are instilled in the members of the Hi-Y by various means. Through the med- ium of sports and other activities Hi-Y men learn to play the game “on the square’, to play it hard, and to play it through. ‘They learn not to alibi and not to shirk. They learn in a word the code of the good sportsman, which is in itself a very complete standard of Chris- tian ideals. Having learned this in Ili- Y activities is not all. Through contact with the members and leaders, Hi-Y men are brought to the realization that this standard applies in every day life. Thus it is brought about that “high standards of Christian character” are created with- in one small group, the club proper. How these ideals can be diffused through the school and thereby through the whole community can be easily un- derstood if we recognize the fact that the members of the Hi-Y are not taken from any one group, but that they come from the three upper classes of the school; that they belong to no one of the artificial strata of our so-called social life, but that they are sons of rich men, of men not so rich, and of poor men, of law- yers and farmers, of doctors and sales- men, and of politicians and factory- hands; that they have no common reli- gion, but that they are of all creeds; that, in short, they have nothing in com- mon except that they all are Hi-Y men. Being thus representative of the whole community and having in them high ideals, is it not natural that these ideals