Martha's Vineyard Regional High School - Vineyarder Yearbook (Martha's Vineyard, MA)

Page 12 text:

PRINCIPAL’S MESSAGE CHARLES A. DAVIS Sputnik I, the prime mover of the Sixties, the Tin-Lizzy of our space age, has, figuratively speaking, jettisoned the missiles of educational apathy into a deserving orbit; far out of the way of man’s eager curiosity. In the past the educational lag between theory and practice was no less than twenty years; but in the wake of our orbiting astronauts there has been a most welcomed renaissance in educational pedagogy and endeavor, which has closed the gap considerably and has recharged the atmosphere of our nation’s classrooms. The most significant change is in the attitude of the student. Although there are still those who would have you believe that the Three R’s stand for Rah! Rah! Rah! we take hope in the greater majority who have come to realize that education is the prosperity of youth and that our educated youth are our nation’s posterity. Herbert Hoover, at a reception given him by the State of Iowa on his 80th birthday concurred when he said: “that a nation is strong or weak, it thrives or perishes upon what it believes to be true. If our youth is rightly instructed in the faith of our fathers, in the traditions of our country, in the dignity of each individual man, then our power will be stronger than any weapon man can devise.” As we evaluate your past four years of school I am confident that your school has met that chal¬ lenge. I am happy and proud to have shared those years with you, and be assured that I will follow with interest your future endeavors and take a personal pride in your inevitable success. Good luck and Godspeed. 8

Page 11 text:

SUPERINTENDENT’S MESSAGE In every educational institution throughout the nation the need for a sound evaluation of new cultures, new countries, new scientific theories and even new sciences is coupled with the need for educating more and more qualified people. In our school the response to this challenge has produced a signific¬ ant theme for this the fourth year of the Martha’s Vineyard Regional High School. The theme: evalua¬ tion. More is expected of the high school graduate today, so you must go into the world with more to offer. You must develop your abilities, interests and achievements to high levels. In evaluating your scholastic records, I know that you are well equipped to face the challenges of life. I hope that your successes of the future will be seen as the answer to the cry for more. Not more numbers but more quality. I hold as a cherished privilege the opportunity which I have shared with the faculty in molding the academic framework within which we have worked. I value the contributions of the students in the develop¬ ment of our educational foundations. I hope that we have established a school which will have a long and distinguished history. I congratulate you and wish you success in your future endeavors. May you always be as proud of your school as your school is proud of you. CHARLES E. DOWNS

Page 13 text:

GUIDANCE COUNSELOR’S MESSAGE . a school should be evaluated in terms of what it is striving to accomplish and in terms of the extent to which it is meeting the needs of its students . . This quote, taken from the Manual of the Evaluative Criteria published by the National Study of Secondary Schools, is truly apropos when speaking about schools. However, it takes on more signific¬ ance when the reference is made to each graduate of 1963. For after all, our school will be evaluated in terms of how successful our students and graduates are able to develop a proper evaluation of them¬ selves. Their ability to determine reasonable goals and the means of achieving those goals will ulti¬ mately be their success or failure as well as the school’s success or failure. From birth you started to make judgements and evaluations about yourselves and your surroundings. This process has intensified through the years until you reached, you thought, the apex of this search in your senior year. However, with graduation this search will become the predominant motivation in determining your thoughts aud actions. You are leaving the Martha’s Vineyard Regional High School where more people have been interested in you and your future than possibly there ever will be again. It is my hope that you have progressed in this search arid have taken advantage of the opportunities here in high school. It is also my wish that you all attain that mark of a successful person in the ability to make a just evaluation of your¬ selves and your fellow man. Good luck and Godspeed . . . JOHN J. AHERN