Martin Van Buren High School - Futura Yearbook (Queens Village, NY)

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lun-- i l I l l l ,- -gf 9 X --1.-Q 4g sf.. ---.--,.. s..,. ,.,. Window nf the ,Mind X , t 1' f ' i f I . . I I I '- f - . '- I I - l I - ' I I I I - l , l I I 'I '1 f fi! I ,f r? 2- 4' 5' . 4: 9 Hi '4'fF ll 97- '4 '- J Z -un-udn 3l.-lS'l- lil!-I xx N' I 35014-1 A mind ripe for education is encased in a number of unusual windows. Through these windows and into the brain flow the raw materials of intellect, the factors which will combine in the brain to make a mind capable of leading a human organism through life and its problems. Everyday glass windows in a room admit the sunlight from the world outside, but keep the heat produced by the light from escaping, thus using the light to warm the room, The windows on the mind act in the same way, letting in the daylight of educa- tion and holding it in to warm, to nourish, the mind within. Unlike the windows of a room, though, each window on the mind lets in a different color light, and it takes them all combined into one brilliant white beam, to fully illuminate the mind. One of the biggest and most important educational windows on the mind is the sense of sight. The student sees words and symbols, which form ideas and images, on blackboards and in books of all types. They are quickly stored away for future use and become part of the person and part of his thinking from then on. These symbols, gath- ered together in groups and sorted into categories, may be re-used as is to solve o problem or answer a question. This re-use is their most common application. This sight window, along with all the other available sensory windows, can be developed by a system of education to its height of perfection, and still not produce an educated individual. The most important application of the sorted, grouped symbols has not been made. One color light is still missing, one window is still to be used. A person endowed with all the knowledge in the world is nothing unless he uses his most vital window, his SELF window. It is this window that adds the binding, unifying force of SELF to the information, points of view, theories and philosophies formed by the sets of symbols in the brain. This window is the only window on the mind that does not open to the outside. lt opens instead to the inside of the person, onto that which has often been called his soul. From this source springs the force of SELF. The nature and makeup of the force is determined by past experiences which have combined with the basic inborn characteristics of the person's individuality, to produce his emotional patterns and sense of beauty. This force re-shuffles the symbols, and unifies them with something of its own substance to produce an original thought or idea. Education is not seeking to create a race of computers which can receive a problem, apply the correct information and come up with the correct answer. Education cultivates original thought and mental creativity. Given: A person with a background in the facts of mathematics, science, and engineering. Leave out the SELF window and you get a computer, put it in and you get an Einstein. Given: A person with a superior knowledge of language and a normal ability to see or hear. Leave out the SELF window, and you have nothing, add it, and you have a Shaw, a Mark Twain, or a Shakespeare. Everybody has a SELF window, even if some of his other windows are darkened. Using the other windows he has, and his SELF window, everyone can be a Shakes- peare or an Einstein in his own way. It is the iob of formal education to make sure that everyone learns to use all the windows he has. And it is the iob of every indi- vidual to make sure he uses the training of formal education to his fullest ability. ARTHUR FRANK f -TTYT 's ' --1 - --- .hun l 5 i i l l l l l l f . l - . ' er -as 1 49:35 , V L-. '. ' n . -' t

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Dsdimfim MR. DAVID WOLFF ASSISTANT PRINCIPAL The Class of 1960 dedicafes fhis yearbook in deep appreciation for The kindness, devotion and constant guidance which he has given us in our years at Van Buren. 13